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not worth owning

Customer Rating:
This charger is a piece of crap. It takes a week to get batteries to a partial charge, and has no charge controller built in so there is a constant charge / discharge going on. I left a set of brand new high capacity nimh batteries in it for 3 weeks thinking they would finally be charged and they where garbage. they would not even charge up to 25% capacity in a plug in charger afterwords.

Poor design heats up the batteries

Customer Rating:
I bought one of these several years ago and am surprised these are still made.

As someone has already mentioned, this unit doesn't provide a lot of power. You're really looking at weeks to completely charge a set of batteries and that's if you have a place that gets sun most of the day. Having it inside a window causes a pretty significant drop in amps, but leaving it outside for weeks isn't a great alternative either. Obviously partial charges and top ups may work for some people, but for most this is just not efficient enough.

But another big problem with this unit is the batteries are in a closed plastic case in the sun. Heat degrades rechargable batteries and I doubt any manufacturer would recommend it for such an extended period as this solar charger requires. I don't feel comfortable with how hot they get as it probably shortens the battery lifespan. There's a platicky smell when it heats up. There really should be an air gap and a more open case that allows excess heat to be carried away.

With two big flaws, I think people should apply their money toward a better charger, even if more expensive.

Sunforce 82883 Solar AA Battery Charger

Customer Rating:
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R314D8GAD0N1W2 Sunforce 82883 Solar AA Battery Charger Review.
Works well. Does not work well when on dashboard of car because of UV protection of the windsheild. Direct Sun 160 mA, when on dashboard brought it down to 40 mA.
Very pleased with the item

A last resort

Customer Rating:
Only way this unit would be worth anything is as a last resort. Even in full sun it rarely generates more then 120 mA and 80 mA is probably the average and the slightest wisp of cloud drops it to near zero. With todays 2000-2750 mAH rechargeable batteries this unit would take 125 hours to charge 4 2500 mAH batteries. Assuming 6 hours of "full" sun a day at 80 mA it would take almost 21 days to charge those four batteries. Real world would be more likely a month.

Like I said, maybe if it was all I had, but there are better places to spend your money.