medusa_dave Posted June 10, 2019 Share Posted June 10, 2019 Making the move from incandescent mini lights to LED. Is there a brand that works the best for this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. P Posted June 10, 2019 Share Posted June 10, 2019 48 minutes ago, medusa_dave said: Making the move from incandescent mini lights to LED. Is there a brand that works the best for this? Most LED lights will work. Stay away from the Martha Stewart brand as they have had a tendency to over heat and catch fire in the past, don't know if that has ever been fixed. There are basically two types of LED strings that you can buy, half wave and full wave. The cheaper led lights that you can buy at Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot and other Big Box Stores are usually half wave and you can get them from $2 - $15. The more expensive full wave lights you can purchase at online specialty stores and they usually cost 2-3x more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted June 10, 2019 Share Posted June 10, 2019 What Mr P said. If you don't need fine dimming control, Half wave will probably do. I got most of my strings (70 ct M5 ) at Walgreen, 2 for sales (start and end of season). Some colors of the smaller size (Not the C7 or 9) also appear for Halloween. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgrant Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 The sealed led lights for outdoor use, work great. They cost more but are well worth it. I've found that unsealed lights from Sam's Club, last about two years, then the contact pins rust and break off. Target carries Phillips lights and they work decently and last for a reasonable time frame. Surprisingly, BigLots has lights that work and will last for several years. Home Depot carries Martha lights and as stated already by Mr P, stay far, far away from them. They will catch fire. Agreed that it has to do with the rectifier method used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericm Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 Walmart LEDS work great and are full wave, I have about 100k of them in my show and have had Zero failures or issues at all in the last 5 years. You can get them really cheap on clearance day after Christmas. The only failures I have had with lights, are the expensive sealed lights and replaced them with Walmart lights. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgrant Posted June 12, 2019 Share Posted June 12, 2019 I bought a bunch of sealed LED's from an online company for my megatrees, two of them. All of those strings have worked perfectly for years. I think it was something like LEDGen.com but not sure if they are still around Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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