uppitt
Apprentice elf
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2010
- Messages
- 63
Just wanted to pass on my experience using Selleys All Clear for waterproofing LED strings (for those who have not gone down the RGB route).
My display is a simple (sometimes overboard) static display. I have a sloping property, so I fill my large garden with lights. I have stuck mainly with some rope light motifs, and alot of LED strings wrapped around trees, lining the pathway etc.
I started using Selleys All Clear following the suggestion from other people here a few years ago. I thin it down with mineral turps (gave up trying to find Toulene, and the safety aspect turned me off), and while it does dry quickly, depending on how much turps I used, it's either near hard once dry, or sometimes a little tacky. But I can say it works...even if it's a painstaking exercise to do. As proof, I actually never quite finished pulling in all my lights from last year. I had 4 BigW icicle strings hanging from my guttering, and left them there all year (everytime I looked at them I told myself I must pull them down). So come last weekend I started rolling out my lights for this year. I actually expected the icicle lights to only be partially working, having lived in the weather all year. Only 1 section of lights (10 or 12 leds in 1 string, whatever the series was) was out, everything else was working. The ones that were out, just happened to be a section of LEDs I forgot to put the All Clear on... I did all the LEDs except these ones...and they stopped working.
So for any newbies starting out and investing in some lights, I can recommend using Selleys All Clear to provide some basic waterproofing and extend the life of your lights. I've seen far too many people (myself included) where new lights start dying within weeks after being in the elements, and the culprit is nearing always moisture.
My display is a simple (sometimes overboard) static display. I have a sloping property, so I fill my large garden with lights. I have stuck mainly with some rope light motifs, and alot of LED strings wrapped around trees, lining the pathway etc.
I started using Selleys All Clear following the suggestion from other people here a few years ago. I thin it down with mineral turps (gave up trying to find Toulene, and the safety aspect turned me off), and while it does dry quickly, depending on how much turps I used, it's either near hard once dry, or sometimes a little tacky. But I can say it works...even if it's a painstaking exercise to do. As proof, I actually never quite finished pulling in all my lights from last year. I had 4 BigW icicle strings hanging from my guttering, and left them there all year (everytime I looked at them I told myself I must pull them down). So come last weekend I started rolling out my lights for this year. I actually expected the icicle lights to only be partially working, having lived in the weather all year. Only 1 section of lights (10 or 12 leds in 1 string, whatever the series was) was out, everything else was working. The ones that were out, just happened to be a section of LEDs I forgot to put the All Clear on... I did all the LEDs except these ones...and they stopped working.
So for any newbies starting out and investing in some lights, I can recommend using Selleys All Clear to provide some basic waterproofing and extend the life of your lights. I've seen far too many people (myself included) where new lights start dying within weeks after being in the elements, and the culprit is nearing always moisture.
