Shutting off solar lights

[Paintedcow]

When I put away the solar sidewalk lights in Winter, they stop being charged, the batteries drain, and are often bad in Spring from being discharged so long. The original lights often had a switch to shut off the light (and the battery). But they have cheapened them up and none have switches anymore. They come with a piece of paper or plastic that is pulled out to expose the battery to it's contact, and are forever on after that.

I have tried to push that battery cutoff (paper/plastic) back in, but it just crumbles. I cut strips from a heavy cardboard, but that just folds over or crushes and wont go in. Do they make anything (to sell) that will shut them off?

On some of them, I remove the battery, and may even charge it during the winter. Some are easy to take apart and remove the battery. Others are complicated and difficult. I usually just do the easy ones, or I end up with a pile of parts that need to be reassembled in Spring. Although most of these lights are fairly cheap, I buy the ones that I like the look of, and since I have a large amount of them, replacing them can get costly and I will lose the ones I like.

If only they still put switches on them........

[sunny]

Store them in a closet with the light on. A 10 watt led shouldn't cost much to run all winter.

[Paintedcow]

I have a few mounted on the house and porch railing, they do stay out all year. But those on the ground along the sidewalk would all be destroyed with snow shovels, snow blowers, and people walking on them because they are under the snow.

[bob_villa]

Since most people leave them out all year...that should be your solution!

[Moe DeLoughan]

So put them in your basement or workshop, or any area that you regularly spend time in with the lights on. They'll get occasional charging from the lights and will be fine.

In the future, reject lights that don't easily open to remove/replace the batteries. I always upgrade the batteries to larger-capacity rechargeables anyway, since the batteries that come with the devices are pretty junky.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

I usually do, except when I had some lights that required 2/3AA cells, and I didn't have a good source.

[clare]

We bring ours in and I stick a little plastic shim between the battery and terminal at one end. Pull the plastic out in the spring.

[Paintedcow]

What do you use for the shim? That was my original question....

[hrhofmann]

A piece of plastic from a milk container works just about like the plastic piece that comes with new lights.

[FromTheRafters]

[e-mail] used his keyboard to write :

Cut the wife's credit card into little strips and use those, saves money too. :o)

[clare]

I cut thin ribbons of clear plastic from the lids of those light plastic containers you get lettuce and salad mix in at the supermatket

- Sometimes cookies or donuts.

[Paintedcow]

Thanks, now I have an idea what to use....