Luci Lights BOGO February 25, 2020, 05:10:31 pm Many of us enjoy Luci Lights for outside 'night lights' and many use them inside the rig, too! The BOGO offer on several of Mpowerd's products may be of interest to some.Collections – MPOWERD Inc.
Re: Luci Lights BOGO Reply #1 – February 26, 2020, 06:19:31 pm That's a good deal, Joan!I got a Luci light a couple of years ago to use as a bedside light. It had a nice soft glow and just the right brightness for those early-morning trips to the bathroom. (I bought the one with frosted plastic, rather than the clear one.) I loved the idea of solar recharging. But over time, I found it had drawbacks--mainly the solar charging part.Because the lamp is lightweight and top-heavy, even a modest breeze will topple it, and then of course it no longer charges. That often happened when I set it out on a picnic table to charge. A stronger wind would blow it away from my campsite; that happened a few times. Hanging it up might have worked, but I don't have anything hang it from that won't partially shade it. And its wafer-thin battery doesn't last very long, so I had to recharge it more often than I'd have liked. Once out of power, the lamp was useless until recharged, which could be several days if the weather was windy or cloudy. Since there was no other way to recharge it, that was annoying.Another problem was that the sun heated the air inside it and made it balloon up. And when it got blown over, the bottom was exposed to the sun, got hot, and softened... then bulged permanently due to the hot air inside. After that, it wouldn't sit flat any longer, which was annoying. I eventually managed to mostly flatten the base by holding it high above a stove burner to soften it and then mashing it down on a counter until it cooled, but that was risky, and it was never really the same. After a couple of years I stopped using the Luci light and instead bought an apple-sized Moji lamp. It's powered by three rechargeable AAA batteries (not included; I use Eneloop batteries) that last much longer than the Luci lamp's battery. I recharge them in a 12 V charger that's powered by my rig's solar/battery system. The Moji lamp gives more light than the Luci lamp (100 lumens maximum vs. 65 lumens), but is a fraction of its physical size, so it takes up less space on my bedside table. When the batteries run down, I just swap in another set and recharge the first set.The Luci light is a great idea, and I know many people like them. It has the advantage that you need not swap batteries to recharge. If I had a house, I might string them around the porch. But for my purposes, it turned out that the Moji lamp was a better solution. The $25 Moji lamp I bought can be set to white or to any color desired, and to a wide range of brightnesses; the photo below shows mine set to amber and minimum brightness. (If set to white and maximum brightness, it's MUCH brighter than shown here. But for late-night use, I prefer the softer amber glow.) There's also a $20 white-only version, which also has adjustable brightness.There are lots of choices in the "LED camp light" category, and there may be others that are even better; I'm just describing my own experience.
Re: Luci Lights BOGO Reply #2 – February 27, 2020, 02:10:57 pm I’m a big fan of Luci’s. We have three of them and use them for most of our evening lighting, supplemented when necessary (like when cooking) by the rig’s overhead lights. I charge the 3 of them each day by placing them in an open shoebox, weighted with a few modest stones. I can tilt the box to get more direct rays, and haven’t had any problems with wind. We’re in our 13th year of doing just fine with one solar panel, even with some tv watching. That’s becoming less of a factor these days now that we’ve started downloading shows from Netflix to view on the iPad (with earbuds for better sound). Our minimalism certainly isn’t for most (we don’t full time), but it has worked well for us. — Jon
Re: Luci Lights BOGO Reply #3 – February 27, 2020, 04:05:51 pm "I charge the 3 of them each day by placing them in an open shoebox, weighted with a few modest stones."Good idea, Jon! And compared to my elaborate solar/battery system, your minimalism has saved you thousands of dollars that can be spent on traveling or other worthwhile things.
Re: Luci Lights BOGO Reply #4 – February 27, 2020, 06:59:54 pm We have had several Luci lights over the years which we used daily at home, and all have eventually deteriorated and become useless, falling apart. For solar devices, it is strange that they will not survive UV exposure for the years of use they theoretically were designed for in remote resource-poor neighborhoods. used only for a few RV trips a year, they may last longer.Steve
Re: Luci Lights BOGO Reply #5 – February 27, 2020, 07:07:39 pm "all have eventually deteriorated and become useless, falling apart."I'm curious, Steve: did the electrical parts fail, or just the vinyl envelope? If the latter, perhaps there's some way to repurpose these lights. If you stripped off the vinyl, you'd have a thin disc incorporating a solar panel, battery, switch, and LEDs. If you covered the LEDs with a disc of translucent plastic (say, cut from a notebook cover), and hung the whole thing inside a window, maybe it would be useful...? Just brainstorming here. Of course if the electrical parts (e.g., the battery) fail, then it really is useless.
Re: Luci Lights BOGO Reply #6 – February 27, 2020, 07:10:24 pm "...all have eventually deteriorated and become useless, falling apart."----Yeah, that's pretty much what's happened to me, too, Steve!
Re: Luci Lights BOGO Reply #7 – February 27, 2020, 08:08:32 pm Quote from: Andy Baird - February 27, 2020, 07:07:39 pmI'm curious, Steve: did the electrical parts fail, or just the vinyl envelope? If the latter, perhaps there's some way to repurpose these lights. If you stripped off the vinyl, you'd have a thin disc incorporating a solar panel, battery, switch, and LEDs.Mostly the plastic encapsulation, and I did several things similar to re-purpose them, but eventually the battery packs started to bulge, which I deemed unsafe. We have one we still carry in the rig, but haven't used it yet. My concern is that I think these things are poorly made for their target market in third-world applications, where poor durability would make them expensive in the long run.
Re: Luci Lights BOGO Reply #8 – February 28, 2020, 06:37:34 pm Wow. I’m surprised at Steve & Joan’s reports of Luci deterioration. Ours are several years old and no signs of wear. Guess we’re camping a lot less. — Jon
Re: Luci Lights BOGO Reply #9 – February 29, 2020, 01:02:21 pm Quote from: Jon & Loni - February 28, 2020, 06:37:34 pmWow. I’m surprised at Steve & Joan’s reports of Luci deterioration. Ours are several years old and no signs of wear. Guess we’re camping a lot less. — JonWe have owned Luci lights for several years and they work great but the are only used occasionally, similar to Jon's usage Steve's Luci lights were used as nights light at home and were recharged everyday. It took a couple years for them to to decay to the point that Steve could not repair them.If these are the same Luci lights that are provided to third-world countries, they have too short a life span for an object that should last years, used daily. A better UV resistant plastic should have been used, as Steve pointed out.For our occasional needs, Luci lights work fine, Larry
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Topic: Luci Lights BOGO (Read 362 times)
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