You’d be surprised what a little thing could do. The packaging box was only about 6 x 3.5 x 3.5 inches big, so you’d think nothing of it. But when you open it, you’ll find yourself a functional solar-powered light. I am referring to the Volmate 16 LED Outdoor LED Motion Solar Light as shown below:

The package contains the following:
– the solar light unit
– 2 screws
– 1 pin
– instruction manual

It’s an LED light, so you’d expect at least 50,000 hours of life out of this — which is usually the standard for LED lights. There are 16 LED lights inside that together put out a good amount of light; each individual LED light can be seen when the power turns on. The rows and columns of LED lights can be seen in the photo below. The LED lights have one bluish/aqua plastic covering over all of them to filter and distribute the light evenly and give you a decent output of light.

The light has a small hint of blue in it, perhaps due to the bluish/aqua-colored covering. But I prefer that color hue over a yellow light. It appears brighter that way.

The sales material states that the solar unit can last up to 12 hours on a single charge. I haven’t stayed up awake at night long enough to verify how long it really can last given its current location. All I know, based on the sales material, is that the 3.7V lithium-ion battery has a capacity of 800mAH. More than likely, it should last long and perhaps it can last up to 12 hours as claimed because this light does not stay on ‘bright’ mode the whole night. It’s motion activated, so when motion is detected, the dimmer switches to bright light as needed. Basically, you have a light in dim mode when nothing’s going on, but becomes more intense and brighter when the sensor detects a motion within at least 2 meters.

Now, don’t be surprised if the solar light does not seem to work straight from the box. That is because there is an important step that needs to be done first, which requires the use of the included pin. You’ll find the pin in the same little plastic container where the screws are kept.

Notice that the solar unit has a label that says “On/Off” on the surface. There’s a hole next to this. Insert the pin inside that hole and push in. You’ll hear a click. This will activate the device and now you can get it to work.

It’s a safety feature to make sure that the battery is not drained during transit/shipment/storage. All it is really, in my opinion, is a manual power button hidden within. It’s a good thing actually, especially if you use this light for security reasons, because no one can turn off the device without your knowledge (unless they know that there’s a hidden button inside and carry around a pin somewhere to deactivate the unit).

What I like about this Volmate Outdoor LED Motion Sensor Solar Light is that there are no power cables to run. The LED lights and solar panel to charge the battery is housed in the same unit. That is a very convenient feature. That means I can install this light anywhere outside, really. Just make sure it’s at an area where the sunlight can hit the solar cells.

There are 2 pre-drilled holes where the screws can go. That folded part where the screws are located is at a 90-degree angle to the main light.

The only drawback to this is that you can’t adjust the direction of the light as needed. It doesn’t have any hinges to adjust the light beam, so the main light beam points downward. This works best right above a door, as you can imagine. The light does spread at an angle though, so it should light up the surrounding environment enough to make this visible.

In case you were wondering where to purchase a solar light like this, the Volmate 16 LED Outdoor LED Motion Solar Light is currently available on Amazon at a 70 percent discount at the time of this writing.