Patio string lights, ranked on what the makers publish
Bulb spacing, run length and weather rating. Four picks, the perimeter arithmetic for your own patio, and the two accessories that finish the job.
By Sawyer V. · Published
Patio lighting is the one seasonal purchase that gets used every month of the year rather than six weeks of it, and it is bought on almost no published information. Most listings quote a bulb count and a length and nothing else — no spacing, no ingress rating, no indication of whether the run will reach.
Below are the sets we can rank on published figures, with spacing computed for each, plus the arithmetic for how much run a patio perimeter actually needs. We have not tested any of them; every number here is a manufacturer specification or arithmetic printed on this page.
Wreath & Watt earns a commission on qualifying purchases made through the Amazon links on this page. It costs you nothing and it does not change the order of the picks — here is exactly how we are funded.
Quick picks
| # | Product | Best for | Score | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No imageTwinkly Festoon, 20 AWW bulbs, 32.8 ft20 tunable-white bulbs over 32.8 ft | Patios and pergolas that stay lit past Christmas | 7.8/ 10 | Check price #ad · Disclosure |
| 2 | No imageTwinkly Strings, 250 white LEDs, 65 ft, black wire250 AWW LEDs, warm-to-cool tunable, IP44 | Tunable white without the color circus | 7.3/ 10 | Check price #ad · Disclosure |
| 3 | No imageNorthlight LED mini lights, 100 count, 33 ft, white wireSame string, white wire | White railings, columns and flocked trees | 6.3/ 10 | Check price #ad · Disclosure |
| 4 | No imageIron Forge Cable 16/3 outdoor extension cord, 50 ft, green16 AWG, 13 A, 50 ft | Light runs you would rather not see | 8.5/ 10 | Check price #ad · Disclosure |
| 5 | No imageBN-LINK outdoor light timer, dusk-to-dawn, dual grounded outlets15 A / 1/2 HP, ETL listed, two grounded outlets | Set it in October, forget it until January | 8.0/ 10 | Check price #ad · Disclosure |
Scores are our own weighting of published manufacturer specifications, explained in full on how we research. They are not test results. We have not tested these products.
The picks in full
#1 — Patios and pergolas that stay lit past Christmas
Twinkly Festoon, 20 AWW bulbs, 32.8 ft
20 tunable-white bulbs over 32.8 ft
7.8
/ 10
The one set here that has a job in July. Buy it as patio lighting that also does December.
Published specifications
- Bulbs
- 20 AWW (warm to cool white)
- Length
- 32.8 ft
- Cable
- Black
- Use
- Indoor and outdoor
Our scoring
- Published specs
- 8 / 10
- Weather tolerance
- 7 / 10
- Control
- 9 / 10
- Serviceability
- 7 / 10
Good
- Reads as patio lighting in January rather than as leftover Christmas lights
- Tunable white covers both the party setting and the quiet setting
Watch out
- 20 bulbs over 33 feet is sparse if you wanted a dense canopy
Specs from the Twinkly Amazon listing (ASIN B09SHKS6Z2), retrieved 2026-09-04.
#2 — Tunable white without the color circus
Twinkly Strings, 250 white LEDs, 65 ft, black wire
250 AWW LEDs, warm-to-cool tunable, IP44
7.3
/ 10
Buy this if you cannot decide between warm and cool white. It is the one product that lets you change your mind later.
Published specifications
- LEDs
- 250 AWW (warm white to cool white)
- Length
- 65 ft
- Wire
- Black
- Ingress rating
- IP44
Our scoring
- Published specs
- 9 / 10
- Weather tolerance
- 6 / 10
- Control
- 9 / 10
- Serviceability
- 5 / 10
Good
- Tunable white settles the warm-vs-cool argument in software instead of at the checkout
- Black wire vanishes against dark siding and bare branches
Watch out
- Costs smart-lighting money for an effect most people set once and never change
Specs from the Twinkly Amazon listing (ASIN B07XQFC4Z7), retrieved 2026-09-04.
#3 — White railings, columns and flocked trees
Northlight LED mini lights, 100 count, 33 ft, white wire
Same string, white wire
6.3
/ 10
Buy the wire color that matches what it is stapled to, not what matches the bulbs.
