Blingstring Outdoor Solar Fairy Lights with 120 LED Bulbs

Everyone's heard the expression `cheap and cheerful' and it certainly applies to these fairy lights - in the best possible way! One of the least expensive solar-powered versions you can buy, but these little fellas are great - bright little points of light that really cheer up your house or garden when the night comes.

OK; first the practical stuff. Assembly couldn't be easier - there really isn't any! Just fit the ground spike (or the wall mount if you're using that), wind out the string, arrange it artistically around your plants or whatever, and switch on. There's a good bit of wire before the first of the lights, so you shouldn't have any problems finding a suitable place to mount the solar cell as per the instructions. Granted you'll have to wait until it goes dark to actually see them in operation, but that's about all there is to it.

Now the positives. They hard to beat for adding a bit of fun to a dark corner, where running conventional lights and electric cables would be impractical, undesirable or just down-right impossible - but then that's true of any solar-powered anything. What makes these lights really good though is firstly, for their size they belt out a fair old bit of punch, there's 120 of them and you can chose between `on' and `pulsating' modes. All in all, they add up to a fun package for a very modest outlay.

Any negatives? Well, I suppose if you were looking for lights that look particularly decorative when they're NOT on (during the day), then they probably aren't for you - but by that token, nor are most of the other versions of solar fairy lights around either (not at any price) so that probably doesn't count. No, sorry - struggling to find anything I didn't like about them.

I know they say you get what you pay for - and it's usually true - but in this case I'd have to disagree. Don't let the low price put you off; these little lights really are a bargain!

The lights themselves are fine. Nice and bright with enough bulbs/cable to give good coverage on a small conifer tree (kept around 10-12ft high) in my front garden. The flashing setting is good too and hopefully uses less energy than always on so they last longer. But.....

I followed the instructions on the included leaflet and pointed the solar panel south at an optimal angle for our low winter sun at this time of year. I also let it charge for 4 days (manual says at least 3) before using them (2 of which actually had decent sunlight), so I was a bit miffed when they didn't stay on for very long... going off by the time I got home around 8pm one evening. So I have just tested charging them in my intelligent battery charger AccuCell BC-700 / 9 in 1 intelligent Battery Charger and it turns out that one of the batteries is in fact a dud, stopping charging at approx 125mAh instead of the rated 1000mAh.

Get what you pay for I guess. If the batteries had been ok I would give this item 4 stars, so probably worth a punt if you are after some decent fairy lights for a small outdoor tree without wanting the hassle of wiring them up to the mains.

These lights are great for camping. They are not bright enough to read by etc, but give enough light for relaxing in the evening over a glass of wine and putting the world to rights with mates. Just set up the solar panel outside the tent thread lights around inside the tent, and the lights will switch themselves on automatically as the light levels drop. You can switch them off so they won't disturb you when you turn in. You can set them to flashing mode ..... limited use when camping, unless you want an impromptu disco. Excellent value, work well and add a bit of fun and comfort. Highly recommended for camping. Excellent service from The Solar Centre.