# Goal Zero Solar Recharging System



## MaterielGeneral (Jan 27, 2015)

I pay for all of my expenses throughout the month with my Cabelas Credit Card earning Cabelas money in the process. I am thinking really hard on buying the Goal Zero Nomad 7/Guide 10 solar recharging system.

Goal Zero Guide 10 Solar Recharging Kit : Cabela's

I will probably have to pay $25.00 out of pocket for it and the rest will be free. I looked up reviews and YouTube videos and it is mostly positive results from the people that use it.

My question is there anybody that owns one and has been using it awhile is there anything negative about the Goal Zero? Maybe a pet peeve or something like that. If you have the Guide 10 has the battery bank lasted a long time? Charges the AA/AAA batteries OK? What all have you used the 12 volt plug for?

Thanks for your time.


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## ffparamedic (Dec 14, 2015)

Check out this link.

http://m.outdoorgearlab.com/Solar-Charger-Reviews

My buddy has this one and we have used it a lot elk hunting...it works perfectly and really well.

I've heard the goal zero is finicky.


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## MaterielGeneral (Jan 27, 2015)

Some of the negative reviews have been with people with I phones. When the phone is on it wont recognize the charge.


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## Montana Rancher (Mar 4, 2013)

MaterielGeneral said:


> I pay for all of my expenses throughout the month with my Cabelas Credit Card earning Cabelas money in the process. I am thinking really hard on buying the Goal Zero Nomad 7/Guide 10 solar recharging system.
> 
> Goal Zero Guide 10 Solar Recharging Kit : Cabela's
> 
> ...


Hello
also have a Cabelas black card and enjoy th5% cash back that it gives me, but I don't see any sense buying a solar backup panel that just does that. What is your thinking? When the grid collapses and cell phone service isn't available you can charge your cell phone?


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## TacticalCanuck (Aug 5, 2014)

Many devices that hold volumes of valuable and essential information are hand held and charge of a USB cable. Look at kindle. 1000 books. Battery lasts weeks. There dozens of books on edible plants with pictures, medicinal plants, recipes, first aid, field dressing, just about how to do anything. Pretty sure all of that will be valuable In a grid down. Maps too. 1000 books for a couple of ounces. I'm in. And a solar panel to charge it allowing you years of access.


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## MaterielGeneral (Jan 27, 2015)

Montana Rancher said:


> Hello
> also have a Cabelas black card and enjoy th5% cash back that it gives me, but I don't see any sense buying a solar backup panel that just does that. What is your thinking? When the grid collapses and cell phone service isn't available you can charge your cell phone?


What TC said, I have a very large electronic library. I also plan on using it to go camping and hiking with my family. You can also charge battery packs and portable lights.


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## Arklatex (May 24, 2014)

MaterielGeneral said:


> I pay for all of my expenses throughout the month with my Cabelas Credit Card earning Cabelas money in the process. I am thinking really hard on buying the Goal Zero Nomad 7/Guide 10 solar recharging system.
> 
> Goal Zero Guide 10 Solar Recharging Kit : Cabela's
> 
> ...


I have that setup. Had it for at least a year now and it works fine. I did replace the batteries for the guide over to eneloop batteries. Not that there was a problem I just like the extra capacity. I've also used the panel to charge a 10,000 mAh USB battery. I can get several full charges for a galaxy 4 phone off of that. I rate the whole setup a solid A+

My intention for the thing is to keep the Kindles charged and phones charged in a long term power outage or shtf. I have thousands of books and gigs of music for entertainment. And it can be transferred without cell towers via Bluetooth. Just gotta keep em charged up...


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## MaterielGeneral (Jan 27, 2015)

I bought the Goal Zero and Nomad 7, Guide 10 combo 12/31/15. Everything looks good and appears to be high quality. It was $119.99 -5% military discount making it $113.99. Of course the government had their cut of $6.84, raising the total to $120.83. -$90.49 for my Cabela’s points making a final balance of $30.34.

Today was a nice and sunny winter day here in Northern Michigan so I figured I would give the Nomad 7 a try out. At about 11:45 I put the Nomad 7 on the dash of my truck facing the southern hemisphere and plugged my cell phone into it. I checked back at 12:45pm and my cell phone lost battery power. (I forget how much now, I should have took notes) I unplugged the phone and plugged it back into the Nomad 7 and checked back in another hour and the cell phone lost more power. It seems like the solar panel is sucking the energy from my cell phone. 

I am going to try again in a couple of days when it is sunny out and use the Guide 10 to charge my cell phone and the Nomad 7 to charge the Guide 10. I sent a message to Goal Zero customer service so we shall see what they have to say.


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## 8301 (Nov 29, 2014)

MaterielGeneral said:


> Today was a nice and sunny winter day here in Northern Michigan so I figured I would give the Nomad 7 a try out. At about 11:45 I put the Nomad 7 on the dash of my truck facing the southern hemisphere and plugged my cell phone into it. I checked back at 12:45pm and my cell phone lost battery power. (I forget how much now, I should have took notes) I unplugged the phone and plugged it back into the Nomad 7 and checked back in another hour and the cell phone lost more power.


Since wind shields have UV protective glass the solar panel may not have worked. When you test again try laying the solar panel on your hood and let us know if that made it start charging.


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## GTGallop (Nov 11, 2012)

GZ makes good stuff but they use proprietary connectors so you are locked into their system from A to Z. If you are a decent shade tree electrician, you can solder on new connectors using generic brands or Anderson Power Pole.


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## MaterielGeneral (Jan 27, 2015)

I did some more experimenting with my Goal Zero equipment. Yesterday I used my fully charged Guide 10 to start charging my phone battery. My Droid Turbo 2 cell phone was at 20%. I started to charge at 2:51pm and ended my charging with the Guide 10 showing a red light at 4:09pm. The phone battery was at 58% making 38% increase. 

I don’t know if that is good or bad. Goal Zero states that the Guide 10 can charge a cell phone 1 time. My cell phone is brand new and I think it does have a higher capacity battery in it.

Today around 10:30am with partly cloudy skies I put the Nomad 7 on my deck on a 45 degree angle facing the southern hemisphere and it charged the Guide 10 in 1 hour.
I then plugged my cell phone into the USB port of the Nomad 7 at 11:26am with my phone battery at 82%. At 1pm my phone was at 100%.

I am a lot happier with today’s experiment than the other day when I had it on my truck dash. My next experiment is going to be my 12,000mah battery pack.


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## FLPrepper (Jun 6, 2016)

I love my Flip 20 and the Sherpa 50 is also a pretty good bang for the buck.


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