@bakerzdosen Yeah, it better be a lithium battery, it gets cold up north here. We still have some snow patches on the ground. And when it fails the local meth heads can recycle the lithium to cook their meth.
From the Notes on Amazon product description:
“If solar product does not light up after it has been used for around 8-12 months, replace the rechargeable batteries as they may be weak or worn out.”
@2many2no Most of these devices use NiMh when they have a solar panel because you can trickle charge them all day without monitoring battery voltage and without major damage. If you use a lithium battery, you will need extra circuitry to monitor for over voltage and under voltage then cut off the battery.
@bakerzdosen There are 2 AA Ni-MH AA600mAh 1.2v batteries that are replaceable. After 6 month of use, they only light for a few hours at best before running out. One of the 3 LEDs is already not working.
I had 2 before this, the solar panels are not secure properly. Coming loose and letting water throughout the item.
The current 2 I have, I glued the solar panels on making sure I got all of the perimeter. Looks like I did a good job. However, one of the battery terminals is severely rusted.
Single AA battery or double? I dunno. See even in Arizona these never charge up all the way and the light lasts a few hours and is done.
And if it is a proprietary battery, then you throw these away after a year.
I bought similar ones to these many years ago. Touch Of Eco brand to be exact. They work nicely for a couple years and after a combination of age to the lithium battery and the sun deteriorating the solar panels they get dimmer and dimmer each year before no light at all.
The fact that these have no lens of any sort makes them an ideal home for spiders and wasps. The white color will make this obvious every time you look at them.
@steelopus These are terrible while they work as advertised. They are horrible when they don’t work.
They don’t advertise that they use lithium batteries, which suggests they will transition from terrible to horrible in less than a year.
I see what looks like a door to the battery compartment in one of the photos. If buyers are actually motivated enough to replace the batteries and clean the solar panels as needed, the transition from terrible to horrible can be postponed until the wiring goes bad or as @MrNews points out below, cheap plastic on the solar panels gets too cloudy.
@steelopus And we particularly need a whole hell of a lot fewer businesses leaving their freaking signs lit up 24/7, and lighting their parking lot all night long. I can excuse street lights all night for the obvious reason that the safety of drivers is important. But a business that shuts down at 8:00 p.m. should not still have their sign lit up at 8:45, let alone midnight.
Anyone else confused as to how these actually hook on the gutter? The stock pictures show the hook in one orientation and the “house” pictures show the hook the other way. Last I checked solar panels need to face upward…
@Showski89 You can install the hook in 2 different ways. The one in the photo is for using the big gap. A standard gutter will want it flipped to use the little gap section. However, I wouldn’t bother with these as they are not great.
The solar panels deteriorate within 6-12 months, becoming cloudy and ineffective. Especially so in Florida, with sunny, rainy, hot summers (May-October). Buy now, they’re a useless, ugly eyesore by Thanksgiving…
Southern CA: had one of several thousand copies of these lights off Amazon (8 total installed). Lots of direct sun daily, and they tended to last until ~12AM during the summer. NiMH batteries of course, something like 600mAh. You can buy higher capacity ones off Amazon and replace when these go bad. The main problem is the solar panel encapsulation (epoxy) starts to yellow within a year, and then cracks and starts to peel from the edges. Next, the plastic housing gets brittle and crumbles with the slightest pressure. Buy some Meguiars Headlight Coating (UV protectant) and spray the entire housing and solar panel to extend the life by a few years. This is what I do for all my solar lights now, but the best long term solution is metal/glass solar lights with glass solar panel encapsulation. These are real hard to find, I assume because encapsulating your panel with a glass sheet costs precious additional pennies compared with the standard crappy epoxy that’s on 99% of small solar panels.
Watched the Northern lights last night. Unbelievable.
But would have been even better if the neighbors didn’t have a porch light on all night, a light at the backdoor, a light to illuminate the driveway (and half the sky).
So… gutter lights ???
Seriously??
doubt these would be bright enough but yeah we don’t need more superfluous lights. pretty sure the image in the picture of 3 lights above a garage isn’t realistic for these lights. I don’t think 60 lumen lights with 1 or 2 NiCds/NiMhs will make a bright driveway for hours each night
I also only received 8 but I purchased a quantity of two 16 packs. Hoping there are 24 more on the way! I’ll give it another week but not happy at the moment.
Specs
Product: 16-Pack: BOUNDERY Outdoor Solar Gutter LED Lights
Model: BH-337-16 PACK
Condition: New
What’s Included?
Price Comparison
$79.98 for 16 similar at Amazon
Warranty
90 days
Estimated Delivery
Monday, May 8 - Wednesday, May 10
Get your mind out of the gutter!
@yakkoTDI NEVER.
Sixteen seems like a lot. Not a gross, but a lot.
@stinks You’d need 128 more for a gross.
@SirLouie @stinks These seem gross enough to warrant a non-purchase.
@mehvid1 @SirLouie @stinks someone will get a gross of thèse in the next IRK.
@SirLouie
/giphy thank you
What kind of battery?
Is it replaceable or is this a disposable item once the battery goes?
@bakerzdosen At this price the electronics will probably fail way before the battery.
@bakerzdosen Yeah, it better be a lithium battery, it gets cold up north here. We still have some snow patches on the ground. And when it fails the local meth heads can recycle the lithium to cook their meth.
@bakerzdosen @soxnabox They’re on meh so they are Ni-Cads and will fail in 8 months.
From the Notes on Amazon product description:
“If solar product does not light up after it has been used for around 8-12 months, replace the rechargeable batteries as they may be weak or worn out.”
