# - Sylvania LED Power Failure Night Light -



## sed6 (Jan 12, 2008)

Well, these rock! I've had a few of the $10 incan power failure light you see in stores, even modded them with drop-in led bulbs, but was never happy with the results or price. A simple Google search turned up these lights which I now adore.







Up top is a single led which serves as a photo sensor controlled night light when plugged in. Below that we see the photo sensor, a charge/power status led, then the power slide switch. On the bottomside are 3 leds in a small reflector with a slightly covex plastic lens.






Operation is simple, just slide the switch between Auto, Off and On. On means the flashlight is on, night light is off, plugged into the wall or not. Off means everything is off. Auto means the flashlight will come on when power is lost and the night light is turned on via the photo sensor. A simple but well thought control.






The nightlight is bright. I'd say as bright or brighter than you typical 4W night light bulb. If you find it too bright you could pop off the protective clear 'dome' and put a single wrap of wax paper around the inside to calm it down. Or you could do like I did and replace the white led with a red led. I prefer a red night light in my bathroom as it's easier on the eyes in the middle of the night.






The flashlight works well too. It puts out the same amount of light as my solitaire with a Super MJLED, more than enough to navigate around your dark house. No it won't blind an intruder, nor will will impress your friends, but it met my expectations for output. As far as runtime, well I got bored after about 3 hours and plugged it back in.






This is a well built light. First time you pick one up you notice it's heft. My 250lbs could not damage it by standing on it, not even close. Taking the light apart to mod is a bear. I had to use two 18" sections of PVC from my local hardware store as 'breaker bars' to pop the clear dome off. I inserted the dome in one tube and slid the other tube around the body and pushed and pushed. Finally 1/4 of the dome came loose. So I rotated it 90-degrees and did it again. Finally I got it off with only very minor cosmetic damage. The bezel on the flashlight end comes next. For that I used a strap wrench to rotate the bezel about 45-degrees. This caused some internal notches to become mis-aligned thereby leaving a tiny gap between the bezel and body. Use the gap, and pry the bezel off. Yeah, lots of work and the hard part is still to come, seperating the body halves. Each seam has three of your regular everyday tabs which lock into the opposite half and form a tight bond. Probably the tightest bond I've ever encountered from such a fastening method. None the less, some judicious prying will eventually seperate the two body halves.






Inside you'll find three shrink wrapped button cells making a battery of 3.6v. I didn't determine the milliamps, but it's surely low. After I changed the night light led to a red one I reassembled the light. I used a small drop of hot glue on the tip of the switch to stop the rattle between it and the body slider.






The lights are available online for between $10-$13 each depending on where you look. However I picked up a 3-pack at Sams Club on 1/5 for just $19.95! I loved the lights so much I bought a 3-pack for my fiancee and my brother. Hope you liked!


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## TooSharp (Jan 12, 2008)

Nice Review. I was at my in laws the other day and they had them throughout their house. Best night light I've come across yet. We stayed the night there and we put one by the kids bed with the flashlight on unplugged and I went in halfway through the night and shut the light off, it was still burning strong.


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## The_LED_Museum (Jan 12, 2008)

I purchased one of these at a grocery store in Sacramento CA. USA in late-October of last year.
I too have thus far found it to be well-constructed & reasonably bright (47,300mcd). :thumbsup:


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## DaveG (Jan 12, 2008)

Agree with you guys,I got one for Christmas and was quite happy with it.


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## 8686 (Jan 12, 2008)

I got 2 at Lowes for ~$10. I am planning to get more!


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## Stereodude (Jan 13, 2008)

8686 said:


> I got 2 at Lowes for ~$10. I am planning to get more!


Where did Lowes have them hidden at? And, was that price each, or for both?


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## woodrow (Jan 15, 2008)

What a frincredibly great idea...a nightlight that comes on when the power goes out...and you can take out from the wall and use as a makeshift flashlight until you get to a real one. Brilliant! Thanks for the review!


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## 83Venture (Jan 15, 2008)

I also picked up a 3 pack from SAMS for $19.99. Thanks for the find.


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## sed6 (Jan 15, 2008)

woodrow said:


> What a frincredibly great idea...a nightlight that comes on when the power goes out...and you can take out from the wall and use as a makeshift flashlight until you get to a real one. Brilliant...


