FVTLED 30pcs Low Voltage LED Deck Lights kit Φ1.38 Outdoor Garden Yard Decoration Lamp Recessed Landscape Pathway Step Stair Warm White LED Lighting, Red Bronze

These are really nice and I was originally very happy (5 star). But, I’ve now had 5 of 34 fail due to corrosion in under 16 months.May 30, 2023 UpdateI had my dates wrong. These actually lasted about 3 1/2 years. These light up wood steps and we've used salt when it snows so they've actually held up very well. Updating from 3 to 5 stars.

These lights exceeded all my expectations. Initially I was doubtful whether they would even work for my application which was a long set of outdoor rustic steps that I was building. My experience with low voltage lighting is that the connectors are the weak link and I knew I couldn’t use their connectors (although they did look quite robust for outdoor use) as I didn’t want anything buried that couldn’t be easily accessed when something doesn’t work. Also, my wire lengths were a lot longer and I was concerned by comments in the questions about voltage drop with longer wire lengths. I sent a couple of messages to their customer service and they were very helpful. I even sent my wiring diagram with lengths of each segment and the wire gauge and although it wasn’t typical, they said go ahead and try it. So I bought two sets of 30 lights and used all but two of them.I ganged the two transformer/rectifier outputs together and mounted them on my garage wall. I then used an existing low voltage, 16 gauge light cable to get the 12 volt DC power to the steps. I also bought a 500 foot reel of thermostat wire because it was 18 gauge and had red and white colors so I could always know which were the positive and negative wires. Incidentally, before I started the install, I connected all the lights in one long string using their connectors and then fed the supply voltage through the complete 500 foot reel to the lights and they worked fine so I was pretty confident my design was going to work. If you understand the design of the lights, they are all connected in parallel so if one led fails, the rest stay on. Knowing this and before filling in the step treads with gravel and decomposed granite, I ran the thermostat cable to the bottom end of the steps and then zigzagged it across the back of each riser all the way to the top where I then ran it back down to the starting point. I drilled the 15/16 inch holes for the lights a little deeper than they specify in my 4 by 8 risers and then put a smaller diameter drill through that hole to the back so that at each light I could fold the wire and feed it through the hole leaving about two inches sticking out the front of the riser. Like other users, I cut the light wires a few inches from the light but went a step further and soldered the two positive wires together and then the two negatives to each other. The lights are a much thinner 20 gauge wire and soldering each pair of like wires together made a thicker segment for connecting. The wires on the light have a grey strip on the positive line so if you also cut off their connectors make sure you keep the polarity straight. I did not cut my thermostat wire; instead, I peeled the plastic covering back to expose the fold and about a quarter of an inch of the copper wire and then used the smallest available wire nuts to connect the light wires. The grey striped wire always connected to my red line or positive and the all black wire was the negative (or neutral) connected to my white wire. Because I never cut the supply wire, this approach ensured if the wire nut came loose, only that light would fail. I coiled the wire and connectors into the back of the large hole and popped the light in. I’ve included my wiring diagram in case it’s helpful.The reason for taking the supply line to each end of the steps was to allow me to insert a motion sensor at each end of the steps so the lights would turn on no matter which way a user was going. I did get some basic motion sensors but they didn’t have a day/night control so the lights would come on during the day especially if it was windy. I replaced them with better low voltage dc motion sensors that could switch off completely during the day and these work really well.As I said above, the lights really exceeded my expectations. I didn’t want the staircase floodlit; the intent was to provide just enough illumination that at night time people would be able to clearly see the steps. Because the hillside was a variable slope with the steepest section in the middle, my steps were of variable depth so you really had to see where you were putting your foot. I located the two lights 30 inches apart laterally on each riser so that the main section of the step could be used without potentially kicking a light even though they seem pretty rugged. I was also very careful to keep them all aligned from one step to the next. I’ve included a night time picture although it really doesn’t do it justice. Not only do they look great during the daytime because are compact and unobtrusive and at nighttime are really spectacular, they are also highly functional and were perfect for my application. Coupled with the great customer service, I would recommend these lights wholeheartedly. I hope this helps.

I am currently replacing our deck stairs and figured I'd light the treads while I was at it since I have an existing low voltage landscape line that runs underground by these stairs. I couldn't find the exact and specific answer on here on how to do this so figured that I would show some pictures of exactly what I did and hope that it helps you as well. I don't know if this is the right way to do this but the lights work and almost all of my other landscaping lights that are connected on the same run are LED or I replaced them with LED bulbs so I figured why not.Some info: the treads are 36" wide with two 5/4 deck boards. The risers are 1x8x10 cut to 36" wide so about 7.25" high and 3/4" thick. The lip is about 1-1.5" overhanging each step.So, I started with a guide. I made a practice hole using a 3/4 spade bit. Then I lined up the template guide and notched it halfway (hard to see notch in picture), in this case 18" for center and drilled my template hole as a guide about an inch inch and half from the top. I made sure that I left room for the outside metal frame of the light to fit with a little space under each stair lip. Another thing too is that I made sure that every riser and tread was screwed in before I started drilling a hole and installing the lights. The 3/4 spade works good and the lights fit snug with just enough to turn them and straighten, if needed. I fed each wire through the hole and the metal springs were snug but did not go all the way past the 3/4 thickness of the riser. I didn't try to pull those out but I guess you could if you wanted. They are snug with the right amount of tension from the metal to the hole interior of the riser so I didn't bother messing with it.So, after I installed the lights into each board, I then connected them all together. Hopefully, you can see where I only connected one wire from the top step light and connected down and repeated to each light to the last step on the bottom. The lonely wire from the start (or top step) is not connected and there is an extra cap in the box to screw on and protect it from rain, etc.I literally just did these lights last night so I haven't secured the wires on connected the screw caps on each connection. When I got to the last step, here is what I did. This is the part that I couldn't find a good, solid answer on.Here is my transformer which turns on about 20 LED lights and 5 incandescent lights all connected together by your typical 16 AWG landscaping wire. It turns on at dusk and turns off after X hours depending on how I have it set up. Usually, longer in the summer, shorter in the winter.So, you see the pic with the provided DC transformer? Not the outlet plug side, but on the round cable side with the 2 pin connector is where I cut that wire completely off and away from the transformer. Cut closer to the square transformer to leave yourself plenty of wire to work with. Inside that round cable are two little wires. I stripped those two wires and then connected them to a low voltage connector as you can see in the picture (the raw wires not taped yet, lol). Then, I connected the low voltage connector to my existing low voltage underground wire. Then, I plugged in the 2-pin round connector into the last stair light and bam, they turned on!As you can see, they put off enough beautiful warm light for 36" treads.Again, I don't know if this is the right way to do it or how long these will last, but I've had the other LED-based lights and the incandescent fixtures that I replaced with LED bulbs all going on about 5 years now without any issues.The 4 stars is because I've only had these running for a day so I want to wait and see how they perform and appear after some rain, etc. But, needless to say, I am impressed with the ease of installation and the glow of these lights without being to bright and blindingI sincerely hope this helps someone in the same situation or similar because I bought these on a whim and got lucky. Thanks.

I used this set of lights to illuminate the steps on my boat dock. Subtle, but prefect!

Used for the stairs of my deck

now I can see the stairs on our deck in the evening and they look great

The set up arrived within reasonable time, it all works and seems to be of decent quality. However, even on the brightest setting, these lights are very dim. I suppose they'd be well suited for stairs. I ordered them to provide accent lighting to a privacy panel on my deck and they are way to dim for that purpose.

Nice lights. Put on railing posts on deck