Freeplay Indigo, LED Lantern

I bought this ten years ago and it was pretty good to start. I used a 6v charger usually and only cranked it occasionally. It quit working after a while and I put it in a box to look at someday. I'm not sure how long we used it before it died, a few years anyway, couple, three. Mine is yellow, without a phone charger and uses the "mirrored cone" technology this one uses. I bought it at Target.Today I cracked it open and it actually uses a Cordless Phone Metal Hydride battery pack, which is fine. 1100mah, 3.6v, 3xAAA. Which is fine, except, anyone who has owned cordless phones knows that these packs die after a while and have to be replaced. The battery pack is soldered in so replacing it is going to be a pain in the butt.There are good design reasons for soldering the connections, reduced resistance for crank charging, for example. However, it makes the light a disposable light when the battery pack dies, unless one happens to be a geek with a soldering iron, and we all know that cordless phone batteries die after a while.I am a geek with a soldering iron so I will solder in a new battery pack, and it won't work as good as new. The soldered connection will add a slight amount of resistance, which will interfere with charging. Not a big deal, except, when one is cranking the light to charge it.I think they need to make the battery pack replaceable. I know, it will cause some problems with crank charging and there will be corrosion at the terminals, etc. I would used a wired, watertight connection to reduce corrosion. I might solder one in myself and switch to a smaller, 800mah 3.6v, 3xAAA battery pack. I'm not sure yet.In any case, I have flashlights that I have owned goin on forty years and they work fine so I may have a skewed idea of flashlight life cycle.

This flashlight/lantern looks good but failed in practicallity. There is no place for a secure grip for the crank, and when I got a grip the crank handle kept hitting my fingers. Also, after crank charging this thing for 3 minutes, the light only stay on for a little over 1 minute. And the light would go out suddenly so don't use it near a cliff or stairs. This company should invest more in product research and design because tool of this nature is a good idea.