The difference between a backyard and somewhere people want to sit after dark is usually a line of light overhead. These hang from the gutter, the pergola beam or the verandah edge and drop 60 cm of warm white down in an uneven fringe, so the light comes from above your head instead of from a floodlight in your eyes. Every tenth bulb twinkles, which is what stops it looking like a strip of tape.

Why They Stand Out

• Warm white, not blue-white — the difference between a dinner outside and a servo forecourt. This is the colour people actually want overhead.
• Uneven drops — the icicles hang at different lengths, so the line reads as something made rather than something printed.
• One bulb in ten twinkles — a slow strobe scattered through the run that gives it movement without the whole thing flashing.
• They join together — a socket at the far end of each set takes the next one, so you run up to three sets from one plug pack and one power point.
• Low voltage where you touch it — the plug pack drops the mains down to 30 V before it reaches the wire, so the string itself is not carrying mains voltage over your head.
• IP44 rated — splash and rain on the gutter line are fine, so a set can stay up right through the season.
• Rated to 50,000 hours on copper wire, so they are not a one-summer set.

Where to Hang Them

• Along the pergola beam — the job they do best. The fringe hangs just above head height and lights the table without anything in your eyes.
• Off the verandah or patio edge — turns the edge of the roof into the edge of a room.
• Along the gutter line — the classic run across the front of the house, and the one people put up at Christmas and keep up well past it.
• Down a fence or a deck rail — hung horizontally so the icicles drop down the face.
• Around the alfresco or the outdoor kitchen — overhead light that is not a sensor floodlight.
• Through a tree or over a marquee — for a wedding, a twenty-first or a long lunch.
• Across a window or a doorway — indoors as much as outdoors.

How They Work

1. The plug pack converts mains down to 30 V before the wire, and switches the string on.
2. A 1 metre lead runs from the plug pack to the start of the lit section.
3. 120 LEDs hang on drops to 60 cm across the 4 metre run.
4. Every tenth bulb strobes while the rest hold steady.

How to Put Them Up

1. Run the line before you fix anything — lay the whole set out on the lawn and check it reaches, including the 1 m lead back to the power point.
2. Use clips, not staples — gutter clips or small cup hooks every 30 to 40 cm. A staple through the wire is how a run dies.
3. Start at the power point end and work away from it, so you are not left with the plug at the wrong corner.
4. Keep the plug pack under cover — inside, in the shed, or under the eave in a weatherproof box. IP44 covers the string, not a plug pack sitting in the rain.
5. Join sets before you hang them, so you are not making connections up a ladder.
Tip: hang them so the drops finish above head height — about 2.1 m to the bottom of the icicles. Any lower and everyone walks into them all night, which is the single most common complaint about icicle lights.

Care and Maintenance

• Coil them loosely when you take them down — tight coils crack the wire at the drops.
• Store the plug pack with the set, not in a different box. They are matched.
• Check the run before you hang it each season rather than after.
• Take them down before a storm if they are on a long unsupported span.

Specifications

What's Included

• 1 × Icicle light set in the length you select
• Plug pack