Review Relightable 59X59 Solar Stake Globe Bright White Led Black Host Ball Light

Garden solar lights are a lovely way to burnish upwardly an otherwise drab outside infinite, in grooming for some outdoor entertainment.

Only when we asked the Which? Gardening Facebook group members to tell united states about their experience of using garden solar lights, we were hit with a barrage of complaints and negative comments nigh them.

"I love solar lights but they just don't last, it'southward non worth spending a lot every bit fifty-fifty the nearly expensive ones seldom last more than a season."

But surely they're not all that bad? Nosotros purchased 9 sets of fairy lights ranging in cost from £7 to £70, and put them through a range of immovability tests to simulate the delights of a good old British wintertime in February 2020. Read on to find out how they fared, and which are the best garden fairy lights.

The garden solar lights did testify to be harder to interruption than we originally idea. But past the time we'd finished only iii out of nine lights were however working and showed no visible signs of habiliment and tear.

Pricing and availability last checked 13 April 2022.

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Best garden solar lights

The following  garden solar lights breezed through our tough durability tests, designed to mimic the toughest of British winters.

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Best Buy: Solar String Lights 200 White PowerBee Endurance

Cheapest price: £69.99 at Powerbee . There is also a 100 cord set available (which comes with a smaller solar panel) for £25 at Powerbee , or £39.99 at Amazon .

Key features: 200 lights, 20 metres long (2 metres to the first low-cal and then 20 metres), claimed battery life of 8-12 hours in the summertime and iii-10 hours in the winter, 8 light settings, white light.

Verdict:Passed all of the immovability tests, kept shining all through winter

This set also comes with a large solar panel, which is a footling bigger than an A4 canvas of paper (twice every bit big as most others we tested). Powerbee says that this larger solar panel means that the lights should stay on for longer, and that they'll fifty-fifty work over the winter, which not many solar lights merits.

You lot get 2 metres of cable earlier the first light, and and so 200 LED lights over the next twenty metres of cable.

This is the best prepare of LED solar fairy lights that we tested, and based on how they fared in our tough tests, we call up they're durable plenty to brand it through fifty-fifty extreme winter weather.

Update 22nd March 2022: These lights are still going stiff after ii British winters wrapped tightly effectually a tree in our test garden. Nosotros likewise discovered that the big solar panel that comes with the 200 string gear up we tested is efficient plenty to keep the lights on throughout the winter, even in depression low-cal conditions.

Best Purchase: Lumify USB Solar Vintage Bulb Lights - fix of xx

Cheapest price:£59.99 at Amazon , also bachelor at The Solar Centre .

Key features: 20 lights, 14.four metres long (i.9 metres to the first light and then 14.iv metres with bulbs spaced at 80cm), USB chargeable also every bit charging from the sun, claimed battery life of 12 nights from a full USB accuse, 8 light settings, warm white light.

Verdict: Swish looking; the best bulb-shaped lights we tested

While these garden solar lights are expensive, they're durable, they await classy, and they're the best garden solar lights with bulbs that we tested.

The traditional style plastic bulbs encasing the fairy lights within look very frail and sophisticated, simply that hides an inner steel. These lights survived 5 consecutive days of sub nada temperatures, a dark in the deep freeze at -xvi, sustained bashing confronting a fence, house tugs to the wiring, a five minute heavy deluge in a shower, and being fully submerged in a bucket of h2o for an hour.

After all of this, all of the lights still work and there are no visible signs of damage.

One prissy design feature on these lights is a tiny hole drilled into the bottom of each of the bulbs, which allows any water ingress into the bulbs to drip out. Other lights we tested with bulbs tended to fill up with water over time.

The lights are spaced quite far apart (80cm).

The ability to charge these lights through a USB port is a welcome feature, and gives them a new lease of life over the darker winter months. One thing to spotter out for is the relatively long altitude between each of the lights (80cm), this might make them less suitable for some outside lighting projects. But they're a nice looking and difficult every bit nails ready of lights that are well worth considering.

