I purchased these lights for my backyard, love the lights very pretty. About 2 months after purchase one light just stopped lighting up while I was sitting outside, when I checked it out what i saw was a defective wire, the next day another light just fell to the ground. I reached out to Brightech via email and the reply I got was the following: Thank you for the information and photos. To be upfront with you, we occasionally get an customer email about such a thing happening to our strands. Although it's not often at all, our interest got piqued enough to take it back to our factory for testing, to make sure that there wasn't something wrong with the wires that could cause such a thing to suddenly happen to them. We had them heavily tested, pulled, hung, hit with the elements etc. and the outcome was that the strands are strong and sturdy enough that they can't simply deteriorate or fall apart in such a way - so such a cut needs to have come from an outside force, regardless of how bewildering it may be to discover what or who did it. Sometimes it's annoying neighbors, sometimes it's squirrels.... it's hard to tell, unfortunately, it looks like these were chewed. The best thing I would be able to recommend is using a rodent repellent All the best, Anna And they say the “pride themselves on customer satisfaction” I actually purchased a 2nd set because I liked the lights so much but in between the time the 2nd set was ordered and arrived this problem occurred. Needles to say I am now returning the 2nd set.