 
:twothumbs


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## houtex (Jan 15, 2008)

I picked up a 3 pack at Sam's a couple of weeks back.Used one in my dogs' house,one of the dogs got a hold of it,cracked it all to hell,but guess what ,it still worked.


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## 8686 (Jan 15, 2008)

Stereodude said:


> Where did Lowes have them hidden at? And, was that price each, or for both?



They were in an end of aisle display by the light switches (I am looking for an inwall light timer for fluorescent lights) and were $10 each.

Perhaps this is one case where it is better to belong to Sam's Club instead of Costco!


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## JetskiMark (Jan 15, 2008)

Thanks for the nice review. Too bad it monopolizes both outlets. That rules it out as a replacement for the old power failure lights I already have.

Regards,
Mark


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## sed6 (Jan 15, 2008)

JetskiMark said:


> Thanks for the nice review. Too bad it monopolizes both outlets. That rules it out as a replacement for the old power failure lights I already have.
> 
> Regards,
> Mark


 
Not so fast, try one of these...






I did this in one bathroom. Clearly the bottom and left most outlet are still quite usable. This arrangement also leaves the test/reset buttons free on my GFCI.


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## 83Venture (Jan 16, 2008)

Theres a solution I never thought of.


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## geepondy (Jan 16, 2008)

Are those available at Lowes as well?



sed6 said:


> Not so fast, try one of these...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## London Lad (Jan 16, 2008)

Are they 110 volts only or will they take 230 etc


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## xevious (Jan 16, 2008)

London Lad said:


> Are they 110 volts only or will they take 230 etc


Sorry, 120V AC/60 Hz. I guess it would be too much to use a power converter for one of these.


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## London Lad (Jan 16, 2008)

Oh well :-(


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## mitchfried (Jan 16, 2008)

Also available at BJ's!!


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## Phaserburn (Jan 17, 2008)

If anyone has the chance to get an extra 3pack at Sams, I'd be happy to buy it from ya...


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## sed6 (Jan 18, 2008)

I'll get you a 3 pack. PM sent.


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## Vbeez (Jan 18, 2008)

Anybody have the the 220v version ?


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## London Lad (Jan 18, 2008)

Is there a 220 version ?


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## Illum (Jan 18, 2008)

mmm.... :thinking:
H110BC NIMH
looks like three of these stacked in series, each 1.2V 110mah
if I'm guessing correctly, each LEDs at most getting 13ma or so if you ran this for 3 hours straight


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## 83Venture (Jan 20, 2008)

They put out quite a bit of light. A little brighter than the wife liked so I pluged it in upside down so it projects into the floor instead of the ceiling and that helped. 

One of them when I did this left the 3 flashlight LEDs dimly lit, the other two they stayed off. The Plug does not have different sizes and it seems to work OK. Any reason to think using it this way will be a problem?


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## turboBB (Jan 21, 2008)

Scott, thx for the post! I've been looking for something just like this and picked up 2 packs from Sam's yesterday.

83Venture,
All 3 that I opened from one pack have the 3 LEDs dimly lit when plugged in. I also noticed in Scott's first pic that it seems to be the case with his as well so perhaps this is normal?

Sorry but not sure if there'll be problems with using it plugged in upside down. IMO, I don't think it would be an issue since the plugs are not polarized but I'll defer that for the experts on this forum to answer.

Tim


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## sed6 (Jan 21, 2008)

Indeed, on all of mine (any my fiancee's) the three leds glow dimly. I believe it is something in the light circuit to prevent the battery from becoming overcharged. I say this because 1) if you unplug and run the light for a period of time, when you plug it back in the three LED's are off (for awhile, until the battery charges up again?) and 2) my first powerfailure light (an incan to led mod) which is a different brand and style of light does the same thing.


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## 83Venture (Jan 22, 2008)

I checked the other two lights. The 3 LEDs do light up but it takes a little time. When I first checked them I just pluged them in to check and then back out before they started up.


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## bobski (Aug 6, 2011)

I bought one of these from lowes back in '10. The power failure function died sometime between then and this spring. I picked up a replacement today and set about finding out what went wrong. As soon as I got the case open, it was perfectly apparent what happened:


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## Illum (Aug 6, 2011)

NIMH blew out... likely the two piece charge circuit [resistor+diode] went out caused the cell to overcharge, or there was a short between contacts... or both.


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