--- product_id: 1143993 title: "Eton The American Red Cross Frx3 Emergency Weather Radio With Smartphone Charger Arcfrx3wxr, 14.9 Oz" price: "VT46148" currency: VUV in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.vu/products/1143993-eton-the-american-red-cross-frx3-emergency-weather-radio-smartphone store_origin: VU region: Vanuatu --- # AM/FM & NOAA Weather Bands Multi-mode Power: Hand Crank, Solar, AAA, Rechargeable USB Smartphone Charging Eton The American Red Cross Frx3 Emergency Weather Radio With Smartphone Charger Arcfrx3wxr, 14.9 Oz **Price:** VT46148 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Summary > ⚡ Be Ready, Stay Connected, Charge Up — Your Lifeline in Every Emergency! ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Eton The American Red Cross Frx3 Emergency Weather Radio With Smartphone Charger Arcfrx3wxr, 14.9 Oz - **How much does it cost?** VT46148 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.vu](https://www.desertcart.vu/products/1143993-eton-the-american-red-cross-frx3-emergency-weather-radio-smartphone) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Key Features - • **Power On Your Terms:** Hand crank, solar panel, rechargeable battery, or AAA — never worry about dead power in emergencies. - • **Stay Informed Anywhere:** Full NOAA weather alerts plus AM/FM reception keep you connected when it matters most. - • **Built for Real-World Use:** Durable, compact design with retractable antenna and multiple power options for peace of mind. - • **Emergency Smartphone Boost:** USB charging gives your phone a vital 40%+ charge to keep communication lines open. - • **Light the Way When It Counts:** Integrated LED flashlight and emergency beacon ensure visibility during power outages. ## Overview The American Red Cross FRX3 Weather Alert Radio is a versatile emergency device featuring AM/FM and NOAA weather band reception, multiple power sources including hand crank, solar, rechargeable battery, and AAA batteries, plus a USB port to charge smartphones. Compact and durable, it also includes an LED flashlight and emergency beacon, making it an essential tool for any emergency preparedness kit. ## Description The American Red Cross FRX3 Emergency Weather Radio with Smartphone Charger ARCFRX3WXR Review: Great little hand cranked radio for occasional use - Let me go through questions, pros, cons, and tips about the Eton American Red Cross FRX3. Te Red Cross and others suggest having a radio available for use in case of a power outage so I bought this one because it didn't require me to keep extra batteries on hand to use it. To answer the question I think most people ask: Will this thing really charge my cell phone? The answer is…eventually. “Dump” charging didn’t do the trick for me. I expect that the Li-Ion battery in my phone stores far more power than the Nimh in this radio. Try to be realistic about this. It takes several hours to charge my phone from the computer using a USB cord. So don’t expect your phone to magically charge in ten minutes by cranking the handle on this thing or dump charging from the battery. It’s an emergency radio that happens to have a USB plug on it. When I dumped the battery from this radio into my phone, the charge didn’t even go up ten percent before the internal batteries were empty. It will charge a phone…eventually…but you will have to crank it for a long time. Possibly for several hours, just like plugging it in. If your power is out, use a car charger. If you can’t do that, then this will do the job but it’s a last resort for “emergency” situations and you should expect it to work that way. You could buy an external backup battery for half the money but those only work one time and don’t come with a radio. Following the philosophy of use that this is an emergency radio that it just happens to be able to charge a phone, this will do the job. The positive stuff: It seems solid although I doubt it would handle being dropped very well. I like the way it looks and it will easily store away or sit on a windowsill because of the size. The speaker performance is better than I expected but not exceptional. Cranking it is also easier than I expected. It charges relatively quickly from a wall plug USB adapter that came with my phone. It’s small and lightweight, the LED lights are decent but not exceptional and should run for a long time off the internal battery. The LEDs are angled down slightly so they work well for lighting the ground while walking and carrying the radio. Not overly bright but just fine for emergency use and if you want a better flashlight, then buy a flashlight. The weather alerts may come in handy and the ability to charge other items is a plus. Can also be used with regular batteries. The glow in the dark ring will keep glowing for many hours when you leave the radio in the light for much of the day. The negative stuff: The batteries are pretty weak at only 800 mah. That’s about the same as a rechargeable AAA battery. There’s no place on the radio to store the charging cable which means you’ll have to find it whenever you want to charge the radio without cranking the handle. The charging cable is USB only, there’s no adapter to plug it into a wall, so you’ll have to use a 120V to USB sdapter that came with something else like an Ipod or phone if you don't want to charge it from a computer. The Alert function drains the battery so you’ll have to charge it every week or so if you leave the Alert on. The handle is pretty wide and not designed particularly well for holding it for long periods and often causes your fingers to hit random buttons. The buttons aren’t as easily accessible as they could be due to the buttons being on top of the radio under the handle. The antenna doesn’t sit flush at one end so it doesn’t lay flat on its back. And the