I often look at photos of the Maldives, the long boardwalk out to the villas over the sea, small pools of lights lining up the edges of the walkway stretching all the way out. A trip there is a little out of the way, but with a long drive way, I could pretend I am there with some Quntis Blue & White Aluminum Solar Deck Lights Warning Step Lights.
First Impressions
These deck lights are a sealed unit with an aluminium alloy chassis, as you would expect being IP68 rated. That means the highest level against dust ingression and duration tested of up to 8 hours based on airflow.
It also has the highest level of protection for continuous immersion in water. Whilst there is no defined test metrics, it is generally for up to 3 metres.
The top of the unit is the monocrystalline silicon solar panels, converting light even in rainy weather to be stored in the build-in 600mAh battery. It is rated for continuous illumination for up to 20 hours after a 4 to 6 hours full charging cycle.
There is a total of eight LED beads behind the diffusion panel.
In Use
There is really nothing to it. The biggest decisions you need to make is what colour LED you want when it is in operation – there is the option of white or blue. The second decision is where to place your units.
My intentions for these deck lights is to pretend I am in the Maldives, no really. Actually I just want them to mark the edges of my driveway so they are better defined when the flood lights are off.
Which means for the first few weeks, I just plonk these down where I think they would best serve my mission while I take notice of whether it is doing what I want.
The dimensions, small enough to pretty much just fit in my hand, makes it simple to move and reposition.
The marketing says the light has a 500m visible distance, so I took it down the road where I have a straight stretch to work with. There were some street lights but even with that I could see the blue LED 300m down the road. So the claims of a decent visible distance wasn’t completely exaggerated.
Each unit has two mounting holes along with the bits and bobs to secure crews into masonry and brickwork. The only complaint I have is that the provided screws are standard Phillips head type. I feel some sort of security screw would be more appropriate. Nothing that can’t be fixed with a trip to the hardware store I suppose.
Alternatively Quntis has included some double sided tape if mounting it is not an option or not preferable.
Just remember you need to set the LED colour before installation!
If you are worried about whether putting it along the driveway is a good idea, these are rated to withstand up to 20 tonnes on them.
Conclusions
The Quntis Solar Deck Lights are discreet, low profile units that withstands me parking my car on them. In an urban environment you are not going to get a lot of brightness out of them, but they are sufficient for my use case. I just need some definition to the edges of my driveway as I am coming up the road and before the floodlights kick in.
Priced at AUD$61.99 for a pack of four, they are pretty enough when you have them out in the garden or deck when you are having a little chill out time, or just give you enough light to go by without having to turn on flood lights.
They are available in packs of four at time of publishing down to $52.69. With solar recharging, they are just set, forget and enjoy.
DRN would like to thank Quntis for providing the review unit.
