Garden Solar Lights- Batteries

wilko116

We believe batteries in Garden Solar lights generally have a life of between 2 and 3 years. Several of the batteries in our lights now need replacing. We notice that the ones in our lights at present are AAA12v Ni-mAh 600mAh. We see on various web sites that there are 550 and 800 as well as 600 mAh . Do you have to replace with 600mAH or are the others i.e 550 and 800 equally as suitable, and if so what is the difference. The price does differ but no point in purchasing a mAh power that does not work. Any feedback or advise on this subject will be greatly appreciated. Thank you

chrisw

Any will do. The larger capacity ones hold more charge so in theory should remain lit for longer after dark, but in practice there is probably very little difference as it's unlikely even a full days sun will charge them fully.

Tim_Richmond

I am no expert but I would have thought that 800mAh is more powerful that 550mAh and would give a stronger light. It must also depend on the quality of your garden solar lights in the first place. You would not expect one purchased at Poundland to last as long or to be as efficient as one brought at a garden centre costing £10.

teddysmum

There are good bargains for multiple battery packs on Amazon. My last batch cost less than half the DIY shop price.

Paul_the_Painter

Chrisw is right, Tim is not. mAh is a measure of capacity, not power - they will not give you a brighter light as they are outputting at the same voltage. But it certainly won't do any harm to install a higher capacity battery than you have at the moment

MissingThePoint

Paul_the_Painter wrote: »

Chrisw is right, Tim is not. mAh is a measure of capacity, not power - they will not give you a brighter light as they are outputting at the same voltage. But it certainly won't do any harm to install a higher capacity battery than you have at the moment

That is very helpful. As for the Solar lights themselves is there any way of ascertaining their efficiency. As mentioned in an earlier post it would appear to be fair comment that a light from £1 shop would not be as good as oneyou would buy from a Garden Centre, but how can you judge? Any feedback will be appreciated as we are looking at buying some new solar lights for the garden without spending a fortune.

lstar337

MissingThePoint wrote: »

That is very helpful. As for the Solar lights themselves is there any way of ascertaining their efficiency.

Depends which part you want check. The LED, the PV panel, the battery, the charging circuit?

I expect, as posted above, that the PV panel is incapable of fully charging any of those batteries, even with a full day of direct sunlight. They are very cheap panels, and not very efficient. That said, they mostly do the job asked of them. I have seen 50 lights stay on for a fair few hours, even if they don't last the whole night.

MissingThePoint wrote: »

As mentioned in an earlier post it would appear to be fair comment that a light from £1 shop would not be as good as oneyou would buy from a Garden Centre, but how can you judge? Any feedback will be appreciated as we are looking at buying some new solar lights for the garden without spending a fortune.

I have bought strings of 50 and 100 from both The Range, and B&M bargains. There was a couple of quid difference in cost (both were under £10 a set), they both perform about the same, and they are both over a year old and still going strong.

Wishful_Thinker

So how do you check, it seems you can't be guided by price alone. On the box/instructions what should you look for to get a good charged light that lasts. Sorry to sound ignorant but what is the PV panel and how can you tell if does it job. I brought some solar lights from Focus DIY Stores when it was existance which were not expensive and some lasted 1 year and others worked for 3 years from the same batch. Is it worth renewing the batteries on solar lights especially if they were not expensive in the first place or do you throw them away and buy new ones.

TwoSeniorCitizens

How do you check from looking at Solar Lights in a store or on line whether you are buying quality or rubbish. Is there some description on the instructions that will give you a clue what you should be looking for. If the solar lights fail after about 2 years is it worth purchasing new AAA rechargeable batteries which appear to cost £1 plus each or is it best just to buy a new set of lights?

chrisw

There is no real way to tell the quality. The feel and price might give a bit of an indication but not necessarily.

Whether it's worth replacing the battery is a matter of opinion. If they are pound shop lights then probably not, but if they were reasonably expensive or you just like them, then probably.

lstar337

Wishful_Thinker wrote: »

So how do you check, it seems you can't be guided by price alone. On the box/instructions what should you look for to get a good charged light that lasts.

User recommendation? There isn't much you can tell be looking at it. But in my experience they are roughly all the same quality wise.

Wishful_Thinker wrote: »

Sorry to sound ignorant but what is the PV panel and how can you tell if does it job.

The solar panel. PV is short for Photo Voltaic. If it is doing its job then the light will work, if you want to test efficiency you would need to extract it and run a series of tests to determine its performance.

Wishful_Thinker wrote: »

Is it worth renewing the batteries on solar lights especially if they were not expensive in the first place or do you throw them away and buy new ones.

I would say it depends on the cost of the battery, and if the battery is the only thing wrong. These things are usually so cheap, it is easier to replace the whole lot. If the repair requires no new parts, then it is probably worth it.