do not buy homedepot LED's!

[Santas Helper]

I do not have the patience to put grease in hundreds of LED sockets. There's no way I will ever do that.

I agree Tim. My mega tree alone with 20,000 LEDs are sealed socket. No way could I put grease in all these if they weren't sealed.

[JF1993]

This is my first year so of course I don't have a whole lot of experience with light displays, but I highly recommend Menard's Enchanted Forest lights. I've been using them when I program my sequences, and I've had them outside running for about a month now. We haven't had any snow yet, but even if these strings quit the store sells them for like $7 at the end of the year.

[Tim Fischer]

This is my first year so of course I don't have a whole lot of experience with light displays, but I highly recommend Menard's Enchanted Forest lights. I've been using them when I program my sequences, and I've had them outside running for about a month now. We haven't had any snow yet, but even if these strings quit the store sells them for like $7 at the end of the year.

And I've had the exact opposite experience - Menards LED's rusting out after only 2 seasons of use, bulbs wiggling out of the sockets even with the lock tabs engaged, etc. They're on my "don't buy" list. I might consider them for $3-4 a string for limited use now that the LEDKeeper is around, but no more than that.

I'm also not fond of Menard's pricing policy: They'll be on sale virtually all season for about $10. But right before clearance time, they go back up to the "regular price" of $14, so they're only $7 at "half off". Not honest, imho.

But glad they work for you

Edited December 1, 2012 by Tim Fischer

[SteveMaris]

On the non working strings, you probably have a bulb that needs to be pushed back in. Happens all the time.

[Tim Fischer]

On the non working strings, you probably have a bulb that needs to be pushed back in. Happens all the time.

Except with sealed strings

[JF1993]

I thought about buying sealed professional grade light strings before, in fact I think they might have a few different sets of them at Menards but I'm not certain. The only downside is the price. Especially when you're buying a whole bunch of lights at the same time.

[Max-Paul]

Interesting.

Funny Oville I have been using CDI sealed strings for the past 2 years and this year will make it 3 years for some of those strings. Never have had any problems with CDI stuff. But first year was some strings from Travis. It has been those strings that has had some failures. 2 yrs ago I had a set go out. They where multi colored 70ct. Found one of the wire warts was actually so hot it was melting the plastic. But this has not happened with any of the replacements from CDI. Moral of my story is thus, not all light strings are created the same. Might look the same, but wire gauge, thickness of the jacket over the wire, either the number of resistors or the wattage of the resistors can vary and injection molding technique are all important things that can make a great light string that last for many years or fail in short order. Also forgot to say technique of splicing the wires.

[Orville]

I got the sealed ones to try to be certain if I wanted to put forth the cost of them, from my experience with them, they are not worth the time or investment. Dielectric grease is cheap and it doesn't take that long to inject a new strand or two of LED or incandescent strands with replacable LEDs/Bulbs. My father actually taught me that trick a long time ago when we had C7 and C9 bulbs on the house, he always coated the base of the bulb and the inside of the sockets on any new strands purchased. He even coated the blowmold sockets with the stuff, never had any problems with our lights shorting or rusting, nor did we have to turn off our display when it rained, unlike many of our neighbors because that grease also helped keep water fromstaying or getting into the sockets.

Sorry, but the little time it takes to inject the grease equals MORE lights that I can add for a lot less money. And I don't mind taking the time to inject the grease into the sockets as it has also prevented GFCI trips. Those I tested in a sprinkler setting {simulating rain} that were replacable and uncoated with this non-conductive grease, GFCI tripped off, same type set coated with the non-conductive grease, GFCI never tripped. That along with using plastic childproof outlet caps in the end female and female pass throughs on my strings has kept my display up and running in the wettest of storms in my area.

So yes, I'll stay with replacable strands over sealed, again, MY preference and they work fine for me with just a little extra effort!

[Tim Fischer]

Fine with me, Orville, but I'd rather shoot myself than remove and replace 100 bulbs, much less thousands. My fingers bleed for you.

[Orville]

Fine with me, Orville, but I'd rather shoot myself than remove and replace 100 bulbs, much less thousands. My fingers bleed for you.

Fingers??? Who uses fingers? I have a bulb removal and insertion tool to do the work for me, I just have to use my fingers to squeeze the grease, and even then I have a toothpaste tube squeeze tool for that too. Who uses fingers? Sure isn't me!

I can usually do a 200 count strand in about 30 minutes give or take +/-10 minutes or so.

So smaller strands like 35-60 count I can do in around 10-15 minutes or less.

So no bleeding fingers here, work smarter, not harder!

[milateket]

I have been using HD lights the past two years. What I find is that the connection wires on the replaceable bulbs are sometimes too short. The strands come with tow replacement bulbs. I have had a few issues related to this. I don't call the bulb issue anymore than a nuisance 100% of my lights from HD are working -- some 75 or so strings of 70 and 35 count.

I fear i just jinxed myself...