Wind Up Torch Review: Is a Crank Torch Worth Keeping for a Power Cut?

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Every house has a torch, and in a power cut it’s usually the one with flat batteries. Or no batteries, because somebody borrowed them for the TV remote in March. A wind up torch gets round all of that. You turn the handle, it charges itself, and you’ve got light. No shop, no charger, no hunting through the kitchen drawer in the dark.

This Simpeak wind up torch is a pocket-sized hand crank torch with a built-in rechargeable battery, a solar panel as a backup, and a carabiner built into the body. It’s small enough to live in a kitchen drawer, a glovebox or a grab bag, and affordable enough to buy one for each of them. This wind up torch review covers what it does and where it fits in your power cut kit.

What Is a Wind Up Torch?

A wind up torch, also sold as a hand crank torch or a dynamo torch, makes its own electricity. Inside is a small generator. Turn the crank handle and it charges a built-in battery, and that battery powers the light. There’s nothing to buy and nothing to plug in.

That’s the whole point for an emergency kit. Alkaline batteries can leak and ruin a torch while it sits in a cupboard. Rechargeable torches go flat in the drawer and need a socket that, in a power cut, doesn’t work. A wind up torch only needs you and a minute of effort, which is a power source most households have plenty of.

How This Wind Up Torch Charges: One Minute of Cranking

On the back of the torch is a small handle that folds out from a round hub. Flip it out, turn it, and you’re charging. Simpeak says 1 minute of cranking gives around 10 minutes of light, at a steady pace of about two turns a second. It’s an easy rhythm, roughly the speed of stirring a pan of gravy.

Ten minutes of light covers most of what you actually need in the first hour of a power cut: finding the fuse box, checking on the kids, getting the lantern out, and working out whether it’s just your house or the whole street. When it starts to fade, another minute on the handle brings it back. Fold the crank away when you’re done.

Here’s what you get:

• Charging: hand crank, with a solar panel as a backup.
• Run time: around 10 minutes of light from 1 minute of cranking.
• Battery: built in and rechargeable, so there are no batteries to buy.
• Size: 124 x 45 x 32mm and 86g.
• Carry: a carabiner built into the body.
• In the box: the torch and a user manual, with a 2-year customer service promise from Simpeak.

A Solar Powered Torch as Well

The front of this wind up torch has a small solar panel, so it doubles as a solar powered torch. Simpeak describes it as a backup way of charging, and it takes in strong and medium sunlight as well as lamp light. Leave it on a windowsill and it tops itself up between uses, which means it’s more likely to have some charge already in it when the lights go out.

Think of the crank as the main charger and the solar panel as the one that keeps things ticking over. In a long power cut that runs into daylight, it’s another way to get light back into it without lifting a finger.

Size, Grip and the Carabiner

At 86g this wind up torch is light enough to forget it’s in a coat pocket. The body is shaped to sit in the hand, with ridges along the sides for grip, and Simpeak describes it as rugged and comfortable to hold, which matters when your hands are cold or wet.

The carabiner is built into the body rather than added on, so there’s no split ring to break. Clip it to a rucksack strap, a belt loop, the hook by the back door, or the handle of a grab bag. A torch that’s clipped to something is a torch you can find in the dark.

Where a Wind Up Torch Fits in Your Power Cut Kit

A wind up torch is the torch you never have to check. It suits all the places where a battery torch tends to let you down:

• The kitchen drawer or the hook by the door, as the first light you reach for when the power goes.
• Your blackout box, alongside a lantern, glow sticks and a radio, as the light that doesn’t depend on a stash of AAs.
• The car, for a breakdown at night or getting stuck in snow, where batteries in the glovebox don’t last long.
• A grab bag or get home bag, clipped to the outside so it’s ready the moment you need it.
• An older relative’s house, where a torch with no batteries and no charger is one less thing to go wrong.

It works alongside your other lights rather than replacing them. A lantern lights the room; this is the one you carry to the fuse box, the loft hatch or the garden gate.

One for the House, One for the Car

This is one bit of kit where two is better than one. Keep one wind up torch in the house and another in the car, or one downstairs and one upstairs by the bed, so nobody’s feeling their way down the landing. If you’ve got a teenager, a second torch is also one fewer argument about who had it last.

A Wind Up Torch as a Christmas Gift

A wind up torch makes a good stocking filler. It’s useful, it’s small, and there’s something satisfying about winding up your own light that appeals to just about everyone. It’s a nice one for children too: turning the handle and watching it light up is half the fun, and it’s perfect for camping trips, reading in a tent or a den, and dog walks on dark winter evenings. Buy two, keep one, and give the other to the person in your family who never has a torch when the lights go out.

What the Rest of the Team Think

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Pros and Cons

Pros

• This wind up torch never needs batteries: a minute of cranking gives over ten minutes of light
• Solar panel on the front as a backup way to charge it, even under lamp light
• Built-in carabiner clips it to a bag, a belt or a hook by the door
• Light and compact at 86g, so it fits a pocket, glovebox or grab bag
• Affordable enough to keep one in the house and one in the car
• Simple enough for anyone in the family to use

Cons

• Light time depends on winding: around ten minutes per minute of cranking
• Solar is a backup, so the wind up torch relies on the crank for most of its charge
• Black body is harder to spot if you drop it in the dark, so keep it clipped to something

Frequently Asked Questions