Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 11 years and 10 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

For Father’s Day I received the GoalZero Guide 10 Plus Adventure solar charging kit. I had first heard of this product back in February on an episode of Tekzilla and thought it might be a good addition to our hurricane supplies. I added it to my Amazon Wishlist and then forgot about it until I opened my gift on Sunday.

The kit consists of the Nomad 7 solar panels that provide 7 watts of power, the Guide 10 Plus battery pack powered by four 2300mAh NiMH AA batteries, and various cables.

The beauty of the kit is the wide variety of charging and power options you can get out of these simple components. For example, I could charge my iPhone by connecting it directly to the solar panels via USB or to the battery pack (also over USB). The batteries in the Guide 10 can be charged over USB or the solar panels and removed to be used in anything that takes AA cells like a radio, camera, or flashlight. The battery pack also has a built-in LED flashlight which can come in handy. Finally, the kit includes a 12V cigarette lighter adapter for use with car accessories, but with the limited wattage output of the solar cells you’re not going power anything big like a power inverter (although I did give it a try).

To charge larger devices like a laptop or iPad GoalZero has other solar array options but the one I got is perfect for our hurricane kit to charge our cell phones or smaller devices in an emergency.