I am one of DIY’s guys on this forum and frankly I’m a little disappointed. VOLT is a great brand and quality is fantastic, however, to learn how to do it on your own from the website is not really possible and a little frustrating. The resource center, and articles “How To” has the same articles in different section, like “Landscape Lighting Design Overview” that appears in 3 sections. There is no article on wires choice or connectors choice. Some websites have wire or voltage drop calculator that is quite easy to do but we don’t have it here. Basically in my opinion the “how to” articles are not very informative.
Hey Eric, We always appreciate any feedback we receive; at the end of the day, it helps us continue to grow as a company. With the different categories in the resource center (Planning, Design, Installation) some articles are filtered into each category either to ensure DIYers do not overlook the info or, because the article is relative in all of the aspects. The article How to Choose Landscape Lighting Wire Connectors covers all of the types of connectors that we sell and we also touch on this in the new videos that we recently produced where we show how to use wire nuts, junction connectors, and a hub. We describe the connectors in the Start With A Plan Video and then touch on them again and how to use them in the Step By Step Guide Video. We do provide a voltage drop calculation chart within the installation handouts that are provided with each of our transformers but, I do certainly see your point about having one on the website. It's an excellent recommendation and I'd be happy to mention it to our web team! Have you by chance seen our new Facebook Group for DIYers? The link to the group is pinned in a post at the top of the main forum page.
Thank you Evan for your response. This is another example how good Volt company is. Quick and professional response. I started buying all the elements I needed back in March and I will install them within next couple of days so I'm extremely excited and anxious to learn as much as I can. When exploring the website I noticed a few things that are missing so I decided to make this post. The first thing I bought was a kit that consisted of 4 Max spread path lights and a 100" of 14/2 wire. I understand that for a small system like this 14/2 wire is enough but what if this kit is only an addition to a bigger system? Do you think it would be a good idea to give an option of a different wire size? I will use this wire on one run, but 12/2 would be a better choice. Another thing that I noticed is lack of 100' of 12/2 wire and this is actually what I would need. The only option from Volt is 250' or 500'.
Glad to be of help any way I can; and thank-you! As far as kits go, the concept of our pre-assembled kits is geared towards 'average' sized houses/properties rather than larger ones. They are made to be 'one-click' purchases. The convenience and discounted prices offered by the kits sacrifice the universality per se. Essentially, if all of our kits we're customizable to accommodate any size house/property it would be the same as how a cart is regularly assembled online (choosing transformer, fixtures, cable, etc.) only, all of the items would always be expected at an even further discounted price than our already low factory prices. When it comes to cable, we actually offer some pretty solid prices compared to your big box store or other local retailers. A 100ft strand of direct burial 12/2 will typically run you $50-60 retail and we offer a 250' spool of it for $90. Although I can certainly see how the 250' spool may be somewhat excessive to keep laying around after expansion, it is without a doubt still a great value it is always handy to have around for possibly even more expansion or other landscape projects. Also, given the distance the 12/2 is rated for (150'), a number of installers may find themselves short of cable if they underestimated their project and just went with the cheaper spool; a hassle that can be easily prevented by us offering a better value/more cable. Depending on how you are trying to expand/the layout, you can always bump up the voltage to accommodate and take some liberty slightly branching off of existing runs (while also moving to a higher voltage tap if needed). A voltmeter can help to know just how far you can 'bend' the rules/more so guidelines; with low-voltage there is certainly some leeway.
Happy to help Eric. Be sure to send in photos of your completed project! We'll actually be running a photo contest next week as well.
