Eton Quest Hand Crank Emergency Weather Radio With Bluetooth Wireless Audio Streaming Solar Panel Charging And Flashlight Red

4.8★★★★★★★★★★6 reviews

• 5 ★5
• 4 ★1
• 3 ★0
• 2 ★0
• 1 ★0

Used this product?Your review helps other shoppers choose.Write a review

Write a reviewEton Quest Hand Crank Emergency Weather Radio With Bluetooth Wireless Audio Streaming Solar Panel Charging And Flashlight Red

Top reviews first: highest rated, with photos first

• CCarol P.3 Jan 2026
  5 ★

  The Quest is the best Eton emergency radio yet, but still lacking in a a handful of spots

  The Quest is the latest (and most expensive) emergency radio yet from Eton. It has AM, FM with DAB+ (supposedly), Shortwave, and Weather band with alerts.The weather radio works great. I pick up our local station perfectly clear, and most of my other weather radios (an old one from RadioShack and several from Midlands) are hit and miss. It has alert functionality, but not S.A.M.E., so the alarm will go off for EVERY alert in the broadcast area, not just your county. FM has excellent reception as well. The radio claims to have DAB+ capability, but that is worthless in the US, since we use HD Radio instead of DAB, which is used primarily in Europe. It also claims to have RDS capability, but I went through the entire FM band and never found a station that displayed any data. The FM radio has the ability to scan and automatically set up to 20 presets, but you cannot set your own presets manually or delete ones you don't want.AM reception is pretty terrible. I'm not sure if there's some kind of interference nearby, but nothing was what I would call listenable. I could only pick up a few stations, and all had interference. The AM antenna is an internal ferrite bar, so you have to rotate the radio to pick up the strongest signal. Shortwave was even worse. The tuning knob only moves 5 kHz at a time, and it has a range from 3.2 to 22 MHz, so it's going to take a LOOOOONG time to get anywhere. I tried tuning in WWV, which broadcasts on 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20 MHz and I was just barely able to pick up a signal on 5 MHz. It was so garbled as to be nearly useless. I'm about 500 miles away from the transmitter in Ft. Collins. It was still daytime, so it presumably will work better at night, but I should be able to get something during the day. There is no provision for an external SW antenna.The radio also has Bluetooth and Aux input capability. Setting up Bluetooth was a piece of cake and it probably took me longer to type this sentence than it took to pair my phone. The Play/Pause button works as you'd expect, and the tuner knob works as a forwards/backwards control.Pressing the light button cycles through the side flash light, which is pretty bright, the rear ambient light, which isn't quite as bright, and a red ambient light. There's also a dedicated "SOS ON/OFF" button, which flashes the red ambient light and sets off a rather loud siren. You're probably going to hit this button by accident at some point, since it's pretty close to the power button. They should have made it so you have to long-press it to turn it on.The instructions in the manual for setting the clock are incorrect. In standby mode, long-press the Menu button, select 12/24 hr time using the tuning knob (not the buttons), then press Play (the manual says to press Menu, this is wrong). Use the tuning knob to adjust the hours, then press Play. Then use the tuning knob to adjust the minutes, then press Play. The instructions for setting the alarm are similarly wrong.The input charge port is USB-C, but the output charge port is USB-A. The radio comes with a (short) USB-A to USB-C charge cord. It does not appear to support any sort of fast charging in either direction. This model has a 5,200 mAh lithium battery, which appears to be the biggest one Eton has used yet and double the capacity of the Sidekick. The lithium battery is user replaceable, and it appears to be a pair of standard 18650 cells, but they are soldered together into a battery pack; in the future you're either going to have to buy a replacement pack from Eton, or break out the soldering iron. It can also use 3 AAA batteries, and like all Eton emergency radios, has a solar panel and hand crank. The battery door does not require a screwdriver, and appears to be better designed than previous models.Switching off the unit using the main power switch under the protective cover kills power to the internal clock, but does not appear to erase the FM presets or the Bluetooth pairing. It does not appear to be able to charge the battery when the main power switch is off.All the buttons are on the front of the device (except the light, which is on top of the handle), they're not hiding under the handle like the Sidekick or FRX3+, so it's a lot easier to see what you're doing.Overall it appears to be the best, most capable radio Eton has made yet. The only things that appear to be lacking are S.A.M.E. support on the weather band, a faster way to move through the shortwave band, a provision for an external SW antenna, and for the love of God, make it so you can't turn on the blasted siren by accident!

