General LED Light question

[rickodom]

Those that have been doing this for sometime, how often do LED lights/strands go out? The question comes up as I bought some lights today from Costco, Big Lots and Wal-mart. The Costco brand is GE and it's great, if a light goes out the rest of the strand works flawlessly. On both Big Lots, and Wal-mart brands this is not the case. All strands are dimmable but the concern is having to hunt through the strand if a bulb blows out. Is it noticeable if an LED goes out?

Thanks all and I apologize if this was asked but I didn't seem to find it using the search.

[rickodom]

Nice tool... I'll get one for sure. Do LEDs go out frequently enough to even worry about this?

[scubado]

A lot depends on the quality of the led, its leads and assembly. My Sam's Club Icicle lights rusted when it got iced from the gutters. Rabbits and squirrels will eat wires, so ease of repair is something to consider as well. Even quality sealed bulbs can have a bad connection.

I haven't seen any rust issues with lights purchased in the last couple years from the big box stores. Just F...ing rabbits!

Edited September 22, 2012 by scubado

[viennaxmas]

A few things I had noted (I have been using LED for the past 4 years):

- The "cheap" strings I have been getting from HD, Sears and other places did not have sealed bulbs. These had the highest failure rate due to rust in the socket and failure of the rectifier. I was able to puzzle a few back together, however if they had more than 20% rusted sockets, there is not much to repair.

- Out of the "Sealed" strings (where the LED is molded on the cable and is not exchangeable without cutting the wire) I had one failure of half a string. (and I have close to 200 strings by now). Unfortunately I have not seen them at the usual "cheap" places yet.

- I also had a lot of grief with the plugs. However this is an easy fix, just replace the plug.

In general I am hoping that the LED strings will last for many years, the biggest advantage - next to energy saving - is that the colors are not fading and that the colors in general are much better.

[Tim Fischer]

In my experience- yes you'll want an LED Keeper, even if you buy "good commercial sealed strings". I lose 3-5 strings a year of that type, and I don't have *that* big of a display.

Of the big box, non-sealed type, it's much worse.

[rickodom]

Thanks all for the feedback... would you be able to say, glue or seal the bulbs to try and reduce the chances of rust?

[scubado]

Shopko has sealed bulbs.

It would be a huge hassle to try to seal each bulb yourself.

[Orville]

Time consuming yes, but here's two suggestions for keeping corrosion out of replacable LED strands:

#1. Use the NON-conductive grease found in most automotive stores that is used in automotive tail/headlamp sockets. You will have to pull each LED, dip it in the grease and put it back in the socket. After having a few strands fail to corrosioon, started using this and now I haven't had any corroded or rusted contacts or sockets in over 4 years, and the strands are now going on 6 years old. Didn't do this the first year I bought the cheap big box store LED's and ended up hacking and tossing some out due to corrosion, but they lasted a few years before I had to finally sacrifice the strands that failed. if I'd have done this, chances are they'd still be working today.

#2. {or} You could also squirt a little WD40 in the LED socket and the LED leads, very messy and more time consuming than the #1 method, which I find #1 a lot easier to do and less time spent, since I don't have to wait for the WD40 to "dry out" before placing the LED back into the strand or plugging it in.

And all the LED strands I bought at HD, Wal-Mart, Target, Walgreen's, K-Mart, Garden Ridge and Lowes are dimmed and did all the other LOR

effects with no problems.

BTW: I also use this NON-conductive automotive grease in C7 and regular light sockets that are in my blowmolds and other illuminated outdoor items as well.

[Max-Paul]

I have to Ditto what Orville said about the non-conducting grease. I converted some of those 18" high spiral trees my first year to LED. Found out that the bulk LEDs that I had ordered, have mild steel leads with a very thin nickel plating. In short, just chomping at the bit to rust. So, I bought from a electrical supplier that grease that they use on the Al to Cu contacts. Some call it No-Ox is just one name. A little squirt in each socket and then I put in the new LED bulb. Been working just fine for 4 yrs.

First year I bought from a guy who is no long in business. Some of his multi-color strings were melting the wire warts. I have replaced those strings. But in the last 4 yrs I have been buying from Paul at CDI. Not a flicker from one of those strings yet, with the oldest being 3 yrs going on 4 this season.

[Steven]

A couple of weeks ago I replaced the rest of the white LEDs that I installed on my roof 4 years ago. Yes, that's right, I just left them up there all year round, since they are not very visible. Why leave them up? Because I don't want to go up on the roof in November to put them up and in January to take them down.

Without any grease, they lasted 4 years, although some started going out last year. I replaced them with sealed strings so they should last longer this time.

I had hoped to salvage some of the old LEDs for another project, but I found that the leads were rusty, and because they are steel, electronic solder won't stick to them. So I just threw them in the trash.

