Chandler says:

This is my third or fourth set…not because they broke, I just keep adding on. If you peruse my reviews the past couple years, you’d see I keep winding up reviewing this light string…but they have been from different sellers each time because each time I go back to order from the previous one, it seems they have changed.I have a fairly elaborate garden in my backyard with vines, trees, ponds and streams…I have lights around the bridge that crosses the stream, and a trellis that crosses over my deck 25 feet up in the air that has grapevines growing across it so that it looks like stars, I also have some in the trees. When night falls, it’s just a wonderland to sit outside and sip wine or to entertain.I have not had any of my strands break in all that time and I hope they don’t because I wound them all over the place so it won’t be an easy fix. I have found, in putting up so many, that there are things that one may not realize that you need to realize in order for them to work.First, there is a clear plastic sheet over the solar panel that is stuck on there. This, evidently, is to keep it from getting scratched during shipping. If you don’t remove it or don’t notice it, it will grow cloudy in the sunlight and dust outside and no sun can get to your panel and it won’t work. Be sure to pull this off before use.Also, there an on/off switch on the back and you can turn this on, off, or set it to flashing lights. Obviously you have to put the solar panel standing straight up into the sun in order for it to charge. If you have it hidden by a plant or tree branch, you aren’t getting power to it, but once you do turn it on, put the little tab that is over the on/off switch back on. I suspect this is to keep it more water tight outside. I don’t know this for sure, but it looks that way and there is some reason that tab is there…that appears to be it.These remind me of stars and I just adore them…soft white light that I keep up year round. During the holidays you can turn them to blinking white lights. I have the strands in a few different lengths and I actually prefer the 50 foot ones but they were sold out when I got this one. My oldest strand is 2 years old now and has lit up every night like clockwork. I haven’t even changed the batteries on that strand I don’t think. (I assume they have solar batteries inside the panel. Maybe they never need changing.)They have made it through ice and the worst summer Texas has seen in ages last summer where it was around 110 degrees all the time….for me, they work great.