Christmas Lights Recommendation

[Jerry1]

I’ve really been disappointed with Christmas lights. The old lights always had the problem that if one bulb went out, they all would (our at least half the strand) and they rarely lasted past the first season. Then I paid up and went to LED’s and thought I’d be happy with that, but they too have their issues. I thought spending more would get me more years of service, but they fail often too and are even harder to fix.

Has anyone had good luck with a brand or type of light for outdoor lighting? I live in the north, so they’re subject to ice, snow, rain, whatever. Thankfully I only do a few trees and wrap the gutter around my small house. I hate to be this way, but I feel like the thing to do is just get the cheap mini incandescence lights and just treat them as disposable.

 

[RunningBum]

Oddly enough the outside lights have done well for me. I get plenty of weather in the VA mountains. I've had some indoor lights strung from the loft railing and I'm losing sections of it. All LED. I'm saying away from the long strings now. Too much work to wrap them anyway.

Sorry, no real advice. Most of my LED lights are doing well. I do the windows on the front from the inside. Net lights over my shrubs, a strand or two on 4 dwarf Alberta spruces, garage frame, icicle lights on the small covered porch. Really I think just that long string went bad, very little else. I've bought lights at Target, Lowes and/or Home Depot, and Amazon.

 

[ERD50]

I've been buying the cheap 'warm white' from Walgreens ($5 for a 50 LED string, IIRC), I'd have to get them out of the attic to see if they have a brand name. But I have about a dozen strings, some for at least 5 years, about half of them used outside, and I have only had a single LED failure (on an inside porch), and that failed shorted, so the string stayed lit.

Oddly, when I replaced that one LED, the replacement immediately shorted. After the second one did the same, I just accepted it, I really can't figure out why, my measurements seemed reasonable on the string.

Half the outside ones are under the eaves, so fairly protected, but some are on the bushes in the snow/ice/rain.

-ERD50

 

[Sunset]

My recommendation is to not get up on a ladder or a roof.

Last yr, I just threw the LED lights that I normally string along the roof, onto the bushes in front of the house.
They looked very pretty, especially when buried in snow and the random placement along the bushes was nicer than trying to outline the roof as so many folks do.

 

[Freedom56]

Buy multi-color LED lights with a controller that lets you select the effect you want. I have had mine for several years. They consume very low power.