Customer Reviews

Teledex Sentina - Smart Rechargeable LED light

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

(IMPORTANT NOTE 2010-Oct-23: The product page that this review is listed on as of today is not the product I wrote the review for. I wrote the following review several years ago, and it seems to have been ported to a different product page for a different Sentina product. The product this review is for is the Sentina emergency light, which can be found at http://www.amazon.com/Datexx-Sentina-Emergency-Smart-Light/dp/B000M7SWTM/ref=pd_bxgy_hi_img_c. I'm going to leave the review here, since maybe Amazon will fix the link problem and get the reviews and product matched up again.)

I have nightlights located throughout the house, so that I don't have to flip on lights when I pad about the house at night after others have gone to bed. However, I don't like having them burning power all night when I'm not padding about, and the bulbs burn out too often. This product has an LED nightlight that comes on after dark. It's a very subtle, low power nightlight. When you walk in range of the motion sensor, a brighter set of multiple LEDs turns on, providing much brighter light for wandering about. I put Sentinas at the top and bottom of my stairs so that they automatically light up the stairs at night when someone approaches the staircase. It's a great saftety feature. I also put units in the kitchen and bathroom -- they provide enough light to navigate without use of overhead lights. This product also has a built-in rechargeable battery (unlike the similar unit that Brookstone used to sell, which only worked when plugged in), so you can use it as a flashlight. I really like this product -- it has replaced a whole bunch of separate nightlights, power failure lights, and flashlights. Nifty and useful gadget that makes it safer for me and my elderly parents to wander about the house at night.

Recently, we lost power in the middle of the night. All of the Sentina lights turned on automatically and stayed on until their photocells turned them off in the morning. The next night (when we still didn't have power), the Sentina lights turned on again at dark and got us through another night. Before, this recent experience I really liked this product -- now, I consider them a "must have" product for convenience and safety.

P.S. 8/14/06 One of my Sentina lights developed the same problem cited by another reviewer -- one of the LEDs stopped working. I sent a quick email to the Amazon vendor, and they immediately shipped a replacement, which arrived within two days. I couldn't have asked for quicker, more hassle-free service.

Update 4/10/10. Between my own house, my kid's college room, and my parent's home, I've purchased and installed ten of these units. As a safety feature, I put one at the top and bottom of every set of stairs and at each ends of hallways. With the motion sensor feature, the lights turn on automatically when someone steps into the hallway or approaches the stairs at night. Everyone loves the way the LEDs turn on automatically as you walk around the house at night -- much more convenient than flicking on the light switches, and great safety feature (especially for my retired parents). I've noticed that some reviewers have had quality problems with their lights. In four years, I've had two units (out of ten) go bad. One went bad right away and was replaced by the seller. The other went bad after 3-4 years. In a nutshell, the units I bought have proved to be highly reliable. Maybe the manufacturer started using cheaper components after I bought mine years ago; or maybe I just got lucky. In any case, mine have proved to be reliable and long lived. After five years, I'm still a huge fan of this product for convenience and safety, both during power failures and also day-to-day.

I have nightlights throughout my home because I always like to see where I'm going. After dealing with 2005 hurricane season, I replaced most of them with emergency nightlights so when the power goes out, I'll have light in every room as well as a flashlight I can easily find. The Sentina is the best one of all. What I really love is that I can put it in a place where I typically would need light when walking into the room, without having to turn on a regular light. It's a much brighter light than a normal nightlight when the sensor goes on. Then as soon as you aren't within distance it goes to normal nightlight mode. When you need a flashlight, just unplug it. I did a lot of research before purchasing this and would highly recommend it to anyone.

I like the features of this light - nightlight is a good color and the right brightness, motion sensor is sensitive. The down side: after a week or so one of the 3 LEDs in the flashlight part started to flicker and got very dim. Two weeks later another LED did the same thing, so I am in the process of getting it repaired under warranty, which costs me shipping to them and $5.00 more for them to ship it back. Hope this was an isolated case of a defective unit.

I bought 2 of these in January, and liked them so much, I bought 2 more in March. One of the January units started flickering in March, and one of the March units started flickering yesterday. The concept is perfect, but the reliability is poor. It appears that there is about a 50% failure rate.

Delivery was fast and the product works just as described. We're in Florida but if we never use them for anything other than a nightlight, it works better than any others we have since it has a motion detector and lights up even brighter when you need a little extra light. We bought two and may get more to replace the other nightlights we have.

Don't waste your money on this junk. I bought six and within 6 months, three turned out to be defective. The manufacturer , Datexx, would not even answer my emails , let alone replace the units. Find another product if you need safety lights, the quality and customer service of the Datexx Sentina leave to much to be desired for the exorbinant high prices they command. Run, do not walk, AWAY from your decision to buy these lights.

Purchased one of these recently. LED-92M Would not charge (at all -- red indicator lite) the hard wired soldered 3 pack AAA battery. Emailed Datexx and they said the warranty was not in effect any longer on this model since it was OLD stock. If I wanted a new one I could send them $15 and my old unit and they would fix or replace.

This is a great design; soft light automatically on during dark hours with LED bulb that doesn't constantly burn out AND/OR 3 bright LED lights that come on when unit senses motion & during power failure and that can also be used as a flashlight. However, like one of the other reviewers reported, the 3 bright lights soon start to flicker which greatly reduces their brightness and could induce a migraine. At least the nightlite still works.

My husband goes to bed much later than I do.
Until I got this gadget, I had to go to sleep with a bedroom light on,
and he would leave a low light on in the living room in order to see his way
to the bedroom.
I have installed 3 of these units, one in the living room, one in the hall, and one in the bedroom. They light up sequentially as he comes to bed

We've bought two of these units to test out, and we've just bought two more. They are great. We have one in the upstairs hallway. It goes on whenever it senses motion. So if we stumble out into the hall way, we'll have some light to see where the stairs and furniture are. It's just enough light to illuminate the hallway, but not enough to disturb anyone who has their door open (such as turning on the hall light would be).

Since it is always plugged in, the batteries are always charged, ready to go. If you need a flashlight, you unplug it and take it with you. The manufacturer says the light will stay on for 8 hours, but we haven't had to test that.

In the case of a power failure, it will automatically turn on. We plan to use one in our daughter's room as a night light when/if she needs one.

The LEDs are long lasting and chances are you won't need to replace them.

One thing the manual didn't explain was the status LED. One unit had a red LED and the other was green. After waiting a few minutes, the red LED turned green, so we have to assume that it just wasn't charged enough right out of the box. Outside of those few minutes out of the box, we haven't seen the red LED since.

We'll be taking this to grandma's house since she doesn't have any safe night lights - just a desk lamp with a really hot light bulb that will burn a toddler's (or adult's) hand. Their small size makes them perfect for travel.