apologies if this is off topic. Has anyone any experience of solar
garden lights? How long do they last?

They seem to cost from £1 (from the pound shop) upwards.......

Any recommendations???

cheers in advance

"hound" wrote in message
o.uk...
apologies if this is off topic. Has anyone any experience of solar garden
lights? How long do they last?

They seem to cost from £1 (from the pound shop) upwards.......

Any recommendations???

In my experience, the cheap ones are c...! I bought a set of eight lights
from Amazon, intending to use one or two to light a step on the front path.
Two didn't work from the start and even all of the remaining six are so low
in light intensity that they are not sufficient to light the step, It may be
that the more expensive ones are better.

Phil

In article ,
hound wrote:
apologies if this is off topic. Has anyone any experience of solar
garden lights? How long do they last?

There is one solar light that really works, and it's due to last
another 5 billion years or so.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"hound" wrote
apologies if this is off topic. Has anyone any experience of solar garden
lights? How long do they last?

They seem to cost from £1 (from the pound shop) upwards.......

Any recommendations???

IME about a year before the c..p rechargeable batteries they ship them with
give out. Normally easy to replace with better batteries, just be careful
you don't damage the cheap wiring/circuit board inside.
We have a number of those clear globes on a stick with the solar panel on a
clip on the stick, worked OK for two years so far although one has given up
completely, dodgy on/off switch.
We bought a stainless steel set of 4 recently and they are surprisingly
bright and seem better made. I'll check out the make tomorrow.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

hound wrote:
apologies if this is off topic. Has anyone any experience of solar
garden lights? How long do they last?

They seem to cost from ?1 (from the pound shop) upwards.......

Any recommendations???

I think you will find it's a "you get what you pay for" market.
We have had 2 lots of 'cheap' lights, they don't tend to last more than a
few months before becoming so pale as to be useless.

wrote:

In article ,
hound wrote:
apologies if this is off topic. Has anyone any experience of solar
garden lights? How long do they last?

There is one solar light that really works, and it's due to last
another 5 billion years or so.


Pah! It's faulty, doesn't work at night :-)
--
Donnie

On Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:32:45 +0000 (UTC), Donnie wrote:

There is one solar light that really works, and it's due to last
another 5 billion years or so.

Pah! It's faulty, doesn't work at night :-)

Just like any other cheap solar light then. B-)

--
Cheers
Dave.

hound wrote:
apologies if this is off topic. Has anyone any experience of solar
garden lights? How long do they last?

Typically 3-4 years before the rechargable batteries need replacing.

They seem to cost from £1 (from the pound shop) upwards.......

Any recommendations???

Maplin have/had some half decent ones on almost stainless poles (rusts a
bit after 3-4 yrs) look a bit like mushrooms. Work reasonably well need
bringing in during winter as the batteries don't like cold weather.

They are still available in their reduced section presumably old stock.
Newer ones tend to have brighter diodes. One minor irritation with them
is that they are adjusted for more southerly latitudes and come on far
too early during dusk in the UK summers. I tweak mine.

Worst one I ever got was a thin stick one from Wilko. Lasted less than a
year then filled its battery compartment with water never worked again.
Useless. It was cheap though.

Regards,
Martin Brown

On 2010-04-27, Martin wrote:

I think you will find it's a "you get what you pay for" market.
We have had 2 lots of 'cheap' lights, they don't tend to last more than a
few months before becoming so pale as to be useless.

That was our experience too.

We've found that some of them ship with _really_ crappy batteries. Replacing
them with a good brand can often work wonders.

Jim
--
Twitter:@GreyAreaUK
"[The MP4-12C] will be fitted with all manner of pointlessly shiny
buttons that light up and a switch that says 'sport mode' that isn't
connected to anything." The Daily Mash.

Martin wrote:
Any recommendations???
I think you will find it's a "you get what you pay for" market.
We have had 2 lots of 'cheap' lights, they don't tend to last more than a
few months before becoming so pale as to be useless.
That was our experience too.

Although to be fair, some of ours won't have been helped by being dunked
into buckets of water and filled with the watering can by little fingers.

Martin Brown wrote:
is that they are adjusted for more southerly latitudes and come on far
too early during dusk in the UK summers. I tweak mine.

How does one go about tweaking?

wrote:
Martin Brown wrote:

is that they are adjusted for more southerly latitudes and come on far
too early during dusk in the UK summers. I tweak mine.

How does one go about tweaking?

No user adjustable parts inside, but the circuit is fairly simple
changing the threshold for lighting up is increasing one resistor. Easy
enough if you are an electronics engineer, but otherwise not advisable.

Regards,
Martin Brown

hound wrote:
Has anyone any experience of solar
garden lights? How long do they last?


I did succumb and bought a couple from Poundland today. The mushroom on
a stick type.
http://www.poundland.co.uk/images/10...lar-garden.jpg

They've been on a while so far - seem ok. Let's see how long they last.
Thanks for all your advice

"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message o.uk
from "Dave Liquorice" contains these
words:

On Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:32:45 +0000 (UTC), Donnie wrote:

There is one solar light that really works, and it's due to last
another 5 billion years or so.

Pah! It's faulty, doesn't work at night :-)

Just like any other cheap solar light then. B-)

You haven't fitted the on-off button correctly. RTFM !

I have copies of the installation manual for sale.

Janet.

At an astronomical price no doubt!

Bill

On Tue, 27 Apr 2010 22:39:16 +0100, Sacha wrote:

Lovely velvety darkness and the glimmer of the stars is magical.

And starlight alone (no moon) is more than enough to see by. Of
course if it's cloudy it's dark, real dark, can't see *anything*
dark. That level of dark is a little disturbing and the feeble glow
of a solar LED would be very welcome and enable you to move without
walking into something...

I guess many people only see an orange glow as the night sky with
only the brightest of stars visible. If I go out on a clear night the
milky way is just there and there are so many stars I have trouble
picking out the constellations.

--
Cheers
Dave.