words Volume and Tuning don’t stand out because they are the same color as the rest of the radio and are very thin letters. I made mine stand out slightly better by carefully tapping the end of a Sharpie against the raised letters but they are only slightly more visible than they were before because the letters are so thin. Overall impression: Again staying with the philosophy of use, I’m very happy with this item. Something else might be the perfect solution to the negatives that I've listed but I'm sure it wouldn't be tihs small and it would cost much more. The radio plays clearly and the weather radio works well. I can see myself using all the other features at some time so I don’t think this will be something that I test once and put away for years until that one time when the power goes out. I expect I will use it every few weeks as either a flashlight or a radio in the garage just because it’s available, especially since it has an aux input so I can hook an Ipod or phone to it. I will have to try rechargeable AAA batteries to see if those work instead of alkalines. I don’t think it’s even remotely water resistant so I’d be careful if I took it camping or left it out to solar charge and it was rained on. I wish the batteries were a higher mah rating but they might be what they are based on the generator or radio itself. I don’t know. Tips and tricks: If you are like me and don’t read instructions, the first thing you need to do is open the battery compartment and plug the battery in. There are three batteries strapped together with a plug coming off them. Plug that into the receptacle right next to the battery. Otherwise nothing will work. Many smart phones can now get weather alerts like this does. If you have that option on your phone, you could save some money and buy the FRX2 which doesn’t have the Alert function but has the weather radio and will still charge a phone. If you turn on the Alert function, none of the other radio functions will work. If nothing works and you don’t know why, check to see if the Alert is on. The instructions say that you can’t charge this radio through a window. I tried it and I was able to charge it somewhat, but it has to be in the right window, facing the right direction. In a south facing window, it worked. I could keep it a little bit charged through an east facing window if I laid it on its side and angled it towards the sun but it will never completely charge unless it sits outside in direct sun for most of a day and the plastic will get pretty hot if you do that. A nice feature and it beats cranking the handle. To extend battery life, don’t insert any alkaline batteries but switch the radio over to the alkaline setting by hitting the battery button at the upper right side of the front panel. The clock still runs but none of the other functions will work until you switch it back to the internal battery. This makes the internal battery last much longer on standby. I’ve had the battery indicator drop from three bars to two overnight but when I switched it to alkaline with no batteries in it, it stayed on three bars for several days. I don’t know if the Alert function will still work if you do this because there hasn’t been a weather alert since I bought it. If you plan to keep this radio stored away for long periods of time, you might want to unplug the battery before you put it away. I don’t know how long it will hold a charge but I can guarantee that if you leave that battery plugged in, the clock will kill the battery. The easiest way to crank it is to hold it down on the edge of a table or counter with one hand and crank with the other rather than holding it in the air with both hands. It will crank in either direction so it’s usable by either hand in either direction. Crank it per the instructions which say about two revolutions per second. Cranking faster won’t charge the battery faster because the charge controller won’t let more than a specific voltage through so save your energy and just expect to crank it for a while. Review: American Red Cross FRX3 / Eton Radio - I will just summarize this product: construction is plastic- I don't believe it is waterproof (not a big deal to me). If you drop it, it may break depending on the height it is dropped from. It has a cable for charging and comes with a rechargeable battery. It can charge an iPhone4s and a Droid X2. the crank is plastic so be gentle. You don't have to have brute strength to crank it or to utilize the recharge function. The antenna is retractable and metal. It is easy to break but you can keep it tucked out of the way. The reception is good and dependent on your location. (am/fm/weather) There is a solar recharging cell on the handle and it works nicely. The flashlight is a joke. It is best suited for reading something close-up. Your best bet is to also have a flashlight around for emergencies. The flashing red light is also a joke. Again, have a handy flashlight to accompany this radio for emergencies. Overall, I don't regret buying this radio. It is nice and serves the functions it was designed to perform. I would buy another if I needed to. Good value for the money. ## Features - This is the emergency radio with a larg - risp sound that allows you to hear every word of a NOAA - Additional superior features include an integrated LED ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #159,460 in Electronics ( See Top 100 in Electronics ) #229 in Weather Radios | | Customer Reviews | 4.3 out of 5 stars 1,319 Reviews | ## Product Details - **Brand:** Eton - **Color:** Red - **Connectivity Technology:** USB - **Included Components:** Radio - **Power Source:** Solar Powered - **Product Dimensions:** 6.9"L x 5.8"W x 2.6"H - **Radio Bands Supported:** 7-Band - **Special Feature:** Alcohol-Free - **Style:** ARCFRX3WXR - **Tuner