It's been a long time since I've been so excited to get an item. Recently moved into a place with a little balcony, but no porch light. Searching for outdoor lighting options led me here, and once I saw this product I knew I would not be happy settling for anything else knowing this exists. Perfect for all seasons and weather! Perfect for enjoying the balcony on summer nights! Perfect for keeping an eye on the cats in the dark! Light bulbs that won't shatter! SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY.

I bought these in "very good" used condition off amazon warehouse. They looked barely opened. Some of the bulbs have a little scratch or two but nothing a person would notice from a few feet away. All lights are functional. The smaller 24' string was the perfect size for a little 9x5' balcony. I got eye bolts and arranged them in a figure 8 shape. I zip tied the lights to the eye bolts so they would stay put in windy conditions. The lights are heavy and it was challenging to put them up by myself, but I found it easiest to start at the (lightest) far end of the string and work my way to the (heavy) beginning of the strand where it connects to the extension cord.

NEGATIVES:

I was disappointed in the user customizable settings on the remote - specifically the "fade" and "strobe" buttons. I thought that you could pick your color (or even two colors), and the "fade" and "strobe" would turn the lights on and off using those colors. I am very fond of "fade" or "slo glo" settings on regular christmas lights, so I thought this light strand would behave similarly. I was REALLY hoping that selecting color #1 and color #2 and then picking "fade" or "strobe" would have them morph between those two colors. That would be so cool!! This is not the case.

Fade = the lights turn a rainbow of random colors and fade in and out between random colors.
Strobe = the lights flash on and off in unison changing colors in rainbow sequence. ALL RED - off - ALL ORANGE - off - ALL YELLOW - etc.

Then there's also a "mode" button which has 8 additional programmed light combinations/behaviors, similar to fade and strobe. I don't understand why the light settings on the "fade" and "strobe" buttons aren't considered "modes". They are not user customizable. It seems misleading. Even in the manufacture provided ad above it says "Fade and Strobe options" without telling you that their definition of fade and strobe is completely different than any other light set you've ever purchased.

There is no way to make the lights blink or twinkle in user chosen colors. Even with just one basic color, like the white. Seems like a really obvious thing to have on a light string this advanced. The rainbow color morphing blinking options are okay but too "clown party" for me. I bought these for ambiance, not for kindergarten birthday parties. So there are 5 rainbow "clown party" settings I doubt I'll use, 5 seasonal/holiday settings, and then the ability to turn the strand 1 or 2 solid colors and adjust the brightness. Those are the options.

And of course, the other big negative is that it's expensive. I got around that somewhat by buying used, but really, for something you can use every single night for years and years and seems well made and is energy efficient, full price isn't a bad deal. The only bummer is you're basically marrying them 'til death do you part, because they're such an investment and are supposed to last so long. Maybe cooler light options will come out in 3, 5, 10 years and you'll be that old grouch who won't modernize because you invested $$$ in this set back in 2018?? Do you know how much that was is 2018 dollars?? Ah well, "clown party" forever.

POSITIVES:

It's a really well built light string. The remote is responsive with a good range. The color choices are very pretty, especially the vibrant red. The "vintage" white color is perfect - soft and mellow, not harsh and blue-white. The "modes" are nice (though most of them aren't much better than just selecting color #1 and color #2 yourself). The bulbs look so handsome all lit up. I am certain that anyone who comes to our place and sees them will be wow'ed.

I know enbrighten makes a plain white strand but the extra cost for the color changing is well, well worth it.

NEUTRAL:

You're definitely going to need an extension cord to put these up, because there isn't much "non lighted" cord at the start of the strand. (The end of the cord is a two prong plug, fyi.) Make sure you have one ready because these are SO COOL you will want to put them up right away. I'm also purchasing a timer with a dusk light sensor to turn them automatically on/off, instead of relying on the timer functions on the remote. So there's an extra $20 plus the cost of the strand, ouch.

Honestly the only thing this strand is missing is true blinking/twinkling/fade functionality. I kinda wish I'd bought the ones with the white cord, but the used black ones were so much cheaper.

These lights are 100% worth the money !!! I bought a less expensive set prior to these and had a bad experience with them I returned them and purchased these and am beyond happy that I did so , the acrylic is super strong and looks really nice , easy to operate color options and super bright !

I bought these lights as a replacement set after having the house and back porch painted. I was concerned as to the cost of these lights and whether I would actually get my money's worth - they are not cheap!

When the box arrived the first thing I noticed was that it weighed a ton! In my mind that translated to a quality build product, but then I thought "I need to carefully consider how I hang these". I can tell you after having/using these for a few months now, these are indeed high quality lights that should last for quite some time. Do carefully consider how you plan to hang them. I used stainless steel screws in each light's "hanger" to support these lights around the top of my porch.

Some of the product photos make these lights look very bright. I was actually concerned that they might be too bright, but the dimmer feature helped to ease my concerns. Fact is that they are perfect at full brightness (for my porch) to provide a comfortable level of lighting to eat, relax and converse. I do like having the ability of selecting different levels (frequencies) or "white" light. This does help when eating vs relaxing.

