Last Christmas I picked up the functional part of an Ikea SOLVINDEN lamp that has failed from my parent’s garden. I was curious what caused it to fail.
After charging the battery and putting it back in the lamp, nothing happened. The switch felt rather rusty when toggling. The randomness in me (or the kid) flicked the switch frantically a few more times and … boom! There came a spark of light. A few more flicks and the light stayed on but flickered. So it seems the switch was the failure point.
I soldered a bridge across it, since there is no actual use for the switch, other than keeping the lamp off between the factory and the garden.
Actually, there is one lamp on my terrace that has failed too. A quick investigation pointed to the same cause! The switch again rusted and failed. Quick fix and here are both lamps revived:
It’s just 2 lamps that failed so far, both in the same way. Anyone else having the same experience?
Next up, testing how good the batteries are.
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That’s the first thing I do when I’m buying solar lamps : desolder the switch before it has a chance to rust and replace it by a bit of wire. You can also sometimes revive an old dead lamp by replacing the battery.