Bell+Howell Bionic Floodlight: Lighting Up Your Outdoors – Our Review

I live in a pretty safe neighborhood, but we’ve had a wave of carjackings recently that, I’ll admit, have got me feeling a little nervous. I don’t have an enormous house or a super fancy car, but I take a lot of pride in my belongings, and the last thing I want is to have them stolen right from under me. With Bell + Howell’s Bionic Floodlight, I feel a million times better about the security of my home.

It’s like a security camera dupe. Let me explain why I love this product so much.

What Is the Bell+Howell Bionic Floodlight?

The short story of this product is that it’s a motion-activated floodlight. So whenever anything large enough moves within the detection radius — like a deer, a fox, or a person — the floodlights turn on and light up the whole area.

This could be useful for a ton of different reasons. If you have a grill in the backyard that you want to be able to use in the dark or if you have a shed or garage that you have to manually open up and want to be able to do it at night, these flood lights would be super useful for all of that.

Or you could use it for what I use them for: security. I mean, just think about it.

Having huge, bright flood lights go off every time someone steps foot in your backyard is SUCH a huge deterrent to crime. And these things are BRIGHT. They’re 500 lumens, and they illuminate 1000 square feet, which is more than enough to cover the whole perimeter of my house (once I figured out where to strategically place them, that is).

Multiple Settings

I think one of the reasons they’re so bright and effective is because there are three panels of lights and all three light up at the same time when “triggered” by motion. So it isn’t just a measly little spotlight lighting up the area — they truly are floodlights.

They stay on as long as there’s motion within their range and then turn off after a few seconds of nothing. I tried testing it out one night to see how far back into my yard I could go before I triggered the lights to go on, and I was AMAZED by how sensitive they were. If you end up getting these, I would definitely recommend testing them out just for the fun of it — I bet you’ll be shocked by how far their range extends.

Another security feature I love is the strobe function. In addition to their usual motion-activated plain flood light function, the Bionic Floodlight has a secondary strobe setting that is SURE to deter criminals. (Confession: I’ve also used it to deter raccoons from getting in our trash).

The light coming off of all three panels is SO phenomenally bright that when you use it in a strobe pattern, it’s almost blinding. This is super cool and super useful for security purposes.

Five-Star Design Features

Oh, another thing about the panels, before I forget — you can adjust which way they point to maximize the lighting or customize it to whichever part of your yard/house you want to light up. So, let’s say you place this right on the corner of your house.

You can turn one panel all the way to the left, have one pointing forward, and one all the way to the right, around the corner. That way, you’re essentially covering two sides of your house with only one actual flood light. That’s the kind of thoughtful design that I LOVE.

Another thoughtful design feature: The Bionic Floodlight is solar-powered! I love this for three reasons.

One, it’s obviously better for the environment. I try to reduce my energy consumption as much as possible, but when it comes to the security of my house and car, I don’t want to have to compromise. With solar power, I don’t have to. These flood lights are effectively “on” all night long without wasting energy or pulling it from the grid. They’re 100% powered by the sun.

Two, using solar power saves on my energy bill. I wish every electrical implement in my home used solar power because I would save a LOT of money.

I’m not sure exactly how much money the solar-powered aspect of this has saved me, but I do know the worry and mental energy that it’s saved me (as opposed to before this, when I had zero security whatsoever around my home) has been priceless. Plus, it’s just plain old practical — I don’t carry a flashlight around with me, and sometimes I need to go outside in the dark.

It’s so convenient to have a lighting system that will turn on and illuminate the way for me without me having to actually do anything. It just senses my motion, and bam — lighting.

And three, the solar panel on top of the three LED panels looks uncannily like a security camera or some sort of high-tech panel. Upon first glance, especially in the dark, I almost guarantee you would have no idea it’s a solar panel and would likely assume it’s part of some high-tech security system or that it’s actually a camera.

Now, I just LOVE this design. As if the spotlights aren’t enough, now the intruder thinks they’re being recorded by a security camera. And all along, it’s just the solar panel! So yeah, that solar panel is one of the main reasons I had to come on here and blab about how much I love this product.

Ultimate Durability

All right, now let’s talk about durability. I’ve only had my Bionic Floodlight during the spring and summer, so I can’t say how well it holds up in the cold. I can tell you that it’s *supposed* to last all four seasons and that it’s survived some pretty rough summer thunderstorms with no issues.

Fingers crossed that streak continues to be true into the winter. I think it helps that the whole setup is totally wireless — there aren’t any delicate or fragile parts that might be more vulnerable to extreme weather.

How To Use It

There are two different ways you can post this thing around your house. First, you could stake it in the ground. I’m not really sure why you’d want to do this, but it’s an option.

Second — and this is what I did — you can mount it to your siding, gutters, or anywhere around your house. I mounted two at different corners of my house, and the whole process was super easy.

I’m a bit of a handyman, so if you aren’t familiar with DIY projects at all, it might be a little bit more of a project. But generally, I think mounting stuff isn’t too hard, and it’s definitely worth it to get this flood light in a prime position around your home.

The Bottom Line

In general, I think this product is well worth the price point. (To be honest, I’m shocked it’s not a lot more expensive). I don’t normally go around recommending products that I buy on the internet, but in this case, this product deserves it. I give the Bionic Floodlight five stars, and I highly recommend that you go out and get one or two for your house today. The peace of mind is SO worth it.