Review on TopAlert HY-016: Ultimate Survival Solar Hand Crank Radio, Flashlight & Smartphone Charger - AM/FM/WB (NOAA) Digital, with Adaptors & Cables by Payton Stovall

I bought this radio and initially I really liked it and gave it five stars. The sound is good and the digital tuner held frequency well, but then it started shutting itself down (not during an overcurrent as the manual says) and resetting the tuner required me to hold down the tuner button . to get my station back but then the button failed after all the button pressing. The radio also doesn't switch off just because the battery is empty or something, since it also switches off directly after charging and there is still enough power for the light. Sometimes there is no volume even when you turn it on, although the volume histogram shows the volume is cranked all the way up. Sometimes the volume eventually comes back on its own, but often I had to turn it off and on again. The digital liquid crystal display is also sometimes missing parts of the digits. While pressing the reset button fixes the display problem, otherwise I found this radio very unreliable and certainly not for emergencies! When it works properly I love this radio so I bought another one thinking I originally bought a lemon but the second radio has the same issues except none of the buttons have failed yet. I have a lot of experience with electronic circuit design and troubleshooting, and it seems to me that these radios probably have thermally unstable circuit boards and/or bad connections to the internal battery. I live in Florida and it's usually hot and humid here and I've trained these radios but never exposed them to rain or anything. In any case, unfortunately I don't recommend buying one of these radios unless you just want to keep your fingers crossed it will work and you can use it to tune in to dinner news once or twice. As something that can be used regularly, I don't think this radio will make you happy. By the way, I bought this TopAlert radio as well as the Epica radio for a dollar less and they appear to be identical except that for that extra dollar you get an extra cell phone charger adapter. After giving up those radios, I bought the only other reasonably priced radio I could find here on Revain with a digital tuner (important for me in this rural area with a weak signal and constantly changing ambient temperatures that negatively affect analogue tuners). which was more important to me than being able to charge the radio in the event of a power failure. I'm all for rechargeable batteries but they also have a lifespan like regular non-rechargeable batteries and in the end I think the radio in the link below would be a much more reliable radio in the event of an emergency or power outage. The situation is that while it doesn't have a crank or solar panel for charging, it does use regular AAA batteries, and if you buy alkaline batteries for that, they usually last a few years. You can just keep your radio in a battery box for years without worrying about it, but with the rechargeable batteries in this radio I'm reviewing, you need to use it and charge it every 60-90 days according to the manual, even if you're using it's not to maximize the life of the internal Ni-MH, which will cost more to replace in due course. Of course, if you use the radio regularly, it would be better for the environment to use rechargeable batteries. Definitely recommend a lower radio to consider. It works well here and my only complaint is that the sound is quite metallic and admittedly inferior to the sound of this radio I'm reviewing, but it's worth waiting for a more reliable radio that's also smaller and costs less. Ambient Weather WR-090 AM/FM/WB weather alarm radio with digital tuner and flashlight