This is the Preppi Solar Phone Charger & Emergency Radio, as the name implies it’s a portable emergency radio that doubles as a crank and solar-powered generator for charging your smartphone when the mains power goes out.
Having a simple device like this tucked away somewhere handy is a great idea – natural (and manmade) disasters tend to strike unexpectedly, and this device allows you to listen to emergency radio broadcasts and keep your devices charged.
This is the Preppi Solar Phone Charger & Emergency Radio, as the name implies it’s a portable emergency radio that doubles as a crank and solar-powered generator for charging your smartphone when the mains power goes out.
History Speedrun: Preppi
Preppi is an emergency preparedness company that designs, packs, and sells survival kits and standalone tools aimed squarely at folks who want their disaster gear to look presentable enough to keep in the open rather than buried away in a closet.
The company was founded in 2014 by Lauren Tafuri and Ryan Kuhlman, a couple based in California. Tafuri came from a background in wardrobe styling and costume design, with clients including Morrissey and Annie Lennox.
Kuhlman had spent years in film and advertising, including time at Roman Coppola’s production company The Directors Bureau. The company started after a minor earthquake left them realizing they had nothing prepared at home, and a trip to an Army surplus store turned up what Kuhlman described as junky nylon bags made overseas.
The first Preppi product was an earthquake kit built around a mason’s canvas tool bag, stocked with items recommended by the Red Cross and dedicated preparedness organizations. The whole idea was to bring design considerations to a category historically dominated by utilitarian or tactical aesthetics.
Revenue had increased 400% between 2015 and 2016, and Amblin Entertainment, Endeavor, AMC, and IFC had all placed bulk holiday gift orders that year. The Prepster Emergency Backpack was named to Oprah’s Favorite Things list in 2019, and Preppi has since been covered by The New York Times, TIME, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Monocle, and CNN. And Silodrome, of course.
The current product range runs from compact first-aid and essentials kits to high-end fireproof emergency bags. Preppi operates out of South Pasadena, California, and offers a lifetime warranty on its bags.
Having a simple device like this tucked away somewhere handy is a great idea – natural (and manmade) disasters tend to strike unexpectedly, and this device allows you to listen to emergency radio broadcasts and keep your devices charged.
The Preppi Solar Phone Charger & Emergency Radio
The Solar Phone Charger & Emergency Radio is Preppi’s compact power tool, it’s sold both as a standalone product and as the included charging device in the company’s larger kits. It measures in at 5 inches by 2.4 inches by 1.6 inches and it weighs in at 11.5 ounces, which makes it one of the smallest units in its category.
Inside the device is a 2,000 mAh rechargeable lithium battery that feeds a USB output for charging phones, tablets, and other small devices. There are two backup methods for putting charge into the internal cell when mains power is unavailable – a small photovoltaic panel on one face allows for solar recharging when the unit is left in direct sunlight, and a folding hand crank on the side drives an internal dynamo for manual power generation.
In testing conducted by CNN Underscored for its 2026 emergency radio guide, the Preppi returned close to 11 minutes of charge for every minute of cranking, which they noted was better than several physically larger competitors in the same test.
The radio selection incudes AM, FM, and NOAA weather band frequencies. The weather band is the reason the device qualifies as an emergency radio rather than a general-purpose receiver. NOAA broadcasts continuous updates on hazardous weather, evacuation orders, and civil emergency messages through a network of transmitters that covers most of the United States, and the receiver on the Preppi is tuned to those frequencies.
The Solar Phone Charger & Emergency Radio is Preppi’s compact power tool, it’s sold both as a standalone product and as the included charging device in the company’s larger kits. It measures in at 5 inches by 2.4 inches by 1.6 inches and it weighs in at 11.5 ounces, which makes it one of the smallest units in its category.
It also has an LED flashlight is built into one end of the case for ambient lighting or signaling, and a high-decibel SOS siren can be triggered manually to attract attention at close range. In normal use the unit runs from the internal battery, with the crank and solar panel intended as backups when household power has been unavailable long enough to deplete the cell.
The Preppi Solar Phone Charger & Emergency Radio is now available to buy from the official Preppi Amazon store here, and at the time of writing it has an MSRP of $65 USD.
Images courtesy of Preppi
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
