And after an 11-month deployment of the first-gen product, I’m much less concerned about my second reservation: The durability of its all-plastic construction. A photovoltaic panel occupying nearly the entirety of the Ring Solar Pathlight’s 3.5-inch top trickle-charges a 3.7-volt lithium ion battery inside. The light arrived with enough power to set up and pair with the Bridge, but Ring recommends giving it a full charge with an AC adapter before permanent installation, and I followed that advice. This review assumes you don’t already have that component, so the Amazon link above is for the two-light starter kit that includes the Bridge.
The original’s plastic housing looks no worse for wear after nearly a year’s exposure to the weather, so I’m sure the new model will be just as durable. Michael Brown / IDG Ring’s battery-powered Pathlight is going strong after nearly a year of exposure to the elements, which bodes well for the solar-powered version.
Michael Brown / IDG The power of Ring’s ecosystem comes into play when you start linking its devices together, so that one triggers actions by the others. If you’re just looking for solar-powered path lighting that automatically turns on at night and charges its batteries while the sun is out, there are much cheaper options than the Ring Solar Pathlight. Products in the Philips Hue line serve that role much better—and since they don’t rely on batteries, they’re much brighter.
Ring Solar Pathlight review
Out of apathy, I’ve put off replacing them, but after testing the Ring Solar Pathlights, I think I’m finally ready to rip my old path lights out of the ground. They’re not cheap, but as my Ring Solar Pathlights review found, these are some of the best smart lights for your outdoors.
Standing nearly 17 inches tall, and with a 4.3-inch diameter head, the Ring Solar Pathlights are definitely noticeable when staked in your lawn.
The top of the lights features a small solar panel; further down is a clear plastic section that houses the LED, and tapers to the shaft.
Compared to non-smart pathway lighting, the Ring Solar Pathlights aren’t cheap. An individual Ring Solar Pathlight costs $35, but in order to use them, you’ll also need a bridge ($50) that links the lights to your home Wi-Fi network.
You can connect up to 50 lights to a single bridge, so unless you’re planning to make your driveway look like an airport runway, one should suffice. I found that this feature worked very well in my testing; I even had to dial back the Pathlights’ motion sensitivity, as I would get a recording every time a car drove past.
The Mr. Beams Outdoor Battery-powered Pathlights ($30 for a pack of two) have motion sensors that activate when someone comes within 12 feet, but otherwise, they lack any “smarts.” Philips Hue makes a few smart pathlights, but these each cost more than $100 apiece, must be plugged in, and lack motion sensors.
Do Ring Path Lights Have Cameras? (Plus Alternatives to Consider)
If you are looking to buy the Ring Pathlights, you are probably wondering if they have cameras on them and if you can see who walks by when the motion lights are triggered. However, they can be set up to trigger connected Ring cameras to record when someone walks by them. We will also discuss some alternative pathlights you can buy to help keep your home illuminated and safe from intruders. Most pathlights do not have cameras since they are so low to the ground; they will only catch glimpses of people’s feet and legs when recording.
However, you can easily set up the pathlights to work with your Ring cameras. If you set your camera to view the path, you will get a clear video of who or what triggered the motion on the pathlights. Make sure to set up the camera you have linked to the lights in a place where you can see the pathlights. If you don’t own a Ring camera, you might also be searching for another brand for outdoor pathlights that you can sync together.
The lights are sleek and modern and much less noticeable than the Ring Pathlights.
Compatible with Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Assistant, and SmartThings
Keep in mind that these lights require a Hue Bridge or a hub like the Amazon Echo to work together with other devices.
Ring Solar Pathlight review
Out of apathy, I’ve put off replacing them, but after testing the Ring Solar Pathlights, I think I’m finally ready to rip my old path lights out of the ground. They’re not cheap, but as my Ring Solar Pathlights review found, these are some of the best smart lights for your outdoors.
Standing nearly 17 inches tall, and with a 4.3-inch diameter head, the Ring Solar Pathlights are definitely noticeable when staked in your lawn. The top of the lights features a small solar panel; further down is a clear plastic section that houses the LED, and tapers to the shaft. Compared to non-smart pathway lighting, the Ring Solar Pathlights aren’t cheap. An individual Ring Solar Pathlight costs $35, but in order to use them, you’ll also need a bridge ($50) that links the lights to your home Wi-Fi network.
You can connect up to 50 lights to a single bridge, so unless you’re planning to make your driveway look like an airport runway, one should suffice. I found that this feature worked very well in my testing; I even had to dial back the Pathlights’ motion sensitivity, as I would get a recording every time a car drove past. The Mr. Beams Outdoor Battery-powered Pathlights ($30 for a pack of two) have motion sensors that activate when someone comes within 12 feet, but otherwise, they lack any “smarts.” Philips Hue makes a few smart pathlights, but these each cost more than $100 apiece, must be plugged in, and lack motion sensors.
Ring Smart Lighting Solar Pathlight review: Everything we loved about the original model, and less (batteries, that is)
And after an 11-month deployment of the first-gen product, I’m much less concerned about my second reservation: The durability of its all-plastic construction. A photovoltaic panel occupying nearly the entirety of the Ring Solar Pathlight’s 3.5-inch top trickle-charges a 3.7-volt lithium ion battery inside. The light arrived with enough power to set up and pair with the Bridge, but Ring recommends giving it a full charge with an AC adapter before permanent installation, and I followed that advice.
This review assumes you don’t already have that component, so the Amazon link above is for the two-light starter kit that includes the Bridge.
The original’s plastic housing looks no worse for wear after nearly a year’s exposure to the weather, so I’m sure the new model will be just as durable. Michael Brown / IDG Ring’s battery-powered Pathlight is going strong after nearly a year of exposure to the elements, which bodes well for the solar-powered version.
