Disclaimer: The reviewer has received the product/service at a reduced price or for free. All opinions contained in this post are my own and are my honest thoughts based on my own experience with this product.
I’ve been playing around a bit with lighted canvas. I used my Cricut to cut images out and then arranged them on the canvas and painted over them. Once the paint was dry, I peeled the vinyl stickers off that I had created with the Cricut. The idea was to then attach small, battery operated lights to the back of the canvas so they would light it up at night. I went to the craft store and bought some battery operated LED lights. They were not very bright at all, but I thought that was the way they were designed to be. Then I had the opportunity to trial these Rtgs 20 Micro LEDs String Lights. The light strings are the same size with the same number of lights. The big difference is the Rtgs 20 Micro LEDs String Lights require three double A batteries while the other lights require 2. Another difference is the Rtgs 20 Micro LEDs String Lights say the batteries only last 48 hours. I know the batteries last much longer in the other set of lights. There is also a difference in electrical cord size of the two sets of lights. The biggest difference however is the amount of light the two produce.
This is the canvas I created – and yes, I did make some mistakes as you can clearly see. The first photo is the canvas lighted using the set of lights I bought. I then removed those two batteries and added them to a third battery (all rechargeable batteries) and took a photo of the canvas lighted using the Rtgs 20 Micro LEDs String Lights. Both photos were taken using LongExpoPro iPhone app. My settings were set to Low Light with a 16 second exposure. You can clearly see the difference in the amount of light produced. I am much happier with the results the Rtgs 20 Micro LEDs String Lights produced. Since the batteries only last for 48 hours, rechargeable are the way to go with these lights.
The next thing I noticed as soon as I saw the lights was how thin the electrical cord on them was. It is literally thin as wire. The lights are secured in the cord. My other lights have a plastic coated cord and the lights are attached similar to Christmas tree lights. At first I was concerned about the thinness of the wire and if the wire was going to break as I was attaching it to the canvas. The lights are very light weight and felt fragile in my hands. The wire was quite strong however and survived numerous re-positionings while I fiddled with the lights wrapping them around the other lights so the two were as close together as possible. The lights have worked for close to a month now with no issues.
I like these lights better because they are brighter. I wish they flashed and would love to see them in various colors, but that is simply something I would like and in no way should deter you from buying these lights if you are in the market for battery operated lights for a craft or home decor project. I really do like them and feel they work even better than the first ones I bought. Be sure to check these lights out and the other cool items from #rtgsproducts.
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.