Malibu SolarSELECT Accent Lighting Review
Malibu’s PR company recently sent us two sets of Malibu SolarSELECT accent landscape lamps, one to giveaway to our readers, and another to review.
We’d like to thank Malibu for sponsoring a giveaway on this site (something I forgot to do in our winner announcement). With 450 entrants to the contest and thousands of viewers, we think their investment was well spent; we hope they do too.
Ok, without further ado…
Our Review
Out of the box: We received both sets of solar lamps in a tightly packed standard cardbox shipping box. Unfortunately, one of the lamps in the set we chose for the review was broken upon arrival. As you can see in the picture on the left, the white lens had dropped down into the black casing about 2 inches. For the life of us, we couldn’t get the lens to slide up into place. We ended up removing the bottom component from the lamp, sliding the lens further down into the casing, and then back up into place.
Ultimately, this activity broke a critical plastic tab on the lens so that it would no longer stay in place. Had we bought this at the local home improvement store, at this point we would have taken it back for an exchange. Given the circumstances, we decided to try and fix it. We repositioned the lens, and used hot glue to hold it in place. The result was good. You cannot tell we ever had a problem.
We reported the issue to Malibu’s PR company who passed along the information to Malibu. Of course, it could have been caused by rough handling during shipping. I’m sure if Malibu gets enough complaints on it, they’ll take care of it. Perhaps this was an anomaly.
Installation: Other than our problem with the lens, installation of these lamps was a cinch. They come fully assembled except for the large stake that ultimately holds them in place. We drove the stakes into the ground first, and then attached the lamps to the stakes. They both felt VERY solid after installation. (The picture to the right shows the whole assembly, which we put together just to take the shot).
Light Quality: These lamps each have two true-white LED bulbs. Malibu claims they are as much as 300% brighter than their other solar accent lighting. So, we put them up to an informal challenge: three other homes in our community have accent lighting. Two of those homes have solar lighting; the third has a wired system. While Malibu’s lamps were slightly brighter than the competition’s solar lighting, they did not appear to be anywhere near 300% brighter. As expected, the electric system was much brighter. Perhaps Malibu’s other solar lamps (that are 300% dimmer) are, in fact, very dim.
Style: I’m a fan of the modern style of these lamps. I’ve gotten similar comments from others. One friend said the lamps looked a bit “90s.” I’m no style expert, but I guess I like the 90s.
Charge Time / Battery Life: We haven’t done scientific testing, and certainly this isn’t a long-term experiment. But right now in the late Spring, these lamps are performing great. They run all night at consistent brightness and fully recharge the internal NiCd battery during the day. They also feature a brightness switch that can be set to dim their output from late Autumn to early Spring to ensure consistent lighting when the sun is up for much less time during the day.
Overall Evaluation: Overall, we’re very happy with the lamps. Other than the minor glitch with the lens in the beginning, these lamps were easy to install and are operating perfectly. We’d definitely recommend them to anyone looking to highlight their landscaping, driveway, sidewalk, or garden.
What do you think? Want to know anything else about these lamps? Have you had a good experience with Malibu or another brand?
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2 Responses to Malibu SolarSELECT Accent Lighting Review
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May 29th, 2008 8:16 am
Would have liked to know the MSRP for the box. And how many lamps in a set?
I had some wired accent lights and they used an LED. It baffles me that solar accent lights can’t make use of the same low wattage bulb. My experience with solar lights is pretty disappointing: the hardware was usually small and/or flimsy, and the light quality was barely on par with a children’s night light.
-Jon
May 31st, 2008 10:54 pm
Jon,
My bad. I absolutely should have included that. The MSRP that I saw online was $42.99. I suspect you could find these lights a little cheaper than that.
The hardware on these solar lamps is actually pretty good – not in the slightest bit flimsy, and except for the lens problem I describe in the post, overall relatively sturdy. They do use LED bulbs, but there are only two of them and they simply don’t produce a lot of output.
One of our neighbors has a new solar lamp kit that has a separate solar panel that’s about 1′ by 1′ square. (It sits separate from the lamps). Their kit produces substantially brighter light than these, as I would expect since their are able to harness many times the energy that these lamps can (these lamps have a 2″ by 2″ square on top… the solar panel as about 144 sq. in. of surface area, compared to 8 sq. in. total for these lamps.