LOFTEK Outdoor/Indoor Rechargeable LED Light review

Lighting in and around your home is very important.  It’s needed for ambient lighting, for task lighting, and sometimes just as an interesting accent to add a little light and color.  LOFTEK makes a series of lights that can be used as accent lighting indoors or outdoors.  The lights are available in a variety of sizes and shapes; some of them are even big enough and sturdy enough to use as furniture.  I was selected to give a closer look at the LOFTEK Outdoor/Indoor Rechargeable LED Light when they sent one to The Gadgeteer.

The LOFTEK lights were available in cubes and spheres at the time LOFTEK had one sent to me from Amazon.  I see they also have mushroom and pyramid-shaped lamps at Amazon now.  All the lights should function the same for accent lighting, but the shape can determine the other uses.

All the lights are made of a frosted white plastic.  The texture made it a little difficult to get a sharply-focused picture.  The plastic is strong; LOFTEK states that the lamps can support up to 300 pounds.  I received the 8″ cube, so I’m not sure it would be comfortable seating for anyone other than children, though.  The bigger cubes could certainly be used as low stools or tables.

I found a bit more information about these lights at the LOFTEK site.  The lights are fully waterproof, so they are safe to use around a pool.  LOFTEK says you can even float the spheres in the pool.  They have LEDs, which produce light with minimal heat.  They have an internal rechargeable battery, or you can use them while they are plugged into a wall outlet.

Tech specs for the 8″ cube are:

• Power Consumption: 1.7W
• Input: AC 100V-240V 50/60Hz
• Output: DC 4.2V 800mA
• Battery Capacity: 2200mAh
• Color: 4 main RGB colors (Red, Green, Blue and White). Total 16 different color tones.
• Flash Modes: Flash/Strobe/Fade/Smooth.
• Brightness control and speed control
• Waterproof/IP Rating: Cube:IP44 / Ball:IP65
• Charging time: 4-6 hours
• Working time: 6-12 hours
• Size: 7.87″ X 7.87″ X 7.87″
• Weight: 3.4 pounds

The LOFTEK Cube came with a power supply to recharge the battery and an instruction sheet.  The instruction sheet seemed to be for an earlier version of the Cube.  It had different instructions for turning on the lamp, and it didn’t mention the power switch on the bottom of the Cube.  However, operating the Cube was very easy to figure out.

The Cube came with a credit card-sized remote control.  You can turn the power on or off, increase or decrease the brightness, change the color, and select flashing, strobing, and color change style.

The bottom of the cube has four molded-in feet.  There’s a silicone cover over the power socket for waterproofness.  The red button is the power button.

I charged up the lamp before trying it out.

Although the stated size is 8″, you can see the one I received isn’t that large.  LOFTEK stated it at 20cm, which converts to 7.87″, but mine didn’t measure much more than 7.5″.  That little bit of difference didn’t matter; it still worked perfectly well as an accent light.

I tried it out indoors.  I turned the white light on and took a picture without using the flash on my camera.  You can see it’s not bright enough to read by, but it doesn’t claim to be a task light.

I was able to easily change the colors using the included remote.  Here’s the green.  While the lamp itself seems to be brighter with the green light than it was with the white light, the green doesn’t light up the surrounding area quite as well as the white light did.  You can’t see my stacked jewelry boxes as well with the green light on as you could with the white light.  (The two images were taken under the same ambient conditions, within just a couple of minutes of each other.)

I’ve included a short video of the Cube in automatic color-changing mode.  Although you can change the brightness when you have the light on steady, putting the lamp into color-changing mode sets the brightness at maximum.  Attempting to dim the light takes it out of color-changing mode.  See it in action here:  DSC_0168

I gave the LOFTEK Cube lamp to my daughter.  I expected she’d use it in her bedroom at college, but her apartment mates all loved it, too.  She decided she’d leave it on the dining table in their living/dining room area.  She tells me they all love the LOFTEK lamp and use it all the time.  They just leave it plugged up instead of using it off battery power.

I think the LOFTEK lamps are really cute.  The small sizes seem a bit expensive to me.  However, they are made of the same sturdy, weight-bearing plastic as the bigger ones which can be used as seating,  which explains some of the expense.  Rachel certainly won’t have to worry that the LOFTEK will break easily, even if it should get knocked off the table accidentally.

If you have the budget for it, I think a 16″ Cube and a couple of 8″ Cubes would make a really cute, sturdy play table and chairs set for very young children.  They’d love the lights, and you wouldn’t have to worry about safety, because you could run them off battery power during play time.  And they are waterproof, so you wouldn’t even have to worry about spills during snack time or water-coloring time.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by LOFTEK. Please visit their site for more info or Amazon to order one.