Cheap Photo-Electric Tikis - care and feeding

This is about those plastic yard tikis you've seen and maybe bought from Target and Big Lots that have the photo-electric cells in the top. I bet your's didn't work when you got it home, did it? And since it was a bargin, there were probably no instruction that came with it. Well the problem is that most of us when we see the photo-electric cell assume that the battery is charged and powered by the cell. NOT SO! The photo electric cell is only there to turn the lights on and off depending on daylight or the rooms ambiant light. The battery is a standard AA cell or some other kind of battery that can be replaced by unscrewing the switch box at the bottom and replacing the battery. Most of these things were supplied with cheap generic batteries that probably were meant to last 2 or 3 hours at most and by the time they got put on the shelf for you to buy they were stone dead. Put a good AA battery in there and you'll be back in business.

Thanks for the tip. I was thinking it was the photo-cell thing that was defective.

OR , look for a small piece of tape ,preventing contact of the battery until removed by the consumer(you).

Some of the resin tikis DO have a solar charger though. It's a combination charger and photocell, it shuts the lights off during the day and recharges the battery. Putting an alkaline cell in a tiki that has a solar charger can be disasterous as the charger will not know the difference and will try to "recharge" the battery. That can result in the battery bursting. Just be sure that the battery that was in it to begin with was not a rechargable battery. Below are resin tikis that do have rechargable batteries in them, don't ever put a standard alkaline in these (these came from Garden Ridge but may be sold elsewhere as well):

[ Edited by: TikiTres 2010-07-15 15:03 ]

[ Edited by: TikiTres 2010-07-15 15:05 ]

When I got my resin tiki, the eyes lit up for about a week. So I opened it up last night to check it out. I'm surprised it lit up at all, since there was only one battery in the holder, when it needs two! Replaced the NiMH battery with two charged ones, and it works like a charm now. Thanks again!

Tiki Greg, look more closely at that second battery slot. Mine has two slots as well but the second slot has no contact points. You may only need one battery.

Darilyn

My battery pack is glued in and has no way to get the top off.
Oh well, it stays indoors just outside the bar.
If anyone knows how to get it out, I'm all ears.

EDIT: Mine are ones bought from Big Lots some time ago, they look similar to TikiTres' ones from Garden Ridge.

[ Edited by: Unkle John 2010-07-16 08:07 ]