Quality Lights?

[SunriseSunset]

Hey everybody,

I'm wondering if you know of a website where I can purchase quality lights that will last for a while. Each year I purchase lights from FlashingBlinkyLights.com, but they're super cheap and they call apart after a few nights. I hate the idea of creating more plastic pollution with every burn.

Thoughts?

[Eric]

I always buy mine off ebay, direct from China if possible (give yourself time for the order to arrive). The lights are less expensive than most specialty stores - even with shipping - & they've all lasted me multiple burns - camp lights, "fairy lights" for costuming and bikes, etc.

[Ratty]

Small LEDs, (cheap), do fine for many years. EL wire breaks as you put it on your costume or bike. Get some fairy lights at Target. They also have strings of nylon chinese lantern lights for $3 in the section of $1 to $5 stuff.

[Hey Daisy]

Fairy Lights on Amazon! I bought these for last year and they were great. I wrapped them around me every night, plus our camper's battery died so we used them for overhead lighting inside as well. These things are BRIGHT and durable.

[RossF]

coolneon.com

/thread

[spacetime]

Fairy Lights!

We too, use these lights. The batteries die but they can be replaced. They take a surprising beating. Biggest suggestion is to mark the color on the battery pack with a sharpie. Helps keep them sorted.

[Admiral Fukkit]

I used colored fairly lights and further playa-proofed them by fishing them through some clear plastic tubing, kinda like home made rope light.

[Eric]

coolneon.com

/thread

Coolneon is fine if (a) you want to make your lights from scratch for a project, or (b) have money to burn, though you do get to support Burners in doing so. You can get LEDs cheaper elsewhere, with quality that's just as good.

I stand by eBay or Amazon as recommendations, even though they're evil corporations - all the lights (even Coolneon's) are made in China at this point, if you can get them cheaper from other sources, why not do so? I just purchased 18 5' strands of watch-battery powered fairy lights for costuming from one of the above sources for $33 total - I don't see specialty stores selling them for under $2 a strand.

[BBadger]

Fairy lights are the best thing ever. Cheap, relatively rugged, bright, some accept AA batteries, easy to incorporate into costumes, etc. Some are even tiny and can take coin cells.

Yeah, some lights will break, but it's the playa. I wouldn't bother spending too much on lights because even the expensive ones will not hold up very well, and even the nicest ones will be playa-caked by the end of the event and you might be inclined to toss them anyway. Besides, if you can get multiple, cheap lights you don't need to bother changing batteries, especially annoying button cell batteries; just grab a new light and deal with battery changing later.

Aside from the nice fairy lights on Amazon, I like the cheap bulk lights I've gotten at ExtremeGlow. They usually have a 10% off BM coupon around now too.

[Toe]

I'm not sure I'd call them quality but fairy lights do work, sometimes, for a while. One of their qualities is that you can repair them with a little bit of soldering know-how. Another quality is they're cheap as shit. I pull them out of the garbage and resurrect them.

Pro tips:
-Get ones that have no modes or features (just on/off), the circuit board will corrode.
-Electrical tape the battery box shut tightly and neatly along the cracks to keep the playa from eating the batteries, or...
-Get waterproof ones with a push button switch.