Christmas lights, not always a gift

For Dominique Le Sage, of Morin Heights, recalcitrant strings of lights are in first place.

What stresses me out every year, even though I love Christmas, is really the lights that don’t work. Every year, we have two or three sets which don’t work. We throw away, we buy again. It’s a waste of money and plasticshe says.

Her partner, Jacques Gauthier, however, spared no effort to brighten up the surroundings of his dear Dominique. Trees and groves sparkle with a thousand lights, and three pretty stars adorn the front of the house.

Jacques came to my rescue, she said, her eyes shining. It took him five hours to make these repairs. A holy man, this Jacques.

Despite his hard work, some duly inspected sections went missing, including one of the three stars. Yet all the lights came on when I installed themhe sighs.

Autopsy

In the name of science, the couple donated their faulty strings of lights to us. At the University of Sherbrooke, Audrey Corbeil Therrien and Marie-Josée Gour, professors at the Faculty of Engineering, carried out an autopsy. LED bulbs, wires and connections: everything is there.

We found no break in the wires, explains Audrey Corbeil Therrien. The bulbs have been confirmed to work. On the other hand, we discovered from the start, when removing the bulbs, that there was corrosion inside. The bulb connectors were badly corroded. We would come out and it would fall apart.

When there is corrosion, the current no longer flows. And since these bulbs are connected in series, that’s where consumers’ problems begin. The bulb will not light up and all other bulbs in the section will not light up eitheradds the specialist.

Marie-Josée Gour is surprised by the results of her analysis. I didn’t think I would see this type of failure in Christmas lights. It’s elementary, but the way you put it all together can be criticalshe said.

Is it possible to improve the product? Yes, she answers. But will the consumer be willing to pay for this improvement? I don’t know.

Dominique Le Sage is suspicious. If I’m assured that it’s real quality, I’m willing to pay a little more, but at the same time, I don’t want people to be ambitious about how much better it is.

No choice: you have to pay!

We hit the road again with our defective garlands towards Joliette, at Leblanc Illuminations, a company specializing in large-scale Christmas decorations. The magical atmosphere of many town centers and village centers bears the signature of this firm.

We also buy our bulbs in Asia, but with our own specifications, says the general director, Jean-François Hénault. Our [ampoules] LEDs are soldered directly to the copper wire and encapsulated in a sheath to make them completely weatherproof.

Leblanc Illuminations does not compete with large stores. Its flamboyant decorations are intended for businesses and municipalities. At retail, its garlands would be worth double the price of cheap garlands offered at mid-height on store shelves. We’re going to talk about $75 for ten meters of garland, around thirty feethe specifies.

By examining our defective garlands, he immediately discovered their weakness. I would be wary of these products whose bulbs can only be detached by pressure [les ampoules miniatures de type M5]. I would go more towards products where the bulbs are screwed in [de type C9]or even LEDs encapsulated and soldered on the electrical cablehe advises.

To find unscrewable C9 type bulbs in stores, you have to bend over or look up in the bulb aisle. They are more expensive but more durable; we can therefore believe that over the years, consumers will get value for their money.

The C9 type unscrewable bulbs that we examined in store have a great advantage: they are connected in a parallel circuit. If one of them goes out, the others will stay on. During the critical period of holiday preparations, that changes everything!

Environmental cost

What is very unfortunate is that because of the breakage, people will throw away their garlands. For the environment, we will come backlaments Professor Audrey Corbeil Therrien.

Thrown in the trash or, even worse, in the recycling bin (containers, packaging and printed matter only), the garlands will end up in the same place: the landfill.

By bringing them to an ecocenter, it is more likely that they will be sold by weight to a broker for the value of the copper wire. In the best-case scenario, the garlands will return to Asia, where the copper and plastic will be recycled.

Worldwide, three billion dollars worth of Christmas lights are exported each year, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

And it weighs a lot: 240,000 tonnes! Canada alone imported $27 million worth of garlands in 2023.

And our rights in all this?

The Gauthier-Le Sage couple sometimes has the impression that their garlands are designed not to last. A plot hatched by big capital with the aim of making us spend more and more?

Although it is tempting to think so, specialists in this field tend to believe that products are made to be as cheap as possible, because consumers first look for a good price.

If you’re like everyone else, caught up in the holiday hustle and bustle, strings of lights are not an informed purchase but rather a quick purchase.

Here are some tips gleaned from our report:

• Keep the invoices and the front of the boxes carefully. Stapled together, they will be very useful if you need to return the product. We unpack the box, throw it away and no longer remember where we bought the lights. It complicates the situationobserves Dominique Le Sage.
• Even if the manufacturer’s warranty has expired, you may still be able to get a refund or exchange. By law, depending on the price paid, you can expect a product to be used for normal use for a reasonable period of time. If a failure seems premature to you, point this out to the merchant.
• Take a look at the guarantees. Some garlands are guaranteed for ten years, others for one year. This is an indicator of the manufacturer’s confidence in its product.
• Consider purchasing string lights with unscrewable bulbs. You can add gaskets, sold separately for a few dollars. Certainly, they do not have the same appearance as the ultra garlands supplied in mini-bulbs, but they are more durable.
• Sophistication comes at a price. Programmable string lights, which offer multiple lighting modes, are more expensive and have more parts that can break. Go for simplicity.
• Dry your garlands. After the holidays, I bring them in and leave them at room temperature, in the open air, for three or four days in my living room before storing them in my plastic bin, says professor Audrey Corbeil Therrien. If there is a lot of humidity in the tank, corrosion has time to do its work.
• If you’re not too fussy, buy your lights after the holidays. There is less variety but good prices.
• The important thing is sealing against dust and liquids. If, by some miracle, the packaging indicates a protection index (IP) of the bulbs, this is useful information to know the waterproofness of the product. Outdoors, the minimum protection rating is IP44. The higher the number, the more waterproof it is.
• The CSA, CUL and CE standards are an index not of durability but rather of electrical safety.

Some comments have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.