not the brightest not the best, September 7, 2010

By 

Brent S. Ferguson “Brain Trust” (cleveland, ga United States) – See all my reviews

  

You can get superior for less, these were hard to fit into the Malibu landscape lighting. They do use about 1/60th the power of the original 50 watt bulbs but are dim. I opted to go with 3 watt luxeon LED’s – and on a 100 watt transformer am lighting up the night sky!!!

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Ooops!, September 25, 2010

unfortunately the vendor had shipped the incorrect item, was out of stock on the correct item, but credited my account and all was good.

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grreat product, September 10, 2010

it started up with 1 pull , it is well made and a good price.

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Do not buy, July 23, 2010

Follow up – August 23rd, 2010:

Generac finally replaced my leaking unit. Hours of work on my part. The new unit idles quite different. On normal mode it idles significantly lower and flucuates up and down. In the economy mode, it simply idles even lower. The first unit seemed to idle normal (who knows) or high. In economy mode it flucuated up and down as stated in the manual. The electrical outlets are different. The first unit had commercial 120v outlets – one plug vertical, one horizontal. I spent for a commercial extension cord. The new unit has regular (parallel) plugs. Therefore I will need to purchase an adaptor. Unbelievable. If there are any more problems I simply will pay someone who knows what they are doing (Generac’s service people do not) or throw the unit out. Stay away from this unit. And stay away from Generac.

June, 2010 – Unit was defective out of box. Significant oil leak from engine even when not running. Took to 2 authorized Generac service shops. Still leaks. Leak is where 2 aluminum machine surfaces come together. Still trying to get resolution. Generac customer service fair at best. Takes considerable time to reach a human being. The unit already looks 2 years old due to the handling by the repair people and I have never used it. Generac has still not offered to replace. They “don’t make the motors”. A great excuse. I will contact Amazon corporate office if necessary to tell them not to sell this company’s products and file in small claims court if necessary against Generac. Please think about other manufacturers’ if you are looking for a small generator. I might be contacted at nfre at comcast dot net for pics of leak. Thank you.

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Pretty good, could be better, October 22, 2010

The price, 5, was good. IT’S NOT as good as the small Yamaha I had but it is definitely worth the price.

It’s a tiny noisy and not well-wired. If you look at the jumble of wires inside the case you will see a lot of chintzy consumer electronics connectors made for very light indoor duty. The engine and inverter look well-made.

The ECO throttle is not steady, it wavers up and down with a steady load and it does not even come into play outside a narrow load range in the middle of the generators power, about 100 watts either side of mid-range 400 watts.

It starts easily. The oil level shutoff switch was coming on too early, even when the oil level was fine. It also came on whenever the genset was tilted at all. The factory stated there is no adjustment so I disconnected the switch. I plan on using this genset on a Personal UltraLight Dirigible and I cannot have it shutting off just because it’s not perfectly level flight.

I put a tachometer/time log on it which rings each five hours and warns me to check the oil. This would’ve been a good original equipment item.

The mufflers not much good and I want to add a pipe to the output to quieten the high frequency noise coming from the exhaust valve clattering as it closes and opens.

I wanted to build my test airship as Cheeply! as possible or I would’ve used the Yammy or the Honda. This is about a third their price so I am not surprized it ain’t great. But it works fairly well.

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not what I had hoped for, January 5, 2011

I purchased the generator to use on my boat to occasounally keep the batteries up when camped away from the marina. I was very disappointed in the loud noise level. It is advertised and also marked on the box as “ultra quiet”; well it is as loud as a lawn mower under load, and I would not want to listen to that noise for hours at a time, nor subject that to fellow boaters nearby. I had expected maybe something that would not be a nuissance and might be almost as quiet as a Honda. No way, this is unacceptable to have to listen to.

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Tested with Moonrays Solar Path Lights, July 1, 2009

By 

B. Anderson “Gadget/Outdoor aficionado” (Seattle, WA) – See all my reviews

  

When I bought my CCI Moonrays 95669 Solar Powered Metal Path Light, 6-Pack, Copper I decided from the beginning to switch out batteries in half of the lamps with the other battery types because I had read the other review for this battery pack.

Honestly, I found these work better through the night over a longer period of time. Sometimes I wake up very early in the morning for work, and have noticed that the lamps with these batteries have lasted longer and brighter into the morning. It has been a couple months since i got the lamps and will definitely purchase these batteries again.

I decided to do a tiny research on Wikipedia to find the reason.

These Moonrays batteries are Nicd, on the page it states “The primary trade-off with NiCd batteries is their higher cost”

But the advantage it states is

“the NiCd battery has a lower self-discharge rate (for example, 10% per month for a NiCd, versus 30% per month for a traditional NiMH under identical conditions”

that means that over time, these batteries will hold their charge longer than others.

