Brunton Restores Power to Small Devices

As an avid hiker and outdoorswoman, I like to not only enjoy peace and quiet in a serene setting but also the potential to listen to my iPod while I am camping. With greener policies and an eco-friendly focus being implemented in today’s society, it is no surprise that the Brunton Restore Solar Power is attempting to make their mark with solar energy by capturing the sun’s energy with two solar panels and a 1000 mA battery. According to the Brunton website, a prodigious 90% power capture rate charges your portable devices with the hybrid solar charger. The Restore has an internal rechargeable lithium polymer battery, and can power everything from your iPod to your digital camera. Higher power devices, though, are not able to be charged- as usual, your laptops (even netbooks, really) are on their own.
While on our latest hiking excursion, we put our iPod on the hood of our car as we think it makes a pretty decent charging station. We don’t really have all day to sit around and let it charge as it can take up to ten hours in sub-optimal sunlight. To quicken the pace we utilized our car cigarette lighter, though it is worth mentioning your computer USB port is also a solution. It cut the time drastically, charging in a couple hours. However, the point of solar energy is of course to save electricity and use natural resources to power your device.

Kudos to Brunton for the green lightning bolt that flashes a green light when our item is charging with a neat LED flashlight for nighttime charging. We will digress that, as far as Apple devices are concerned, you’ll have to bring along their special USB cord to connect the device to a USB port on the charger. But the battery can recharge your iPhone or other smart phone two times or more from one charge.

The downfall of solar energy is the amount of direct sunlight needed to provide enough energy to indeed charge your intended item. With all the smartphones on the market and the advanced capabilities the new age phones provide, we did not feel the Brunton Restore was an ample candidate as it lacked in its ability to sustain enough sunlight to adequately charge anything larger than our smart phone, and even that indirectly. We have felt the same in the past when we reviewed the Solaris USB Foldable Solar Array due to the trouble of getting much current out of it, even in moderate direct sunlight. Both items are relatively light and feel pretty durable (water resistant and all), but you need really direct and bright sunshine, and a fairly narrow range of devices to make it worthwhile.

Overall, the Restore is suitable for devices having lower power requirements like your Garmin GPS. We liked the solid build and rubberized surface, preventing sliding off of your chose surface. And the flip-open design is smart, protecting the screens during travel. You could use the USB port on your computer for a decent charge to the Restore, but the point of it is using the available sunlight. If a backup battery is all you really want, the recently-reviewed Sync from Brunton is quite good, and can pair well with the Restore or on it’s own.

We were able to find it on Amazon for under $80- a decent buy for a road trip in a sunny area, with lower-powered devices.