Signature Garden Solar Garden Lights review

The Signature Garden Solar Garden Lights are a great choice for consumers looking to add some aesthetic lighting to their garden. These solar path lights feature an elegant stainless steel finish, although black plastic is also available, and they switch on and off automatically at dusk and dawn. Each emits a warm white light, which is strong enough to highlight a pathway. However, the lights we tested did not stand up to the rain. So while they do come with a lifetime warranty, they might be better suited for consumers in dry climates.

Simply put, the Signature Garden Solar Landscape Lights are beautiful. They feature a traditional garden landscape globe design with a stainless steel finish. The lights reliably switch on and off, but there’s no way to permanently switch them off if you're traveling. The majority come in packs of six, although you can get the black plastic design in packs of eight, which makes them roughly $8 per light. Consequently, these are an affordable option for consumers looking to light up a garden or pathway.

Signature Garden Solar Garden Lights review: Availability

The Signature Garden Solar Garden Lights are available to buy from Amazon in both stainless steel and black plastic. A stainless steel pack of six will set you back $49.99, while the black plastic will cost you $36.99. The black plastic design also comes in packs of eight for $39.99.   

Signature Garden Solar Garden Lights review: Design

When you picture your ideal garden lights, whether or not you know it, you're likely picturing the Signature Garden Solar Landscape Lights. These elegantly designed solar path lights feature clean, simple lines, emit a warm light glow and are available in black plastic or stainless steel. For the latter design, it’s ABS-heavy-duty plastic coated in stainless steel. The shape appears very traditional and will blend in with the majority of gardens. The petite size (12 x 3.5 inches) means they’re not too obtrusive either.

Unlike a lot of other solar lights on the market, these don't have an on/off button. Instead, they're designed to continually switch on and off at dusk and dawn. The lack of this button makes it very easy to set up and go. However, if you're someone that travels frequently, this will mean they’re powering on unnecessarily. 

The solar panel can be found on top of each light, which means you don’t need to worry about cables trailing to a separate panel.

Signature Garden Solar Garden Lights review: Setup

A word of warning — these lights come with a lot of plastic packaging. The box the Signature Garden Solar Garden Lights came in was wrapped in plastic, as was each light, the solar panel and the stakes. For a product that's supposed to be somewhat eco-friendly, the packaging was a fail. That said, once you get past all the packaging, the lights are relatively simple to install.

First, make sure you remove the paper tab from each battery component by twisting off the plastic globe, pulling out the paper, and then twisting the globe back into place. From there, insert the metal pole into the light and then attach the plastic stake to the end. The ground was pretty moist when I installed them, but one of the plastic stakes still broke upon insertion. It's best to really wet the ground first by spraying some water and then loosening the soil. You can vary the height of each light by sinking some deeper than others. 

There's no on or off button. The lights simply switch on automatically at dusk once fully charged, which they seemed to do within less than a day of installation. 

Signature Garden Solar Garden Lights review: Lighting performance

The Signature Garden Solar Garden Lights emit a lovely, warm, bright light. They reliably lit up at dusk and lasted for roughly eight hours on average. On a sunny day, these lights reached full charge and stayed illuminated for about 10 hours. And even on cloudy and rainy days, unlike many other solar lights on the market, the lights still lit up, but only stayed on for about four to five hours.

Some online reviewers noticed that the light bulbs emitted slightly different hues, but that wasn't an issue we saw during our test. The light isn't going to illuminate your yard but will provide a nice pathway light or mood lighting. 

Signature Garden Solar Garden Lights review: Durability

Despite being made of stainless steel and heavy-duty ABS plastic, these lights felt flimsy and they didn't hold up to multiple durability tests. The biggest issue with them was rain. While they are water-resistant and worked fine in the rain, the globes leaked and filled up with water. There's a small hole at the bottom of the globe, which I'm guessing was designed to let them drain, but I still found a lot of water sitting in them after a rainy day and after holding them upright in the shower. That said, the water didn't seem to affect their lighting performance at all.

One of the light globes was cracked when it arrived, and despite multiple attempts to reach customer service (they have a lifetime warranty), we never heard back from anyone on it. Another light globe cracked during the placement of them in the ground, and another one cracked after spending four hours in the freezer — so this product might not be well-suited to cold climates. This makes it a pretty fragile design. 

However, we didn't notice any problems with the lights illuminating even after all this damage. Some online reviewers mentioned the batteries don't last that long, but they are easily replaceable if you have to change them out. 

Signature Garden Solar Garden Lights review: Verdict

For consumers looking for an affordable, traditional design to light up a garden or pathway, the Signature Garden Solar Landscape Lights are a beautiful choice. These solar pathlights are reliable as well as effective. That said, they may be better suited for consumers in dry climates as they didn't perform as expected when subjected to rain, but they do come with a lifetime warranty. 

Compared to the Ring Solar Pathlight, the Signature Garden Solar Landscape Lights aren’t as advanced or durable, but they’re much more affordable at $8 per light versus $35.