A Jam Jar stores Jam. A Sun Jar collects and stores Sunshine. So that you can use it at Night. …Or so the Sun Jar box says. The idea is great: use a solar panel to charge a rechargeable battery during the daytime and then when a sensor senses that it’s dark use the battery to power a small LED light bulb. The Sun Jar features:
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But unfortunately, due to a flawed design the Sun Jar is disappointing and essentially useless. The Sun Jar isn’t bright enough to be used on it’s own as a night light; but switching on any sort of artificial light causes the sensor on the Sun Jar to switch off the LED light bulb. Making the product essentially useless.
What’s annoying is that Suck, the creators of the Sun Jar, could have easily solved this problem. They could have had three modes on the Sun Jar: Auto (use of the sensor), On (sensor off but light bulb lit) and Charge (sensor off and just charging). It’s shocking that they didn’t discover this fundamental design flaw in the product prototypes.
The Sun Jar could be significantly improved by alternating the colours of the lights. This could have been done through each Sun Jar unit having a number of different coloured LED bulbs. It would be even better, if through a switch, the customer could choose what colour light will be produced or set it to random.
My final thought on the Sun Jar is that it was expensive, costing £20. I don’t think I would have felt this was expensive if I had been able to use the product as I intended: to be a night light, along with another night light to give adequate light.
The Sun Jar is available to buy on Amazon, but honestly, I wouldn’t bother until they’ve made significant improvements to the design.
Review soon,
Antony