The white LED rope light is a key feature to this project. There are few choices available for white LED rope light and it is quite expensive. I chose Wide Loyal Industries IFL-75W-V Flexilight distributed by fancylight.com. Fancylight (apparently owned by Wide Loyal) calls this part number 2SO-12-LV and sells if for $825/150-foot roll (at least the shipping is free.) They sell only full rolls. Unfortunately, after I began cutting the ropelight to the needed lengths I began to see sections that didn’t light. Out of twelve 7 1/2 foot lengths cut for the posts three had one 3-LED section not lit and two lengths had two sections each not lit. After the pre-tested prepared ropelight lengths for the patio cover rafters were installed four developed LED failures. Fancylight’s response was to offer to trade me for a roll of ropelight where the LEDs direct their light co-axially with the length of ropelight, thus most of the light is wasted, or they would give me several ropelight splices so I could cut out the bad sections and splice in good ones from whatever I had left. They didn’t offer to replace the defective product with new material. But what’s really shocking is that my offer to send them sections of failed ropelight for analysis was met with silence! I work as a manufacturing engineer for an electronics manufacturer. We are always eager to get a hold of failed products so we can learn how to improve the next time around. It is appalling the this manufacturer does not feel the same way.
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I opened up some defective ropelight sections with a razor blade and each had the same problem. The wire connecting the anode of the end LED to the positive bus was disconnected from the LED lead. The soldering job was inadequate. I repaired each by resoldering and sealing the flap of PVC back in place with silicone sealant.
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This lack of quality control can only give LED lighting a bad name. I cannot recommend this manufacturer.
