We’ve been asked this question so many times we decided to make a page dedicated to answering it.

There’s a lot that goes into it.

Govee has a fantastic product with a fantastic idea behind it. Make permanent lighting affordable for your average consumer. This seems simple to start, but in practice it can lead to some caveats.

First and foremost, build quality.

Govee utilizes a high quality 50,000 hour diode, similar to most commercial grade lights. Around this diode they use two plastic shells ‘sandwiched’ around the diode to form a water tight seal. In order to cut costs on this step of the process, Govee uses adhesive to seal their shells as opposed to a stronger process such as heat. As a result, when the adhesive begins to erode and water takes its place, that water freezes, expands, and opens up the shell to further corrosion. Over time, especially in a cold climate, your diode that’s rated for 50k hours only makes it to 5k before it goes bad.

In addition to this, their power supplies, controllers, and extensions share the same issue. On paper they’re waterproof. In practice, we’ve found the opposite to be true.

Extension cables are usually the first to be impacted, followed by core components like the power adapter and controller. You can protect the power adapter and the controller by putting them in a water tight control box, or by mounting your power adapter and controller in a more secure location such as the garage. Extension cables however are difficult to protect, as they have to be out in the elements.

In addition to build quality, quality control comes into play too.

Govee is a large Chinese LED company. While they make some good products, they make a LOT of products. Due to this factor, quality control is usually worse than it is with our commercial grade lights. We’ve seen an uptick in QC issues in Govee products as Govee permanent lighting rises in popularity. The company is making some steps to reduce QC failures, however it should still be noted that with seasonal demand rising QC is likely to be impacted similarly.

Lastly, these lights simply haven’t been on the market as long.

Govee permanent is a relatively new product to the market and they definitely have some room for improvement. While the revisions they’ve made with products like Govee Pro have been impressive, they have a long way to go if they’d like to consider their product truly “permanent”. Right now due to the lifespan alone, we would classify this as a “semi-permanent” product. As govee continues to develop their product we’ll likely see prices rise, following a similar trend as we see today with Govee Elite (lower price range) and Govee pro (higher price range) taking the stage as Govee’s more budget-friendly, and premier options. While the future is bright, it is still on the horizon.

Got questions? We’ve got answers. Feel free to call or text us at 779-227-4984 for more info and guidance from one of our pros.