The other type of rechargeable batteries are the NiMH batteries, and their page also states

“NiMH cells historically had a somewhat higher self-discharge rate (equivalent to internal leakage) than NiCd cells. This is not a problem in the short term, but makes them unsuitable for many light-duty uses where the battery would normally be expected to last many months or years.”

Wow I am a nerd. But it makes me happy

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Use NiCd for Solar Panels, December 10, 2009

NLee the Engineer: I am an ELECTRICAL Engineer. You missed the most important consideration: NiMH batteries should only be recharged in a highly controlled environment such as in your iPod, digital camera with a NiMH charger, NOT DIRECTLY BY A SOLAR PANEL ! Solar panels should either have their own charge controller or use batteries that withstand routine overcharging. NiMH BATTERIES WILL *EASILY* BE DESTROYED BY OVERCHARGING. NiCd batteries fair somewhat better.

ALL RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES SHOULD BE RECHARGED WITH A RECHARGER whether it’s powered by a solar panel or from an AC wall jack.

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Don’t bother with this outdated product, July 29, 2008

By 

NLee the Engineer (Nashua, NH) – See all my reviews

  

There is simply no reason why anyone should purchase those NiCd (Nickel Cadmium) rechargeable cells for solar rechargeable light applications. For about the same price, you can easily find NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) cells which offer the following advantages:

- Higher capacity: NiMH AA cells are typically 2000-2700mAh, compared of just 600mAh for those NiCd cells.

- No memory effect: NiMH cells are less likely to suffer from reduced capacity when they are partially charged and discharged.

- Environmentally Friendly: NiMH cells do not contain Cadmium, a highly toxic heavy metal. Expired NiCd cells must be disposed in special battery recycle bins, but most people do not bother to do that. So those cells end up buried in landfill or, worse yet, incinerated. (*)

The only advantage NiCd cell has over NiMH is lower internal resistance, which grants it to provide very high peak current in short bursts. That is why NiCd cells are still used in cordless power tools and RC race cars. But in the case of solar rechargeable lights, the battery current is delievered slowly over 8-12 hours. So NiMH cells, with much higher capacity, are far better as replacement batteries.

(*)UPDATE:

As of Sep 2008, imports of NiCd rechargeable batteries were banned for all EU countries (thanks to a 2006 Battery Directive). Prices of NiCd cells plummeted as a result. It is sad to see that the U.S. is now being used as the largest dumping ground (literally) for those outdated products.

[Update#2 on Nov 29, 2010]

Some people claim that NiMH cell can’t be used in Solar charger because it needs higher voltage to recharge. This is COMPLETELY FALSE based on my own measured data, shown in the Customer Images section. Note that both NiCd and NiMH cells have almost identical voltage profiles (adjusted for time scale) during slow-charging.

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Excellent Security Light, February 15, 2008

By 

Gary Strickfaden (Lynnwood, WA USA) – See all my reviews

  

Thought I might mention that this is probably the ideal security light in solar available a bit high-priced but well worth it. I have had mine three years with excellent results so far. The panel needs to be up on the roof preferably directly at high noontime sun and there is plenty of wire to do this, I used small cable tacks to secure to roof. In the Northwest you might get less light and for shorter periods of time but when it is faced directly toward sun, especially during summer with high noontime sun, it will work for over 15 days on one charge. I have three of them for a rental home and now will purchase three more for my new house. The ideal light to use for intruders especially if you can mount under an eave and shine directly into an unsuspected passerby’s face, they will leave mmediately. The motion sensor works up to 75′ that was the measure to my driveway from corner of home and it would come on when someone approached my house. Be sure to charge as per the directions the first time to get the full benefit from the battery.

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Pricey, but excellent, June 15, 2008

By 

Peter A. Stark – See all my reviews

  

There are lots of solar powered lights, but most of those have puny LEDs which provide very tiny light. This one has a real light bulb and provides a good amount of light. It’s not a 150-watt bulb, but it really lights up my driveway. It has a hefty battery as well, so it takes longer to charge, but if you want a more power out, you need to provide more power in. I have only two complaints – one is that the light is fairly tightly focused – I would have preferred it spread out over a larger area (but then it would have appeared dimmer). The other is that it doesn’t stay on long enough once motion stops or you walk out of the sensor’s area. But those are both minor items. I love mine, and have given out two others as gifts.

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Battery done in a few months, August 13, 2008

Not worth it, cheap system failed only after a few months, what happens is the cheap battery goes bad and you have to keep replacing it, was hoping to maybe upgrade the battery cannot seem to find any in this dimensions 5.25inch in Lenght 2 inches in width and 3 inches high.

Don’t purchase will be useless in a few months.

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