Shawl LED Garden Spike Light CCT in Black

This is the Shawl you buy when you do not want the fitting to be part of the picture. The body underneath is the same solid brass as its natural-finish sibling, but it is powder-coated black — so instead of ageing into a warm brown patina, it stays the colour it arrived. Against dark mulch, or anywhere the light matters and the fixture should not, that is the more useful behaviour. It is also the version to choose if you are matching existing black hardware.

IP54 on a ground spike — the one thing to settle before you place it

Shawl is rated IP54: dust-protected and splash-resistant. Most spikes in this range are IP65, so this is a materially lower seal on something that sits at ground level. It is at home in a bed watered by hand or drip, a raised planter, under eaves, or a path that drains. It is not the fitting for a spot swept by a pop-up sprinkler, for a lawn edge that gets hosed down, or for any hollow where water stands after rain. If that is your position, buy an IP65 spike instead — no finish survives the wrong rating.

The globe is replaceable, and the globe sets the beam

It takes a 5 W MR16 tri-colour globe, supplied. Because the globe is the light source and it unclips, the fitting has no beam angle of its own — the spread is whatever globe is in it. The one that comes with it is 120°, a broad wash suited to lighting a shrub, a low wall or a bed rather than a column up a trunk. If you want a defined uplight, fit a narrower MR16 and check the beam figure on the box. Output is 270 lm at 3000K, 285 lm at 4000K and 300 lm at 5500K, selectable at the globe before it goes in.

Fixing, aiming and wiring

• Spike or surface mount. Havit lists it as ground-spike or surface mounted, and a matching black base is sold separately — so a deck edge, a wall or a paved threshold is a supported position rather than an improvisation.
• 90° of tilt on a 225 mm spike, with a 1 m cable already fitted.
• 12 V DC from a suitable 12 V DC LED driver. Do not connect the fitting directly to 240 V. Two conditions come with the low voltage and Havit states both as warranty terms rather than advice: the fitting must sit no more than 25 m from its driver, and the supply must stay within ±5%.
• Not dimmable with the globes supplied — that is how Havit's sheet states it, and it is a property of the tri-colour globe rather than of the fitting. Pair it with a standard 12 V DC driver rather than a dimmable one.
• IK08 impact rating, clear glass diffuser, protection class 3, CRI above 80, and lamp life rated over 30,000 hours.

Solid brass under a poly powder-coated black finish, on a plastic spike. Because the black is a coating rather than the metal itself, treat it as painted garden hardware — an edger or mower strike goes through it, and there is brass underneath rather than more black. Backed by a 3-year replacement warranty. The wiring is licensed electrician's work.

Choosing between this and the natural brass version? Lights For You can tell you which way the finish goes in your conditions — coastal, irrigated and sheltered age a fitting differently, and the black one is the answer whenever "unchanged" is the requirement.