Haven't tried it, but you could try hanging a coat hanger at the end of a string, then use a hairdryer at its lowest setting to heat up the string a bit.
DISCLAIMER: I really have no frickin' clue what I'm talking about so if you try it and somehow die - that one's on you.
Haven't tried it, but you could try hanging a coat hanger at the end of a string, then use a hairdryer at its lowest setting to heat up the string a bit.
DISCLAIMER: I really have no frickin' clue what I'm talking about so if you try it and somehow die - that one's on you.
That isn't a bad idea at all. Beats the heck out of a youtube vid I saw where a guy attached a stiff wire to every single drop with white tape and wire ties..
Answering anything online as "I don't know" reminds me of those reader surveys on the news pages. "Yes", "No". or "No opinion". If you have no opinion, why would one even answer?
The icicle lights? If you have a fireplace, maybe string them back and forth across the mantle, so that the heat helps them to "relax".
maybe, but........... The hair dryer was marginally successful but from that, my heat gun worked great. Low on my heat gun is about the same as a 1500watt hair dryer so I used it on high and just kept it farther away.
Just for poop and giggles, here's how I did it. I have two long shelves in my garage (or as the Brits say, GAridge.
I just put a couple of c-clamps at each end and tied a string of the hated things on there, and started untangling the drops, which took longer than the heating straightening. It's not really the way they are made that causes the grief, it's how they are folded & packaged to fit in a small box. Once the drops are all hanging down, just went along to each drop, held the end led out in my left hand and applied some heat. With the heat gun still in my right hand but turned away from the drop, I switched hands, held the long wire the drops come off of in my left hand, used two fingers on my right hand to hold about 10-15 seconds of tension on the drop and presto! the drop's zigzag pattern was mostly gone and the drop hung straight down. I have 1/2 of hem up on the eave, had to stop because of darkness and cold. The best part imo, is even after cooling, if I still had to make minor adjustments to get a drop straighter, the drop held it's form instead of reverting back to it's zig zag that it did before heating.
So, thank you much Mr Pennock for the heat suggestion, and Patrick and Raydar for the other suggestions.
Now,I bought these things last year after Christmas when they went on sale. I don't like their appearance but I'm stuck with them now. They are white, or a very pale bluish white and are WAY too bright IMO. 800 white LEDs cast a garish white light over the whole front yard. After Christmas, if the true blue ones are still on the store shelves, and on sale, (I don't want red) I'll get 4 boxes of blue ones since I now know how to straighten them up and drop these dang strings off at Goodwill.
They are white, or a very pale bluish white and are WAY too bright IMO. 800 white LEDs cast a garish white light over the whole front yard.
My neighbor just put up what might be the very same as what you're describing. We've had heavy fog the last couple of nights (hey, it's late fall on the coast), so the light from these very bright icicles actually look pretty cool in the fog.
Don, do your lights have the different flashing patterns?
Don, my Christmas lights are contained on an electric cord reel (six or seven). To keep from tangling. You could utilize to them to store your lights. Bending the stringers in one direction (toward the end of the light string) creating on bend to contend with next your.
I had to play a 'man card' to keep Cindi from wanting them. I use old school (circa 1970) lights. You will not find them in stores.
No flashing lights outside for me. Too garish for me. Reminds me of old "Eat At Joes" flashing signs.
Cliff, I got tired of chasing down bad bulbs and went to 100% led. They look like C9s but are really just LED with a big outer covering. I am done with the outside lights, and Jane has the tree finished but have a LOT of lights, still on reels or in boxes. And of course, the major award, that I have yet to find a place for during Christmas... religious thing, that looked kinda like this.. (My sister gave it to me years ago...probably figured I needed it in my rough and rowdy life)
My wife knocked it off the bookcase in her haste to display a reindeer thing and it broke into 100 pieces.
I just shook my head and told her, "Well, I always suspected if there was anyone that could break all Ten Commandments at one time it would be someone on your side of the family."