Technology:** AM, FM ## Images ![Eton The American Red Cross Frx3 Emergency Weather Radio With Smartphone Charger Arcfrx3wxr, 14.9 Oz - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/813p2nwa2JL.jpg) ![Eton The American Red Cross Frx3 Emergency Weather Radio With Smartphone Charger Arcfrx3wxr, 14.9 Oz - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71GTxHi22ZL.jpg) ![Eton The American Red Cross Frx3 Emergency Weather Radio With Smartphone Charger Arcfrx3wxr, 14.9 Oz - Image 3](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51bxQyuATFL.jpg) ![Eton The American Red Cross Frx3 Emergency Weather Radio With Smartphone Charger Arcfrx3wxr, 14.9 Oz - Image 4](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61+7KTUVFqL.jpg) ![Eton The American Red Cross Frx3 Emergency Weather Radio With Smartphone Charger Arcfrx3wxr, 14.9 Oz - Image 5](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61ZSQo+vkKL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great little hand cranked radio for occasional use *by F***0 on February 4, 2014* Let me go through questions, pros, cons, and tips about the Eton American Red Cross FRX3. Te Red Cross and others suggest having a radio available for use in case of a power outage so I bought this one because it didn't require me to keep extra batteries on hand to use it. To answer the question I think most people ask: Will this thing really charge my cell phone? The answer is…eventually. “Dump” charging didn’t do the trick for me. I expect that the Li-Ion battery in my phone stores far more power than the Nimh in this radio. Try to be realistic about this. It takes several hours to charge my phone from the computer using a USB cord. So don’t expect your phone to magically charge in ten minutes by cranking the handle on this thing or dump charging from the battery. It’s an emergency radio that happens to have a USB plug on it. When I dumped the battery from this radio into my phone, the charge didn’t even go up ten percent before the internal batteries were empty. It will charge a phone…eventually…but you will have to crank it for a long time. Possibly for several hours, just like plugging it in. If your power is out, use a car charger. If you can’t do that, then this will do the job but it’s a last resort for “emergency” situations and you should expect it to work that way. You could buy an external backup battery for half the money but those only work one time and don’t come with a radio. Following the philosophy of use that this is an emergency radio that it just happens to be able to charge a phone, this will do the job. The positive stuff: It seems solid although I doubt it would handle being dropped very well. I like the way it looks and it will easily store away or sit on a windowsill because of the size. The speaker performance is better than I expected but not exceptional. Cranking it is also easier than I expected. It charges relatively quickly from a wall plug USB adapter that came with my phone. It’s small and lightweight, the LED lights are decent but not exceptional and should run for a long time off the internal battery. The LEDs are angled down slightly so they work well for lighting the ground while walking and carrying the radio. Not overly bright but just fine for emergency use and if you want a better flashlight, then buy a flashlight. The weather alerts may come in handy and the ability to charge other items is a plus. Can also be used with regular batteries. The glow in the dark ring will keep glowing for many hours when you leave the radio in the light for much of the day. The negative stuff: The batteries are pretty weak at only 800 mah. That’s about the same as a rechargeable AAA battery. There’s no place on the radio to store the charging cable which means you’ll have to find it whenever you want to charge the radio without cranking the handle. The charging cable is USB only, there’s no adapter to plug it into a wall, so you’ll have to use a 120V to USB sdapter that came with something else like an Ipod or phone if you don't want to charge it from a computer. The Alert function drains the battery so you’ll have to charge it every week or so if you leave the Alert on. The handle is pretty wide and not designed particularly well for holding it for long periods and often causes your fingers to hit random buttons. The buttons aren’t as easily accessible as they could be due to the buttons being on top of the radio under the handle. The antenna doesn’t sit flush at one end so it doesn’t lay flat on its back. And the words Volume and Tuning don’t stand out because they are the same color as the rest of the radio and are very thin letters. I made mine stand out slightly better by carefully tapping the end of a Sharpie against the raised letters but they are only slightly more visible than they were before because the letters are so thin. Overall impression: Again staying with the philosophy of use, I’m very happy with this item. Something else might be the perfect solution to the negatives that I've listed but I'm sure it wouldn't be tihs small and it would cost much more. The radio plays clearly and the weather radio works well. I can see myself using all the other features at some time so I don’t think this will be something that I test once and put away for years until that one time when the power goes out. I expect I will use it every few weeks as either a flashlight or a radio in the garage just because it’s available, especially since it has an aux input so I can hook an Ipod or phone to it. I will have to try rechargeable AAA batteries to see if those work instead of alkalines. I don’t think it’s even remotely water resistant so I’d be careful if I took it camping or left it out to solar charge and it was rained on. I wish the batteries were a higher mah rating