Post-Xmas check on cheapo Chinese 240V LED fairy light string.

Although the cheap strings of 100 (10M) LED lights are often advertised as being suitable for outdoor use, they really aren't. Not only from an electrical safety perspective (inadequate insulation and strain relief) but also because they have no sealing, and water will wick into the sleeving round the LEDs and result in rapid DC accelerated corrosion of the steel LED leads.
This set were out for only around three weeks and in that time they were exposed to a modest amount of rain. you can see that corrosion has already started, particularly where contaminated water has penetrated. (Dirty water is more conductive than clean water.) I'm tempted to put these lights back outside to see how long they last.

If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm