LED 5050 RGB Lights - Heads Up folks....

[drfife]

....We met at Lake Medina, Thousand Trails, last Feb.1, 2013. You cooked the "Garbage Can Turkey".

Hope to see you on the road again.

Jim M

Hey, Jim, I did not realize it was you until I looked at your picture.

I installed my LED's that weekend at Medina. The trash can turkey is always a conversation starter.

Thanks for the info.

 

[Gaffer]

Is there a UL label on this product?

 

[brianharrison]

The exterior LED that I have ready to install has a plastic cover on the LED strip, I presume to keep water off the strip. Did the OP have this cover on his strip? I cannot determine from the pictures.

I do not see any UL certification.




Brian

 

[ParkIt]

Hi Russell and everyone,

I just checked the 12v amp draw of the LED strip I installed and it seems to be the one almost everyone is getting and installing.

When on brightest setting the strip is drawing 2.02 amps of 12v current. The fuse in the panel for the circuit my porch light is tied into has a 20amp fuse. But the step lights, aisle light, both sides of the scare lights are all on the same circuit. Maybe even something else I did not find. I quit when my meter was up to 9.7amp draw with everything on. The meter I was using only measures up to 10amp. I did turn all the lights off and flipped some more switches and did not find any other load on that circuit.

So with the pictures posted before that tells me there was plenty of juice there to cause a burn like in the pics. I am going to wire in a separate 3 or 5 amp fuse inside the old porch light fixture where I tied my LED strip in so it will be on it's own smaller fuse and give me protection from a problem with the LED strip.

Since the current draw is so little, I would like to see everyone install a small fuse in the 12v supply line for these LED's.

Jim M

Jim, when I went to pick up my unit at Canopy Country RV Service Center couple of weeks ago, Ron (owner) had them wrapped around the cashiers desk but he flat out said if you are going to buy and install them to make sure they are on a dedicated line, he has kits he's made so they can plug into the outside outlet or wire into a blank panel. He told me they will "burn up...as in smoke and not the kind you can BBQ with" if you install them wired into the outside light circuit.
He also has kits he's made for outside rope lights as well though that was before the flat strips came out. He charges $25 to install them properly which is a pretty good deal after seeing the pictures sbuckman posted.

Its good to have an excellent service shop 28 miles away with a team that likes to mess around trying to make any unit safer, that and they have a great sense of humor which goes a long way.

 

[wildwolfproducts]

Know this is old, but if you hook these lights up to more amps then there made for. They will melt like the ones that started this thread. If your using a 110 volt power supply. Make sure its not putting out more then a few amps. As the ones that I know if were using full 12 volts or a power supply that was over powering there strip lights.
Thinking my lights show 2 amps for there use. Much more and your putting heat into them and going to have the above issues.
Pete

 

[chadcutright42585]

After reading through all of the posts and replys im sure this problem was a result of improper installation and no way were strips faulty. These led strips are built to handle max 6 amp and are designed for automotive battery systems. They at max can handle the 6 amps and from what i read it seems like they were getting more like 9+ amps so in really surprised the strip dn't blow the second you powered them up. How long had they been in use getting that much over amp. It doesn't matter what brand led strip you use if they aren't installed correctly. You must have proper amp fuse on them if you have a fuse rated 20amp that's not protecting you at all best bet is to use a proper power supply for the strips with a inline fuse holder equipped with a 6amp fuse. IIf you atleast install a in line fuse with correct size fuse you will never have to worry about what you viewed at the beginning of this thread. In truly impressed that led actually functioned for period of time installed that way. So if you insist on saving money and doing your own installations be sure you have some knowledge of product your installing. LED ate extremely low power consumption and are not built to handle more power than what is needed to power them. So do some research before installing and you should never have to worry about something like this happening. Take this thread as consequences for improper installation of led strips.

 

[porthole]

You could have a 12 volt DC battery bank with a 1000 amps available.

The appliance will only draw 12 volts at whatever current it needs.


So 12 volt LEDs that draw 2 amps will only draw 2 amps out of that 1000 amp example.

 

[jimtoo]

Right Duane,,, that strip had a broken insulation or something that allowed water to create an unwanted connection (read short) or just a manufacturing defect in the circuit creating short.
Or just a bad LED...it happens.

 

[happyappy]

Or just a bad LED...it happens.

Even in the best families...

 

[yepuhuh]

Mine started haing issues where the lights were not coming n and different colors than I wanted. It is a no brainer. I will be taking them down. I only plugged mine in when I wanted them to show which was not very much.