Maxsa 40225 Solar-Powered Security Floodlight, Motion-Activated 80 LED Outdoor Safety Light, Off-White

If you just want the end of the story, scroll down to the updates. To sum up: I love these lights and the 5 star rating still stands.I bought my first one of these back in July 2009 and bought a second one in April 2010, simply because it worked so well and I had other areas of the property I wanted to light up. I read a number of reviews about the lights not working after a while, but I have not had that happen on these or my  MAXSA Innovations 40218 Motion-Activated Dual Head LED Security Spotlight  I purchased in March 2010. Note that this review is being written in July 2011, which means the original light is still working fine after 2 years. We currently have the dual light in the driveway by our cars (parked front to back, one light pointed towards each car), one of these floodlights above the garage door (about 50 feet up the driveway from where we actually park) and another floodlight for where we take our dogs out back. Our driveway is quite adequately lit at this point.Installation: Easy as cake. They supply plenty of wire so you can put the solar panel a decent distance from the light itself. A couple of screws for the light and a few for the panel and you're done. Note that if you're installing through Dutch Lap vinyl siding (i.e. a "puffy" surface), you're going to need longer screws for the light. Potentially, much longer if you want to also mount through a nice vinyl surface block (rectangular, not square). When mounted to one of these, they look quite nice on the house, as long as you can hide the majority of the wire. If there's too much, the excess fits nicely behind a surface block! With how particular I am about things being absolutely perfect, it takes me about 30-45 minutes to install.Setup: Setting the sensors can be a bit frustrating if you want them to only turn on when there's something large going by. Otherwise, a small cat will set it off. We also had to orient the sensor significantly towards our property or else our neighbors would trigger the light when they came out their back door, which is 50+ feet away. Our one neighbor can still trigger it if he walks to a certain spot on his driveway, but he actually LIKES having that ability. Since it's solar powered, I couldn't care less! Note that, as the instructions state, the sensor can be a bit spotty depending on the weather. Extreme temperatures do sometimes cause the sensor to fail to trigger the light. However, this happens infrequently enough that it doesn't bother me at all. Also, ensure you orient the solar panel so that it gets as much direct sunlight as possible in the afternoon hours.Coverage: Using our backyard floodlight as an example, the center of the LED array is located just below the gutter, 7.5 feet off the ground. At this height, it lights approximately 15 square feet. Obviously, the center of this area is the brightest, but it's definitely bright enough to see anything on the ground throughout the majority of this area.I'm planning to purchase at least two more of these to light other sections of our backyard, since dogs don't exactly stay in the same area every time.UPDATE 01/31/2012: I now have 6 of these lights installed in our yard (not counting the aforementioned dual-head spotlight). All but one of the floodlights are working fine. That 6th one began failing a couple of months ago, so it worked fine for about 3-4 months. Now, the light hardly ever works, even after a full week of charging. It's out of warranty, so I may be out of luck. I did send an email to Maxsa, but other comments on Amazon seem to indicate that's a lost cause. Honestly, 1 failure out of 6 isn't TOO bad (7, if you count the other model of theirs I also own). I'll update this if/when I hear back from Maxsa.Sadly, the fact of the matter is there isn't something else on the market I could buy instead. If you know of another product (solar, LED, motion activated), please leave a comment.UPDATE 02/01/2012: I received a phone call from a representative at Maxsa only 5 hours after sending them a message via their website. He stated that it sounded like the battery might be the issue. Even though I was outside the warranty, he said it definitely shouldn't have failed after just 6 months and offered to send me a replacement battery at NO CHARGE. I can't say why other people seem to have had issues with Maxsa products and their support, but I certainly have nothing to complain about! If the Amazon seller doesn't offer you any help, I'd strongly suggest contacting Maxsa directly.If the battery doesn't fix the issue, the gentleman I spoke to said it could be a controller. If that's it, he said he'd have to charge me for it, since it's out of warranty. Given the replacement battery I was offered for free--again, outside of warranty--I can't very well complain about that. After all, I don't expect everything for free. If they'll work with me, I'll work with them.UPDATE 02/28/2012: I received the new battery in just a couple of days and installed the battery about a week later. Note that the connectors on the +/- wires are somewhat fragile. I needed to replace the connector on one of them after it broke in half. After a few days with the light turned off, so the battery could charge, I turned on the light and it has been working like a champ ever since.Excellent customer service and I still love these lights. We now have 8 of this model light in our yard and it's lit up beautifully for when the dogs play outside in the evening... and when cleaning up after them. No more flashlights necessary!UPDATE 04/08/2015: I finally needed to replace the batteries in 6 of the 8 lights around our property (@ ~$10 each). After the rapid and simple replacement, the lights went right back to their original brightness. Out of pure curiosity, I'm now tracking when the batteries were installed to see exactly how long they last. Additionally, there is a metal clip between the light enclosure and the adjustable arm it attaches to which rusted through and broke on our oldest light (6 years old). I used some Krazy Glue to reattach it and it's working just fine again. Also, I wanted to point out that many of these lights are installed directly where roof water pours right over the main body of the light and this hasn't caused any issues at all. I see that they've released a 100-LED version and will most likely move to that *IF* one of these ever dies or we decide to add more.

