24ft LED Smart RGB String Light App/Voice Control

UPDATE: 6/14/2023- Sally of HBN came through with a full refund. AND she followed up to make sure that it had gone through. While the lights were as I describe, they are a good product if used as I describe. 5 stars for coming through in the end. Updating the product description would be good.These seem like a great light system. I used two sets, strung them and connected with the app via internet. Worked great for 2-3 months. Then the last 11 bulbs started to function randomly and would not turn off without unplugging the system. I sent an email to customer support and received no reply. I noted that one bulb was retaining water, but removing it and drying it out did not resolve the problem. I then removed that string of lights and reconnected with just one string. Now, the final five bulbs on this string work randomly and don’t turn off unless unplugged.Recommendation: Great for indoor use or under covered areas. Do not use outdoors if exposed to the elements.

My family and I were so excited about these lights. I hung stainless steel wire in a zig zag across my whole back yard and over my pool. When I first installed them they worked great and loved them. Shortly there after it rained pretty hard and then the lights started blinking and half wasn’t working well. Then I realized that there was water in the bulbs, in one string. I called Amazon and they patched my through to HBN. HBN did sent one replacement string, which I did appreciate. I asked HBN if they have had these reports before and they said YES a handful of times. Then said they have only heard of it happening in places where it rains hard. That is most places in the world at some time of the year. I received the new set and I installed them. Again, they worked great for a couple weeks and then it rained again. BOOM the same problem!!! What a sheer disappointment considering how much time I spent installing and taking down. Now I called Amazon and it’s past the return period. After speaking to a supervisor and an hour on the phone they are refunding me 75% if the purchase price but I had to take them all down and ship them back. I am master electrician and my time in worth a lot of money. No way should I have to not be refunded 100% for this. Stay clear of these lights! Poor design as lights are split molded and the hook on the top swivel’s. That is where the water gets in when it rains hard!!

Ok... I have never left a review for anything. But for theses lights, I have to.So I buy 2 sets of these lights and hang them up in my backyard, everything is exposed to all elements. Couple months goes by and we get some awful down pouring rain. Everything gets soaking wet and the string starts flickering and acting up. I email the company and Ms. Dianna w/cust support team says "no problem. 2 brand new sets are in the mail on their way to you. Throw the other 2 sets away, no need to return them".I think to myself, cust svc is NEVER this easy. 2 days later, I received 2 brand new sets. I hang em up and throw the other 2 away (individual lights are not interchangeable) and back in business, everything's great. Dang, 4 months down the road I noticed 2 bulbs at the end have water in them and have quit working just on 1 string. I emailed Ms. Dianna w/cust support team and explain the issue and again I get "no problem, sending you another brand new set right now, throw the other one away".ARE YOU SERIOUS???Never in my years have I ever had cust svc that easy and professional!!! 2 days later brand new set. This time what noticed taking the old one down, is the bulbs are just plastic and some might not be twisted in all the way. The light itself is a LED up in the housing of the bulb. Just make sure ALL the plastic bulbs are twisted in nice and snug into their sockets and keep the electrical box from getting totally soaked and they should work great!!! I say buy em, they're definitely worth it!!!Cust support for this company is amazing!!! Shout out to you Ms. Dianna!!!

The good: I purchased a set of these (48 foot/24 light/LED string lights) for my patio for my kid's birthday party and they were awesome. Given all the features with scenes and varying levels of brightness as well as the integration with the Smart Life app. That app also integrates fairly well with Google Assistant on my Pixel 4, and Alexa on my Win 10 PC. I have yet to try it with the Ubuntu Alexa app, but don't expect any issues.The bad: A few days after the party, I woke up one morning to find the last six lights in the string lit up blinking random colors, kind of like demo mode. I used the Smart Life app to turn the lights on and the rest all acted normally, but the last six didn't respond at all and continued to flash. I tried unplugging the main power and pressing the power button to fully drain any stored electricity. But when I plugged them in the last six lights continued to blink. I also tried deleting pairing the lights (in pairing mode with the blinking red lights) and the last six lights continued to blink. The lights before the last six worked normally in every way.I left the lights unplugged for about two weeks wondering if maybe something glitchy needed to discharge. But even two weeks later, the blinking problem remained. Upon further inspection, I noticed that the seventh from the last bulb had water in it. Probably about 3/8 of an inch deep at the bottom of the bulb. Could that be the issue? I remembered that the night before the lights started blinking, we had a pretty heavy rain.The better: I called HBN support and they said to provide my order number, name and address and they would send me a new string with no need to return the old string. They honored their promise and about a week later I had a new set. This time I did a little digging and I noted that these are rated IP65. I had no idea what that meant. So I looked it up and found this:"Is IP65 waterproof?Example :With an IP65 rating, the LEDs can be used in an outside setting and are water-resistant but they are not waterproof and are not suitable to be submerged. An IP68 can be submerged in water."Water resistant means that these lights should be OK in a light and short duration rain. But anything heavier is likely to pool enough and make its way into the bulb housing through the holes in the top that the loops for hanging them stick out of. This probably leads to some short circuit(s) which impede or prevent proper communication of signaling within the string. With the new set, I plan to align all the loops in the way I intend to use them and then use silicone caulk to seal the holes below the loops. We will see if this will prevent the issue. Sometimes, where I live the rain is heavy enough and falls sideways that they call it "blowing spray". I could see that damaging any water resistant product.Bottom line: HBN honors their word on offering a replacement. I am thankful for that and believe that deserves recognition. The product, unfortunately, is not fully water proof. If you want them to last, use them in places where they are sheltered from direct rains, or add insulation at the top where the shaft of the loop mechanism comes out of the lamp housing. These are LEDs, so they should need no replacement for 10-15 years. Not having replacement bulbs should not be an issue.IT pro tip: Put these on their own isolated Internet of Things (IoT) network. I used my router to set up a secondary network on one its ports and connected that to my WiFi access point running OpenWRT as well as setting up a separate WiFi network for them to link to. If you understand what I just said, then you should be golden.