but they might be what they are based on the generator or radio itself. I don’t know. Tips and tricks: If you are like me and don’t read instructions, the first thing you need to do is open the battery compartment and plug the battery in. There are three batteries strapped together with a plug coming off them. Plug that into the receptacle right next to the battery. Otherwise nothing will work. Many smart phones can now get weather alerts like this does. If you have that option on your phone, you could save some money and buy the FRX2 which doesn’t have the Alert function but has the weather radio and will still charge a phone. If you turn on the Alert function, none of the other radio functions will work. If nothing works and you don’t know why, check to see if the Alert is on. The instructions say that you can’t charge this radio through a window. I tried it and I was able to charge it somewhat, but it has to be in the right window, facing the right direction. In a south facing window, it worked. I could keep it a little bit charged through an east facing window if I laid it on its side and angled it towards the sun but it will never completely charge unless it sits outside in direct sun for most of a day and the plastic will get pretty hot if you do that. A nice feature and it beats cranking the handle. To extend battery life, don’t insert any alkaline batteries but switch the radio over to the alkaline setting by hitting the battery button at the upper right side of the front panel. The clock still runs but none of the other functions will work until you switch it back to the internal battery. This makes the internal battery last much longer on standby. I’ve had the battery indicator drop from three bars to two overnight but when I switched it to alkaline with no batteries in it, it stayed on three bars for several days. I don’t know if the Alert function will still work if you do this because there hasn’t been a weather alert since I bought it. If you plan to keep this radio stored away for long periods of time, you might want to unplug the battery before you put it away. I don’t know how long it will hold a charge but I can guarantee that if you leave that battery plugged in, the clock will kill the battery. The easiest way to crank it is to hold it down on the edge of a table or counter with one hand and crank with the other rather than holding it in the air with both hands. It will crank in either direction so it’s usable by either hand in either direction. Crank it per the instructions which say about two revolutions per second. Cranking faster won’t charge the battery faster because the charge controller won’t let more than a specific voltage through so save your energy and just expect to crank it for a while. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ American Red Cross FRX3 / Eton Radio *by A***T on August 7, 2012* I will just summarize this product: construction is plastic- I don't believe it is waterproof (not a big deal to me). If you drop it, it may break depending on the height it is dropped from. It has a cable for charging and comes with a rechargeable battery. It can charge an iPhone4s and a Droid X2. the crank is plastic so be gentle. You don't have to have brute strength to crank it or to utilize the recharge function. The antenna is retractable and metal. It is easy to break but you can keep it tucked out of the way. The reception is good and dependent on your location. (am/fm/weather) There is a solar recharging cell on the handle and it works nicely. The flashlight is a joke. It is best suited for reading something close-up. Your best bet is to also have a flashlight around for emergencies. The flashing red light is also a joke. Again, have a handy flashlight to accompany this radio for emergencies. Overall, I don't regret buying this radio. It is nice and serves the functions it was designed to perform. I would buy another if I needed to. Good value for the money. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Better than I expected *by D***K on November 8, 2016* Better than I expected. It can be charged with a wall charger, USB, solar, hand crank or will run on 3 AAA batteries. Note: the AAA batteries will drain if you keep them inside the radio. If the unit is charged, it will charge your cell phone like a battery pack without the need to crank. The small solar panels do a pretty good job of keeping it charged if you simply leave it in the window as we do. We hope to never have to use the crank feature to actually power the radio, but in our experience approximately 2 minutes of cranking will net you 3-5 minutes of radio use. The radio has AM/FM and 7 weather bands. The reception was fairly strong with the extendable antenna even though I live in a mountainous area. Note: the reception seemed better when the radio was plugged into the wall charger. The unit also includes a 3 LED light; 2 that can be used as a flashlight and one as a flashing distress signal. Overall the unit performs as advertised. There are higher quality radios available and cheaper radios available, but for under $50 this is a solid performer for the money. ## Frequently Bought Together - The American Red Cross FRX3 Hand Crank NOAA AM / FM Weather Alert Radio with Smartphone Charger, ARCFRX3WXR - Aquatabs 397mg Water Purification Tablets (100 Pack). Water Filtration System for, Camping, Boating, Emergencies, Survival, RVs, and Marine-Use. Easy to Use Treatment and Disinfection. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.vu/products/1143993-eton-the-american-red-cross-frx3-emergency-weather-radio-smartphone](https://www.desertcart.vu/products/1143993-eton-the-american-red-cross-frx3-emergency-weather-radio-smartphone) --- *Product available on Desertcart Vanuatu* *Store origin: VU* *Last updated: 2026-06-08*