Rope Light Fire! Warning

BREAM

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Oct 11, 2010
Messages
29
I hope this is in the right section



I have a xmas santa and sleigh reindeer etc rope light. Part of the Santa was blacked out. After a bit of wiggling I got it to work. I was just about to walk away when I noticed some arcing/ flashing.:eek: I watched it for a few seconds and then I saw flames and the rope lights started to burn up. I quickly turned it off. I would not have thought that would happen and am worried about setting my house on fire.

Anyone know of any house fires caused by rope lights?
 

darlen

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Apr 24, 2012
Messages
1
Hi. I was out of town and got a call from my dogsitter informing me that there had been a fire at my house on my back deck where there was rope lighting. The rope lighting caused a fire on my the sides of my deck and destroyed my first shih-tzu memorial planter and caused lots damage to my deck. Thank God my littlest shih-tzu who is blind was sleeping a doggie bed inside a box where she loves to go just a couple of feet away from the flames. My dogs are alright and my house thank heavens but a terrible scare and still hundreds of dollars in damage. It was a miracle someone noticed the smoke and then the flames and put the fire out even before the fire department arrived. Neighbors on either side used their hoses and quick action very early in the morning.
 

Optical Inferno

Enlightened
Joined
Sep 28, 2010
Messages
242
Location
Niagara Falls ON. Canada
From what I understand with those designs it is the main positive and negative wires that run the length of the rope. They can get twisted and on top of that with the constant expansion and contraction of the rope material begin to break and separate. This will cause a section of the strand to not light an could arc to try to complete the circuit.

Have a look at flexible strip lights as they are based on a flexible circuit-board instead of just leads that travel the rope. Also they tend to be flatter and easier to mount to the underside of a deck railing.
 
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