Issue with LED Strings

[mikeh65]

Has any one else had issue with their LED strings? I made a purchase of many strings from LED Holiday Lighting this year. Pre-ordered. My show went live Saturday night, 11/27. So far, I have lost four strings of white lights, one string of green and one string of red. Almost all of them are half out. The first half from the plug to the middle work, the middle to the end don't. I am VERY unhappy with these. :( Now I am running all over looking for replacement strings and paying top dollar to get them. I am also having to take my display apart to repair what stops working. Very frustrated. Have email LED Holiday Lights, no response from them yet.

[barbotte]

good luck on your issue as i have read on other forum that a lots of peopl were having trouble with them
cheer

[A2K97]

I don't know if you saw my post on this, but I have had some issues with my LED lights as well. I think I may have "fixed" it. For me the entire strand goes out, but not totally. Everything is just really dim...like 10% full brightness. I had two strands do this to me last year and had them replaced. This year I had two strands of green go out on me after I had put them up. I tested them before I put them up and they worked. I happened to have some extra strands and decided to replace them. Replaced one, and then started to replace the second and they miraculously came on. Haven't had any issues since. Got me to thinking. So I grabbed the strand that I had already taken out of the window. Plugged it in, and started pushing on each individual bulb. After about 5 the whole strand came back on. Guess it was just a loose bulb. The strands I have are sealed, so the lights can't be replaced. Don't know if you have that type or not, but I thought I would offer it up. And I'm confident this is the problem, because when I came home tonight I had a 3rd set of green lights out. Started pushing on all the bulbs and eventually found one that made the whole set come back up.

Hope this helps.

Andy

[bcadman]

If they are not sealed, it is possible to troubleshoot the strand to find the bad bulb or bad connection.

I have a trick to help find the problem.

It involves taking a wire with a resistor [several k ohms, cant remember] in series and plugging it into the neutral of the outlet.

I remove one of the bulbs [usually in the middle of the unlit section] and stick the other end of the resistor-wire into the empty LED socket, moving it left and right as to touch the two terminals down in the socket. 50% of the time, half of the unlit section will light up. If nothing lights up, I change the polarity of the strand by rotating the LED plug in the outlet and stick the wire back into the empty LED socket. From this I can determine which half of the unlit portion has the problem. I repeat this divide and conquer process until I have narrowed it down to the problem.

Like I said, I don't remember what size resistor I use, but a 20k ohm resistor will limit the short circuit current to 120V/20k = 0.006amps RMS, which should be safe for the LEDs. Keep in mind that the LEDs don't pull a lot of current.

Does anybody else use a similar or better trick for troubleshooting their LEDs?

[kychristmas]

If I'm not mistaken, you can use the current detector portion of the Lightkeeper Pro with LEDs to locate a faulty LED.

I don't have a lot of LED strings, but I thought I used it early last year to find a Bad LED on one of my strands. Hopefully other LKP owners can confirm.

DO NOT use the Shunt trigger tool on LEDS.

[mikeh65]

Thanks for all of the input guys, but the strings I got are sealed. No way to track down a bad bulb. Lost two more strings last night. Very frustrating.

[gocats7]

I just bought a ton of non-sealed LED's for next season. I would be interested to hear any troubleshooting suggestions as Im sure I will need it for next year!

[dirknerkle]

I just bought a ton of non-sealed LED's for next season. I would be interested to hear any troubleshooting suggestions as Im sure I will need it for next year!

I'm confused. What do you physically look for in a "sealed" vs. "non-sealed" string? Other than what the term "sealed" implies (e.g. impervious to water, I assume), are there other benefits to buying one or the other?

[Amdphenomx4]

Sealed lights are likely to last longer. They are more expensive however. They basically have the LEDS molded in the plastic.

[DIY Guy]

Dielectric grease in the sockets will prolong non-sealed LEDs. A lot of work to do, but in that case you have the benefit of being able to easily replace some if they go bad.

I have non-sealed lights that have worked fine for a couple of years.. I recently had issues so I pulled a few out and there is noticeable corrosion in there.

[mikeh65]

I want to thank LED Holiday Lights. I did not know they were coming but they sent me replacement sets. I had the doorbell ring Thursday and there was the UPS guy with a bow of replacement sets and a ticket to pick up the defective ones. I sent back all but one set, they are currently up on the roof of my house and not accessable.

[kostyun]

I want to thank LED Holiday Lights. I did not know they were coming but they sent me replacement sets. I had the doorbell ring Thursday and there was the UPS guy with a bow of replacement sets and a ticket to pick up the defective ones. I sent back all but one set, they are currently up on the roof of my house and not accessable.

At least you heard back - I think I'm up to 20 or 30 emails with no response yet (starting November 12th)

I was only having issues with greens - and scrapped one set that was dead and used it along with wire pierceing probes + current detector to relace the bad areas on the ones that didn't work.

The other thing I did was add a 180ohm resistor (1w) to each segment of green to drop the current - then no more green issues.

[Penfold]

Frank don't go the email route. Call Travis up at his real telephone number (link below):

http://www.bbb.org/minnesota/business-reviews/decoration-contractors-party-convention/seasonal-impressions-in-jordan-mn-96016250#ratingdetails

I called the number listed here and that got the ball rolling finally! Give it a try.

[stenersonj]

we paid for our lights last summer and have no lights and our $1700 has not been returned. if we get lights or money - i will post.

[kostyun]

Frank don't go the email route. Call Travis up at his real telephone number (link below):

http://www.bbb.org/minnesota/business-reviews/decoration-contractors-party-convention/seasonal-impressions-in-jordan-mn-96016250#ratingdetails

I called the number listed here and that got the ball rolling finally! Give it a try.

Been there, done that, got the silence. At this point I've cut the lights and modified them anyways. Had two years good experiences, but, never again. (Leaving me with a couple hours lost time, and only one dead set)