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Low voltage landscape lighting

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Fly By Nite

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I bought a house 6 months ago.  There are a few landscape lights around the front but none of them appear to be working.  It looks like someone ran wiring right into the garage and hardwired to a big black box that says Malibu on the cover.  I thought the box was just a timer but i assume it's got a built in transformer that powers the landscape lights along with the paver block lights.  When i turn it on only a few of the paver block lights turn on.  I am hoping the paver light bulbs are just burnt out and need replacing. I checked the other landsape light bulbs and some appear to be OK so i suspect there's a combination of burnt out bulbs or bad connections in the ground.  I dug one up and it looks like a piercing type (black and grey plastic) low voltage connector.  The light fixtures appear to be of good quality so i'd rather not scrap  and try to get this all working by re-splicing the fixtures to the main wire.  I guess i'll try to get all my paver lights working first by replacing the bulbs and then tackle the landscape lights after.  I guess i'll just cut off those rinky dink connectors and splice the fixtures in.  I can't imagine that  screw on caps is the right way to do it as t hey will almost certainly corrode and i'll be back where i started.  What is the best and easiest way to splice these fixtures?

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2 mins ago, Fly By Nite said:

I bought a house 6 months ago.  There are a few landscape lights around the front but none of them appear to be working.  It looks like someone ran wiring right into the garage and hardwired to a big black box that says Malibu on the cover.  I thought the box was just a timer but i assume it's got a built in transformer that powers the landscape lights along with the paver block lights.  When i turn it on only a few of the paver block lights turn on.  I am hoping the paver light bulbs are just burnt out and need replacing. I checked the other landsape light bulbs and some appear to be OK so i suspect there's a combination of burnt out bulbs or bad connections in the ground.  I dug one up and it looks like a piercing type (black and grey plastic) low voltage connector.  The light fixtures appear to be of good quality so i'd rather not scrap  and try to get this all working by re-splicing the fixtures to the main wire.  I guess i'll try to get all my paver lights working first by replacing the bulbs and then tackle the landscape lights after.  I guess i'll just cut off those rinky dink connectors and splice the fixtures in.  I can't imagine that  screw on caps is the right way to do it as t hey will almost certainly corrode and i'll be back where i started.  What is the best and easiest way to splice these fixtures?

Are only the closest to the transformer working?

Missing Wilmington Vermont but loving the Ditch

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For lights, dielectric grease, twist cap, wrap with etape and forget about it. Of the 15yo lights that I still have, including the ones that the dogs have eaten, when I replaced the lights, the old copper wire was brown but clean and not corroded.  They we buried too. Whatever doesn't come back on, trace the line and fix the break or just splice a new line.  Also change the bulbs to LED while you are at it.  You can even add more lights and still have less voltage drop than with the halogens.  Planes begin their final approach to EWR now when they see my house at night. :th: 

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I have the Malibu lights. Mine are the 3 tier looking ones.

 

We first tried new bulbs and that didn't work.

 

I had to remove the lights from the main line. They do have the screw on connectors with the 2 piercing brass pins.

 

After I removed the lights, I dismantled them and found the wires that connected to the brass piercing pins were corroded or disconnected. They are soldered on to the brass pins, I had to resolder the 2 wires to the brass pins.

 

It was my first time soldering. It didn't go very smoothly. The hard part was keeping the solder joint flat and smooth enough so the pin and solder joint would slip into the groove of the plastic screw cap.

 

Hopefully that helps.

Edited by browndrake
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Those squeeze style connections with the tooth to them are absolute garbage. Get rid of them, cut them off and buy the outdoor wirenut. The wirenut has a silicone style material in them and is water resistant, so they will last longer on the ground. They are a bit expensive but in the long run you won’t be troubleshooting every year. 

 

Cut your main wire, use strippers to show bare wire, strip the fixture wire and connect. 

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On 4/13/2018 at 4:23 PM, Kml said:

They sell wire nuts with the goo already in there. Homies or Lowes should have them.

Yeah i saw them.  They were not cheap.  Going to use plain wing nuts first to get it working.  Supposedly a solder and heatshrink tube connection is the best thing, but i haven't soldered anything in 20 years.

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On 4/13/2018 at 4:23 PM, Kml said:

They sell wire nuts with the goo already in there. Homies or Lowes should have them.

i used them a few years back for my landscape lighting.  they seem to be holding up well, but i dont plan on ever digging them up so i couldnt really tell ya what they look like underground.

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8 hours ago, Fly By Nite said:

Yeah i saw them.  They were not cheap.  Going to use plain wing nuts first to get it working.  Supposedly a solder and heatshrink tube connection is the best thing, but i haven't soldered anything in 20 years.

Fly, there is a crimp connector that the home centers also sell. They are a standard crimp but you use a lighter or heatgun to shrink the tubing. They are mainly used in the marine industry. They hold up great and are much easier than soldering. 

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10 hours ago, Fly By Nite said:

Took a while but figured it all out. Had a cut wire and a bad splice that was just taped together and the wire must have corroded underground. Those paver lights are a pain. Probably spent more time drilling out rusted screws from the trim peice than troubleshooting.

Andy U R correct, solder and heat shrink, youll never have a problem, I have a solder gun and solder if you need to borrow, dont have flux, its cheap, if/  when you solder outside  lay it a small piece of plywood or sumtin, hope you replace any rusted hardware with stainless steel, definitely  change to LED if you can.

Edited by Snaps
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