Colors are beautiful. The unique bulbs just accent the colors even more. I like the preset patterns so much I rarely do anything "manual". The lights are tough! I did drop a couple during installation and, after kicking myself for a bit, was please to find they were not scratched or damaged at all.

So were they worth the $$$. Absolutely! My one complaint/wish list item - true Alex integration. Not keen on having to use (and not lose) a remote. I'm looking forward to years of relaxing on the back porch with these lights,

I've had these lights for many years, since before there was a WiFi version. I waited a few years to review them because I wanted to be sure of the quality. I love these lights! They have survived 105F Sacramento summers and 35F winters, year after year without fail. The WiFi version has many more options and features but these are sufficient for my purposes. They are bright enough to be seen during the day.

We bought and tested several different colored strings of lights and we liked these the best. They are very flexible with their light colors and patterns. Their bulbs are larger than some of the other light strings. Multiple strings can be paired to be controlled by a single remote. (Instructions for this below).

These string lights are "reasonably" bright but not "super bright". For example, they are not quite as bright as our other Costco white LED light string. (We tested a number of different colored light strings and right now if you really wanted "super bright" ones to brightly light up an area you would probably need to buy some dedicated white LED ones that had brighter bulbs instead of color-capable ones. I don't think any of the color light strings available right now would be considered "super bright", right now you'd probably have to go with dedicated white LED ones to get that, and even then you might have to look for ones that are specified as brighter bulbs or change to brighter after-market bulbs to get it as "super bright" as you wanted).

Even though I don't consider these "super bright", they are reasonably bright and I like these light strings because they are more flexible and can do colors and patterns. I also like that they can be set to the different various shades of "white" lights along with the various colors and patterns. My wife likes the old style yellowish low color temperature white color best, but you can also set the higher color temperature white colors if you want those. You can also dim the light string down if desired. It has lots of features and control for the lights.

This light string had a key feature I wanted: When the power is first turned on the light string stays in the same mode as they were in when the lights were powered off. This lets me use a smart switch to turn them on and off and they don't come up in an unexpected or unwanted light pattern or mode. They come up again in the same light color(s) and pattern. (I actually tested and returned the Costco version of the colored string lights because they would come up in a completely different light pattern compared to what they were running in before they were turned off). So that made these smart-switch compatible for me. You still have to use the physical remote if you want to change the pattern. But you can set a color/pattern mode and it will come up in that mode again when the power is switched back on again.

We have 3 strings of lights daisy-chained together on the same string and outlet. Two 48' ones and a 24' one. We plugged each following string into the end plug for the previous string. We were able to program one of the remotes to control setting the same mode and colors on all 3 connected strings with one remote.

There is a method for programming the strings so they all listen to a single remote. There is also a method to program a string to forget a remote. Unfortunately the instructions don't have either of these programming methods listed on the instruction sheet, which is strange. I think both of these programming methods should be added to the instruction sheet that's included with the string. (Or at the very least the pairing one. In reality most people won't need these extra programming steps for the remote unless they buy multiple strings and also wanted to pair multiple strings to a single remote).

To pair multiple strings to the same remote: The string comes already paired with the included remote, so normally it should work fine with that light string. But if you want to pair several strings to listen to the same remote: Plug in or power up the strand(s). Within 8 seconds press and hold the power button on the remote (red top button). Then the lights will blink to let you know that particular remote is now synced to that string.

To remove a remote control from memory of a light string (unpair): You normally shouldn't need to do this. But if for some reason you needed to solve a conflict with another remote: Plug in or power up the strand(s). Within 8 seconds, press and hold the yellow button (in bottom left corner). The lights will turn white, blink twice and remain white. Your remote and light string are now unpaired.

The plastic bulbs on these light strings do look a little different than those on other light strings. It looks like they have bubbles in the solid plastic bulbs that are below the color LED light elements. I'm guessing this was purposely done to give more reflective surfaces so the bulbs show up better when viewed from the side. When we tested some other colored lights we noticed you couldn't see the light and colors from the side very well, and that's why we rejected those other light strings. These lights don't have that problem, probably because of this bubble feature. It looks OK, just something to be aware of that does look different from the other light string sets. It actually makes this string work better and be brighter and more visible than those other string lights that don't have this feature. Just something to be aware of.

The wires for these light strings are very rugged and have good heavy duty hooks.

Be aware that each light string does have a power pack transformer at the beginning of the string's cord near the plug. If you're mounting the lights on a wall like we did the transformer pack does have some reasonable screw hooks for securing it if you need that for your application. They could have added a few additional screw hooks in it for hanging them upside down or horizontally better, but they were good enough that we made it work OK for us and we're happy with them. But the transformer is something to be aware of that needs to be mounted if you're securing it to a surface.

Great lights. They can do lots of fun light patterns and colors. We like them and they look really good.