Customer Reviews

Strathwood Brushed Copper Finish Solar Light Set, Set of 12

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I read in other reviews for outdoor solar lighting that you get what you pay for. That is absolutely true. I could have gone for a set that was 35.00 for 8. But I was worried that they would be super dim as my old ones were. I didn't want to go for the plug in kind, so knew I had to find the brightest solar.....these are them. They actually shed light on the sidewalk, as opposed to a dull glow. These are awesome, couldn't be happier.
They look very expensive in my opinion...

These solar lights work exactly as described and are easy to assemble and install. The quality is very good and provide excellent value for the price. If placed in an area that gets direct sunlight for at least 6 or 7 hours during the day, they will perform exceptionally well. But, what if you want to install these in an area that doesn't receive direct sun light; like under a shade tree? They will still work, but obviously not as well as if in direct sun light. After about two days of use you will probably have to place these lights into direct sun light so they can recharge.

Our back yard has three large trees that provide a significant amount of shade where we installed these lights. There are some areas that receive direct sun light during the day and there are areas that receive no direct sun light at all - just ambient light. The lights that are located in these areas have to be removed and relocated to areas where they can receive a direct charge of sun light at least once every couple of days. I don't have a light meter so I'm not sure exactly how many foot candles of light my fixtures are receiving, but unless they are receiving direct sun light for several hours a day, the charge on the battery goes out after a couple of days.

I still give this product 5 stars because they perform exactly as described and are well made. It would be unfair to give a poor score because some lights that are located in heavy shade require to be located so that they can receive direct sun light. I consider the slight inconvenience of having to move these lights every other day to an area where they can charge as the trade off for not having to run conduit and wires. Not only that, but even if you do go with a hard wired light fixture, you then have to deal with the problem of water and moisture getting into wiring and causing the lights to fail - this can be a major problem for hard wired systems. So, with all things considered, I am still happy with the performance of these lights.

In summary, if you plan on placing these fixtures in areas with moderate to heavy shade, be prepared to have to temporarily relocate them to areas where they can charge receiving direct sun light probably at least once every other day in order to maintain a proper charge on the solar battery. If this is too much of a bother and you intend to install in a shaded area, you might want to consider a hard wired system instead.

We needed lighting near our back outdoor stairs. These are very good looking and give enough light to allow us to safely go up and down the stairs. They also look beautiful at night, and give off a soft glow over our property. We just ordered more of these for the front of the house as well. They are bright for solar lights (regular elecric lights are of course brighter.) These are so simple to install, and really add beauty to the home! I highly recommend these for soft lighting and for added beauty for stairs and pathways. If this is what you need, don't hesitate!
***Okay*** THREE DAYS AFTER I WROTE THIS REVIEW 5 OF THE LIGHTS HAVE STOPPED WORKING...MAYBE THE RECHARGABLE BATTERIES??? I STILL REALLY LIKE THEM, BUT NEED TO RESOLVE THE ISSUE OF WHY THESE LIGHTS AREN'T WORKING.

Shiped-Quick super bright and serviceable great finish .Have looked at others and returned them all, these are keepers.

These are beautiful landscape lights. The important pieces are constructed of metal (with a copper finish) and a glass hurricane. The only plastic is on the tip of the stake (and some other interior parts). These are sturdy, beautiful and the white light shines for HOURS even after a cloudy day. I couldn't be more pleased. Oh, and the price for 12 was similar to what you might pay for those cheap plastic ones that glow orange for about 30 minutes!!

...could have been an outstanding value. In either case, the copper clad stainless steel units are no longer available (don't know if this is temporary or not), but since the stainless steel units without the copper clad are still available and are identical, I've moved my review of this product there as well.

Warning: This product was made in China. For those who would prefer not to purchase products from this country (yeah, good luck), this little fact should have been stated in Amazon's write up. Doesn't America make anything anymore?

This is my first solar powered lighting system. I am replacing a cheap, ugly set of plastic malibu lights that devour 4 watt push-in bulbs like Kobayashi devours hotdogs, and it gets expensive fast. I was constantly outside replacing bulbs, which was more frustrating than the actual expense of the bulbs. Never again!

Packaging: The lights came packaged in a styrofoam container that protected their product quite well. However the styrofoam sections were taped together like some kid was in a heck of a hurry and didn't have a care in the world, so have your scissors handy.

