huntingmotherearth

I put my hunting and camping equipment to use anyway I can. In the case of solar chargers, I don’t put them away, I use them year round. The Olympia SB5500 Solar Charger has made life easier many times.

Shortly after I received the SB5500 Solar Charger, and thankfully after I had the chance to fully charge it, our power went off during a Winter storm that dropped temperatures to -22 and kept the power off for 5 hours. Of all days for me to forget to charge my cell phone, this was the day! When I picked up the phone to call in the power outage, of course my battery was dead. How was I to let the power company know of the problem? I pulled out the Solar Charger, and plugged in my iPhone. It took only a few minutes before I could finally call the power company and report the outage. The recording informed me that it was a wide spread power outage and there was no estimate of when the electric would come back on. So I plugged in my iPad and watched a video and checked the weather while I waited.

I don’t need to worry about charging my phone, flashlights or iPad with the Olympia SB5500 Solar Charger.
Photo: Diane Hassinger

The main reason I had wanted a good portable solar charger was our annual family fishing/camping trip, a 10 day trip to New York, with no generated electricity. We have a large solar charger that powers our camper, but it maxes out keeping the 3 lights on, and powering the water pump. I have always stayed away from using this power to charge my phone, flashlights or iPad. Using the SB5500 I was able to keep my phone charged each day, mainly so I could take pictures with the camera. I also was able to keep the iPad charged for the kids to watch a movie before bed each night, of course I had to supervise! My flashlight only needed charging once, but the SB5500 handled each of these with ease.

The Olympia Solar Charger is extremely versatile! Camping, traveling, power outages are all handled with ease.

Usually when I am camping, the need to stay warm is much greater then the need to cool off. During a recent camping trip to Chincoteague, the weather was horribly hot. Each night I used my Solar Charger to power my personal fan, it plugs into a USB port. Each day I situated the Solar Charger in the sun, and it was ready to run my fan again that night, all night!

I also like the convenience of using this unit when out of the country. Power fluctuations and voltage differences are of no concern, simply recharge the unit with the power of the sun, and charge your phone, tablet, flashlights or 2 way radios from the unit. I have burned up several items while out of the country, so I really like the reassurance that my electronics are safe.

The Olympia SB5500 Solar Charger uses a 5500mAh Lithium Polymer battery. There are dual solar charging panels, or can be recharged using the built in USB or Micro-USB cables. There are 2 output ports, to allow charging 2 devices at the same time. Small devices, such as your cell phone, can be charged in approximately 2 to 3 hours, while larger mid-size devices, like a tablet, takes approximately 5 or 6 hours. My flashlight fell within the 2 to 3 hour range of the small devices. Folded, the unit measure 6″ X 3.6″ X 7″, and weighs about 9 ounces. There is a 2 year warranty on the unit.

The Olympia SB5500 Solar Charger has a MSRP of $59.99 and can be purchased at http://www.olympiaproducts.com/products/solar-power/26-sb5500.html. In just the short time I have had mine, it was become indispensable!

Olympia name and logo are the sole property of its rightful owner and used within this writing solely for the promotion of products herein as requested by the product’s manufacturer.

Endorsement Disclosure: Per the guidelines of the Federal Trade Commission, the products reviewed in these product reviews is an endorsement and the writer may have been compensated by “in-kind” payment to review the product.

This post originally published at http://ladiesincamo.com/licpr/2015/08/05/olympia-sb5500-solar-charger-diane-hassinger/