I have a variety of solar powered lights around the house and I notice that after a while the lens gets cloudy (caused by the elements I'm sure) and they can no longer collect the much needed sunlight. I tried a couple of household cleaners to see if that would help... nada, zilch, zip. Then I remember hearing about some sort of cleaner to use on your vehicle's headlight covers so your lights can be seen better. Has anybody tried this? Or is there any other thing I can do for these lights, besides toss them out?
Cheryl, are the solar light covers plastic or glass? That makes a difference in the way you may clean them to be clear.
The plastic ones, I believe. For the glass ones... would a household window cleaner work or is that not a good idea?
I can smell an experiment a mile away......well....1..2..3..4...1797 miles away. If you end up about to toss the device away, there are several cleaners/product renewal products to try on a plastic lens. Without seeing anything, a plastic lens could deteriorate due to sun damage (UV light). I don't think you get dust storms so we can rule that out. Eyeglass cleaner is the first thing that comes to mind, at your local drug store. Plastic cleaner, in the supermarket cleaning product aisle. A product to be used outside with gloves on, acetone, available at any big box hardware store. And lastly as this would be an experiment, vinyl upholstery renewal/cleaner. The acetone may be a pour it on experiment, as opposed to a wipe it on with a paper towel type. Of course use it outside and wear gloves. I would be interested in what you try and the outcome. Thinking about it I may have a similar problem. Jerry
Cheryl, I did a search on cleaning plastic solar panels, and one recommendation was to use the green nylon kitchen cleaning pads well wetted, with Brasso, of all things! I'd try this on just one, since it really doesn't seem that Brasso is a cleaner for plastic, but who knows?
I'll give it a try tomorrow on one of the cheapy ones. It really wouldn't hurt my feelings to toss the cheap ones... but I do have one that's attached to a pretty stake with a butterfly and glass ball. I would like for it to work at least one more year.
