Battery for "Malibu" lights?

[joco]

Non Flashlight question, sorry.

I recently got some solar LED Malibu lights to put along my front walk from the house to the drive. Each one has two AA size Ni-Cd batteries which are charged by a 2"X2" solar cell on the top of the fixture. The problem is that cloudy days combined with shade from an oak tree don't provide enough power to the batteries for more than half an hour or so runtime. On sunny days, everything's great. The batteries are labeled "VIPOW NI-Cd AA 600mAh 1.2V".

My question is, can I replace these with Eneloops without hurting the Eneloops? (I seem to have a lot of Eneloops.) Also, can I safely recharge the little 600mAh batteries in my Eneloop charger?

I would think that the higher rating of the Eneloops would give me enough power to get past the cloudy days, and hopefully recharge more on the sunny ones. Also, if I can charge the 600's on my Eneloop charger, perhaps I could just rotate the batteries when necessary.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Joco

 

[VidPro]

yes , yes , yes , no.
it shouldnt have any problem Overcharging at a to high of rate, as the rate with these solar things doesnt go to high current ever.

it is unlikly to provide more capacity/time, because the sun is the issue, and each night it will usually fully depleate the capacity of the cell, so there is no carry over storage.

ni-mh Vrses Ni-Cd , the ni-cds can take to full discharge better, the ni-mh not so, so you should check voltage after a full discharge (light then unable to turn on) and see if voltage was dropped to far, like say min 8V per cell.

Ni_cd can usually handle extreeme temperature changes a lot better than the ni-mh, especially on the Cold side, if you temps drop way down, it just isnt going to be good generally, because the chemicals.

ni-Cd just loves to be cycled, over and over again, the ni-cd is more likly to last longer depending on its quality, in these conditions.

its 6 of one half dozen of the other, and worth trying as long as the voltage doesnt drop to low on the batteries, but ni-cd is the choice item to have out in those conditions doing that thing.

charging the ni-cds in a dumb enloop charger would not be good, you could put on a timer , or charge using some other method, but most of the enloop chargers are not going to be perfect for charging those. at the least if you do it, check it every 30min, and pull it after 3 hours. safe? would depend in the enloop charger.

mabey a NEW set of ni-cds would sufficentally revive the thing better? That would be at least as cheap. Depending on the cycles and all the Original cheap ni-cds might certannly be weak and self discharging more than some newer ones would.

 

[joco]

Thanks, Vidpro,
Sounds like I should stay with Ni-Cd rather than potentially overdischarge my Eneloops and ruin them. When I have guests over, maybe I'll put the eneloops in the lights just for the night, and replace them in the AM.

Joco

 

[jerry i h]

Try getting 4 spanking, new NiCd's. 2 for the light (recycle the ones that came with it), and 2 as back up. For the backups: stick 'me into an stupid, overnight, trickle charger (many places to get 'em; my favorite for NiCd's is batteryjunction). So, you always have a full charged back-up batt ready. During cloudy days, at dusk, get in the habit of swapping out the batts, and stick the ones from the outdoor light into the overnight charger. I love NiCd's: you can run 'em flat many times, and they are still good. You cannot abuse NiMH in this way.

 

[jayflash]

I replaced the single AA 600maH NiCds in each of two solar 50 LED rope lights with ROV Hybrids. Run time was at least doubled ... as long as FULL sun was available all day and daylight was longest. The shortening daylight hours, alone, have diminished run time by a couple hours already.

I'll be testing the two Hybrids in the coming months to see how they survived the hot sun and full discharge conditions. With the short fall & winter daylight time, I'm confident a 600mA NiCd will be sufficient.