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Question from Sue: I have 16 solar deck lights around the railing of my deck.
These lights are a little over a year old and their cheap AA rechargeable batteries now only last about an hour or so after the sun goes down.
I really like these particular lights so I’d prefer to replace the batteries instead of the lights themselves.
Can I safely replace the old rechargeable batteries in these lights with something like Energizers?
And if I can, will better batteries make the lights shine brighter than they ever did with the original batteries?
Rick’s answer: Sue, you sure can replace the cheap (and weak) batteries that came with your solar deck lights with better quality batteries with no worries whatsoever.
But that being said, higher quality batteries likely won’t make your lights shine any brighter than they did with the original batteries when they were new. The maximum amount of light emitted by an LED is determined by the LED, not the battery that powers it (assuming of course that the batteries are fully charged).
There are still a couple of advantages to buying better rechargeable batteries than the ones the lights originally came with however:
1 – Higher quality batteries will hold their charge longer which means your lights will keep glowing longer throughout the night.
2 – Higher quality batteries will last longer over the course of their usable lifetimes which means you won’t have to replace them as often.
If you decide to go ahead and replace the batteries in your solar deck lights with better ones, you can find them locally at most any home improvement store.
If you prefer shopping online you’ll find a great selection of awesome AA Eneloop batteries
I hope this helps, Sue. Good luck!
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