Emergency Hand Crank Radio, FORNORM Solar Radio 2000mAh Power Bank Wind Up Radios with Phone Charger and 4 LED Reading Lamp, AM/FM/7 NOAA, 4 Power Methods, Green

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And the auto-off feature turns the radio off after 90 minutes of play to help stretch its battery life.

SAME alerts can be especially useful if you live in an area that’s prone to certain extreme weather events and you don’t want to be bothered with other warnings from the standard NOAA alert system, which can get annoying with enough frequency.Batteries on the bigger end for emergency radios tend to be around 2,000-2,600 mAh, which should give you a full day of use before you need to recharge. A minute of cranking on the ER310 gets you only about a third as much radio play or flashlight power as an equivalent amount of cranking produces on the smaller ER210. The RunningSnail is sturdily built and offers excellent battery life with multiple charging options, including a reliable crank generator.

Other than the lack of active weather alerts, the RunningSnail’s only other drawbacks compared with the Midland models are relatively minor: It doesn’t have a clock or an LCD screen, and the audio quality isn’t the greatest. They also function even when it’s totally dead—in our tests, as soon as the ER310 shut off, it began to charge itself again. Ability to receive dedicated weather alerts from NOAA’s Emergency Alert System: This feature is also important, particularly if you live in a tornado- or flash-flood-prone area. They’re able to run without the use of an outlet in case a storm knocks out the power grid and often make use of integrated hand cranks and solar chargers to power the battery. The hand crank sits between those knobs, at the intersection of the X, and folds away neatly when not in use; unfortunately, we found the crank to be somewhat disappointing in our tests, as it generated only about one minute of radio time per minute of cranking (about a third of what the company promises).

The inclusion of a USB charging port makes the WR400 a great bedside option, as it allows you to make sure your phone or portable weather radio is ready to go before the next storm. To get a feel for a radio’s most basic feature, I tested the radios in town as well as in the mountains to see how strong of a signal I could receive. In an emergency situation, shortwave radio reception can give you the ability to receive news from around the world.