Garden Solar Lights- Batteries

AnneMarie4687

I have seen aaa rachargeable batteries with 1000mAh and above up to 1800mAh. As these suitable for solar lights ( it does not specifically state but does say suitable for cordless phones) or are these an entirely different type of battery. Is 800mAh the maximum I should be looking for, Often the batteries for 1000mAh are cheaper than those for 750 or 800mAh. Any advise on this subject will be appreciated, as I am slightly confused what I can and cannot use. I don't know if it helps but the solar lights I have at present and are not working have 600mAh AAA rechargeable batteries.

lstar337

AnneMarie4687 wrote: »

I have seen aaa rachargeable batteries with 1000mAh and above up to 1800mAh. As these suitable for solar lights ( it does not specifically state but does say suitable for cordless phones) or are these an entirely different type of battery. Is 800mAh the maximum I should be looking for, Often the batteries for 1000mAh are cheaper than those for 750 or 800mAh. Any advise on this subject will be appreciated, as I am slightly confused what I can and cannot use. I don't know if it helps but the solar lights I have at present and are not working have 600mAh AAA rechargeable batteries.

The mAh rating only concerns the capacity (how much it can store) so as long as the voltage is correct, and the physical dimensions will fit, they should be fine.

BobWells

I thought the dimensions of all AAA rechargeable batteries were the same. If you enter on E Bay AAA recargeable batteries 12v it appears those with 1000mAh and above are cheaper than those with 600 or 800mAh. Also when looking at the more details it often says the higher mAh are for cordless phones. Are these still suitable for garden solar lights. Is there an optimum mAh capacity for Solar lights. What should one expect to pay for say a pack of 8 AAA rechargeable batteries for Garden solar lights. Any help will be appreciated as I am now totally bemused on what is best and suitable.

Mikes_The_Name

I was going to buy some AAA rechargeable batteries for my garden solar lights and imagines it would be a simple choice. It appears that is not the case, Mine are 12voltsAAA and have Ni befire mAh. I am not uncertain what to buy and what not to buy following the series of posts on this forum. Perhaps an answer to Bob Well's qusetions above may point me in the right dircetion.I hope so.

tony6403

These batteries are not 12 volt. They are 1.2 volt.
The Ni identification will normally be followed by "Cad" or "MH".
NiMH perform better than NiCad.
As mentioned above the mAH refers to the capacity of the battery - the higher the figure the longer it can last.
I would stay with the original capacity and expect to pay about £1.30 for one decent rechargeable AAA.
I have seen that the pound shop now sells rechargeables in pairs.
Which magazine rated GP Recyko (800 mAH) and Varta Professional (1000mAH) as the best AAA rechargeable batteries.

JAK57

I have noticed on E bay they are selling 8 NiMh AAA 1000 mAh 1.2v rechargeable batteries for £2.39. It looks like from the picture the brand is BTY. They do come from Hong Kong but some British distributors also sell the same brand but at higher prices. Has anyone used them and are they suitable for garden solar lights. I don't want to spend a fortune on batteries as our solar lights were not massively expensive, but thought batteries at this price might be worth a try. Any feedback or alternative cheap batteries, on this issue will be appreciated.

Magic_Moments

JAK57 wrote: »

I have noticed on E bay they are selling 8 NiMh AAA 1000 mAh 1.2v rechargeable batteries for £2.39. It looks like from the picture the brand is BTY. They do come from Hong Kong but some British distributors also sell the same brand but at higher prices. Has anyone used them and are they suitable for garden solar lights. I don't want to spend a fortune on batteries as our solar lights were not massively expensive, but thought batteries at this price might be worth a try. Any feedback or alternative cheap batteries, on this issue will be appreciated.

I have found the items you are talking about on E Bay and there have been 693 of them sold, so supposedly they must be good market for them .The question you may have to ask is how good are the foreign export batteries compared with the branded UK Names. Is worth paying the difference in price. I must say 8 AAA rechargeable batteries for £2.39 looks a very good deal for use in garden solar lights. I too would be interested to know if anyone has purchased this brand and if so how good are they!!!

EightOfHearts

Provided the imported batteries work in the first place it is worth having a small supply to hand to check it is the batteries have failed in your garden solar lights or whether it is another problems that is causing the Solar Lights not to work, I have not heard of the brand mentioned above but i guess at that price it may be worth the gamble. Best way to test batteries are OK is to put them in a light that is currently working with a good working battery in it.

TimBuckTeeth

Normally I would avoid cheap batteries, but it might be worth a chance for solar lights. As mentioned above they don't get a full charge and good quality batteries will outlive the rest of the light. The original batteries will be cheap and not good quality.
I have several different solar lights and they have all been quite poor.
Often rain gets onto the battery or circuit board and it all corrodes, so on the last set I sprayed a waterproof lacquer on the circuit board and put grease on the battery contacts, but water got into the solar panels and corroded the metallised contact and ruined them.
So I would check the lights are working with one of the good batteries before getting new batteries.
Make sure to get NiMh and not NiCad types, any capacity will do.

BrianWilliams

I agree check whether the Garden Solar lights work first with a proved good battery and also check the imported batteries work by putting them in a Solar light that is already working containing a "Good" battery. That way you will be checking both the solar lights and the batteries