Hampton Bay Solar Powered Lamp Failure

  Oh the irony of it all. Last year I bought 12 model 577-674 copper solar
powered lanterns; accent lights from the local Home Despot. Over the
last 3 weeks, all but two of them have "failed". I use the term failed
in quotes, because they still work in a rare situation. It's more like a
serious design flaw at this point.

The main symptom was that they stopped coming on at night. At first, I
thought it was the batteries. After swapping batteries out with one that
worked, the lights still dodn't come on. At that point, I figured the
lights or the wiring were toast, so I brought them in.

Two days later, they all worked in the dark again; inside.
So I put them back outside. That night, they refused to turn on, even if
I brought them back in.

So, all I can surmise is that the control board is simple overheating in
the summer sun and they refuse to work; yet they work just fine in
cooler surroundings. Seems like a stupid flaw for a solar powere lamp.
I'll also prosume it's a flaw since we're talking 10 of 12. The two that
work are the ones closer to the shade.

Anyone else seen this problem with these sorts of accept lights?

-=Chris

 Christopher H. Laco wrote:

I've never had any luck with solar powered lights - usually it is the
NiCd batteries that go first; they just aren't rated for 365 deep
cycles, so you wouldn't expect them to last more than a year best case.
I finally gave up and installed 25 watt metal line voltage lights from
Red Dot - they've been in the ground 10 years are still working fine.

  I always get battery contact failure and end up soldering my batteries in.

 

Yes.  They are expensive toys that don't last long.

Steve