Forgot that … aiming at hand-held, non pressurised, trigger activated small sprayer. About 500ml. What you would use to mist your indoor plants or spray the bugs or weeds around your vege plot. I thought I would stay away from pumped pressure vessels as that opens up a whole new category for pressure resistance, seals, sizes, hand, trolley, backpack etc.
2 Likes
Yes. I use them for all sorts of stuff. Can even clean them when gets a bit clogged up, and works fine again. My favourite ones👍
3 Likes
Is the reasonable customer expectation be for the fairy lights to last 5 years or more and the spray bottle to last 3 or more?
Reasonable expectation of customers will change to reflect the community norms. We live today with environment and recycling, minimising waste and re-usability.
It’s reasonable for lights to have an expression of life or reflect the general knowledge/expectation of our community. Fairy lights for most people would be expected to last the general expectation of “solar panel” or “LED” life times as they are the features promoted. 20 years for solar and 7 years for LED so consumers are expecting manufacturers to make the product to last as long as the selling feature “Solar” “LED”. So 7 years of expected life at least.
Many spray bottles are constructed using seals and lubricants to assist sealing and movement of the trigger mechanism. The failure of these bottles would likely come from UV attack, chemical stripping lubricants or seal degradation and sealing surface abrasion. This would then require you to keep the bottle inside, only load liquid with no particles in it and with a neutral ph and no surfactants. The reasonable consumer would read the bottle then load in the liquid that doesn’t meet disqualification from the bottle information. Just checked a common spray bottle and the front cover says UV Resistant and on the back “keep out of direct sunlight” The reasonable consumer would be confused and default to headline/front cover information as that’s clearly the message the supplier wants them to focus on.
The question to ask the retailer is “what is the reasonable life of this product?” and whatever the answer, the question to follow is “why?” If the why doesn’t reflect reasonable information available (including printed on the product) to the general public then it’s not reasonable and you’d be valid asking again for an assessment. Finally asking who in the business represents their community and environmental standards. Ask this person for a reflection of a product and the business standards. If a company is happy to profiteer from poor customer outcomes then get it in writing for everyone to consider.
sufficiently “geared” for arthritic hands to operate for a reasonable time without pain!
1 Like
Welcome to the community @Besser
The following is the official guidance:
An extract.
Looking to the low cost trigger sprays on the shelves of the large retailers and discount stores there can be few if any details on what uses they are suitable for. Does the responsibility fall to the seller to provide that at the point of sale or the consumer to ensure they check before purchase?
3 Likes
The ACL also considers price and quality of the product. That will include considering all the materials used and design of the other elements of the purchased product.
For cheap Solar fairy light sets it’s possible the LEDs used do have a long life expectancy. Is it reasonable to expect the remainder of the product is of the same standard and meets the same life outcome? The price of the packaged product is a useful guide, noting quality solar PV panels are expensive to produce, as are quality rechargeable batteries.
What one might expect of a quality product. Transformer or rechargeable solar PV power source extra.
1 Like
Agree on both items.
Fairy Lights
Bought a couple of sets two Christmases ago. Next Christmas, turned them on - nothing!
So bought two more sets (for last Christmas).
After that Christmas I decided that maybe prolonged light on the solar panels was the problem, so I covered the panels up with tape. Not really expecting much, but will wait and see.
However I do know that lithium-ion batteries (if that’s what they have) do NOT like heat.
Spray Bottles
Most of mine always eventually fail, regardless of what was in them.
However, I’ve always bought cheap bargain stuff, so have never expected much.
Hopefully the adhesive used on the tape will not react with the protective film on the panels or prove difficult to remove next year without damaging the panel.
It’s very unlikely the lights will use lithium-ion batteries as they are relatively expensive. They are not readily interchangeable with other battery types and require more sophisticated charge management, adding to the cost.
The light sets I’m most familiar with use a single cheap low capacity Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) battery. Our most common experience over time has been corrosion of the metal contact strips in the battery holder. We have several Christmas character sets that are definitely not from the bargain shop. They’ve survived being put away and brought out for 5 seasons. If you can remove the battery when not in use it’s a good idea, and to smear a little silicon grease on the contacts for storage. For one only we have replaced the battery (as suggested in the user instructions if the unit ceases to hold charge after several years).
Note the solar cells have some form of plastic/resin which clouds over time. They so far continue to work in bright sunlight. Jaycar and EBay/Amazon are all useful sources of replacement mini PV cells if one is keen on self repair. One way to get extra life out of the $10-$20 bargain bin lights without sending it all to recycling or landfill.
2 Likes
I bought solar lights almost exactly one year ago for a friends’ birthday - he has used them indoors, outdoors and carted them between his beach house ands home. One year later they’re still going strong - they were from https://solagarden.com.au - they weren’t cheap but you get what you pay for it seems. I’m about to buy more for Christmas gifts.
Spray bottles, I’ve bought several from Ikea and again still going strong.
2 Likes
I’m not sure if the solar panel/battery container can be dismantled, but if it can, I’ll definitely have a go at cleaning the terminals, etc.
I wasn’t really expecting that I had solved the problem by taping the solar panels, but it cost nothing, so why not.
It makes sense that these cheap light sets would not have li-ion batteries.
Another pump spray bottle that infuriates me are the insect repellent sprays. These much smaller bottles can be handy for al-sorts of sprays, but I’ve rarely even used all the repellent, let alone re-purposed them.
yep mine all have nihm batteries and i either swap them with better
or cut the umbilical cord and solder on my own 6v power source to power the lights,
its usually brighter because all the mass cheap bulbs seem to be the same rating
but they pair them with variety of cheap battery arrangements does not deliver as much current the brightness varies between products.
Buying a great quality Christmas lights product should give you years of enjoyment.That are nice and bright.But don’t leave them outside for the whole year because the weather will get to them