Assembly instructions: The instructions are straight forward, but not entirely accurate (what's new?). A single lighting unit consists of 4 parts; the solar unit (which houses the solar cell, the dual LED, the on/off switch, and two NiCAD batteries), the fluted glass housing, the metal tubing and the plastic stake. Assembly is quick and easy (takes less than 5 minutes for the 12 units), just push the metal tubing over the protrusions on the stake and the bottom of the glass housing and twist the solar unit onto the top of the glass housing. No muss, no fuss. The error in the instructions is that they stated there is an arrow on the tubing that points to the glass housing (meaning that the tubing may have slightly different inside diameters, so orientation is needed). I found no such arrow, but since I had no problem, I doubt it matters which tube end goes to which component end. At least it didn't for me.

The instructions also indicate that one should bury the stakes, then press the assembled units onto the buried stakes. This seems not only odd, but counter-productive since a buried stake would be almost impossible to plumb accurately. Perhaps they are afraid that if you push a fully assembled unit into the ground it would put undo stress on the fairly fragile plastic stake and break it. I doubt anyone would really follow this step and I certainly do not recommend you doing so.

Product aesthetics: I was extremely pleased with the look of this product. The lighting system appears to be high quality and looks expensive. It's one of the more attractive solar lighting systems I've seen and are very nicely sized. And it is a huge plus to have a solid and attractive fluted glass housing instead of one of those cheap plastic defusers that bend and never stay on straight. Plus it would be very easy to clean this product after the abuse it takes from being outdoors. Seems to be a very nicely designed set of lights IMO.

Product dimensions: Can't anyone get dimensions right? And it's not just this product (I find this problem everywhere). How hard is this? If one doesn't know the dimensions, how is one to make a good decision? For me, I took a guess. The product description indicates that the length of an assembled unit is 18.7 inches (which is wrong) and gives no other dimensions (except box size ... which helps you how?). Here are my actual physical measurements:

Overall length of an assembled unit from the top of the solar cell to the tip end of the plastic stake is approx 16.5 inches. Once the unit is buried into the ground stake-deep, the unit will then measure approx 12.25 inches high. The diameter of the solar cell unit is approx 5.5 inches.

Batteries: The unit came with 600mAh rechargeable batteries (Amazon recently changed the description from 900mAh to 600mAh for the copper clad). Now I've seen enough reviews of this product (as well as a dozen or so competing products) to tell me not to just stick them into the ground and expect them to work properly. These batteries may have been stored in a warehouse for a long period of time, so one must assume they will not work as advertised without being fully charged.

Strathwood states that these units should be placed out in the sun for 12 hours to charge before turning them on. I decided this would probably not be nearly enough considering how many complaints I have read (and virtually all of them were battery related, or may be battery related), so I decided to refresh all 24 batteries via a battery charger (the same charger mentioned by Chris Boylan in his excellent review(s) ... matter-of-fact, I purchased the La Crosse charger because of his review on that product, so thanks Chris. Refreshing 24 batteries is a long process (counted in days, not hours), but it should give a much better indication about how this system may perform under optimum battery conditions.

My second warning: These lights (and all solar lights) will not perform up to their specifications without direct sunlight to charge the batteries (they are, after all, a solar cell power system). In winter (or in shady areas), expect the lights to dim and turn off prematurely. Likewise, you'll get better performance during the summer months (longer sunlight). Also, it may be necessary to either swap out the batteries occasionally or refresh them periodically. As long as everyone understands that basic premise, you will likely be more satisfied with this type of product, or at least understand why they are not performing to expectations.

Installing the units into the ground: I was worried that this might be a real pain (and yes, I refused to bury the stakes first). As it turns out, it was really no problem (and I have fairly hard ground). One needs to be careful, but not unduly so, and one should dampen the ground before installing (especially if your ground is fairly hard like mine). I had only minor problems pushing 2 of these units into the ground (through a rock garden, no less). Are they steady? Pretty much, but a couple of units could be a bit more steady (probably due to the rock garden, but I can easily correct it by packing around the base). After measuring where I wanted these units, it took less than 10 minutes to install the first 6 units (deciding where I wanted to place them and measuring took longer than the installation itself). It took me even less time to install the other 6 units the following day. Do they look plumb? Yes they do, and they also look great.

