How to repair a solar powered LED garden light

This is a guide on how to repair your light if you have had it for a few years and the stress of the outdoors have caused it to stop working.
Honestly, why won't cheap things last longer than five minutes?

Step 1 Take apart the light fitting.

First of all, you need to take apart your light fitting. Usually most lights will be held together by screws around the edge. Just look on the underside and remove any that you find. The glass or plastic cover for the light sometimes twists apart aswell so try that too.
After you have opened it, just take off any big removable parts, taking note on how they assemble so you can fit them back on. Also remove the batteries if they are rechargable. If they are physically attached / soldered in, just leave them as they are.

Comments

[paxdonnaverde]

I have a very nice metal lantern-style solar light and am unable to repair the circuitry. Does anyone know where I could purchase just the solar panel/light assembly without buying a whole new fixture?

If not, this could be a good business product for some of you techies.

[TheZuke!]

I raised my solar lights up to about 3' off the ground by using re-bar.
When sidewalks and such are being demolished, the contractor will often let
you have a few short (~4') pieces from the debris.
Straighten them out, sand/brush/scrape off dirt and rust,
paint them with Rustoleum (I used black),
drive them into the ground,
and set the solar lamp, with its plastic pipe without the spike,over the rebar.
It raises them above the lawn mower and snow blower.
Convert feet to metric units if desired.

[cortezmike]

I spent at least an hour searching for this info....finally found this website and was just what I was looking for. I wondered if my battery recharger would work on solar batteries and now I know it will. Thanks.

[12V]

there is no such thing as solar batteries they are just standard nickel-cadmium batteries. possibly a solar brand but they work the same.

[twocvbloke]

Also, these Ni-Cad batteries are often a low Ah rating for such applications, so the small solar cell has no trouble recharging them to a usable state, if you upgraded them to, for example, 2100mAh NiMH batteries, they'd be dead within no time as the solar panel will never produce enough charge them... :)

[sideways]

I replaced the 2 NiCd batts in mine with 2300mAh NiMH. They seem to be holding up after one year of use.

[wozzy]

2300mAh in mine as well. They work just fine.

[fegundez1]

I see a reference to upgrading the led to stronger ones. Would you have to do any mods to the wiring to do this?

[blindflacker]

My solar panel appears to have shorted or corroded. It has burn marks as well as the white corrosion that normally forms on these. Is it done for? Has anybody fixed this problem?

[killerjackalope]

Nice job though it's more like how to revive a solar garden light, I'm in the process of building new poles for my ones, they're very stylish but my brother and I stumbled over them drunk one too many times...

Same thing happened to the mains operated light...

[xerxesx20]

Lol, how do you trip over a light?! Can you not see it? Drunkards these days, tsch. lol (I suppose in your defence, they could have been off, or discharged.) Like your 'ibles -- do some more!

[killerjackalope]

They're in little bushes and weren't on, also in my defence I had a lot of money that night and was celebrating something...

[xerxesx20]

Excellent, I fully condone the odd "tipple" (or five) lol. :-)

[snoyes]

I have the same problem, except it's from a sober 4-year-old tromping through the grass and turning the poles into so many shards of useless plastic. I imagine I could go find some PVC pipe of the right diameter.

[killerjackalope]

I was just going to find whatever was handy, I'll give you a shout when I find a random household item to use...

[wierd idiot]

i like to buy cheap solar lights and put higher power batteries in them. Also replacing the dull LED's with some new high intensity LED's works well.

[Ian01]

Make sure you use the correct charger for your batteries, i.e. a NiCad charger for NiCad batteries or a NiMH charger for NiMH batteries. Otherwise they could be damaged or blow ^up.

[Lftndbt]

On a side note~
If you read the instructions (not that anyone does) it's say that the batteries need to be fully charged yearly to maintain optimum efficiency.

If you don't have a battery charger, turn the lights off and stick them in the sun for 3 days. Then turn back on. The three day period will be enough to recharge them fully.

[chalky]

nice job,also good to see an instructable featuring the good old UK plug socket lol

[LinuxH4x0r]

Awesome! I have some of those in the back yard of the house I'm buying