Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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130 of 131 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty Awesome, But Manage Your Expectations, February 29, 2008
Off the bat - Readers need to know that a set like this is *never* going to set your yard awash in tons of free electric light. Manage your expectations and be realistic. A tiny little solar panel cannot power a light big enough to be terribly substantial. That said, I love this set.
LENGTH OF CHARGE
Most days I have used the lights, the panel had decent-but-not-amazing sun. Dusk was just after 5pm, and the lights turned on then via the automatic sensor. I thought the charge would drain much sooner, but the lights lasted until morning, with no loss in intensity. The rechargeable AA batteries are removable - awesome! When they eventually stop holding a full charge, you can drop by Radio Shack and grab a set to replace them. That'll be a while though. The fixtures are plastic, but for $39, who cares.
QUALITY OF LIGHT
This is the best set of solar garden-style lights I have seen. In addition to the great charge, they are brighter. Are the three lights together as bright as a table lamp? No. Are they as bright as my refrigerator bulb? No. Are they bright enough to read by? Yes. Even at about six feet away, I can read comfortably. However, keep in mind, these are not for general illumination. They're more like little spotlights. Designed to shine on a path, fence, or tree. The thing being lit needs to be in the path of the beam. The quality of the light is a little weird - that blueish-white you seen on headlights.
USES
I use the lights in a place where we don't have electric. (Great for a shed, for instance. Or of course, outdoors on paths, fences, plants, trees.) Also, these would be pretty neat for camping! They would be perfect on a porch, driveway, or white fence. (The lighter the color of the thing lit, the more light is reflected.)
ENERGY SAVINGS & EASE OF USE
Let's be clear - You are not going to save a fortune in electricity by using this tiny set of solar lights. Using a 50 watt lamp instead (which is much brighter) would only cost you ten cents to run for twenty hours, even if you pay .10 per kwh on your electric bill. It would take about two years of nighttime use to make your $39 back here. However, if you are using a battery lantern regularly, you'll quickly rack up battery savings. I like them because they can stand alone, without wiring or a bunch of expensive D cells. Point the panel toward the sun and plug in the lights.
CONCLUSION
Great reflector, better longer-lasting charge than any I have ever seen on a solar set. Love the fact that the rechargeable batteries can be replaced. Decent output. Light is a little blueish-white and weird. But I think they are pretty terrific for $39.
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59 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
True No-Bug Buglight Solar Floodlight, August 3, 2007
I bought this solar floodlight over a year ago for the sole purpose of providing enough illumination from a distance to get me into my front door without attracting bugs that could enter with me. It worked better than I could imagine. To my surprise, the blue-white LED bulbs don't seem to attract even a single insect. I wish I knew why they don't advertise it that way.
The lights are powered by three Ni-mh AA batteries of 1500 ma power. A full charge from a bright sunny day will still be providing some light come sunrise. A few consecutive cloudy days will reduce them to a dim glow in a few hours. I found that I could easily remove the batteries and refresh them in my own charger. You could also try swapping the batteries with higher power Ni-mh AA's of your own that now come in 2500+ ma power levels.
I recently moved the solar cell charger around a few times to find a sunnier spot and made the mistake of pressing on the panel instead of putting the stake into the ground first. It stopped working. Fortunately, the warranty is for two years, and Intermatic quickly returned a new solar cell and even gave me new batteries, though still just 1500 ma.
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32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A bright solar light that actually works in the Pacific NW, November 5, 2005
I first started out with a solar powered frog...It was cute, but after a few days of use, it became obvious that it only worked when full sunlight hit it for at least a few hours a day. I then surveyed my neighborhood and found over 8 different types of solar lights that put out dim light on most partly sunny autumn days...On halloween after a completely cloudy day, all of these lights were dark.
I purchased the Intermatic Solar light LZ413 because it had a much bigger solar panel and the display at Lowes was very bright. I had high hopes. I started off with just one light plugged into the solar panel for a week. It put out brilliant light for over 7 hours after dusk. I then plugged in the second one. For the first couple days I received partial sunlight and both lights were brilliant. Then we had the ususual rain for three days straight. Both lights were dim...very dim. I unplugged the second one and within a single rainy day, the first and only light was bright again.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the two unused lights, but I'm happy that I have at least one that does what I hoped. I'd like to buy a solar panel separate, but Intermatic doesn't sell one that way. Maybe I'll donate the usused lights to a science project.
Solar lights have come a long way, and this one gets the closest yet. Maybe in another few years companies like Intermatic will better understand that people want at least as much light on their paths and steps as a single AA battery flashlight can cast.
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