How effective is the lighting?: This is what it's all about, right? Well... it depends what you are looking for, or are anticipating, and in this aspect everyone may have a different opinion. If you're thinking they will be as bright as the normal 4 watt incandescent bulb that is in your average malibu lighting system, then you'll no doubt be disappointed. But this would be the case for most solar lights. I did find one set that looked to be far superior (but far larger in size if one can trust those dimensions). However, it costs $60 per unit, and since I didn't feel like spending $720.00 for a set of 12 (or $360.00 for a set of 6), these will have to suffice.

Each lamp casts a cool glow (bluish-white -- which, in itself, is fairly bright) and spreads a faint spoke-like pattern onto the walkway (it is this pattern spread that is not bright enough to be very effective). I fully admit they are attractive and present a very nice accent. However, I feel it just isn't sufficient, so I installed the other 6 lamps on the other side of the walkway in order to illuminate this area better (and it did the job, although I have sort of a runway affect now). What's a bit troubling is my old, cheap 5-light malibu set did the trick, and I thought 6 of these would do just as well. They don't.

So how long do these lights stay on? Sorry, I can't help you there, because I don't have a clue. I usually don't get up while it's still dark. I do know that they were still on after 2:00 in the morning on the first few nights (I stay up late), and showed no signs of dimming (and yes, all 6 lamps stayed lit the first night, and all 12 stayed lit the second night). To tell you the truth, I really only care that these lights stay on up to midnight or 1:00 in the morning. Anything more than that is gravy, but probably useless unless you are a night owl and expect guests coming or going during the wee hours of the morning (or you are working a graveyard shift).

My third warning: There appears to be no way to replace the dual LED bulb assembly, and nothing in the instructions indicate otherwise. Matter-of-fact, I doubt you can replace the entire solar unit either. Come to think of it, you may not even be able to replace an entire assembled unit. In other words, if the LED goes out, malfunctions, or is dead on arrival (or you have solar cell problems), you may need to purchase another entire set to replace just one problem unit! This presents a pretty perplexing problem (especially if they no longer carry this product). So if I need a spare "anything", I will have to get them from my existing set.

Okay, one final warning and that's it (I promise): Obviously, these lights would be very easy and attractive to steal. It would probably take no more than 15 or 20 seconds to remove all 12 units. This is the case with all solar lighting systems. I doubt this will be a problem, but one never really knows, so just be aware of the possibility. Fortunately this lighting system is inexpensive (I think it's a good value compared to other systems I have looked at, even with the $30 price increase on Nov 1st), so should they get stolen, at least I won't be out a lot of money ... and won't have to worry about spare parts....

Between 1 and 10, I'd rate this system a solid 6 (barring unforeseen problems with this system after extended use). This lighting system is indeed attractive (at night and in the day), looks expensive (but is not), has quality written all over it (except for the plastic stakes), and is easy to assemble and install. To give a good cleaning to the solar unit (or replacing batteries, or just turning the unit on or off), just a quick quarter turn is all that is needed, so it's well designed.

I've already stated my main reservations (no replacement parts and the minimal illumination on the pavement), and because of those problems, I cannot give this system a higher rating. All-in-all, I'm satisfied. If people just want an accent to guide their path, then they will be more than satisfied and would give this system a higher rating. If this set allowed for purchasing of spare parts in some fashion, and threw out a little stronger light to actually illuminate a walkway (instead of a brightened area directly underneath the lamp), I would have gladly given this a 9 (or a 5-star rating). But make no mistake, unless one is willing to spend real money, this type of lighting is probably better than the norm. And any system with only one LED (and there are many sets that use only one LED), or have a smaller solar cell area, would no doubt be even dimmer and/or not charge the batteries as well as this unit.

These Strathwood lights are certainly nice-looking, but you may have problems with how long they stay lit due to the NiCd AA batteries included with them. But all is not lost! Using a good NiCd battery charger like the La Crosse Technology BC-900, you can refresh the capacity of the included batteries and get more life out of your solar lights.

Note: this review is of the stainless steel version of these lights, but the specs are identical other than the color of the metal. The battery rating in this copper-colored set is 900 mAh (vs. 600 mAh in the stainless steel lights) but the stainless steel light set also was previously described with 900 mAh batteries and this was recently updated by Amazon. To find out what the battery rating actually is, you'll need to remove the batteries, which is actually very easy to do. And now back to our regularly scheduled review...

I purchased this light set to replace an 8-year old set that had weathered one too many a storm and had seen better days. When opening the Strathwood box, I was impressed with the quality of these lights - elegant metal and fluted glass - the plastic stake at the bottom is cheap and flimsy, and probably won't hold up well over time with repeated insertions/removals, but overall this seemed like an excellent value for a 12-light set.

