The solar lights on my property have been dim or have been completely off at night. Maintenance can be done on these lamps to get them working again.
Hampton Bay Solar Light Reviews
The solar lanterns are made by Hampton Bay. I see online there are many negative reviews for these lights. Some of the complaints I also have:
- LED is too dim
- LED won’t turn on
- Not enough illumination
- Battery contacts corrode
- Solar panels darken and become cloudy over time
- Batteries included don’t last long (I replaced mine with batteries having more mA hours)
Here are some excerpts from other reviews on the web:
“I will never by anything with the Hampton Bay name again.” complaintsboard.com
“Very dim, barely lights. Hard to see at night. Purchased at Home Depot…” complaintsboard.com
“Most lights quit between 10-18 months so if your looking for long term lighting solution, plan on continually buying replacements…” homedepot.com
“I always get battery contact failure and end up soldering my batteries in.” thestuccocompany.com
“I purchased a hampton bay solar walk light several weeks ago and it just stopped working.” askmehelpdesk.com
Cleaning the Panels
The solar panels become cloudy and weathered in the sun. The panels can be cleaned with rubbing alcohol.
The photoresistor works better if it is clean, so that the circuit knows when the sun is up. There is no need for the light to be on during the day. A clean photoresistor makes sure the LED is off during the day, saving the battery power until it is needed at dark.
VIDEO: How to Fix Solar Lights
A few things that can be done to improve the solar light:
- Clean solar panel with rubbing alcohol
- Clean battery terminals
- Press on capacitors
- Replace batteries
If your rechargeable batteries are old or not holding a charge, you should change them with new rechargeable batteries. Want to squeeze some extra life out of those old batteries? You might try surging the old batteries.
Hydrolysis
To measure the power output of the small solar panel built onto these lights, I used hydrolysis. I had a few questions:
How much power in Watts do these panels produce?
Answer: 84 mW in winter
Can low power be used in hydrolysis? How many volts and amps does hydrolysis require?
As shown in the video above, hydrolysis can be achieved with low power. With only 3.8V and 22 mA, we are splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen! It doesn’t take much power to make hydrogen. Looks like anyone can make hydrogen fairly easily.
