This solar panel is great. Folded up it’s about the surface size of an iPad and 1-1.75 inches thick depending on whether you measure the little junction box sticking out or just the depth of the panels. It’s under 3 lbs which keeps it plenty portable but you will still notice it in your backpack. 3lbs is definitely light enough and even though you can find slightly smaller, lighter panels here’s why you probably shouldn’t:
It isn’t always sunny. Even if you only aim to get 20 watts to fast charge a mid-tier power bank it’s great to have the surface area to catch up to 40w in ideal conditions because as the term implies, you often won’t be in that setting. There are going to be some rainy days were it’s inconvenient to get anything at all which is just a fact of life with small solar panels. But with ~4ft and 40w of solar capability, this can easily keep you going on cloudy days too. As long as it isn’t a total wash out and you can see a bit of blue sky somewhere this 40w panel will still catch 8-10 watts through some pretty serious clouds. A nice day with a clear view of bright sun will get you 33-38w and you can plug along at full speed, but those days when thick clouds won’t stay out of your way you can still catch a decent charge just getting 20-30% of the max input. Plus once the sun comes out and you get some direct access to sunlight you’re off to the races.
It isn’t always sunny. Even if you only aim to get 20 watts to fast charge a mid-tier power bank it’s great to have the surface area to catch up to 40w in ideal conditions because as the term implies, you often won’t be in that setting. There are going to be some rainy days were it’s inconvenient to get anything at all which is just a fact of life with small solar panels. But with ~4ft and 40w of solar capability, this can easily keep you going on cloudy days too. As long as it isn’t a total wash out and you can see a bit of blue sky somewhere this 40w panel will still catch 8-10 watts through some pretty serious clouds. A nice day with a clear view of bright sun will get you 33-38w and you can plug along at full speed, but those days when thick clouds won’t stay out of your way you can still catch a decent charge just getting 20-30% of the max input. Plus once the sun comes out and you get some direct access to sunlight you’re off to the races.
24/09/2023
Actually.. I chose this product BY ACCIDENT! Truth be told, I shop like a guy! With that said.. I love this thing, I bought two for the hell of it and I'm glad I did. Direct feed is an AWESOME advantage. I strongly recommend this one!
22/09/2023
I have had this product for a few weeks and so far it is as described plus plus .. I enjoy the compact simple elegance of design. Can't judge durability but efficiency in full Sun exceeded expectations.
20/09/2023
I'm just joking with my title however I can say some positive things about this so I was going to go with other options but I decided to go with the 40 watt flex solar charger and I have to say I was really impressed just to give you guys some information on the specs I use this with the anchor 737 battery bank because it gives me the wattage coming in and read out I believe it's a 24,000 milliamp battery but I can't remember off the top of my head anyways I did some testing I was outside on a cloudy day I think I got 28 watts off of the pad My battery bank said it would charge from 24% to full in about 2 and 1/2 hours this pad can absolutely get to 40 Watts and my battery bank can take that in at 40 Watts I could probably charge it from 0 to full in about an hour and a half with full sunlight which is quite awesome when you think about it. it's water resistant and it folds up nicely I would recommend buying the other cables for the DC port just for convenience I've seen a YouTube video where a guy plugged a fan into this thing lol and it worked. I also purchased an iPad carrying case for it which works really really well I would recommend The 12-in case though if you're going to use it in a case it's just nice for carrying it around overall I have nothing but good things to say about this product .
18/09/2023
I wanted to wait until testing it out to write a review and I’m happy to report that this is a very good quality solar panel. The cells are encased in a very rigid clear material that seem to be relatively scratch resistant and have held up to being carried around in a backpack. Through my mppt charge controller, it provides a steady 2 amps in full sunlight but does drop off when any amount of shade reaches the panel (as expected).
15/09/2023
This product is well built and charges items fast.
13/09/2023
My wife and I travel a lot in a converted van that has a pretty competent solar-powered house electric system. We seldom camp in campgrounds with hookups, so we rely on the house system a lot. I bought this to have an easily portable alternative method for charging the many USB rechargeable devices we use in our travels - our phones, camera batteries, power banks, flashlights, etc. This has worked out very well in the short time I've had it. In the right conditions, it charges about as fast as plugging a device directly into the house system. It's compact enough to be easy to store, even in our very small camper. It seems to be very rugged, and, except for the USB interface, it seems pretty weather resistant.
08/09/2023