Fix those solar lights

Last year we bought some cheaper solar lights to light up the sidewalk around our house. And if you have bought them before you know that they are made out of plastic. The lights themselves have been working great but the stakes that attach to the light are plastic, meaning they break really easy.

Over the past year most of the spike stakes have broken in some way or they hold the light up at an angle. I was getting tired of finding them blown over by the wind or knocked over by anything.

So to solve my problem, I took a 5/8″ wooden dowel (that I had on hand) and cut the dowel to 9″-10″ pieces.

TIP: Wood will not last forever, the hardware store sells rebar that is about 12″ long for less than a $1 a piece, this could be another option. 

Then I took a hammer and hammered the dowel halfway into the dirt, making sure the dowel was straight.

I then removed the old stake from the light and inserted the dowel in its place.

And now I have steady and straight solar lights…

Do you have this problem with your solar lights? Or do you have problems with the light themselves? I have heard that you can replace the rechargeable battery with a better one to fix the lighting problem, we need to do this to the lights around our garden boxes.