Solar power yard lighting - can I replace Nicad with NiMH?

[Lhorn]

I've got some lights line my drive way that were purchased from Costco about 4 - 5 years ago. They have slowly all stopped working and I think the batteries are kaput.
They are 900 mAh Nicads. Can I replace with NiMh? They are charged by a small solar panel on the top of the lights.

Any suggestions on good place to get such rechargeable of decent quality and cheap? Thanks

 

[HOTFR8]

I have the same issue and as batteries cost so much I just put old batteries in them and toss them out when they fail.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

All of the battery chargers I have that take AAA and AA batteries, have a selector switch for NiCad or NiMH. I have no idea if the charge rate is different or what. I have emergency exit lights with LED's and they used a battery pack with 4 NiCads wired and shrink wrapped together. I went to radio shack to buy a AA battery holder for four cells and also found they had the NiCad AA's I needed. They are intended for the solar walkway and yard lights. Home Depot also sells them for the same purpose.

I have no idea if the solar cells would charge one but not the other.

Charles

 

[Bigplum]

Nicads are still available if you hunt about on eBay, the hard part will be finding low capacity ones in either nicad or Nimh , unless you live in a really sunny place the high capacity ones will never charge fully,
The charging system is different but on a cheap solar light I doubt it's critical and its very low power output from the panel should pose very little risk

 

[teal95]

Harbor freight has both NiCad and NiMH batteries.

 

[lametec]

The charging system is different but on a cheap solar light I doubt it's critical and its very low power output from the panel should pose very little risk

I agree with this. NiMH batteries usually have more capacity than a NiCd equivalent. The "end of charge" sensing is different as well.

But neither of these make any difference in a yard light, where I'm guessing the panel is more or less directly connected to the battery.