Home > Consumer Reviews > Freeplay Ranger AM/FM Small Radio - Blue (BB-024-AUS-00-FO)

We've had this radio for...about a year now. We use it periodically just for the novelty, as well as during several snowstorms here in Colorado. It's nice to not worry about batteries in the least. You do have to keeping winding it periodically or it will fade, but for emergency purposes that's what I expect. And if you have some sun, no winding is required. This radio replaced an older one we have, which our kids easily broke the crank used for winding. This one however seems plenty sturdy, and we've had no problems of anything breaking or not working whenever we take it out.

I was given this as a gift several years ago and have been surprised by it s durability. It has been dropped several times and once was left outside in the rain all night and still works perfectly. If using outside in sun the built in solar panel keeps the battery charged with out having to crank it and never having to buy batteries saves a lot of money. Very handy radio and has good reception of distant stations.

I have owned two, and have loved em both. one was stollen from a jobsite.
It will run for hours on a few cranks. Will charge itself in bright light, does not need sun, and has a built in battery you can charge from a wall adapter (included), and will play music pretty loud with good reproduction. Im a Plumber and take mine everywhere. People always ask about it, and after checking it out, need to know where to get one for themselves. many on the market, Ive tried three different ones...this is the best.

I have the older Outrider version, the blue and orange are the new Ranger versions. Anyways, I got it for Christmas about 3-4 years ago. I use it 7 days a week, everyday since I got it. I love it. I used to take it to work, where it was dropped from 8ft on to concrete. It bounced pretty good, but kept playing. I use the wall outlet to charge it mostly. I listen at night now to talk radio for a few hours before bed. I am looking to buy another to leave at work now. Cant say enough about this little gem. It aint a boom box, no cd player, no mp3s, aint very loud, yet loud enough for me. Dont expect that, but it is solid!

I only use my radio to listen to talk radio at work and I always listen to the same station. At first I would have to slightly adjust it every few days (I guess it got bumped around). After about 5 months the knob got loose and I couldn't tune it as easily. Today it was nearly impossible to move the dial, but I got it tuned in eventually. I'll probably have to crack it open and try to fix it before long. I would've thought the least used part of the radio would last the longest. Obviously the design is a little flawed.

I almost never use the crank but I tried it yesterday, just because, and turning it was a lot harder than I remember. The crank also fit into it's slot a lot tighter than I remember. It seems like my radio was slightly warped. I don't know if all of my problems stem from the same source, but just to be safe I recommend you DON'T leave it in the heat for extended periods. Putting in a house window may be okay, but in a car window is probably a bad idea. This is more my fault than theirs so it didn't effect my rating.

Everything else about the radio is great, so if you think you'll take better care of it than I did this is the radio for you.

Oh, and I wish it had an LED indicator for signal strength.