  Read moreShow less
• JJsmit8619 Dec 2025
  5 ★

  Initial Observations: Decent

  Initial observations:Good rugged appearance. Simple to use, intuitive knobs and buttons.I plugged in the battery, turned it on, tuned in a few AM and FM stations with no problems, switched to the NOAA band and verified that I could receive my local station with no problems. I tried out the flashlight and hand crank. I then cranked it for a few minutes to verify that the charging does work with the hand crank. I have not tried the tiny solar panel yet. Since it was displaying 2 out of 3 bars on the battery, I attached the included mini-B USB cable to a nearby charger and let it charge for a few hours. When I returned, it displayed full bars. I have not tested the runtime yet. Radio sensitivity seems fine, but I haven't tested any far away radio stations yet.Purchased 10-2023. The battery shows a mfg date of 2021.I noted that this can be charged by hand crank, solar panel, or USB only. If I interpreted the instructions correctly, it can also run the radio when the USB is plugged into an external source of power if the battery is dead. The radio is supposed to run for four minutes for every 1 minute of cranking.Downsides:The instruction manual is pretty sparse and a bit poorly written. They valued style over substance, and the print is extremely tiny.The battery uses a proprietary connector. It will require some soldering or cutting and crimping when it's time to replace it. (The battery is a single standard 18650 rechargeable.)This version of the radio lost a feature that I liked on the earlier radios. It no longer takes AA/AAA batteries as a backup in case the internal rechargeable battery fails. I consider that to be its largest shortcoming. For an emergency radio, you want to be able to run off of any source of power available. However, many people carry a USB power bank and it will run off of one of those for a good long while.It would have been nice if it had a standard 12V charging port (such as a 5521 jack) and a "wall wart" 110V adapter and a 12V cigarette lighter adapter to charge it. You can use the included USB cord, but they did not include the adapters to run it from your car or your home's 110V. We all have those things around, so no big deal. They've simplified the design and made it a bit cheaper, but the reliance on rechargeable batteries and USB is a bit unsettling for an emergency radio that won't get used much. For something like this that would be put into an emergency kit and not touched for years at a time, putting some AA/AAA lithium batteries in the box and forgetting about it would be fine. Instead, according to the instructions, you have to charge it every 3 months, or the battery life will be lessened. My plan is to leave it in a sunny location so that it will trickle charge on the solar panels.It would have been helpful to include a place to put the USB charging cable, since it is an uncommon USB Mini B (not Micro B). I will have to find a carrying case for it so that the cable doesn't get lost. Total fail on the part of the mfg... why did they make the jack the oddball size of USB Mini B? That hasn't been a standard in probably over a decade. Why not USB C?All in all, pretty solid so far. I am not detracting from the score for these shortcomings.

  Read moreShow less
• DDanalee10 Mar 2025
  5 ★

  Appears decent ..

  Looks good. Haven't had to use yet ;)

• DDavid B.18 Feb 2025
  5 ★

  Super agreeable WX Radio

  Such an upgrade from my antique radio with its dial tuner and partial frequency ranges. Easy to use; deceptively simple manual was written by an English speaking person so I could understand it! The solar charging was working indoors without being in direct sunlight. The Powerbank ability to charge phones, and the like, is an big bonus. Reception of even the weather band was clear and the ability to turn on when the NWS sends out an alert? EXCELLENT AM/FM for something while you sit and wait? Very important (most emergencies contain hours of boredom; snowbound for example). LED flashlight-will help you find a real light if the powers out. Handcrank? It works but... let's hope the power comes back before I have to use that. All considered a good tool & don't skimp on tools or they won't work when you need them.

  Read moreShow less