TL;DR
CNET reviewer Adam Doud tested Govee’s $640 Permanent Outdoor Lights 2 Pro, installed along his home’s eaves. He praised their two-color effects, app controls and year-round use, but said installation took three people over three days and raised questions about long-term durability.
CNET reviewer Adam Doud tested Govee’s Permanent Outdoor Lights 2 Pro, a $640 year-round lighting system installed along his home’s eaves, and found that its color effects and app controls offered a flexible alternative to seasonal bulb strings. The installation was demanding: Doud said three people worked for three days to fit the lights around his house.
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Doud’s installation followed the eaves around his Chicago home in a continuous 200-foot run. He said the work took three people about two and a half hours per day over three days, involving ladders, cleaning the mounting surface, attaching brackets and driving screws into the aluminum soffit. The house’s layout meant he did not need the kit’s splitters, Y-adapters or extension cables.
The lights sit in brackets beneath the roofline and cast cone-shaped pools of light onto the siding. Doud found that keeping each fixture at a consistent distance from the wall was important to making the pattern look even. The kit included mounting hardware, adhesive pads, connectors and extension pieces, along with a power cable and control module. The system is controlled mainly through Govee’s app over Wi-Fi.
Each fixture has two LEDs that can display separate colors. The app offers preset scenes and controls for solid colors, fades, sequences and individually selected colors. Doud said he used a Halloween preset before switching to blue, and planned to change the display for Christmas. His review praised the appearance and options, while describing the process of installing the system as difficult.
A Year-Round Alternative With Trade-Offs
Permanent eave lighting can reduce the need to put up and take down temporary holiday strings, but the convenience comes with a different kind of work. Doud’s account shows that buyers may need to plan for several people, ladders and hours of mounting, especially on a home with a long roofline. This is not a quick plug-in decoration.
Price is another consideration. At $640, the system costs substantially more than many temporary light strings, according to the review’s assessment. The value depends on how much a household uses the lights beyond the holiday season and whether it is comfortable with a fixed installation. Doud liked the finished effect, but his experience covers only about two weeks of use, not multiple seasons.
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How the Eave Installation Worked
Govee’s system is designed to remain mounted along a building’s eaves and be used for different occasions throughout the year. Doud reported that the lights are rated IP68 for weather resistance, a specification cited in the review. He lives in Chicago, where temperatures can vary widely across the year, and said long-term performance in those conditions had not yet been established by his test.
For his home, the mounting process involved cleaning the surface, fitting lights into brackets, sticking the brackets in place and securing them with screws. Doud found the bracket adhesive strong, though he said the lights could slide through the slots while being fitted. He used a roughly 7.2-centimeter-thick box to keep the fixtures’ distance from the wall consistent. That detail reflects his installation method, not a stated universal requirement from Govee.
““It wasn’t easy.””
— Adam Doud, CNET reviewer
Durability Beyond the Short Test
The review reports roughly two weeks of use, so it does not establish how the fixtures, brackets, adhesive or connections will perform after months or years outdoors. The IP68 rating is a product specification cited by CNET, but Doud said he had not yet seen how the system would fare through Chicago’s seasonal extremes.
The review also describes one home and one installation team. It does not establish how long the job would take on other houses, how the system would fit different rooflines, or what the total cost might be if a homeowner needs paid installation. Doud did not report a long-term failure, but the short trial leaves those questions open.
Long-Term Use Will Be the Test
Doud planned to change the colors for the Christmas season and continue using the lights through the year. Their performance over time, particularly through the Chicago winter and summer, remains to be seen. The review provides no later durability findings or confirmed schedule for a follow-up test.
For prospective buyers, the immediate next step is to assess the home’s eaves, access and mounting needs, then compare the upfront cost with seasonal lights. Doud’s report suggests that the finished look and app flexibility are clear strengths, while the installation burden and long-term weather performance require more than a brief hands-on test to judge.
Key Questions
How much do Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights 2 Pro cost?
The price listed in CNET’s review was $640.
How difficult was the installation?
Reviewer Adam Doud said installation was not easy. Three people worked for about two and a half hours per day over three days to mount a continuous 200-foot run around his home.
What can the lights do?
Each fixture has two LEDs that can show separate colors. Govee’s app supports preset scenes, single colors, color changes and individually selected colors, according to the review.
Are the lights proven to last through extreme weather?
The product is listed as IP68-rated, but Doud’s test lasted about two weeks. He said long-term performance through Chicago’s winters and summers was still unknown.
Source: cnet.com
