In the past few years, I have tried a number of motion sensing night lights from local retailers and hardware stores. The primary thing that attracted me about the Etekcity Night Light was its looks.
I have not seen a product yet that has the same appeal as this one. It’s attractive and very modern and I was eager to try it out. So I was provided this product from Etekcity in exchange for my unbiased and honest review.
The two pack was perfect because I had two locations in my apartment where I wanted to use the lights. The main entrance and the washroom.
For this review, I will be looking at a few aspect of this night light that is important to me and some problems I found with it.
Likes
Warm White Light
I really like the warm white colour of the night light. Most other night lights I’ve found use natural daylight and I dislike that — especially when used in a washroom.
Wireless Charging
The wireless charging base and magnetic mount was a good idea. This makes the night light more practical as an emergency flash light because you do not have to yank it out of the outlet when you need it. It dismounts with ease and is ready to use in a moment’s notice.
Dislikes
Gets Hot
I found that the charging base gets hot. I understand that this is common with devices that charge wirelessly, but it remains hot even when I’ve dismounted the night light.
The sticker on the back has also started to bubble from the heat as well. It makes me question what the life expectancy of this product will be if it’s under constant heat like this. I am also skeptical about how ‘smart’ the charging base is if it cannot even turn itself off when there is nothing charging.
Timer
The 25 second timer, while long enough, does not reset if continuous motion occurs. So if you happen to still be in front of the night light when it turns off, you will have to make some movement to turn it back on.
There also seems to be a one second delay between this. So it makes it very challenging when trying to set down a lot of groceries before reaching for the light switch. This is the first motion sensing night light I have used that does this.
Over Sensitive Sensor
The motion sensor is really sensitive! I cannot use this night light in my main entrance or my washroom — the two places I intended them for. They turn on constantly despite no one present and this was very frustrating.
At first I thought it was the reflections from the mirrors or shadows on the wall that was causing it, but after a lot of experimenting by covering the mirrors, turning off lights that were causing shadows, covering parts of the sensor to narrow its vision, the problem persisted and I was not able to determine what the fault was.
I ultimately moved the night lights into rooms that were completely dark with no activity nearby and monitored them and found that they behaved as expected under controlled situations, so I do not think I received faulty units. Eteckity Customer Support also confirmed this.
However; once I move them back near my main entrance and washroom, they will turn on randomly again. None of the night lights I have used in the past was as finicky as these ones and this is my biggest issue.
In Summary
I like this product, but it does not work for me. The design is still my favourite — it’s one of the best looking motion sensing night lights out there. I can even overlook the heat and timer issues as they are not a big deal to me. However, the sensitivity of the sensor is what made me give up on this product. It just does not work reliably where I need it most.