LEDs

[CATESJAOR]

So, I figured I'd wait until post Christmas sales to pickup more lights.... well, my local Walmart is sold out, Home Depot is 50% more than Walmart and only has white left, BigLots last I checked was out of stock as well...does anyone have 100 count mini lights they want to get rid of? I am only setup to run LED and wanted multi color, but can't be picky now. I still plan to hit stores after Christmas to see what might be left.

My prop for next year is to use a controller for a 20' mega tree, and wanted to use at least 8 channels and have 15 strands of lights plus a star. My star is white and so I wanted color for the "branches."

Anyway, let me know if you have any to part with and your price with shipping to 97838 residential.

catesjadroid@gmail.com

[Kapkirk]

If your stores in Oregon are stocked like ours in Florida you may be out of luck. All the Walmarts have very little inventory around here, my buddy makes the rounds pretty regular and says he has never seen such small amount of lights on shelves. I watch Lowes and Home Depot and they are similar. I don't believe we are going to see sales after Christmas like we are used to seeing.

 

I am waiting on Holiday Light Express to start they're  after Christmas sale, I need enough red, white and blue M6 strings to construct 2 large almost 4x8 U.S. Flags for 2 roofs next year. Good luck in your search, good possibility someone will have some extra lights for you. I will look tomorrow to see if I have any, I no longer use multi color except in tops of some crape myrtle's and I had plenty, will let you know.

 

Keith

[sysco]

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

[Kapkirk]

Catesjaor

Just visited Holiday Light Express website and notice they have their sale on now, if you don't find any lights from our members give them a look, you can't beat their customer service and they ship really quick. https://www.holiday-light-express.com

Keith

Just now, sysco said:

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

Sysco, your really quick

[sysco]

ordered a few things from them over the last number of years good to deal with good product 

[CATESJAOR]

Thanks everyone. I may just wait and get them next year. Even at full price, Walmart is 1/3 the price of holiday light express. But will see what's left in a week.

[Mr. P]

6 minutes ago, CATESJAOR said:

Thanks everyone. I may just wait and get them next year. Even at full price, Walmart is 1/3 the price of holiday light express. But will see what's left in a week.

Walmart may be 1/3 the price but keep in mind that they are a 1/3 of the quality. HLE lights are sealed and they are full wave whereas Walmart's are not. Just something to think about.

[k6ccc]

23 minutes ago, CATESJAOR said:

Thanks everyone. I may just wait and get them next year. Even at full price, Walmart is 1/3 the price of holiday light express. But will see what's left in a week.

You get what you pay for.  I don't have a lot of "traditional" LED strings in my show (mostly RGB). but you could not pay me to go back to cheap big box store LED strings.  Not worth the effort.

 

[Eric walls]

Catesjaor

I used to buy the lights on sale at the end of the season but like many have suggested HLE has lights that are far superiors.  In the long run I ended up replacing all my cheap LED's for theirs.  My GFI kept tripping during the shows and what was happening is water getting into the sockets. The sockets also become loose and rusty over time and it's impossible to find that one loose light when the whole string goes out.

HLE has the commercial grade, sealed, and waterproof lights. This is so important in Oregon when all we get is rain in December.  Yes, it's a bit more but in the long run worth it. I will never go back to the other lights.

 

[EARLE W. TALLEY]

I have some HLE lights that are 12 years old and still going.

[Orville]

12 hours ago, CATESJAOR said:

Thanks everyone. I may just wait and get them next year. Even at full price, Walmart is 1/3 the price of holiday light express. But will see what's left in a week.

One thing I did with the Big Box Store retail LED strands I bought was remove each LED bulb and add in somwe of the dielectric grease in every socket and coat the LED leads with it.  It's the same type dielectric grease used in automotive sockets to help prevent them from rusting and shorting out when they get wet.  The grease is non-conductive, so it protects the socket but still allows power to get to the bulbs.   Yes, it is a bit of work, but my "cheap" LED strands lasted for many years, out of about 100 strands I had {and gave away when I converted to RGB} in I'd say 12-15+ years of use, I only ever had to toss out about 3 to perhaps 5 strands, and that was mostly due to a rectifier going bad on the strand, and those like said, 12-15+ years old, the others I gave away a few years ago to my church, and now that's been about 3-4 years and all of them are still going strong as static lights.

So I swear by using Dielectric grease and plastic child outlet protective covers on each open male to female pass through, as well as the female plugs on the end of every strand that isn't connected to another one on the cheapo retail LED strands.

But it all boils down on what and how you want to do things in your display.  As well as the type of LED strands you want to use and how much money {and time} you want to spend to keep them working for years along the way.

Good Luck.   Each type, replacable LED bulbs or sealed strands have their good and their bad points.

[dgrant]

Just this year, first time, lost an HLE string for a megatree (blowing fuses). They've been in-use for 6 seasons now. I'm not complaining at all, they work great.

[Wingrider]

Adding to what others have said about HLE-  they have been consistently great with customer service and with the products I have purchased from them for years.  

Early on I was not as kind to some my LED strings from them as I should have and they still took the abuse.  I'll be placing a big RGB order with them shortly and expect more well made strings that I'll be thrilled with.

Quality all around.