Michael Brown / IDG The power of Ring’s ecosystem comes into play when you start linking its devices together, so that one triggers actions by the others. If you’re just looking for solar-powered path lighting that automatically turns on at night and charges its batteries while the sun is out, there are much cheaper options than the Ring Solar Pathlight.
Products in the Philips Hue line serve that role much better—and since they don’t rely on batteries, they’re much brighter.
Ring Smart Lighting Pathlight starter kit review: Security lighting on the cheap—except for all those batteries
The Ring Smart Lighting Pathlight starter kit is very inexpensive and incredibly easy to set up. We’ll cover more Ring Smart Lighting products over time, but this $80 kit seemed like a good starting point. Updated May 14, 2020 to provide a link to our review of the all-new Ring Smart Lighting Solar Pathlight, which—as you’ve probably guessed—features a photovoltaic panel on its top surface that trickle-charges an onboard battery while the sun is out. You get two bollard-style, battery-powered LED path lights and an AC-powered bridge that’s required to connect them to your Wi-Fi network (this must be installed indoors). The lights connect to the Bridge using a proprietary low-frequency network for improved range (Ring claims “hundreds of feet,” though walls, trees, and other obstacles will cut that figure down). More to the point of Ring’s stated objective, having the lights turn on in response to motion will give a potential intruder the impression that someone might be in the home, which will render it a less-attractive target. You can also configure the Ring app to send push notifications when any of the lights’ motion sensors are tripped. Michael Brown / IDG A silver reflector at the top of the Pathlight directs the light toward the ground in a 360-degree pattern.
But the battery-powered spotlight and floodlight each require four D-cell batteries, and the smaller Step Light runs on three C-cells. If you cringe at the thought of disposing of all those batteries every year, you might want to wait for the line of solar-powered smart lights that Ring intends to bring to market by the end of 2019.
Michael Brown / IDG You can link disparate Ring devices together, so that motion detection by one can trigger actions on the others. While Ring’s Pathlights are thoroughly weatherized—they carry an IP66 rating, meaning they’re dust tight and protected from water jets from up to a 12.5mm nozzle—they are fabricated entirely from plastic.
New Ring Solar smart outdoor lights review & comparison
Built to Ring standards, these are not the $2 solar pathway lights you find in the checkout bins at the home improvement store The solar version would allow the rechargeable batteries to gain power from the sun, a “set it and forget it” model.
Ring says the batteries will last about one year with normal use, which they define as between eight and ten activations a day for a 30 second period at maximum brightness. The light is weather resistant to IP66 rating, meaning it’s waterproof even against jets of water.
You’ll be able to control the brightness, motion detection sensitivity, shut-off time and see how much charge you have in your batteries. Since your devices are all on the same system, you could then create a routine to turn on your Ring Video Doorbell camera when the lights detect motion, giving you more footage of someone approaching the door.
It has the same features from an automation standpoint; it needs to be connected via a Ring Bridge and can be programmed in the same way the standard model can. Usually, this won’t be necessary, but in colder climates, or when there hasn’t been a lot of sun over a few days, you may need to top up the battery. In my testing over the last 3 weeks it hasn’t been necessary, but it’s a nice backup, and the ability to do this indoors without dragging cords or a power bank up and down the walkway is super convenient.
While the Solar Pathlight is slightly more expensive than the standard version, not having to buy batteries more than makes up for that added cost. If you live in a northern climate, the other area where you’ll see a difference is with cold weather and shorter days. Since the days will likely be shorter when the weather is coldest, the batteries will have less time to recharge during sunlight hours, not to mention if the solar panels get covered in snow.
My testing is underway in summer so this may end up being a big concern… I’ll have to update this in a future video after the winter. Like the Pathlight, the Steplight requires a Ring Bridge to connect to your Wi-Fi network and allows you to control the length of shut-off from 30 seconds to five minutes.
Once installed, you’ll connect via the Ring Bridge to your network and can make use of Amazon Alexa commands.
Mounting involves a plate to connect to your wall or railing, then you can remove the entire device to bring inside to charge via USB.
With 3 C-cell batteries needed for the battery-operated Steplight, costs can add up when replacement time rolls around. In most cases, you won’t lose any of the functionality of the older model and save money on battery replacement.
I do this partly for convenience of the reader (since I’ll almost always include a link to the company website or similar anyway) in case you want to read more or purchase but I also may get a small commission from the click, which helps me keep the blog running.
Ring Smart Lighting Pathlight Review 2021
A cool feature in the app allows you to select multiple devices and add them to a group. For example, if one of the Ring Pathlights detects motion, it’s gonna also turn on the porch light. But you do have the option in this setting that if you don’t want it for a certain time, you can go from dusk till dawn.
Ring Solar Pathlight Review_
The best smart light bulbs in our book for such an occasion are Ring Solar Pathlights. Solar powered smart bulbs Cons A bit expensive The Ring Solar Pathlights aren’t the brightest light bulbs out there, not as bright as, say, Philips Hue White 4-Pack, but they shouldn’t be.
These Ring pathlights produce 80 lumens, which is plenty to light your path without blinding the neighborhood.
The battery life for the Ring Smart Lighting Solar Pathlights is entirely dependent on how much sun it got that day. But since they turn off by themselves, they can conserve energy from another day, provided they aren’t used frequently. Everything the Ring Solar Pathlight offers is tucked into a dimension of 16.8 in x 4.33 in x 4.33 inches. Once installed, you can control it with select Alexa enabled devices (like Echo Dot) or Google Assistant (with a Ring Bridge).
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