Weather protecting arches

[MikeA]

My 4 arches are done, Man that's a lot of work. I would sure hate to have to un wrap 1 section if one string goes out.
Do you all do anything to protect them from rain & snow? I was thinking about using stretch wrap on them to help keep them dry.

[George Simmons]

Personally, I've not had any issues with weather affecting the arches, although the one scenario I dread is a misty evening that dips below freezing popping bulbs loose. But straight rain or snow has not yet been a problem. I've had more issues with rabbits and/or squirrels taste-testing the cords, though. The only concern I'd have with the wrapping might be the potential for trapping too much heat from the bulbs if youir arches are lit full-on for any extended period of time.

[amcdonald307]

I am of the leave-it-in-the-open camp, too. It seems the more we do to protect some things, the more we do to trap moisture in and prevent it from drying out. I find wind is far more likely to cause problems with my arches, but there's not much I can do about that either.

If it's daytime and warm enough I will go out and take a bad string off and replace it. If it warm and dark, I go out and just wrap a new string over the top of the bad one until it can be properly dealt with. And dark or light, if it's cold out, I make the 12 year old daughter go out and deal with it - if she expects to be fed that night, that is.
(Joking on the not feeding her part, but she does have a talent for fixing the darn lights)

[GS]

I agree, let them breathe and they will be happy.

[wallleyes]

There was a post on PC where someone uses dryer vent hose over his arches.Here`s a youtube video comparision of arches.

[friskybri]

I always have a backup mini tree, arch, light stick and window wrappings. Its so easy when a section goes out to just switch the whole thing and take it inside to work on it. Last year it made a huge difference.

[George Simmons]

friskybri wrote:

I always have a backup mini tree, arch, light stick...

Me too. I have an extra element for almost everything in the display. As cold as it gets around here the last thing I want to do is be screwin' around with a balky anything if I can swap it out.

[jim6918]

Between my arches and mini trees I have more than 14,000 mini incandescents. I actually saw tiny icicles hanging from the arches a couple of times last year. As soon as the wire heats up a little they drop right off. Never a single issue.

i worry more about storage in the off-season. All it takes it one knocked loose bulb for issues. I would hate to think about unwinding an arch to diagnose. Already having to unstring two 600 count mini trees to find that one dreaded bulb. Might just be easier to do some in-place amputation and toss the problem string.

I hung my arches from the rafters of my storage shed at the end of the season and am anxious to see how they held up.


I am actually kind of wondering if your stretch wrap idea wouldnt protect them while in storiage. hmmmmm Interesting.

[kzaas]

wallleyes wrote:

There was a post on PC where someone uses dryer vent hose over his arches.Here`s a youtube video comparision of arches.

I like the looks with the dryer hose on it, It has a cleaner look.

[timmy]

Just a thought for those using mini incandescents (don't know if that's spelled right)you might look into the Light Keeper Pro. It is a relatively cheap tool for the job it does. It fixes most mini light strands in just a few clicks. It saved me a ton of time to fix strands, then just replace the bad bulb instead of testing each individual bulb. I used it the most to fix my moms pre-lit tree. I really recommend this tool.

[captainron19]

I thought about that also.... after wrapping each strand what happens if one goes out - figured I would just break out the wire cutters and snip that one affected strand right off.

[LENNY RUEL]

I had an issue last year with a couple sections on my arches. I'm running 9 channel arches so I have a section straight up in the center and we had a couple days of rain. Of course being Wisconsin the weather changed pretty quick and it got cold. That center section on two of my four arches went out. I could audibly hear a buzzing sound and started flicking bulbs with my finger but couldn't get them to flicker so started to pull them from the area to inspect. Found a layer of ice on all of them once I pulled them from the socket. The actual bulbs even had ice inside the plug in that goes in to the socket. Apparently the ice caused enough separation that they went dark. My first fix attempt was to bring out a blow dryer to thaw, which really worked well, had water dripping from all of them. But then I still needed to take the LKP to get them to kick on and show me which bulbs needed changed out.

Same thing on a midi tree, had a section of one color go out the same time but could never get it to light so just rewrapped it. I like the spare element idea though. In the north much easier working on things in a somewhat warmer garage than out in the elements. Even with the dexterity mechanics gloves give you with putting stuff up this time of year. When it comes to pulling bulbs it pretty much has to be gloves off.

Lenny

[captainron19]

Just out of curiosity how many strands is everyone using for each channel of their arches? Set mine up for the first time and using 7 channels on a 10' PVC with 9" of it cut off and leaving a 3" blank on each side so each channel is about 15"

I used 24' 100 count minis (1 strand per channel) and hoping it is enough or I will be wrapping some additional strands after the display is up and running

[shfr26]

I'm using the sleeve method. 7 sleeves about 16 inches long, 100 lights per sleeve. I have 5 arches so 35 sleeves, wrapped about ten extra, just in case and have them all in one large tupperware bin. No storage issue using the sleeves. The 100 mini's cover the sleeve very well and left them a little loose at the ends to push them together.

[LENNY RUEL]

"how many strands is everyone using for each channel of their arches?"

I'm using one strand of 100 minis 22.5' long. Wraps 3/4" pvc about 19-1/2" for each channel, which leaves about an inch on either end of my 15' arches. If I go LED next year a 100 ct string is 33' long so would need to be much tighter of a wrap or go 70 cts at 23'.

Lenny

[amcdonald307]

"how many strands is everyone using for each channel of their arches?"

Using 100cnt mini string on 3/4" tube I get about 22" in a section. That is not wrapped tightly (you see the pvc under it). When I built mine it seemed most people were using WAY more lights (about double), but I had to worry about load on my breaker and I read where Hallum(?) did an experiment using half as many lights on his columns and couldn't tell the difference, so I opted to go "thin". I don't have a heavy vs thin comparison side by side, but I am happy with it. I have seen RHoldman's in person, and I will say his are pretty to look at, even when not lit, compared to mine -

If I had it to do over again from scratch, I think I would go with the sleeve method (for storage if nothing else). That said, I got 2 CCR this year (just yesterday actually!) and will be running them in between my other arches. Playing with it so far, I have to think it will spell the end of my incan arches next year...