If you were thinking about buying one of those dock cleats with the embedded solar powered led lights (so that the cleats light up at night) made by the company Dock Edge there is something you should know.
Here is a link to a page showing what these cleats look like. They are available from a number of boating/dock hardware retailers.
http://www.dockedge.com/products/lis...lar_dock_cleat
The thing you should know is that although the cleats are very durable and robust and should last for decades, the company that makes them saw fit to equip them with rechargeable batteries that are not replaceable. The units use a single AAA NiMH rechargeable battery for powering the LEDs. These things are only capable of lasting so many recharge cycles and generally fail after 2 - 3 years of use. Rather than spend a few extra cents to equip the units with readily available off-the-shelf battery holders that would allow for quick and easy replacement of the battery, they opted to go cheap and use soldered in batteries which are very difficult to replace unless you have a fair bit of time and skills with a soldering iron.
I have written the manufacturer to express my dismay with this design decision and have informed them that by choosing to go the way they did, it gives the appearance that they care more about making a few cents more on each unit than they do the well being of their customers and if they did care about their customers, they would have chosen to make those batteries replaceable.
To be completely fair, they have responded and have said they will examine the issue but have made no promises to change the way they are building these units. They also offered to provide me with replacement solar panel/battery units for my cleats which is decent of them but the fact remains that the batteries in units they have built and are still building will inevitably fail within 2 - 3 years and are not replaceable. If they do follow through with what they've said they would do, the batteries on the replacement units they'll be sending me will still fail in a few years and I'll be back to square 1 again. In other words, it's just a temporary fix but better than nothing.
If they start making these products with replaceable batteries I will change my recommendation but for now, I recommend against purchasing this brand of solar dock cleat unless you don't care that the batteries will fail after a few years and can't be replaced.
Here is a link to a page showing what these cleats look like. They are available from a number of boating/dock hardware retailers.
http://www.dockedge.com/products/lis...lar_dock_cleat
The thing you should know is that although the cleats are very durable and robust and should last for decades, the company that makes them saw fit to equip them with rechargeable batteries that are not replaceable. The units use a single AAA NiMH rechargeable battery for powering the LEDs. These things are only capable of lasting so many recharge cycles and generally fail after 2 - 3 years of use. Rather than spend a few extra cents to equip the units with readily available off-the-shelf battery holders that would allow for quick and easy replacement of the battery, they opted to go cheap and use soldered in batteries which are very difficult to replace unless you have a fair bit of time and skills with a soldering iron.
I have written the manufacturer to express my dismay with this design decision and have informed them that by choosing to go the way they did, it gives the appearance that they care more about making a few cents more on each unit than they do the well being of their customers and if they did care about their customers, they would have chosen to make those batteries replaceable.
To be completely fair, they have responded and have said they will examine the issue but have made no promises to change the way they are building these units. They also offered to provide me with replacement solar panel/battery units for my cleats which is decent of them but the fact remains that the batteries in units they have built and are still building will inevitably fail within 2 - 3 years and are not replaceable. If they do follow through with what they've said they would do, the batteries on the replacement units they'll be sending me will still fail in a few years and I'll be back to square 1 again. In other words, it's just a temporary fix but better than nothing.
If they start making these products with replaceable batteries I will change my recommendation but for now, I recommend against purchasing this brand of solar dock cleat unless you don't care that the batteries will fail after a few years and can't be replaced.
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