How To Clean Solar Lights?

How to clean solar lights? It is usually to clean the bulbs, cloudy panels, batteries, and surroundings every once in a while to maintain the lifespan. Solar lights light up outdoor areas like backyards, pathways, and gardens. However, they can also get dirty, yellow, and fade from constant exposure outside all the time. While there is little to no maintenance required for outdoor solar lights, they require proper cleaning to ensure proper function and illumination. We provide a few easy maintenance steps to help clean cloudy solar lights.

Why Clean Solar Lights

Solar lights can collect dust and grime as time passes. They gather on the panels, blocking the sunlight from reaching the solar panel. So the light will be dimmed. In addition, the dirt will eventually cause rusting in the metal components of your solar panel. These factors are completely unavoidable. Hence, you should clean your solar panels. It allows you to check for any problems earlier on.

Tools of Clear Solar Lights

Sandpaper or a soft bristle brush

Solar panels may have some accumulated debris and dirt. So, we use sandpaper or a soft bristle brush to scrub off any stubborn dirt on your solar lights.

Dish Soap

We need a detergent to help us loosen the dirt so it can be wiped off easily.

Painting tape.

Cover the plastic part of the light with painting tape. Don’t use sticky tape like duct or packing tape. This will be difficult to remove and will leave sticky residue behind.

Cloth or towel

You can damp cloth to remove loose dirt or clean off the residue soap. After cleaning, you can use a dry cloth or towel to completely dry out the lights.

Clear coat spray

A clear coat spray is a transparent paint to protect it from damage and UV rays. It also gives a glossy finish that deepens the base color quality and lets you easily buff out scratches. So, we use this spray to make our solar cells bright as they used to be.

Step By Step Guide to Clean Solar Lights

1, Turn Off the Lights

Before cleaning the solar lights, please turn off the lights to avoid any electrical hazards.

2, Clean the Panels and Bulbs

The surface of light bulbs is very smooth. So, the debris and dirt come off of it very easily. To clean your light bulb, here are follow the steps.

a. Lightly dampen a smooth cloth or paper towel. Then rub the panel to remove loose debris or dirt.

b. If you do not remove all of the debris from the panel, please give it a more thorough cleaning. We need dish soap to help us loosen the dirt until all the grime is removed. You can also use vinegar and water solution for tougher stains.

c. The remaining soap scum attracts more dirt. You can damp cloth to clean off the residue soap until all the soap is gone.

d. You can use a dry cloth to wipe the moisture or let it dry naturally.

3, Restore Cloudy Solar Panels

a. Cover the plastic part of the light with painting tape so that the water does not leak inside the panel. In addition, this can also protect the metal from getting scratched or grazed with the cleaning process. Take painting tape and mark off the border of the solar panel. Then cover the entire plastic area with painting tape.

b. Take a sponge and rinse it with soap water. Scrub the panel and remove any grime. Then wipe it down with a clean, wet rag to remove any suds.

c. You can spray it with lacquer to stay shiny and cleaner.

4, Remove Battery Corrosion

The solar light battery is one of its most components. If solar lights are not working, it may be due to battery corrosion. To avoid this, you can clean the battery from corrosion.

a. If you see corrosion in the battery compartment, first put gloves on. Then pop out the batteries.

b. Put a drop of vinegar on the corroded areas.

c. Scrub off the corrosion with a soft bristle brush. Alkaline batteries are much more prone to corrosion. If you were using alkaline batteries in the light. Replace them with solar batteries to prevent corrosion in the future.

d, Put fresh batteries in and see if the light works.

e, To ensure longer solar light battery life, leave your lights in a spot where they can catch direct sunlight for three days.

5, Surroundings.

You clean any plant trees or shrubs that may block the sun. Then your solar panels have full sun exposure.

Conclusion

Cleaning solar lights is not a very hard task. They allow outdoor solar lights to shine as bright as they possibly can. Therefore, you need to clean them every once in a while.