Alkaline Battery in Solar Powered LED Garden Light

Bought a few of these cheap online !!

The included AAA rechargeable battery was really low spec, 300mah, and in any case, the lights failed almost immediately (old stock ?)

Dirty contacts in some, cleaned those up.

I was refunded, so no cost to myself.

Then, thinking about it, did I really want to put replacement NiMh 800mah - 1,200mah batteries in the lights, that cost more than each light ?

Thinking outside the box, I came to the conclusion, that I may as well replace with Alkaline AAA's

Yes, I know all about the warnings of recharging Alkaline Batteries, but I figured, the recharge current would be very low, on a par if not less than commercial Alkaline Rechargers / Boosters

And the lights, with batteries would be outside, so no problems if they leaked, or exploded !!

Anyway, to cut a long story short....


the Solar Powered LED Garden Lights with Alkaline AAA's have been shining brightly for well over a month now, with no signs of deterioration, nor diminished capacity !

I have used one of those so-called alkaline battery chargers. They sorta work but the battery becomes less and less viable and often ends up leaking. The more discharged before charging the higher the damage.

If you find a AAA with 1200mA it’s absolutely NOT 1200mA and is almost for sure garbage. Decent NiMh AAA top out around 800mA.

I tell people to save a few old solar garden lights, for black out lanterns, with an alkaline they run a very long time, and you don’t mind if the battery leaks, it is a good excuse to hang on to old alkalines, years past their “use by” date.

The combination is great as loaners during emergencies.

They make super long run lanterns, and are really quite wonderful, especially if they have an on-off switch, yet they are just thrown away junk that were only $2.00 dollars when they were bought new.

They also are solar chargers for your rechargeables.

Dollar tree still has them on sale for a buck

i picked up two just for fun

They come with a 200mah chinese ni-cad in them .i think putting an alkaline in them is a pretty bad idea considering all the other options .

Worst case senerio you could tear apart a old cordless phone battery . Like >

I have another yard light that had a 350 mah ni-cad AA in it ..

They take a lot of light to stay charged for any amount of time ... I have one in the bathroom and kitchen windows as a nightlight .But when it's cloudy out they hardly charge the battery at all .

Bottom line is they are garbage and a de-deomed 2$ zoomie from wallbuys is about 100 times better .

I have a couple in the driveway to show where it is at night. They run on 2 x AA (many are single AA or AAA). The stock is generally a 600 nicad. I put old NiMh in them. In the summer they work OK. Once fall hits I have to charger them about 2x/week for them to work. I don’t even bother with the AAA ones anymore.

You do realize the charger just keeps pushing power into the battery even if it’s full…which severely diminishes it’s charge cycle life.

Ever thought of building a ultra capacitor version of one of those

20 year lifespan!

These things are often so cheap, you could just as well chuck them in the bin immediately…

I redid one of mine with a old cell phone battery I found in parking lot from someones “burner” phone they likely threw down. Soldered some wires and it has been working for 6 months and is SUPER bright. I am over driving the crap out of the led. It looks like a runway light!

Do this at your own risk! lol

The current output of those solar cells is miniscule… I wouldn’t worry about over-charging anything, even alkaline. (likely around 10-20mA @ 1.5 volts)
I put alkaline AA in a couple when I needed it to stay lit for more than 5-6 hours one night, Then left them in for several months to see what would happen. They worked about the same as the 600mAh NiCd after a couple months. I pull them up in the fall as we don’t get enough sun to run them. The alkaline were about 1.2Volt and still working. I was surprised at this.

It's now 9 weeks since I installed the Alkaline AAA's, and the lights still burn bright overnight, around 8 hours at the moment, even with little direct sunlight.

If it has been a sunny day, they do burn very bright for the 8 hours.

Phishing SPAM.

Isn’t solar energy enough to light up in the evening, not through daytime charging? ?

Why can’t I send a link?

They might work fine for a while, but fairly soon I expect the alkaleaks to do what they do best, and start leaking, and when it stops working, you’ll find a salt-mine when you try to open it up.

They’re hateful little things…