@2many2no Most of these devices use NiMh when they have a solar panel because you can trickle charge them all day without monitoring battery voltage and without major damage. If you use a lithium battery, you will need extra circuitry to monitor for over voltage and under voltage then cut off the battery.
@bakerzdosen There are 2 AA Ni-MH AA600mAh 1.2v batteries that are replaceable. After 6 month of use, they only light for a few hours at best before running out. One of the 3 LEDs is already not working.
I had 2 before this, the solar panels are not secure properly. Coming loose and letting water throughout the item.
The current 2 I have, I glued the solar panels on making sure I got all of the perimeter. Looks like I did a good job. However, one of the battery terminals is severely rusted.
Single AA battery or double? I dunno. See even in Arizona these never charge up all the way and the light lasts a few hours and is done.
And if it is a proprietary battery, then you throw these away after a year.
And another Great Money-Saver from Meh! Today I will save $34.99 by not buying these lights! Woohoo!
How many lumens?
@st_ellis Amazon lists these as the old version.
3 LED’s 0.5 watt 60 lumens
Will it fit on my toilet?
@chiefbugbung if that’s what you call your house, then yes, it will fit on your toilet.
@bransonboyds @chiefbugbung Or you could put gutters on your toilet. Problem solved.
I can state with confidence that with the right glass, these will make margaritas glow in the dark quite festively.
just don’t ask how I know.
These are targets for the next hail storm in Texas or Oklahoma.
I bought similar ones to these many years ago. Touch Of Eco brand to be exact. They work nicely for a couple years and after a combination of age to the lithium battery and the sun deteriorating the solar panels they get dimmer and dimmer each year before no light at all.
@Larry1977 so… plastic and more or less disposable… “touch of eco” sounds about right in this case.
The fact that these have no lens of any sort makes them an ideal home for spiders and wasps. The white color will make this obvious every time you look at them.
free isn’t inexpensive enough. these things are horrible. owned half a dozen. all horrible
These are cool…I’m not going to buy them because I don’t want to install them…but still cool
They look like LEGO studs.
These are absolutely terrible for migrating birds.
We need fewer exterior lights on buildings, not more.
@steelopus These are terrible while they work as advertised. They are horrible when they don’t work.
They don’t advertise that they use lithium batteries, which suggests they will transition from terrible to horrible in less than a year.
I see what looks like a door to the battery compartment in one of the photos. If buyers are actually motivated enough to replace the batteries and clean the solar panels as needed, the transition from terrible to horrible can be postponed until the wiring goes bad or as @MrNews points out below, cheap plastic on the solar panels gets too cloudy.
[Edited to add the plastic clouding note.]
@hamjudo @MrNews Thanks, but I was not commenting on the quality nor the battery type. Re-read my comment and don’t stop at the word “terrible.”
@steelopus And we particularly need a whole hell of a lot fewer businesses leaving their freaking signs lit up 24/7, and lighting their parking lot all night long. I can excuse street lights all night for the obvious reason that the safety of drivers is important. But a business that shuts down at 8:00 p.m. should not still have their sign lit up at 8:45, let alone midnight.
@werehatrack Absolutely.
For anyone even remotely interested in what I’m trying to say… there is great detail here:
https://birdcast.info/science-to-action/lights-out/
and here:
https://www.audubon.org/lights-out-program
Anyone else confused as to how these actually hook on the gutter? The stock pictures show the hook in one orientation and the “house” pictures show the hook the other way. Last I checked solar panels need to face upward…
@Showski89 they can be photoshopped onto gutters in two configurations!
@Showski89 The brackets can be flipped over at the two mounting screws, so that the clip can either go over a wide lip or fit flush on a thin flange.
@Showski89 You can install the hook in 2 different ways. The one in the photo is for using the big gap. A standard gutter will want it flipped to use the little gap section. However, I wouldn’t bother with these as they are not great.
The solar panels deteriorate within 6-12 months, becoming cloudy and ineffective. Especially so in Florida, with sunny, rainy, hot summers (May-October). Buy now, they’re a useless, ugly eyesore by Thanksgiving…
@MrNews a little sand paper fixes that
Southern CA: had one of several thousand copies of these lights off Amazon (8 total installed). Lots of direct sun daily, and they tended to last until ~12AM during the summer. NiMH batteries of course, something like 600mAh. You can buy higher capacity ones off Amazon and replace when these go bad. The main problem is the solar panel encapsulation (epoxy) starts to yellow within a year, and then cracks and starts to peel from the edges. Next, the plastic housing gets brittle and crumbles with the slightest pressure. Buy some Meguiars Headlight Coating (UV protectant) and spray the entire housing and solar panel to extend the life by a few years. This is what I do for all my solar lights now, but the best long term solution is metal/glass solar lights with glass solar panel encapsulation. These are real hard to find, I assume because encapsulating your panel with a glass sheet costs precious additional pennies compared with the standard crappy epoxy that’s on 99% of small solar panels.
@twaniuk Epoxy if you’re lucky, crap quality polyester resin if you’re not.
I don’t even want these and I am still considering buying them. Curse you meh!
if only they came in black
Watched the Northern lights last night. Unbelievable.
But would have been even better if the neighbors didn’t have a porch light on all night, a light at the backdoor, a light to illuminate the driveway (and half the sky).
So… gutter lights ???
Seriously??
doubt these would be bright enough but yeah we don’t need more superfluous lights. pretty sure the image in the picture of 3 lights above a garage isn’t realistic for these lights. I don’t think 60 lumen lights with 1 or 2 NiCds/NiMhs will make a bright driveway for hours each night
Only 8 lights in the box?
@Mack
I also only received 8 but I purchased a quantity of two 16 packs. Hoping there are 24 more on the way! I’ll give it another week but not happy at the moment.