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If I were able to start over.............


Dave S

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BTW: I have never, not once, in all the years I've been using LED strands had one fail directly out of the box, most failures I've had occurred over a period of time, usually on the 2nd year of use.   Have never, not as of this writing ever had any fail out of the box or even in the first year of use.

 

Qualitatively you said it yourself, the more expensive strings are by design more robust/sealed...hence they are built to last and not need "replacement bulbs" per se...what you left out is that they typically come with a 1 year warranty...unlike the cheapos....if they fail within the first year, the will be replaced no questions asked...

 

Guess you missed the part where I said that I had strands fail literally 5 mins  after being added to a design element LAST YEAR....so I assure you it does indeed happen.

 

 

For the record, I have 13 years experience doing this (7 years static, 6th year animated) using LEDs almost exclusively for the past 8-10 years...I indeed still have some store bought LEDs working in the display just fine (crossing my fingers on the two remaining legacy 8 channel LED arches that are chugging along using the big box lights)...so you are correct you can indeed get more than your moneys worth out of those cheaper units...also ALL of my net lights are off the shelf units...mainly because after talking with a lot of the vendors, they admitted to me that the quality difference wasnt enough to justify the costs for nets as opposed to other strands...I still lose on average 1/2 a set a year, but they are readily available...

 

But since I switched over to high quality vendor sourced lights for everything else..and there is zero debate that the more expensive ones are indeed of higher quality...I have not lost a single one of those strands in 3+ years...I mainly switched to them for the major custom new elements I would build each year...these are elements where your sweat equity is much higher than just wrapping a tree or a bush, so any additional years of service save you not just money but time as well...

 

The only exception I have seen has been lights that are "punished"...icicles get pounded just buy their nature...and I generally lose 1/2 to 1 strand every 2 years on average....WalMart or Lowes or Garden RIdge icicles failed at a rate of 1 1/2-3 strands a year...plus there are color inconsistencies with the off the shelf's...specifically with the color saturation of the darker hues (blues..some look purple, some more royal blue, reds like blood versus reds that look pinkish)....the off the shelfs just didnt withstand the wind and elements as well as the stress of the sequencing as well.

 

Oh and I lost a drip tube last year in its first year of use...but the vendor had a new one to me within 3 days at no cost.

 

So the moral of the story boys and girls:  To each his own!

 

My experiences may not reflect others or even your own...one of the best attributes of this hobby is that there indeed is no singular "right way to do things"...as you can see I have off the shelf "success stories" (my arches) and monster failures (icicles)...find what works for you and run with it!

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What do you guys find to be the difference in cost between cheap LEDs and "good" ones that are brighter and will actually last.  I was just interested in getting up and running for my first year, so I picked up a few hundred bucks worth of rope lights at maybe $15 per 18-foot set on Amazon, plus some strings of C7s and C9s and a few floods.  I'm sure they're not great, but when I want/need to upgrade, should I could on something like 50% more cost, or is it more like 2-3X kinds of prices?

Here's a vendor's site used by a number of folks here. There are others as well, with similar prices. Note that they all run pre-season sales in January with more favorable prices than what you see right now. If memory serves, it's around 20% better.

http://www.holiday-light-express.com/

Maybe someone can chime in on rope light.

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If I was able to start over knowing what I do now,  I probably would never have started to begin with. :D

 

+1

 

When I read the first post, that's what the heck I was thinkin, just sayin. :blink:

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If I was able to start over knowing what I do now,  I probably would never have started to begin with. :D

  

+1

 

When I read the first post, that's what the heck I was thinkin, just sayin. :blink:

Much like most crack addicts.
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  Tough realization...lol..I honestly see no end in sight for myself...But I guess none of us anticipate stopping..

     And from what I gather...Collect info...Shop sales...Ask for help if needed...And thank you Surfing4Dough and Dave Boros, local guys who have offered help and are local...

                          Dave

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Shopko is a good place to get light strings.  The bulbs are sealed with a good 3" spacing, great for covering bushes or trees.  When you first open the box, plug them in and give it a good wiggle test.  I haven't had any fail if they are good out of the box,  I did get a couple bad strings and exchanged them w/o a problem.  You do need to watch their sales to get reasonable prices.  60% off is pretty good, towards Thanksgiving, stock is getting low or out.

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How many inches of snow and how many days of below freezing temperatures do you experience during a show season? 

 

Most of us will likely experience different results with light string failures than Floridians do.  :rolleyes:

Lots of thunderstorms and rain.  Which can do a strand in quite easily if not coated with the protective dielectric grease in their sockets.  Don't know about other Floridians, but doing that and the rainy weather, I have had very minimal failures with retail and non-sealed LED strands.

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