Review on Moonrays 91754 Richmond Solar Metal Path, 360-Degree Display And 120-Degree Beam Angle Of Warm LED, 30 Lumens, Automatic Lighting, Rubbed Bronze Finish, 2 Pack, 2-Pack, 2 by Quartreal Eagleman

After much perusing and research of different solar-powered lighting options for my front walk, I settled on the Moonrays model #91754. I compared products and prices at W*l-M*rt, Sh*pk*, H*me Dep*t, and ebay, and based on my criteria, this one looked the best on paper. Here is how they have worked out in practice.BRIGHTNESS 5/5These lights are rated at 30 lumens, which is about the highest I could find for solar-powered lights such as this. They are quite bright, and really light up my walkway. The '25x brighter' claim is based on a 1.2 lumen led bulb. There are actually two small LEDs (presumably 15 lumens each) on the underside of the cap with the solar panel on top. They shine down on a reflector which bounces the light out and down. The 'ribbed' glass housing bends the light into a kind of many-pointed star pattern, so it is not a perfectly even light pattern, if that's important.BATTERIES 4/5Included are three 1000 mAh, AA size, NiMH batteries for each light. The capacity is somewhat low, but they have worked fine for me. The lights are still going strong when I go to bed around 11 or midnight. If you have problems with the batteries, or want higher capacity, you can easily purchase replacements and pop them in. I prefer to use low-discharge NiMH batteries, but I would guess you'd be fine using traditional NiMH batteries, which are cheaper and have slightly higher capacity. Since they are charging and discharging every single day, the low-discharge batteries' main attraction is moot.BUILD QUALITY 2/5Based on other reviews, I was aware of the build quality issues with these, but had hopes that it wouldn't be a problem for me. It turned out to be somewhat of a problem. The top piece that houses the solar panel and batteries is fine, as is the glass that it attaches to. There are some plastic parts the connect the glass top to the metal stem which are very flimsy and easily separated. I tried super-gluing things back together with mixed results. The metal stem is basically a pipe with very thin walls. It doesn't look too strong, but I was careful and didn't have any problem with the stem bending or losing its shape.There is a plastic spike that goes into the ground, and which the stem slides snugly over which has pretty terrible shear and flexural strength (hopefully I'm not misusing those terms). It is very short, so when forcing it into the ground it is nearly impossible to get it exactly vertical. If it is tilted at all, that will become obvious once the stem and top housing are placed on the spike. Unfortunately, this is where the problem comes in. If you attempt to adjust the angle in any way, the plastic spike will almost immediately snap in half, becoming completely useless. I think this happened with three of my six lights. If it does happen, you can just push the metal stem itself directly into the ground and all you lose is a little height.QUALITY CONTROL 3/5After the first couple of days, I noticed that one of my six lights seemed not to be charging. The light was so dim you could barely tell it was on. In case the batteries were just bad, I replaced them one evening with freshly-charged Eneloop NiMH AA batteries. That first night the light was as bright as ever, but afterwards the same problem occurred. I am left to conclude that the solar panel, for whatever reason, is not feeding charge to the batteries throughout the day, so I am left with the hassle of trying to orchestrate a return of two lights (since they come in packs of two) and figure out how to replace them, since ebay is currently out of stock.Overall, I still recommend these based on overall value. But, if you buy them, be very careful with the connection between the head and the stem (any significant bump can separate the entire light from the stem with no real way to fix it except maybe glue), and be even more careful when planting the spike or adjusting the tilt of the stem once it is on the spike. I love the look of the lights and how bright they are, but the build quality issues are a pretty significant annoyance and have obviously created extra work and hassle.*******UPDATE******* 1/29/2015After returning two, I had 2 more break (on one, the top separated from the stem, and the other seems to be having an electrical problem). I was able to fix one by gluing the top back on, so now I have 3 working lights, and, after 2.5 years of daily use, they are still working quite well, with the original batteries in them. If I'm up before the sun, I can see that the lights are barely glowing by morning, but that's to be expected. At $15/light though, the build quality should be *much* higher.