What’s wrong with dynamo torches?

/in

A message from www.survive-it.co.nz

Information from the community to help families prepare for an emergency. Things to do before an emergency.

What’s wrong with dynamo torches and radios in an emergency kit?
Survive-it has been maintaining customer equipment for many years and we have discovered a potential problem with dynamo operated torches and radios.

Dynamo products have an internal battery which is charged by “winding” or “shaking”. If these products are left for a long period of time without proper maintenance (regular winding/charging), the internal battery may become completely discharged and they then become very hard to recharge or they will not charge at all. Some of these products will work OK, some will not; the problem is that you will not know for sure until you need them in an emergency.

Dynamo operated equipment should only be used as a backup to battery operated equipment
We do not recommend dynamo operated equipment for emergency kits unless they are regularly maintained and also used as a back up to battery operated devices. The only exception to this is if the dynamo product also has a battery compartment which operates separately to the internal battery; this means that if the dynamo component fails you can use batteries instead.

We recommend that all of your existing dynamo products be checked and then regularly maintained to test their functionality and that you supplement these products with battery operated equipment.

We recommend using high quality LED torches with long life alkaline batteries as these are a very reliable product (see our special offer below)

What should you do with your dynamo products?
Test them as soon as possible, if they are working OK then keep them in your kit BUT make sure you have battery operated torches and radios in your emergency kit as well.

Batteries
Use alkaline batteries not carbon zinc as they last longer and do not tend to leak as easily as the carbon batteries. Also keep at least one torch with batteries inserted ready to use; it is no good keeping batteries separate from the torch because when the lights go out it will be difficult to find and fit batteries. Check torches regularly.
www.survive-it.co.nz

© Copyright Plimmerton Residents Association and Plimmerton.nz 2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from Plimmerton Residents Association is strictly prohibited. Written excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Plimmerton Residents Association. Photographs are owned by the original photographers and are subject to Copyright and may not be reproduced.