How To Choose The Best Harbor Freight Rope Lighting For Your Backyard

Getting outdoor lights can really make a difference for your yard. It creates a charming, magical oasis that is welcoming even in the middle of the night. However, finding the right ones can be difficult, especially when so many look similar. Rope lighting is one option, which involves lights wrapped inside a flexible tube. These work nicely as accent lighting — the tube diffuses the light, giving it a softer glow. They are also tend to be less expensive than other outdoor lighting options. Harbor Freight's website has only two options, but based on the online details and reviews, they have a lot of similarities. Both are sold under the brand name Luminar Outdoor and use warm LED lights. Both are designed to handle outdoor weather. 

The Luminar Outdoor 18 ft. LED linkable rope light has connections that allows it to daisy chain to another one, extending the rope as far as you need. This one is also powered with a standard plug, meaning you have to connect it to an outlet. This makes it easy to turn on and off as needed. After all, turning off lights when you're not using them is one of the outdoor lighting tips that'll help reduce light pollution. It receive a rating of 4.7 stars out 5, with more than 90% of verified reviewers giving 4 or 5 stars. A reviewer named Gavin mentioned on Harbor Freight's site, "Great product well made. Liked the hanging clips but would suggest a couple more. Lights are a little too bright for my liking. I would like them a little warmer." Negative reviews focus on sections that fail to light after a few months, or the quality of the plastic coating protecting the wiring.

The Luminar Outdoor 72 ft. warm white solar rope light is powered by the sun, connected by 6 feet of thin cord to a solar panel. You can stake the panel anywhere you have sun, with a little flexibility on where you set the lights. According to Harbor Freight's website, the panel only need six hours of sunlight to reach a full charge, which will light the strand up for a full day. Since they only come on when it's nearly dark, you can realistically get two or three night of lighting on one full charge. It also has some different light settings, so you can adjust it to your needs. Each strand is 72 inches. However, unlike the first rope lights, they do not connect end-to-end, so you are stuck with this size. Of course the next strand has its own power source, so as long as there's direct sunlight, you can lay these end-to-end without the connections. 

The lights get a 4.6 out 5 stars from about 300 reviewers. However, the light settings, in particular, may not be ideal for everyone. Bruce on Harbor Freight's website said, "Even though this has about 8 different settings for the lights, most of them are blinking and at a rapid pace. [...] We ended up choosing the option where the light is on and then fades out, to come back on. [...] Game [sic] it only 4 stars because of all the 'blinking' options." Even if the choices aren't all that different, it can be nice to have adjustable lights, making for a fun alternative to  DIY garden lighting that'll add elegant charm to any pathway.

To ensure readers would fully understand these products, Outdoor Guide read through all the specifications, product details, and reviews on the Harbor Freight website for both of the rope light models above. This was done to not better understand each product, but to identify any negatives that potential buyers may face. Based on reviews, either option can part of an outdoor update that adds serious value to your home and looks nice.