Clever Life Company Small Solar Sensor Light Review

With a rash of car burglaries in our area (some of them caught on film by our security cameras), we set out to find a way to brighten our driveway to help those cameras capture more clear footage to give to the police.

We've been using the Clever Life Company motion sensor light for over a month now and I thought it was time I write a detailed review.

This is one of the smallest security lights we found - ideal when you belong to an HOA that doesn't like you to mess around with the look of your property. It's held up well - including through the ultimate test of weather here in Arizona....monsoon season.

For us, we specifically needed a light that would detect when someone came near our daughter's car in the driveway at night. This would serve multiple purposes.

First, it would help provide additional lighting for our daughter who often comes home when it's dark. She could more easily make sure nothing was in her way before she pulled into her spot and also better see her bag and belongings in the car once she'd turned it off.

Second, it would help the security camera capture better footage of anyone who approached the car at night.

Third, it would - perhaps - scare off any potential car burglars as they might suspect the light indicated someone was home or had been alerted to their presence.

However, the Clever Life Company light is so easy to install that it could easily be used in other ways. Because it's solar you almost have to use it outside unless you leave it outside during the day and put it in a dark, interior space at night - but that would be a pain, I'd think.

It could, though, be used to light up a backyard area where you take your pet out at night or used along a side entrance to your house where your front lights might not reach.

We have a putting green in our backyard (it is Phoenix, after all!) and while we have a set of electric lights built into the wall that runs alongside the putting green, I would much prefer solar lights as they're cheaper to run and there's no lack of sun here.

This small, solar light is a great solution for anywhere you have plenty of sun during the day but need a bit of extra light at night and don't want to pay to have an electric solution installed.

Features

• SMALL - Again, size was an important issue for us because of our community HOA guidelines. We just didn't want something huge and obnoxious attached to the front of our house. This was perfect. It's compact and very lightweight yet sturdy. While I wish it came in tan instead of black to better blend into our house, I believe I could tape off the sensor, solar panel and light and paint the exterior plastic a color that would match the house.
• SOLAR - I want solar everything! We live in an area of the country that gets an average of 299 days of sunshine a year. We've got power dripping from the sky so if I need something outside and there's a solar version, count me in. We tested this before we installed it by putting it outside for a full day and then manually gauging the motion sensitivity and the amount of time the light would last. It lasted all night and for a few hours into daylight before needing more sunlight to recharge.
• EASY TO HANG - This is extremely easy to hang. In the box, you get two, plastic drywall screws and two metal screws. Install one of the plastic screws into the wall where you want to mount the light, insert one of the metal screws into the plastic screw, and then hang the light on the extending portion of the metal screw. We wanted to attach this to the fascia of our house just above the garage so that it would point down at our driveway. The larger units require much more room and were too large to mount to the fascia easily but this one is much more flexible since the mounting hole is less than an inch from the top of the unit.
• BRIGHT - The Clever Life light is surprisingly bright for its small size. The light source comes from 9 tiny LED lights that produce 120 lumens. The light is super, bright-white at the source but focused and softens as it hits the ground. It seems to cast the same amount of brightness as the 40 watt bulbs we have in the lights on the front of our house. Because they're LED, they use only a very small amount of power which must be why that compact solar panel is able to keep them working throughout the night.
• 3 SETTINGS - There's a small, black button on the back you can push to rotate through 3 different settings: off, always on with motion sensing, and on only when motion is detected. The always on setting emits a softer light and brightens only when motion is detected while the on only when motion is detected emits no light UNTIL motion is detected. We use that final setting option. We didn't need it to be always on because we already have front yard lights - we only needed something that would sort of shine a spotlight on one car in the driveway. It's handy to have those other alternatives, though, in case we decide to use the light somewhere else such as on the side of our house so we can see our garbage cans in the dark, for example. When motion is detected the light stays on for 30 seconds. There is no reset period so as soon as it detects motion again it comes right back on. The 30 second clock does not restart if motion is detected again while the light is on so after 30 seconds the light will go out causing a very short lack of light and then it comes right back on if it is still picking up motion.

Product Performance

For the money, I'm very pleased with the performance of this solar light. Its first real test was accidental and I was shocked to see it survive. While still testing the light before we mounted it, we had left it outside laying flat directly in the sunlight. Overnight, we received heavy rain (it was monsoon season here in the Valley of the Sun).

I thought for sure the unit would be ruined receiving that kind of direct water while laying flat but, no, it was just fine! It operated just as it should have despite being doused by heavy rain and wind.

The motion sensor is very reliable. We haven't been able to sneak up on this light at all. It senses motion consistently and immediately activates the light.

It requires 2 AA batteries as backup power and those did not come with the unit but if you don't have those laying around your house already you must not have any teenagers - their game controllers devour them.

Dimensions

This motion sensor security light for outdoors weighs under 7 ounces.

It is 5 1/8" tall measuring from the top/back of the unit to the bottom/back of the unit (the longest points).

It is 3 1/8" wide and 2 1/4" deep at it's deepest point (right at the base of the solar panel).

The solar panel itself is 3" long and 2" wide while the light panel is 2" tall and 1 1/4" wide.

Pros

• Small & easy to hang allowing a wide variety of uses and perfect for areas where you don't have a lot of options for mounting
• Solar powered with bright LED lights for a low cost solution for small areas where you'd like to add more lighting or security at night
• Weather resistant as we found through monsoon rain, heavy winds AND in excessive heat (our temperatures hit 120 degrees outside during our first month of use)
• Incredibly affordable and if you find it doesn't do what you want for the one area of your home you have in mind you will very likely find another use for it and get your money's worth regardless
• Different settings let you control how the light is used - whether it is always on and just brighter when motion is detected or if it only comes on when motion is detected

Cons

• If you hang it high off the ground, it's hard to change the setting without pulling out a ladder
• Coverage area is small (although that can be a plus if you only need it for a small area - it's not going to light up a whole driveway, though
• Can't adjust the sensor direction so you have to think carefully about where to position the light but since it's easy to mount you could move it and you could also wedge something behind it to point it a bit to one side or the other since it only attaches at the top of the unit

Price

For the price, this little thing can't be beat. We had previous purchased a larger solar light from Home Depot for over $70. While that worked well, it stood out on our house like a sore thumb. Our neighbors and the HOA weren't exactly pleased. Plus, every time a car drove by at night, that light came on.

For the price I paid for the Home Depot light I could buy almost 7 of the Clever Life solar sensor light. They are very low profile so I can put them where I want without drawing attention to our house nor irritating the neighbors with lights that point towards their windows.

Clever Life Company Motion Sensor Light Rating

I would give this 4.5 out of 5 stars and the only reason I'm not giving it a 5 is that I do wish it was brighter. Since we're using it as a security light, brightness is a factor. However, I'm sticking with it anyway as I only need it to help add light to one small area and it is doing that.

I recommend this light for those who need something small and prefer a solar option for making it easier to see their way in a dark part around their house at night. We will be buying more of them for use on the sides of our house where we have no external lighting. I've been very pleased with how well the Clever Life Company motion sensor light works. It meets our needs and the price is so low I don't feel it necessary to test anything else.

I'm pretty sure this is made in China AND is being sold under a number of names - probably a design that is sold to third parties to retail so you're likely to find it for different prices and under different brand names (and it comes in different sizes, too) but I'm linking below to the specific one I purchased.