How Do You Keep LED Strips From Falling Off? - A and D World
Strip lights

How Do You Keep LED Strips From Falling Off?

How Do You Keep LED Strips From Falling Off?

Light strips are both functional and decorative in your home. With a 2mm thickness, you can install them in tight places. However, when sticking them to the surface, sometimes your strips fall off. Therefore, this post will feature some ways to prevent this problem from reoccurring.

You can keep LED strips from falling off by cleaning the surface with rubbing alcohol before installing your LEDs. If the strip is already loose, add additional double-sided tape behind the strip and reapply.

Most light strips come with a 3m double-sided tape attachment, but after some time they can lose their stickiness. This is a pain, especially if you want to move them. So before transferring your strip to another location, try cleaning the surface with rubbing alcohol before installing your LED strips.

Rubbing alcohol has 70% isopropyl alcohol that gets rid of any dust, oils, and bacteria. Yet most people use their hands, which is useless when cleaning the surface. You can do this with any adhesive around the home.

Installing Light Strips On A Corner

Did you know the edges and corners of an area are where you’ll notice your strips are falling off first? If you bend your strip at a 90 degrees angle and stick it on the surface.

Then you’ll notice it falls off after a few days or months. This happens because more air is in contact with the stickiness of the light strip, creating tension as it bends.

To fix this problem, you can either cut the light strip and buy corner connectors. However, this can be difficult if you don’t know how to reconnect them, or which connectors to buy.

Another solution you can use is creating a loop with the strips: instead of bending the light strip in the corner’s angle, turn it in the opposite direction and keep going until it forms a loop.

Adding Extra Tape

You can remove strip lights with little force, therefore, adding additional reinforcement will secure your strips even further. The Gorilla double side tape is an excellent option to add to loose areas.

Cut a piece that is similar to the size of your tape. Then place it at the back of your strip and finally remove the plastic adhesive. The Gorilla double-sided tape must replace the adhesive tape that comes with the strip offering a stronger hold.

When removing or changing location, the adhesive tape will come off easily without leaving any marks. As an alternative, you can use mounting clips which are easier to install than the adhesive tape and have a firmer hold. However, the clips are difficult to remove.

How To Fix Cut Light Strips?

  1. You will need an adapter for 4 pins LED strips, to join the cut LED strips together.
  2. Cut the LED strip at the cutting mark. It will have copper contacts and a scissors icon.
  3. Ensure to cut it straight and not crooked.
  4. Open the clips on the adapter.
  5. On the bottom channel, insert the LED strips and guide the strip under the grey metal contacts.
  6. The copper should end up underneath the grey metal contacts.
  7. Close the clip on the adapter.
  8. Repeat steps 1-4 for the second LED strips.
  9. Plug in the LED strips to see if it works.

How to hang led strip lights without damaging the wall?

LED Light strips come with these very strong adhesives that can strip paint and damage your wall. I feel your pain, one of my first strips was not so good, and I had to remove it for my Philips Hue.

Guess what it took most of my wall paint with it, which ends up in the trash. Also, the adhesive was hard to remove in some places and was left like a dry clear plastic that looked awful. Which again, I had to chip away, removing spots of paint with it.

There are some alternatives to using the adhesive at the back of the strip. Command light clips are one of the safest ways to hang your lights without damaging the paint. Plus, they are easy to remove if you don’t like the position.

If you have a proven double-sided clear tape, apply that to the back of the strip. However, make sure to test and cut the tape first. Here is one I use at home if you want to try this method.

How To Hide LED Light Strips On Ceiling?

There are two popular ways to hide LED light strips on your ceiling- aluminum profiling and foam crown molding. If you don’t know what these are, here’s an overview.

Aluminum profiling– This is perfect for hiding the direct LED strips as it creates a strict beam of lights. There are tons of sizes from very thin to thick that complement every room design. You can mount them to your ceiling using double side tape, clips, and screws. To install strips lights to the profile, remove the adhesive to the back and stick it into the channel.

Foam Crown Molding– You may need a professional to install crown molding. They are usually installed six inches from the ceiling, and the LEDs hide in a small space in the molding. This design not only adds beautiful accent lighting but makes your ceiling; look higher and spacious.

How to hide led strip light wires?

An effective way to hide strip light wires is with Panel End Caps. They are available at any hardware store and are affordable. Use double side tape to stick them to your wall.

Firstly, lay down the end caps and apply the double side tape to the back. Then, stick it on the wall and insert the wires into the gaps. You can use them in plain sight or cut them for tight places like in cabinets. There are also the traditional wire trays which are excellent for concealing LED wires.

Because most of them are designed for AC wires, they are bulky. Plus, wire trays are an expensive option. So, they may not be a brilliant choice for budgets. Lastly, plastic molding is another way that hides LED strips wires. Again, you can find them at your local home center. It is easy to shave the back to create enough space to add the wires.

To recap, double side tape is one of the best defenses when dealing with strip lights falling. It is a problem, but it easily fixable.

Anais

I am a mom with two kids. I am also a writer, avid DIYer, and tech enthusiast. My favorite things are writing, shopping online for gadgets, and gizmos I can't afford (yet). Being at home with my kids is the best part of my day!

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