Recently, I purchased their newly released, 200-foot permanent outdoor pro lighting kit. Included is 12 strings that can be connected together, along with a variety of other items. I was very impressed with the kit, overall. These can be cut and spliced which was my primary reason for paying the rather high cost of these (~$1,000 CAD).
To complete the desired areas of the house, I needed 8 of the 12 strings, so the 100-foot option was not long enough. I can use the remaining strings on the deck, but it isn't practical to connect them with the rest of the house. I contacted their support group, inquiring about purchasing an additional power supply and controller so I can make use of the last four strings. The reply was that they only sell complete kits, but no components or accessories. The power supply isn't an issue because there are many options available, but the controller is another issue.
With the cost of these lights, I would have reconsidered my purchase had I known replacement/additional items are not offered for sale. This is extremely disappointing. My recommendation is to strongly consider this practice if you plan to purchase their product(s). Consider that, out of warranty, it appears a failure of any component leaves you entirely on your own.
I can't help but if anyone buys the previous version (that does not have separate cool white and soft white LEDs in each puck), then it can be cut and used with WLED so an extra sting could be controlled by connecting it to a D1 Mini or similar and a new power supply. I haven't done it yet but am going to connect my entire string to WLED. I was fortunate that 6 strings covered the front of my house with only 3 extra pucks that I cut off. I read a post somewhere in the last few days that the Pro version uses a different protocol not compatible with WLED due to having three LEDs in each puck.
However, I just found this post from 2 years ago where someone was able to control Govee's string lights using WLED that have an RGB & Warm White (WW) LED in each bulb:
Using WLED, it looks like he setup one segment for every odd LED that was the RGB LEDs and another segment of even LEDs that were the WW LEDs. It would be interesting to hook up to your Pro Version to see if LEDs 1, 4, 7, 10, 13... were RGB, LEDs 2, 5, 8, 11, 14... were Warm White and LEDs 3, 6, 9, 12, 15... were Cool White. Might be worth checking it out as an experiment vs tossing the remaining string in the trash.
I have purchased a couple Govee items, but you are right that the lack of parts and after warranty service really makes me think twice about spending big money on a whole plethora of devices.
I get that they don't want to sell proprietary controllers to just anyone off the street to DIY their own lighting setup (still pretty dumb, but whatever).
However if you are user that has registered that device via pairing in their app, you should be able to purchase replacement items like the power supply or controller or even a LED strip that might burn out over time. Especially knowing the Chinesium quality (with a premium price) of these items.
The Pro lighting has a lot of quirks, lots of complaints that they don't have all the same scenes and even some other basic functions of the near exact non-pro lights.
Yup, those are the lights. There are several things that attracted me to them, one of which is being Matter compatible. Whether or not this is an issue in the future remains to be seen, depending on the automations and various hardware configurations I use down the road.
I may play around with them a little to do some testing. Given the lack of parts availability, I'm somewhat inclined to keep the extra strings in the event I need to replace some down the road. I may try and keep pushing Govee to address this. Maybe I'll get somewhere, probably not.
Amazon does show some products as well, and I haven't looked at all of them. The ones I did see have a CE marking, but nothing inline with UL, CSA or ETL.
The key is to look for something at 36VDC with a current rating of 2.0A or more. The ability to provide more current is never a problem, just don't replace it with a product that is rated at less than 2.0A.
MEAN WELL has made quite a name for themselves and you'll find their bricks included with a variety of packaged lighting out there even if in some cases not labeled as such.
Amazon as a whole has become a rats nest of products for which clear and reliable certification is often hard to verify pre-purchase.