This is a nice bright light. However it quit working after only three weeks. I returned my practically new light to Maxsa and they sent to me a "reconditioned" light that had to have been two years old. It looked badly sun faded, the switch was broken, and the battery was completely discharged. I returned the reconditioned light along with a complaint letter and requested that they repair my original light. About two weeks later I received a light that could or could not have been mine, but it at least looked new. THIS LIGHT WORKED FOR ONLY ONE WEEK!. Did they simply return my old one unrepaired, or do all of their lights not work?? BTW, I also purchased a Maxsa 40235 Solar Wedge Light that quit working after less than three weeks. I have returned that light for repair also. As for the 40225, I will not waste my time and money to return it a second time.

I have used several Solar lights including 2 which purchased at home depot made by Zenith which are dim and broke twice in a year cost about $40.00 more. This light rocks its super bright and the motions work great. I have placed 2 on the gable peaks of the front of the house they are brite and being LED they dont use up at lot of battery. The housing is kind of cheap but since they are under the gable ends of the home they dont take too much weather damage. Update after 2 1/2 weeks one of the lights stopped working the other is still going strong. I have contacted Amazon since the seller can't be contacted and we have to go thru Amazon to return the light. Its a little bit of a pain in the neck. So I have to wait to get refunded and then order a new light they wont exchange the light.

I love this solar light. The color is a white bluish color and it is very bright. I like these color bulbs because it makes everything seem like their normal color in the daylight. It does not attract any bugs which is an added bonus. I set this up by our back gate as both a security light and because it is very dark there. As soon as your go by the sensor it turns right on. Our cars are parked right by our back gate and we tried sneaking up by it very slowly to see if it turns on. Guess what... it does! I say about 90% percent it turns on if you go very very slow. You can even move the sensor where you want it so thats not a problem. I used it right out of the box and I didn't even let it charge a day or two. It keeps a charge for a couple of days without sunlight as long as you only go by it a couple times a night. I also like how they have a timer for how long you want the light on. I think that is pretty much standard nowadays through.However there is only one thing that I do not like about it and it is how its made. You can tell that the plastic where you aim the LEDs is kinda cheap. I don't think that it really matters unless your move it all the time. If you do then I suggest doing it cautiously because it seems a little flimsy. That does not make it a deal breaker but its just something to consider if you need something with the ability to constantly move the LEDs.All said and done I would happily buy this solar light again again if I needed to. They are great because they really light up the area where you need it to. All you need to remember and to go up every so often to clean the solar panel because they do get dirty pretty dirty which limits the amount it gets from the sun.

so far this light is working very well,the only thing that i suggest is to not turn it on until you have had three full days of full sunlight,after that use the settings that the light has and make adjustments as needed..It is a very bright light and so far works great,i have ordered another solar light the same as the first,,and will use it on the front of my house where the first light is,for added safety..

very bright and dependable

These are overpriced and terrible quality...stay away!I purchased 3 of these lights and mounted them on my garage with the panels on a elevated platform on the roof to ensure they would receive full sunlight all year round.1 light died within the first 6 months.Remaining 2 lights died within the following 12 months.For the price I expected way better performance! Solar motion lights I purchased at a warehouse club for a third of the price of these have been working perfectly for 4 years at the same location.I also noticed when I was taking these lights down to toss in the garbage that the plastic housing had become so deteriorated due to exposure to UV that it cracked very easily as I simply moved the sensor.

I bought this light to serve as a motion detector floodlight. All the Solar LED lights I found at the home improvement stores had a maximum of 3 LED's in them. This has 80! It has useful adjustments and a pretty solid mounting base...just don't go crazy on tightening it down and crack the plastic. I have seen other reviews of people getting defective lights I have not had that experience mine has been working fine even in the winter. Apparently LED lights do not get hot so if they get iced over they will not melt it :)

Up north in Canada here, the unit completely died during first winter (after working flawlessly for 6 months prior). Very disappointing. While it may get really cold (-20C/-8F) here often during winter months, we get tons of sunshine so the unit was getting necessary "charging" from the sun.