If you happened to have bought a Ring Solar Pathlight over the past couple of years since they were released, you’ve probably gotten to a point where the original Ring batteries no longer charge. They’re not your every day AA rechargeable, but rather 18650 Lithium Ion batteries.
If you reached out to support like I did two years ago, the service desk didn’t have a KB on what to do and questions and inquiries would quickly devolve. They’ve gotten a little bit better about being straight about how to replace the battery, and oddly it’s not to try to sell you a high priced replacement from Ring. Rather they tell you to buy them from Amazon.
I did that, buying a brand that seemed “reputable.” Unfortunately it was not and after a couple of charges they too stopped really working.
Enter my finding of the NiteCore brand – you may look for them on Amazon, but really you’re only going to find their headlamps but not their batteries. For the batteries, head on over to BandHPhoto.
The NiteCore NL189 battery works great in the Ring Solar Pathlights. Note that battery costs $18 before shipping. Note the Solar Pathlight is $34. So… you can do the math…
All in all, the NiteCore batteries have been fairly reliable and keep their charge. If you live somewhere that gets fairly dark for the Winter months, you can do what I do and cycle batteries through the path lights by having a few extra batteries on hand to swap.
The Tech Blog of Dan Usher 