Disappointed with LED rope lights

I bought two 164' spools of the the white LED rope lights in July to go all the way around the perimeter of my large barn (for holiday lighting and special events.)  At the time, I had rented a 60' lift to reach the highest peaks of the barn roof line and my intention (and hope) was to pay the extra money to install long-life lighting to avoid having to deal with light bulb burn-outs in hard-to-reach places.  Since LED's claim a longer life span, I thought this would be worth the money.  Upon installation, I fired them up and all was well.  Every light was on and the barn looked great at night.  But now come December, I fired them up again and I've got at least four 1-2' long spans that are either very dim, or completely out.  Needless to say, I'm very disappointed.  Not only did they not live up to their claims of longer life, but they didn't even last long enough to make it to the first holiday season.  So my warning to others would be, "don't believe everything you read."  And more importantly, don't hang these where you can't reach them!  You WILL be going back for maintenance/replacement sooner than you think.  I'm sorry I wasted all the money of this allegedly superior lighting.  Quality and reliability are things of the past. 

it is a shame i would check with the company you bought them from as most places will offer at least 1-2 year warranty  tho that wont help with the expense and time lost of installing
a few things to avoid in the led market are any lights or strips made up of the small round leds (the ones in the round style rope light and most of the cheaper screw in type replacement bulbs) as they are designed to be indicator lights, they aren't made for to be over driven at the levels required for lighting therefore there life is shortened and the way they are wired if one goes out the whole group goes out:-(
what we use for places like that are 12v Waterproof Flex Strips and if they are long runs we use 24v they are a little more work installing as you need a power supply and if you use the RGB you will need a controller as well but they are made with SMD type leds that will last for years to come you will probably want to install with a dimmer as they are too bright at full brightness so you will probably want to run at about 25% brightness and they will save you a ton on electric as well
just my 2 cents
i will post some pictures of one we are working on using RGB ones for full color control (they should be up in a week or 2 in the sideshow at www.usledsupply.com

Yeah, its a shame that you've had that experience as they can extremely great forms of lighting.

 

LED Strips
VS
LED rope lights
VS
LED Digital Tube 

I would say Rope lights still the best to use in big application. Digital Tube would be the best if the size is not the issue. b'c it thick, 2.5 inch diameter.