Update 22nd March 2022: These lights accept now survived two British winters tied to a debate mail in our examination garden. The solar panel isn't as effective as our Best Purchase Powerbee Endurance lights (above), but you'll nonetheless get a few hours calorie-free from these bulbs even in the depths of winter.

All-time Buy/Peachy Value: Solar Cord Lights Garden, 24 Ft 30 Waterproof Crystal Ball LED Fairy Lights Outdoor Solar Powered Lights

Cheapest price:£10.99 at Amazon .

Central features: 30 lights, 7 metres long (1 metre to the outset light so 7 metres), claimed bombardment life of viii-14 hours, eight light settings, warm white light.

Verdict: These little lights are hard equally nails, they sailed through all of the durability tests we threw at them, and prove no sign of any wear and tear.

Watch out! One string of these lights is only enough to beautify a kid's playhouse

Do watch out when ownership these lights though, as we were expecting more - as in, more than lights. Some of the images advertising the production showed a whole house adorned, and we neglected to spot the number of bulbs listed in the product description (there are only xxx, and they're quite small), so when they turned up we were a little disappointed.

That said, the light that they emit is nice, and it'south enough to tastefully illuminate the children's playhouse in the film above, but not much more that. And so yous might need to buy a few sets to light up your whole patio, but we don't think you lot'll be disappointed, as they're super tough.

Update 22 March 2022: These lights take survived ii British winters, including farthermost high winds, exactly where you tin see them pictured above, on a child'southward playhouse. The solar panel you get with these lights is very modest, so they'll somewhen lose charge over winter and won't turn on. But when the lord's day comes back out in bound, these lights volition start twinkling again.

How the rest of the garden solar lights fared

Below nosotros've listed the other seven garden solar lights we tested alphabetically. Nearly all of them either broke completely during testing, or displayed some other signs of wear and tear that makes u.s.a. call up they wouldn't terminal for many winters.

Not a good thing if they go dark the next fourth dimension you're in the hot tub, or you take the neighbours over to show off your new pizza oven.

200 Warm White LED Solar Fairy Lights Articulate Cable

Chepest cost:£20 at lights4fun.co.uk .

Central features: 200 lights, xix.9 metres long (3 metres to the first light and so 19.9 metres), claimed battery life of up to eight hours during the summer, Information technology'due south recommended you lot store the lights away over the winter, 8 lite settings, warm white calorie-free.

Verdict: During the six weeks these lights spent outside, including a week of sub nothing temperatures, they started to show visible signs of corrosion on the wire underneath the plastic blanket, merely they did withal piece of work.

They flew through our shower test, deep freeze test, wire tugging test and existence roughly bashed against a fence. But they failed the tougher h2o resistance exam where they were submerged in a bucket of water for an 60 minutes. Water is able to seep into the charging unit of measurement, pooling around the battery and internal wiring.

Visible signs of corrosion subsequently only a few weeks outside.

While these lights might shine brightly in your garden for a while, we doubtable that many sets won't terminal too long, and yous'll run across visible signs of corrosion on the bulbs in only a few weeks of cold wet weather.

Argos Home 200 Warm White LED Solar Cord Lights

Cheapest price:£20 at Argos .

Fundamental features: 200 lights, ten metres long, bombardment life is unstated, 2 light settings, warm white light

Verdict: We weren't as well impressed with these lights every bit soon equally nosotros got them out of the box. You lot could see that there was a small amount of exposed wire as it entered the solar charger. Despite this flaw, these lights did survive all of the durability tests, until we gave the wire a sharp tug, at which point the wires asunder from the charger, breaking the lights.

Criacr LED String Lights, 100 LED

Cheapest price:£89.99 at Amazon .

Central features: 100 lights, 10 metres long (two metres to the first light and and so ten metres), claimed bombardment life not stated, 2 light settings, white light.

Verdict: These lights are cheap, and they await information technology. There's no plastic coating in sight, but a long reel of copper wire that tin can be aptitude and twisted effectually any objects yous're hoping to illuminate.

