Eton FR300 Emergency Crank Radio Review

I came home last week to a box from Eton on my front doorstep. Inside was the FR-300, one of their Emergency Crank Radios. My original plan was to review this as an Emergency Car Kit component, but after reviewing it, this should be a part of ANY emergency or camping kit, not just one for the car.

Power

I decided to take a look at the FR-300 because it did not require batteries to run. I don’t know about you, but all the batteries in my house are tied up in my remotes, and I don’t want to be searching for any in the dark.

Housed inside of the FR-300 lies a hand crank generator that charges it’s internal Ni-MH battery pack. You can also power the FR-300 with AA batteries, or an available power adapter. Since the purpose of this review was to focus on emergency use, I took out the extra batteries and did all my tests using the hand crank.

Design

The FR-300 weights slightly over a pound, and is 6.5" wide, 6.0" tall, and 2.5" thick. It’s a perfect size. It is not too small to use, but small enough to easily carry around. This thing is small enough to tuck under a seat, in a backpack, or stuck inside your glove box.

Looking at the front of the FR-300, you see the power switch, the function switch and dials, the weather tuning dial, speaker, light and the tuning display. On the left side of the unit is the crank handle, and on the right is the Tuning and Volume dials. On the back lies the antenna, battery compartment, headphone jack, power adapter and cellphone charger.

In my testing the Tuning display did glow in the dark after some ‘charging’, but it would have been nice to have an extra LED or two to illuminate it.

Accessories

The FR-300 came with a few accessories in the box. There was a nice nylon carrying case, a few product manuals, the rechargeable Ni-MH battery, and a few standard batteries. There is also an included coupon that you can mail-in for a free adapter to charge your cellphone. Since this was a review unit, mine came with a few different adapters, one for a Sony Ericcson, an iPhone and a standard mini USB cable.

Charging and Using the FR-300

According to the manual, turning the crank 2 turns per second for 90 seconds will give you about 40-60 minutes of radio power. This can get surprisingly tiring, I found myself switching arms at the 1 minute mark. After the required 90 seconds I gave it a whirl.

The LED fixture on the front of the device serves two functions. Two of the LEDs are White LEDs, and can be used as a flashlight when needed. It was bright enough to find your way, or light up a table, but it was not bright enough to light up an entire room. However, with only 2 LEDs, I wouldn’t expect it to. The other LED flashes red, which would be useful in an emergency.

The FR-300 also has a siren function, which is very loud. If you ever needed to get someone’s attention, just turn this thing on. I did not have DB meter, but it’s loud.

The AM/FM radio was very sensitive, picking up stations that I typically have trouble receiving. The tuning dial was very easy to use, and the inclusion of a second, extra sensitive dial was a great addition.

It seems like the units you can get from Amazon, and other retailers all have a VHF section as well, allowing you to tune into the audio portion of TV Channels 2-13. Since my review unit did not have that feature, I cannot review it. However, I have heard that it works great.

This unit also has a weatherband function. A large dial on the front is tuned to the 7 channel weather band which is used in the US and Canada. I was able to pick up at least 4 of the channels, but only three of them were coming in clearly. On all channels they were talking about Hurricane Gustav as it made it’s approach in the Gulf of Mexico. If you were ever stuck in the path of an oncoming storm, this would be invaluable information.

Performance

For my test, I decided to see how long the battery would last playing the radio, on medium volume, on a strong signal. I tuned to a strong Boston signal and listened to the top 20 classic rock hits countdown as I cooked dinner. At the 1 hour mark the music was still playing. I briefly turned on the LED, and it was bright as ever. At the 75 minute mark it was still going strong, but I had to switch the unit off in order to eat dinner.

Charging cellphones

The FR-300 has a great feature that could be a lifesaver in an emergency. It can charge your cellphone. By mailing in a coupon included with the unit, you will receive an adapter for your phone. Plug that into the back of radio, and crank away. Be prepared to crank for awhile though, cellphone’s can be power hungry beasts, so you may be cranking for awhile.

What would I change?

No device is perfect, and this one is no exception. While I was incredibly impressed with the unit, there are a few small changes I would make. First and foremost, the cellphone charger adapters. I would completely do away with them, and just include a USB port on the back of the radio. Pretty much every modern phone can be charged by USB, and we all have the cables. This would truly make it a universal charger.

Pros and Cons

Pros:
- Very small, can fit anywhere
- Many very useful functions
- Weather band tuning
- Built-in Flashlight
- Charges your cellphone
- Extremely Efficient
- Cheap ($49.99)

Cons:
- Cellphone Adapters – I would prefer USB port
- Tuning dial is not illuminated
- No AC Adapter included

Final Thoughts

The FR-300 would be a fantastic addition to any car emergency kit, but would also be a great tool to take camping, or just keep around the house in case you lose power. I guess the true testament to how useful this thing is, is that my mother plans on buying a few for Christmas gifts.