8 Pack Solar Candy Cane Pathway Lights, 14.8 in, IP55 Rated

Description

Eight candy canes on stakes, wired together in a single run and fed by a small solar panel that pushes into the ground on its own spike. Each cane is 14.8 in tall and 6.1 in across the hook, and they come in four colours: red, blue, green and yellow, each striped with white. The canes are spaced 17.7 in apart on the wire, with a 6.2 ft lead back to the panel, giving a total run of about 10.9 ft.

How solar behaves in December

This is the part worth being straight about. A path light like this charges from a panel roughly the size of a playing card, and in late December most of the United States gets somewhere between 9 and 10 hours of daylight, much of it low angle and often overcast. The supplier quotes up to 12 hours of run time. That figure is what the battery will do after a full summer day of direct sun. In December, on a north facing path, under a tree, or after three grey days in a row, you should expect substantially less, and on the worst days you may get an hour or two rather than a full evening.

You can improve this a lot by treating the panel as a separate decision from the lights. The panel is on its own lead, so put the lights where you want them and put the panel wherever it gets the most unobstructed southern sky. Keep snow off it. A panel under an inch of snow produces nothing.

Modes and weather

There are eight lighting modes, from steady on through various chase, fade and twinkle patterns. Steady on draws the most power, so if run time matters more to you than movement, leave it on steady white or pick one of the slower fades. The set is IP55 rated, which covers rain and snow but not submersion, so avoid the spot at the bottom of the drive where meltwater pools.

Assembly

Each cane plugs onto its stake and into the wire. It takes a few minutes. Push the stakes in by hand into soft ground; if the ground is already frozen, make a pilot hole rather than forcing the plastic spike, which is the usual way these break.

CJ does not publish a battery capacity or a charge time for this set, so the 12 hour figure is the supplier’s own claim and we have not verified it.

Ships from a United States warehouse. Handling is 1 to 3 business days, transit 5 to 9 business days. For delivery before Christmas, order by Monday December 7.