Darkaway 15-Inch Large Outdoor Pendant Light - Water Ripple Glass Hanging Chandelier for Porch, Gazebo & Patio | Weather-Resistant Aluminum Ceiling Mount Light for Front Door & Backyard Decor

I was an Electrical Contractor for several years and I have installed thousands of light fixtures. The majority of them have come from lighting showrooms and they are very expensive. We originally had the old basic square flush mount totally inclosed light fixture’s that the builder installed. Our porch ceiling is higher than most as our home was built in 2000. I saw these and decided that the old flush mount lights needed to go. They had started to rust and light bulbs kept burning out after about a week or so. Some of them had to be removed with force as the screws that held them the cover in place had rusted to the point where they either stripped out or wouldn’t budged. What I find most interesting is that the exact light fixtures we had are not much cheaper than these and thry don’t look nearly as good or expensive as these fixtures.I saw these and I took measurements to see if the fixture would be able to hang down enough that they couldn’t be touched or they would be too low. I put a total of three links in each of the chains, but the fixture comes with like three feet of chain. I did a trial test to see what looked best while driving by our house at night as I wanted people to see these incredible looking light fixtures from the street. We have a painter scheduled to paint the exterior of the house. Basically the ceiling , door , and trim as the house is brick. I started to wait until he had painted , but I decided to hang these immediately after looking at the incredible construction and quality of the fixture. We have 5 of these on our porch as it wraps around on the side as well. After getting local prices and seeing these I bought them immediately as I didn’t want to miss getting them if Amazon decided to stop selling these or could no longer get them. I got the 5 light fixtures for less than another single fixture we both liked and was similar from an online lighting company.I’m extremely impressed with the quality and build of these fixtures. I have installed several outdoor fixtures over my career and I have never seen this kind of quality construction except in light fixtures that sold for way over the $200.00 + price. I’ve installed fixture’s that have costed the homeowner close to $300 that were not made as well as these. I actually looked at some similar fixtures at a lighting company locally and they were like $235.00 each. The salesperson said if I bought 5, they would sell them to me for $185 each. I said let me think about it and I’ll get back to you. They also didn’t look nearly as nice as these. The other fixtures they had were just too big and also black or dark colored. They would have hung too low as they were too large and had multiple chandelier bulbs. Too much maintenance and just didn’t fit with our house design. These are just perfect as now I can change the bulb and not have to get out the 8 foot ladder or mess with screws that hold the cover on. Our neighbors have complimented us on how nice these look and one of them even commented that we had to have spent a lot of money on them as they look so good and much better than the old square flush mount lights that basically everyone has had or has seen before. We’re doing some work on the exterior of the house now as it is time to repair some of the builder grade items. We’ve lived in this house for 23yrs now and after tackling several issue inside, it’s time the outside gets some freshening up as well. This is the longest either of us have lived in the same house as we have both moved with work and other things at around the 5 year mark. So, long term ownership is a new thing for us both. The painter is also a great roofer and he is currently working on some damaged shingles as we’ve had some really bad weather this year. The shutters are the next project, then the landscaping. Luckily we have paid the house off. So curb appeal is what we’re currently doing. We had tropical plants like Sago palms and palm trees and the big freeze we had killed all of the tropical plants. So we are now trying to decide what to plant.I plan to put dimmable LED bulbs , the ones with the unique LED filaments that are either spiral shaped or have the stylish look to them. I like bright white , but they will look less white when dimmed. Back in the late 2010’s I bought the equipment to make our home a smart house with lighting control and other features like sprinkler system control, checking if we closed the garage door, and leak detection in the laundry room and other areas like under the sinks. We also get alerts if someone sets off the motion sensors inside our house as well as an outdoor camera system. It can all be controlled with an app through our iPhones. We know when the cleaning service deactivates the alarm and when she resets the alarm. We use the Z Wave protocol and we have only had to replace a couple of switches because of power surges. It has been great as it automatically dims lighting and you can set up various lighting scenes where the lighting will come on in certain areas of the house at a time we pick, as well as turn off lights at night and turn on lights outside. I’m waiting for the manufacturer of the switches to give me a list of comparable LED light bulbs that will work with their switches. Currently I have 130 volt silicone coated rough service 60 watt bulbs in these as they last a long time and dimming them doesn’t seem to shorten the life span. Unfortunately, I am not a huge fan of LED lights and I personally think they have their own set of environmental impact issues as well. However, incandescent light bulbs are getting harder to find and more expensive than the use to be.I was so impressed with these that I bought the companion wall lights for the sides of our garage door. Right now, the builder did everything on the cheap and there’s only one light on the wall, but I’m going to add the second one to make it look more balanced and not cheap as it’s always bothered me that the builder didn’t add the second light to begin with. I’m glad I was in the home wiring business as I can add the second light fairly easily. I’m more concerned about the heat as the attic above the garage area, as we live in Texas. Luckily the garage area is where the access is located and there isn’t anything stored in our attic area as the heat will melt or ruin pretty much everything that you put up there for storage.You can not find anything close to the same quality and ease of installation as the light fixtures. They are made as well as the lighting showroom fixtures, if not better and will cost a whole lot more than these. I’ve installed light fixtures for customers that were made out of cheaper materials that the homeowner paid over $200 or $300 for and they were not nearly made as well as these fixtures. As an electrician, I’ve installed some really expensive light fixtures that looked terrible a couple of years later. Brass is one of the worst as it corrodes fast. These are aluminum and I am pretty sure they will outlast steel or plastic fixtures. The sun in Texas is brutal on plastic lighting like flood lights or other plastic fixtures. It makes these become extremely brittle and they just fall apart after one summer of sun exposure.