The metal and glass design makes them a perfect match for our dock - I inserted four of them into our dock poles (wrapping the stems in duct tape for a snugger fit), and the lights now look like a built-in design element. Their pure white LED light is brighter than our last set of solar lights and this makes it much easier to find our dock after a late night boat ride. They're certainly not bright enough to light up the whole dock, but they'll keep you from falling over the side.

To give the lights a full initial charge, I placed four on the dock poles and the rest on our beach where they would get nearly a full day's sun. After a few days of charging, about 4 of the lights were staying lit longer than 5 hours in the evening, a few were staying lit 2 to 3 hours, and a few were lighting for only a few minutes. I suspected perhaps the batteries were to blame, so at the end of the season I removed the AA batteries from each lamp and tested them in the La Crosse charger.

The NiCd AA batteries provided with the lights are rated at 600 mAh (milli-amp hours) each. With two per lamp, and a good long sunny Summer day, they should have supplied at least 8 hours of light every night (if not more). But instead of the rated 600 mAh, I found that some of the batteries were only holding a 15 to 50 mAh charge! Fortunately the BC-900 charger has a "refresh" mode that gently cycles the batteries through a few charge/discharge cycles. Using this refresh mode, I was able to get the batteries back up to well over 400 mAh each (I'm not done with this yet, but most are already testing in the 440-490 mAh range after a couple of refresh cycles).

I had e-mailed Amazon about the problem shortly after buying it, and they offered to send a complete new set (which meant I would send back the originals), but I had already thrown away the packaging and was 300 miles away from the lights at the time, so I chose not to do that. I also had little faith that the new set would be any different. I also e-mailed the manufacturer via the e-mail address Amazon gave me (strathwood-feedback@amazon.com) but received no reply at all to that enquiry.

Next year, with my newly refreshed batteries, I'm optimistic that the lights will behave closer to their specifications. If not, then I'll try higher capacity NiMH batteries and see how that goes. At least the batteries are easy to remove so I have the option to experiment. If you buy these, and have a good NiCd charger (or NiCd/MiMH charger like the La Crosse) then give the batteries a full charge before first use. You'll get much better performance out of them.

It's also important to note that these types of lights really *need* full sunlight for optimal charge and performance. Our dock-mounted lights consistently performed the best with unobstructed sunlight all day. If you place them in shady areas, then don't expect to get much light out of them. But if this is the case, then you can keep a set of freshly charged high-capacity (2500+ mAh) NiMH AA batteries around and swap the batteries out once a week or so.

With 5000 mAh of power out of a high-capacity pair of AAs, you could get several nights' worth of full power lighting out of these lamps. Combine that with the residual solar charge during the day and you should get excellent results for a week or more, even without direct sunlight. Yes, this increases your overall cost, and it does cut down a bit on the convenience factor (and the "green" factor) of solar lighting, but it allows you to get reliable lighting to remote locations where running underground wiring is not an option.

On the flip side, if you don't actually need all 12 lights to be functional at once, then you can use these lights as free solar battery chargers. Simply turn them to the "off" position (which turns off the lamp), leave them out in the sunlight and let the sun's energy charge up the batteries via a gentle trickle charge. The charging rate is low enough that you could safely leave a pair of higher capacity NiCd or NiMH batteries in the unit for days or weeks without fear of overcharging them.

Overall, I love the *potential* of these solar lights, the flexibility of operation (with removable batteries) and the overall design. But the execution could be better with higher capacity/more reliable batteries and a more solid mounting stake. We'll see how they do next season, and I will update this review with those results if appropriate.

These lights are really beautiful!!! Fantastic copper finish and they shine quite bright. The set of 12 is well worth the price of $90!!! Go check out QVC - they are charging $80 for a set of six!! I was going to order them from QVC and then decided to Google copper solar lights and these came up!! Shipped quickly from Amazon and very impressive!!! I ordered two sets to see what they're like and have just returned to order another set!!! Worth every penny!!

These lights were better than I expected built tough and super bright, I'd recommend these lights to anyone with a tight budget.

I was skeptical to buy solar lights since they just offer a dim glow. But the look and the other reviews made me want to try. I am very pleased with the soft light (light bluish color). It sits around (spacing them 2 feet apart) my marble colored fountain and illuminates quite well. It is not bright enough to light up a pathway. I used it in my front yard around accent plants and wasn't too happy. But it is very enjoyable in my backyard.