Permanent outdoor lighting has turned into a crowded category, and Gemstone Lights is one of the names that comes up most often when homeowners start comparing systems. Like most permanent lighting brands, Gemstone Lights sells and installs exclusively through a network of authorized dealers, which means the marketing pages homeowners find online don't always answer the practical questions: how the lights are actually built, what the warranty covers once the installer leaves, and what tends to drive the final price.
This guide pulls together what Gemstone Lights publishes about its own product, its warranty terms, and its app, so you can walk into a dealer conversation already knowing the basics. We'll cover where the company came from, how the track and bulb system is put together, what the lifetime and ten-year warranty split actually means for you, and what determines cost.
The marketing language around any lighting system can get vague fast, so it's worth breaking down what's actually inside the track and the app.
Gemstone Lights are individually connected along the track using a threaded, compression-fit connection rather than crimped or soldered joints, which the company says holds up better over time and makes individual bulb replacement simple. Each light fixture on the track houses 3 LED bulbs, and each of those bulbs contains 4 diodes, for 12 diodes total per fixture. The lights sit 9 inches apart, and that spacing isn't currently adjustable, so homeowners looking for a tighter or wider gap between lights won't find that option with this system.
The track itself is designed to be color-matched and low profile, so it's meant to disappear against the fascia or soffit during the day. How much the bulb head itself protrudes from the track once installed can vary by installer, and it's worth asking your dealer to show a physical sample before committing, since this is one of the details that changes the look up close.
Gemstone Lights uses what the company calls an RGBWW system, meaning each diode set includes red, green, blue, and a dedicated warm white channel rather than a simple red-green-blue setup. Every light is individually addressable, so a single fixture can be set to its own color independent of the rest of the run, which is how the company gets to its claim of roughly 16 million possible color combinations.
Gemstone Lights controls its system through an app paired with a controller called Hub2, a 2024 upgrade over the brand's original hub. Hub2 connects over WiFi or Ethernet, and each controller pairs to the app through its own QR code, which the company added specifically to stop one household's phone from accidentally connecting to a neighbor's system.
The app supports up to 64 timers per controller, cloud syncing so patterns and schedules aren't lost if a phone is replaced, and a "Now Playing" view that shows which pattern is currently running without having to walk outside and look.
Two of the newer features worth knowing about are Music Sync, which uses your phone's microphone to pick up nearby audio and drive a light pattern to the beat, and Autopilot, which lets you subscribe to holiday or event calendars so the system switches patterns automatically for the season without any manual reprogramming.
"Lifetime warranty" is one of those phrases that sounds simple until you read the fine print, and Gemstone Lights' warranty is a good example of why that fine print matters.
The lifetime warranty applies specifically to the lights themselves. Gemstone Lights bases that lifetime rating on internal testing showing an estimated 50,000-hour lifespan, which the company translates to roughly two decades of use at about seven hours a night. The warranty's validity isn't tied to how many hours you actually run the lights, only to defects covered under the policy.
Everything else in the system, meaning the power kit, controller, cables, connectors, and track, is covered separately under a 10-year warranty rather than a lifetime one. Registration matters here too: Gemstone Lights requires the warranty to be registered within 30 days of installation for it to be considered valid, and coverage doesn't extend to components used outside their intended purpose.
If you sell your home, the 10-year component warranty can transfer to the new owner, but only once, and only under specific timing: the transfer has to be completed within 90 days of the new owner taking possession, and the amount of coverage that carries over is capped at 2 years, even if more time was left on the original 10-year term.
Everything above covers products and parts, not the cost of a technician coming out to fix something. Labor terms are set independently by each authorized dealer, so what you're covered for after installation, and for how long, depends on which dealer installed your system rather than on a single company-wide policy.
That also means service fees for anything outside the labor warranty period, or outside what a given dealer covers, will vary by installer. It's worth asking your dealer directly what their labor warranty covers and for how long before signing a contract, since that answer won't be the same everywhere.
Two of the most common questions homeowners have before calling a dealer are how much a project will cost and whether the product is actually safe to install on a home.
Gemstone Lights doesn't publish a flat per-foot rate, and the company is direct about why: pricing is a function of how many linear feet of track your home needs plus the local market rate charged by your area's authorized dealer, so the same size home can cost differently depending on where you live. The only way to get an accurate number is a quote from your local dealer.
Gemstone Lights states that its products carry either ETL or UL certification, which allows them to be sold and installed in both the United States and Canada. Those are two certifications electrical inspectors and insurers commonly look for on permanently installed lighting, so it's a reasonable box to check before signing a contract with any brand.
Because Gemstone Lights sells exclusively through its dealer network, availability depends on whether an authorized dealer operates in your area. The company reports dealers in more than 300 North American markets, but there's no self-install option, so finding, and vetting, your local dealer is part of the buying process either way.
Once you understand how Gemstone Lights is built, the natural next step is comparing it to the other permanent lighting systems on the market, since the category has grown well beyond one or two brands.
The differences that tend to matter most to homeowners are how the warranty splits between the manufacturer and the dealer, how much control you have over bulb spacing and white color temperature, and how the bulb itself sits in the track. Trimlight, for instance, offers three node-spacing options instead of one fixed spacing, and its lifetime product warranty extends to the wiring, diodes, channel, and controller rather than splitting off into a separate 10-year window for everything but the bulbs.
If you're weighing Gemstone Lights specifically against Trimlight, we've put together a full side-by-side comparison covering warranty terms, bulb design, spacing, and color options in more detail: Trimlight vs. Gemstone Lights.
Gemstone Lights offers a lifetime warranty on the lights but only 10 years on everything else (power kit, controller, cables, track). Trimlight backs all of those same parts under one lifetime warranty instead of splitting off a shorter term.
Yes, in most cases. Undirected light floods open space instead of landing on the surface of the home, which removes the shadow and contrast that give texture to brick, stone, and trim.
Gemstone Lights uses a puck-style bulb, fixed 9-inch spacing, and a lifetime-plus-10-year warranty split. Trimlight's bulbs protrude for more roofline visibility, offer three spacing options, and carry one lifetime warranty on all parts. See our full comparison for the complete breakdown: Trimlight vs. Gemstone Lights.
Gemstone Lights are spaced 9 inches apart, with no alternate spacing option. Trimlight offers three spacing options instead: 6, 9, and 12 inches.