The lights survived 6 weeks outside, including most a calendar week of sub zero temperatures, they besides endured a night in the freezer at -xvi degrees without breaking. But a few abrupt tugs along the length of the wire dispatched these lights to the bin.

Elan Solar Fairy LIghts - Warm White 200 LEDs

Cheapest price:£xxx at The Solar Centre .

Key features: 200 lights, twenty metres long (2 metres to the first light and so 20 metres of lights), USB chargeable every bit well equally charging from the sun, claimed bombardment life of up to ten hours, 2 low-cal settings, warm white low-cal.

Verdict: These are a good gear up of lights that survived all of our tests.  But they don't quite get our Editor'southward Choice recommendation considering despite surviving, there were some visible signs of corrosion at the cease of our durability tests.

The corrosion is more than hard to spot with the light-green plastic casing, as opposed to the lights we tested with white casing, but you can however see it if you await closely.

The plastic coating that surrounds the wire is green on these lights, not clear, so the corrosion is harder to spot, just it is there. Because of this, despite these lights still working and emitting a dainty warm glow, we wouldn't expect them to last as long as our two top picks, both of which showed no visible signs of wear and tear after testing.

Habitat Solar 20 Festoon Warm White Lights

Cheapest cost:£twenty at Argos .

Central features: 20 lights, half dozen metres long (two metres to the first lite and so 6 metres), claimed battery life not stated, 2 light settings, warm white calorie-free.

Verdict: These expect pretty nice in the images used to market them online, and when it's dark and they're switched on, we think they're nice too. But in the light of day, they look a bit cheap. Peculiarly when viewed adjacent our peak picks.

These lights look lovely when switched on. But they're non particularly attractive during daylight hours.

While these lights passed all of our durability assessments, ane significant design flaw is that the bulbs don't have a little hole in them that let'southward any water ingress seep out. This means that they'll gradually make full up with water over time. The length of cablevision is also a niggling stingy when compared to our superlative picks.

Wilko 10 Bulbs Copper Solar Cord Lights

Cheapest price:£7 at Wilko .

Key features: 10 lights, 3.3 metres long, claimed battery life unstated, 2 light settings, Orangey calorie-free.

Verdict: Despite our best efforts, the tough durability tests we put these lights through weren't enough to dispatch of them. However, there were a few signs of significant clothing and tear, including the little cages that surround the lights constantly pinging off, and a few signs of corrosion.

Information technology's also a very brusque cord of lights, and they don't give off much light, as you tin run into from the paradigm to a higher place. Even though they're inexpensive, because they're so minor they don't take many practical uses in an exterior garden space

How we tested solar garden lights

Nosotros know that these products have an effect with longevity. They only don't terminal long plenty, and likewise many end up in landfill, too quickly.

Only nosotros couldn't exam these products over three or four years like we might like to. Ultimately by the time we finished the test, some of them wouldn't be on sale anymore.

Then we designed a actually tough prepare of tests to simulate the type of conditions these types of lights might endure overa few really tough British winter. Then we did leave them outside for ane winter.

Water ingress

H2o ingress is one of the most common causes of failure. So not only did we field of study each of these lights to a ten minute deluge in a shower, we also submerged them entirely in a bucket of h2o for an hour.

Freezing temperatures

Subsequently each of the water ingress tests these lights were put dripping moisture into a freezer overnight, at -16 degrees.

Weathering

Before the tests even commenced in earnest, these lights were left outside in a garden for 6 weeks over the winter. During this period the country shivered in a cold snap and temperatures in the garden remained below naught for five consecutive days.

Rough treatment

Nosotros frequently aren't as gentle with our things as we should be. Untangling the lights, moving the lights, or even very windy weather tin subject area garden lights to quite a scrap of a chirapsia.

And so we tied one end of each fix of lights to a fence mail and bashed information technology against a fence twenty times. We also gave the lights a tough tug forth the length of the cablevision and where the cable enters the charging station.

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Source: https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/garden-furniture/article/best-solar-garden-lights-aVDxM6J5MGkC

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