Delivery, the trial, batteries, and whether the thing will actually be bright enough. Answered properly, without the marketing voice.
Delivery
Free on every order, no minimum, no surprise fee at checkout. We ship within the United States only.
How long will my order take to arrive?
Five to fourteen days. That window is on every product page, and we would rather put it there than bury it at checkout.
It is longer than you are used to because the lights come to you from our manufacturing partners rather than sitting in a warehouse down the road. That is also why a warm sensor light costs twenty dollars here instead of fifty. If you need something by a particular date, it is worth ordering with a week in hand.
How much is delivery?
Nothing, on every order, with no minimum spend. The price on the product page is the price you pay.
Do you ship outside the United States?
Not yet. We currently ship to US addresses only, and we would rather tell you here than let you fill in a full address and hit a wall at checkout.
Can I change my address after ordering?
Usually, if you tell us quickly. Email support@elstena.com with your order number and the new address, and if it has not been handed over for dispatch yet we will change it.
Once it has shipped we cannot redirect it, so it is worth checking the confirmation email the moment it lands.
Trial & refunds
Thirty nights to decide, and you never post anything back.
What is the 30-night sleep trial?
Buy the light, put it in the room it is meant for, and live with it for thirty nights. If it is not right, tell us and we refund you in full.
Thirty nights rather than a fortnight because a nightlight is not something you can judge in an afternoon. You find out whether it works on the third time you get up at 3am, not the first time you switch it on.
Do I have to send it back?
No. There are no returns at all, whatever you ordered and whatever it cost. We refund you and you keep the item.
That is arithmetic rather than generosity. Our lights ship to you straight from our manufacturing partners, so one that comes back to us cannot go on a shelf again. Paying to ship it here would cost more than the light is worth and would not get you your money any faster. We would rather put that into your refund.
How do I get a refund?
Email support@elstena.com with your order number and say it is not right. That is the whole process. No reason needed, nothing to post.
What if it arrives damaged or does not work?
Email us with your order number and a short video showing the fault. A few seconds on your phone is plenty: the light not coming on, the sensor not triggering, the switch doing nothing, the crack in the casing.
We ask for a video rather than a photo because most faults here are behaviour rather than appearance. A photo of a nightlight that will not light looks exactly like a photo of one that is switched off.
Once we have seen it we will refund you or send a replacement, whichever you prefer. You keep the faulty one either way.
If it fails after the trial has run out, still get in touch. A light that dies in month three was faulty when it left, and we would rather sort it out than argue about the date.
Can I refund part of a multipack?
Yes. Tell us which ones are not right and we will refund that portion. You keep all of them either way.
Living with them
The practical questions, mostly about brightness.
Will it actually be bright enough to see?
Bright enough to find the door, the stairs, or the baby. Not bright enough to read a book by, and that is deliberate.
The whole point of a nightlight is to be the smallest amount of light that does the job. Anything brighter and you have effectively turned the main light on, at which point you are awake and so is everyone else. If you want to light a countertop for cooking, the light bar or the puck lights are the ones to look at rather than the bedside pieces.
Why warm light instead of plain white?
Because white light at 3am feels like an interruption and warm light does not. It is the difference between a hallway that looks like a gas station bathroom and one that looks like a house where everyone is asleep.
Cool white and blue-heavy light is the kind that makes your eyes feel switched on. Warm light is closer to a candle or a low lamp, so you can see the floor without feeling like the day has started.
Do the motion sensor lights come on during the day?
It depends on the light, so check the product page for the one you are buying.
Some have a light sensor as well as a motion sensor, so they stay asleep in a bright room and only wake once it is dark. Others trigger on movement whatever the time, which is what you want inside a closet or a cabinet that is dark at noon.
Will the adhesive pull the paint off my wall?
On sound, fully cured paint it comes away cleanly if you peel it slowly rather than yanking it. Warming the pad with a hair dryer for a few seconds helps.
On fresh paint, flaking paint, textured wallpaper, or bare drywall, do not risk it. Stick it to the side of a shelf or a cabinet instead. Paint needs a good few weeks to cure properly before anything adhesive goes near it.
Can I use them in a bathroom, or outside?
Bathrooms are fine for general use, as long as the light is not somewhere it will be rained on by the shower. Outdoors is not what any of these are built for.
Only the LED strip has a waterproof coating, and even that is rated for damp rather than weather. If you want something for a porch or a shed, we are honestly not the shop for it yet.
Power & batteries
Every product page states how its light is powered. Here is the short version.
Do batteries come included?
No. The lights that take AAA batteries do not ship with them, and we would rather you knew that now than when you open the box at bedtime.
That currently applies to the toilet light and the puck lights, which each take three AAA. Grab a pack when you order. Everything else is either rechargeable, runs off USB, or plugs into the wall, so there is nothing extra to buy.
How long does a charge or a set of batteries last?
Longer than you would think, because a motion sensor light is only actually lit for a few seconds at a time. A light on a landing that catches four trips a night is doing a couple of minutes of work in twenty-four hours.
The one that drains a battery is a light left on constantly rather than on the sensor. If you are running one in always-on mode, expect to charge or change it far more often.
Is it expensive to leave one on all night?
No. These are small LEDs drawing a fraction of a watt. The plug-in dusk to dawn light uses 0.3 watts, which is roughly what a phone charger burns doing nothing.
Running one every night for a year costs less than a cup of coffee. They also stay cool to the touch, which matters more than the electricity.
Will they work in my sockets?
The mains powered items are built for a standard 110 to 130V US plug. The power type for every product is stated on its product page.
Safety & care
Mostly about children, since that is who a lot of these are for.
Are these safe in a child's room?
Yes, and the kids' pieces are designed to be handled. The silicone animals are soft, food grade silicone, so they squash rather than break, and they stay cool enough to be taken to bed.
Two sensible cautions. Anything battery powered should have its compartment properly closed before it goes anywhere near a small child. And a light on a cable, like the USB pieces, belongs on a shelf or a dresser rather than inside a crib.
Can I leave one on all night in a nursery?
That is what they are for. They are warm, they do not flicker, and they run cool.
If you are settling a baby, put the light low and across the room rather than in the crib's line of sight. You want the room to have a floor and walls when you walk in, not a glowing object for them to stare at.
How do I clean them?
A dry or barely damp cloth. No spray cleaners on the diffusers, since the plastic can haze.
The silicone ones can take a proper wipe with a damp cloth and a little soap, which they will need, because a nightlight that gets carried to bed every night ends up sticky.
Still stuck?
If your question is not here, send it over to support@elstena.com. A real person reads it, and if it turns out other people are asking the same thing it ends up on this page.