How long do permanent Christmas lights last?

Permanent lighting is a one-time purchase, so the fair question is how long "permanent" really means. Here's what each part is rated for and what we actually see in the field.

The LEDs: about twenty years

Commercial-grade LEDs in these systems are rated for 50,000 hours. At six hours a night, every night, that's roughly 23 years — and most people run far less than that outside the holidays, which stretches it further. LEDs don't fail the way incandescent bulbs do; they dim very slowly over decades. Ours carry a lifetime warranty regardless.

The channel: as long as your fascia

The track is powder-coated aluminum. It doesn't rust, doesn't get brittle in cold, and doesn't chalk and fade the way plastic clips do after two winters. It's the same material family as your gutters and will outlast the shingles above it.

The controller: five-year warranty, usually much longer

The controller is the only real electronics in the system. It lives in the garage or under a soffit, out of the weather, and is warrantied for five years. If Wi-Fi standards move on in a decade, a controller can be swapped without touching a single light.

What actually fails

In practice the rare problems are a bulb hit by a ladder or a tree branch, or a connector that took water during a sloppy install. Both are quick warranty fixes. Snow load, ice and summer heat on a south-facing fascia are not issues — the system is rated −40°F to 140°F.

Compared with store-bought strands

Retail LED strands are rated for a few thousand hours and typically last two to four seasons before sockets corrode and half a run goes dark. You'll buy those several times over the life of one permanent system, and you'll hang them every one of those years.

Questions about specific warranty language? It's on our FAQ, or ask when we're out measuring.