I am writing this blog after taking out several old and poorly installed outdoor landscape lighting systems this year.Good Outdoor Landscape Lighting Isn’t Cheap, Cheap Outdoor Landscape Lighting Isn’t Good.
I swear one of the lighting fixtures were made so poorly it felt like an aluminum beer can,see photos below.I felt bad the homeowner had spent so much money and trusted this person to install quality fixtures that would not have to completely replaced in only 3 years time. These same fixtures were almost impossible to re lamp. When I have a customer say” we decided to go with someone else who had a cheaper price ” it scares me for them. I can only try to educate the customers about the difference in fixtures,lamps and installers who sometimes can’t even troubleshoot their own installs, but do not install proper waterproof connections or do great wiring jobs. I just had the nicest compliment from a customer the other day while doing an annual maintenance and cleaning and adjusting lights for growth. She said,I can’t believe we have not had any problems with our outdoor lighting. My background as a concert lighting tech taught me if you do things properly you will never have a problem. That is why I stand behind my installs 100% and use the best products in the outdoor lighting business. Some of these fixtures do not even have any type manufacture tag in them due to the fact they are not proud of their CHEAP fixtures and do not want a name on them.
We spend a lot of time replacing old poorly installed outdoor landscape lighting systems with cheap fixtures,please remember your outdoor landscape lighting should last 15 plus years no problem with only replacing LED lamps when needed. Do yourself a favor and if someones quote sounds too good to be true in any trade,remember it probably is.