[bobschm]

The only LED strings I had trouble with were the icicle strings along the roof line. They got slapped around pretty hard in high winds. Even so, only two bulbs went out all season. When a bulb died, only a section of the string went out. So in 100 bulb string, you're only sluething through about 30 bulbs. I just put in my headphones and did the plug and pop drill inserting a known good bulb in each socket one by one. Never had any luck with so called string fixer tools.

[Tim Fischer]

The only LED strings I had trouble with were the icicle strings along the roof line. They got slapped around pretty hard in high winds. Even so, only two bulbs went out all season. When a bulb died, only a section of the string went out. So in 100 bulb string, you're only sluething through about 30 bulbs. I just put in my headphones and did the plug and pop drill inserting a known good bulb in each socket one by one. Never had any luck with so called string fixer tools.

Every time I've ever done the "plug and pop" method (be it LED strings or incans) I'm more likely to cause more problems than I am to fix the existing on

Give the LEDKeeper a try - I think you'll change your mind on string-fixing tools.

[dgrant]

Ok, I'll bite...what is an "LED Keeper"? Repair tool, storage or what...where is it found?

[Tim Fischer]

See this thread, among others on the topic:

[dgrant]

Thanks Tim, I'll order one. Not sure how effective it'll be on a set of LED net lights but will give it a try. Like others, I had a Sam's Club set fail last year due to rusted wire but I found the offending led and replaced it.

[Orville]

Thanks Tim, I'll order one. Not sure how effective it'll be on a set of LED net lights but will give it a try. Like others, I had a Sam's Club set fail last year due to rusted wire but I found the offending led and replaced it.

Net lights are definitely a unique animal. With LED net lights, I just find a working net strand and do a search and replace from the non working one until I find the bad LED.

I don't own a LED Keeper yet, but will very soon

But I think with Net Lights, this tool may not be as useful because of the way Net Lights wires run all over the strand. And some of the wires in the strand are " DEAD" wire, it's only there to make the weave, but you have no idea of knowing which wire is the DEAD wire {not connected to anything} unless you find the start end of it, follow it to the other end to where it's tied.

Just know a LED Net set I took apart that just wouldn't work, I found at least 16 of these Dead wires interweaved along with the live ones..

So the remove a good LED from a working string and testing each LED from the non working one is about the only way to go with Net Lights, just because of this one inherrant option used in creating the net weave. This is why I'd think the LED Keeper tool may not be useful with Net LED strands. I believe the ones I have are GE {bought at Target} and some I had also bought from Wal-Mart, but don't recall the name.

Not sure if all Net LED lights are made in this manner, but the incandescent ones I had from years ago were also the same as the LED Net lights with the dead wires interweaved to create the netting.

Edited September 26, 2012 by Orville

[Mr Grunts]

ok because of some unforeseen reasons ( long story ) i have to get ALL new lights this year, leds all the way around. this is my first yr going lor and im only doing a 16ch show to start.

I have a lot of area to cover and im only using 4 colors so im looking for lights that i can connect together to add the most that i can to each channel without going over the 8amps per channel.

ex. my roof line is 84ft x 2 ( top & bottom ) sides are 12ft x 2. so that would be 192ft of one color on one channel. and i want to do this with 4 colors 4 channels. where would be a great place to buy the lights that i need?

trying to keep the cost as low as possible, i have a lot to buy.

Thanks

Dennis

[LightsinMaine]

I have to say the same.... I live in Maine and the only issue with store lights I've ever had was on icicle lights. All my other store lights have been in use for 4 years with no issues. All depends on where you live really and how the conditions affect non-sealed bulbs.

[Arteom]

To be honest LED's do not save much money (if thats what your going for) MANY tests have been done vs the operational cost/ upfront cost of LED's and in most cases LED's costed MORE than incandescent lights.

However if you get your LED's on christmas sales, then its a win win all around!

I got 20 strings of Home Depot store brand LED's and around 10 Walgreens store brand LED's, all around 4 years old now, I did have half of one sting (I believe its 60 or 70 count) of the HD ones go out last year, but after smacking each unlit bulb I found a short and replaced it.... Also the Yellow' Orange and Red get extremely dim...

I have not had a single problem with Walgreens LED's?

Sears brand LEDs I had around 5 years, no problems as well... there are my fav as none of the bulbs faded...

Edited October 15, 2012 by Arteom

[Steven]

To be honest LED's do not save much money (if thats what your going for) MANY tests have been done vs the operational cost/ upfront cost of LED's and in most cases LED's costed MORE than incandescent lights.

That depends on what costs you include. For example, if you compare the cost of 100,000 LEDs to 100,000 incandescent mini lights, you also have to include the cost of hiring an electrician to wire additional outlets to power those incandescent lights.