Published specifications
- Count
- 100 LED mini bulbs
- Spacing
- 4 in
- Lighted length
- 33 ft
- Wire
- White
Our scoring
- Build
- 7 / 10
- Weather tolerance
- 7 / 10
- Serviceability
- 5 / 10
- Published specs
- 6 / 10
Good
- Wire color is the single most-ignored decision in outdoor lighting and the easiest one to get right
- Identical spacing to the green-wire set, so runs stay consistent
Watch out
- Reads as a visible line against dark siding or an unflocked tree
Specs from the Amazon listing (ASIN B073WZL6KG), retrieved 2026-09-04.
#4 — Light runs you would rather not see
Iron Forge Cable 16/3 outdoor extension cord, 50 ft, green
16 AWG, 13 A, 50 ft
8.5
/ 10
The right cord for LED strings and the wrong cord for incandescent ones. The gauge is the whole decision.
Published specifications
- Gauge
- 16 AWG, 3 conductor
- Jacket
- SJTW, outdoor rated
- Rating
- 13 A
- Length
- 50 ft
- Color
- Green
Our scoring
- Published rating
- 10 / 10
- Capacity headroom
- 6 / 10
- Outdoor jacket
- 9 / 10
- Usability
- 9 / 10
Good
- Green disappears across a lawn in a way orange never will
- 13 A published, so you know exactly where the ceiling is
Watch out
- 16 gauge is a smaller conductor: fine for LED strings, wrong for a run of incandescent sets
Gauge and rating from the Amazon listing (ASIN B01JN1JRXW), retrieved 2026-09-04.
#5 — Set it in October, forget it until January
BN-LINK outdoor light timer, dusk-to-dawn, dual grounded outlets
15 A / 1/2 HP, ETL listed, two grounded outlets
8.0
/ 10
The no-fuss choice. If you never want to think about the timer again, buy this one instead of the remote model.
Published specifications
- Rating
- 15 A, 1/2 HP, ETL listed
- Outlets
- Two grounded, weatherproof
- Control
- Dusk-to-dawn photocell
Our scoring
- Published rating
- 9 / 10
- Safety listing
- 9 / 10
- Weather tolerance
- 8 / 10
- Control
- 6 / 10
Good
- Two outlets means the roofline and the yard can share one timer without a splitter
- Photocell only — nothing to reprogram when the clocks change
Watch out
- No remote, so changes mean going outside
Rating and features from the Amazon listing (ASIN B01MAWA81Q), retrieved 2026-09-04.
How we picked
Four criteria, the same ones we apply to every lighting page on this site: how much the maker publishes, weather tolerance, control, and serviceability. Weather tolerance carries extra weight here because patio lighting stays up through seasons that Christmas lighting never sees.
| Set | Bulbs or LEDs | Length | Spacing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Twinkly Festoon | 20 AWW bulbs | 32.8 ft | 19.7 in |
| Twinkly Strings, 250 white | 250 AWW LEDs | 65 ft | 3.1 in |
| Northlight LED mini, white wire | 100 LEDs | 33 ft | 4 in |
Spacing is length divided by count, computed by us. It is the figure that separates a festoon look from a fairy-light look, and almost nobody publishes it directly.
Source: Bulb spacing and linear coverage are our arithmetic from the manufacturers' published lengths and counts. The inputs are printed in each row.
That spacing column is the whole aesthetic decision. At roughly 20 inches between bulbs, the Twinkly Festoon reads as distinct points of light overhead — the cafe-string look, and the reason it is our top pick for a patio. At 3 to 4 inches, the mini strings read as a continuous glow, which is what you want wrapped around a post or run along a rail rather than strung across open air.
How much run a patio actually takes
Two layouts cover almost every patio: around the perimeter, or in zigzag runs across it. They need very different amounts of light, and working it out takes one multiplication.
The arithmetic
- A 12 ft x 16 ft patio
- Perimeter = 2 x (12 + 16) = 56 ft
- 56 ft / 32.8 ft per festoon set = 1.7 — so 2 sets
- Zigzag across the 12 ft width, 5 passes = 60 ft
- Plus sag: allow about 10 percent = 66 ft — still 2 sets, with less spare
A 12 by 16 ft patio takes two 32.8 ft festoon sets either way. Allow for sag before you decide two is enough.
Sag is the allowance people forget. A festoon strung tight looks wrong and stresses the fixings; strung with a proper catenary it looks right and uses more length than the straight-line distance. Ten percent is our working allowance, stated as ours.
The picks, and why they sit where they do
The Twinkly Festoon is first because it is the only set here designed for the job and specified for it: 20 tunable warm-to-cool bulbs over 32.8 feet on a black cable, published for indoor and outdoor use. Tunable white is worth more on a patio than on a roofline, because the same run has to work for a summer evening and a December gathering.
The 250-LED tunable string is the pick for a pergola frame or a long rail rather than an overhead span: 65 feet at close spacing, with the same warm-to-cool control. Note its published IP44 rating — that is rain, not immersion, and it belongs where water runs off rather than pools.
The white-wire Northlight mini is here for one specific reason: on a white pergola, a white rail or a painted post, the wire disappears in daylight, and a patio installation is looked at in daylight far more than a Christmas display ever is. Same 100 LEDs and 33 feet as the green-wire version; the wire colour is the whole decision.
The 50-foot 16 AWG green outdoor cord publishes a 13 A rating on an SJTW outdoor jacket, which is comfortably ahead of what a couple of LED festoon sets ask for, and the green jacket is the reason to choose it over a bright orange one for a run across a garden. Where the same cord is feeding a whole display rather than a patio, step up to 14 gauge — that argument is on our cord comparison.
The dusk-to-dawn timer finishes it. A 15 A / 1/2 HP ETL-listed rating across two grounded weatherproof outlets is far more than a patio run needs, and the photocell means the schedule follows the season instead of needing to be reset every few weeks as the evenings move. The full ranking is on outdoor light timers.
Hanging a span that stays up
An overhead run needs something to carry the load other than the light cable itself. The standard approach is a guy wire between fixed points with the string attached to it, so the tension is in the wire and the lighting simply hangs. Where the span is short and both ends are solid, hanging directly is usually fine.
What none of these manufacturers publishes is a maximum span or a working tension, so we print neither. If you are fixing to a structure, that is a question about the structure rather than about the lights, and it is worth asking somebody whose job it is. Wrapping a post or a column rather than spanning between them avoids the question entirely — the arithmetic for that is on wrapping trees and columns.
The set that stays up
Patio lighting is the one thing on this site that does not go into a box in January. That changes what is worth paying for: weather rating and control matter more, and packability matters not at all. If a set is going to live outdoors through a full year, buy the one that publishes an ingress rating and a control method, and accept that you are buying a fixture rather than a decoration. What that means for running cost is on what lights cost to run.
Questions
›How many string lights do I need for my patio?
Work out the run: the perimeter is twice the length plus twice the width, and a zigzag is the number of passes times the width. Add about 10 percent for sag, then divide by the published length of the set. A 12 by 16 foot patio needs about 56 feet either way, which is two 32.8 foot festoon sets.
›What spacing should patio lights have?
Around 18 to 20 inches for the cafe-string look with distinct points of light overhead. Close spacing of 3 to 4 inches reads as a continuous glow, which suits a wrapped post or a rail rather than an open span.
›Can patio string lights stay up all year?
That is what they are for, which is why the ingress rating matters more here than on a Christmas set. Check the published rating: IP44 handles rain but is not an immersion rating, so it belongs where water runs off rather than pools.
›Do I need a special extension cord for patio lights?
An outdoor-rated one, yes. A 16 AWG cord published at 13 A on an SJTW jacket is comfortably ahead of what a couple of LED festoon sets draw; the green jacket is worth choosing for a run that crosses a garden.
Sources
- Twinkly Festoon listing (ASIN B09SHKS6Z2) — 20 AWW bulbs, 32.8 ft, indoor and outdoor
- Twinkly Strings 250 white listing (ASIN B07XQFC4Z7) — 250 AWW LEDs, 65 ft, IP44
- Northlight LED mini, white wire listing (ASIN B073WZL6KG) — 100 LEDs, 4 in spacing, 33 ft
- Iron Forge 16/3 outdoor cord listing (ASIN B01JN1JRXW) — 13 A, SJTW jacket, 50 ft
- BN-LINK dusk-to-dawn timer listing (ASIN B01MAWA81Q) — 15 A / 1/2 HP, ETL listed
- Spacing and run arithmetic — Bulb spacing and linear coverage are our arithmetic from the manufacturers' published lengths and counts. The inputs are printed in each row.
We have not tested these products. Every figure above comes from a published manufacturer specification or from arithmetic shown on this page, and anything a maker does not publish is printed as unavailable rather than estimated. How that works, and what we will not claim, is set out on how we research.