Ugh!!! Christmas tree with built in lights vent!!

[Charade]

We bought one last year from Lowes. GE tree with built in lights. They were the kind that if one blew out the others would stay lit. They were all white. DFI wanted a mix of color and white so I bought the same brand lights (GE) and painstakingly replaced a bunch of the built ins. But there weren't enought lights so she ran strings of the GE lights. They lights started to burn out and by the end of Christmas, 1/3 of the tree was out. The built in lights had one special bulb (a fuse) that when it blew, the string was dead and unuseable. The reason is that when one bulb blew, it put a strain on the rest. When several blew out, it overloaded the string and eventually it died. Can't be fixed.

NOW.... I'm taking the tree down and REMOVING all the lights. OMG!! What a PITA!!! Big time. They are all wrapped around the branchs really tight. It's gonna take me HOURS to get it done before I can put it way.

Never again!!

 

[tiggersmom2]

You are just now taking down your christmas tree?!!!!

I wouldn't know about pre-lit trees....I only buy real trees.

 

[XOoOoVEEoOoOX]

You are just now taking down your christmas tree?!!!!

I wouldn't know about pre-lit trees....I only buy real trees.

I USED to be a fake tree snob, but after 3 years of being the ONLY person to decorate/undecorate the the christmas tree I have decided next year we are going to get a PRE-LIT, FAKEY, I swear putting the lights up is the worst part of decorating a tree

 

[goofy!]

We bought one last year from Lowes. GE tree with built in lights. They were the kind that if one blew out the others would stay lit. They were all white. DFI wanted a mix of color and white so I bought the same brand lights (GE) and painstakingly replaced a bunch of the built ins. But there weren't enought lights so she ran strings of the GE lights. They lights started to burn out and by the end of Christmas, 1/3 of the tree was out. The built in lights had one special bulb (a fuse) that when it blew, the string was dead and unuseable. The reason is that when one bulb blew, it put a strain on the rest. When several blew out, it overloaded the string and eventually it died. Can't be fixed.

NOW.... I'm taking the tree down and REMOVING all the lights. OMG!! What a PITA!!! Big time. They are all wrapped around the branchs really tight. It's gonna take me HOURS to get it done before I can put it way.

Never again!!

Glad to see somebody else is just taking down their tree. I was working on our last tree today.

Just FYI, in case you are interested - we bought a tree from Sam's Club this year. It has 1000 white lights on it and 1000 colored lights. A control allows you to choose all white lights, all colored lights, a mix of both, or last as the kids called it: The Disco Tree where it will change back and forth from white to colored. You can control the speed of the change, from a slow fading of colored lights to white, or the strobe effect - white, colored,white, colored. Best way in the world to drive your guests crazy!.

 

[mickeyfan2]

We had a prelit twinkle tree. It was beautiful the first year and went down hill from there. One year I thought DH would throw it out a window. We got rid of it and will never owna prelit tree again.

 

[1Prince2Princesses]

I am ashamed. I haven't even attempted to take down my tree yet.

 

[Tazicket]

Don't worry, ours is still up, too. Actually, one year I just left our stockings up for the entire next year....made decorating for Christmas easier....

 

[donnajon]

I just took my tree down Sunday. And I was proud of myself for getting it down so early!

 

[Nancy]

I am ashamed. I haven't even attempted to take down my tree yet.

Me neither...no time between work, school and WPASADI!

 

[Wish Upon A Star]

My friend had the same problem with her pre-lit tree. She had to return it to Home Depot. She purchased it before Thanksgiving and had it all set up when the lights seemed to be dimmer than they first were. They couldn't find any replacements and then light after light started to go out, so they packed it all up and returned it. They ended up getting a live tree instead.

We just purchased a second artifiial tree (not pre-lit) just for our disney ornaments it was $12 on clearance on JCPenney.com and even though it is smaller than what I'm used to, for a 2nd tree its great.

 

[need_a_Disney_fix]

I have wondered about the pre-lits and what happens when the lights go bad. Hmmm...food for thought.

 

[poohandwendy]

You are just now taking down your christmas tree?!!!!

I wouldn't know about pre-lit trees....I only buy real trees.

LOL, I wish I could buy a real tree, but due to the woodburning stove, we can't. I miss the real tree smell at Christmas time.

It's funny because I was just thinking this year that maybe next time I will buy a pre-lit tree, mainly because i am so sick of dealing with strands of lights and if they will work or not. Such a PITA.

 

[Hercules10]

Won't a chain saw work on a fake tree the same as a real tree?

 

[luvmarypoppins]

O.K. This thread scares me. We too bought a GE pre-lit christmas tree from sears this year. A big 9 foot one. I too was not thrilled with the all white lights, none less the hugeness of the thing. DH put it together and 1 area near the top was all out. This was 2 days before christmas. We always put our tree up later and keep it up longer for one of the ds birthdays. Well we exchanged it the other week and dh hasnt taken the new one out of the box yet. We paid a ton of money for this thing and I am not liking the quality already. We already wrote to the company too and they said they will only send us replacement bulbs, but dh said the lst tree had a wiring problem, not a bulb problem, that is why sears said they would replace the whole tree for us. Its guaranteed by ge for 3 years but I dont think this will be good.

 

[Feralpeg]

I bought two Martha Stewart prelit trees last year. They were fine last year. This year, each tree had a string of lights not working. I went back to KMart to get replacement bulbs. They didn't have any to fit the Martha Stewart trees even though they sell them. They only carry GE bulbs which are a different size and shape. I ended up removing the bad string of lights and adding my own. It was a real pain to do and sort of defeats the whole idea.

 

[Charade]

My Dfi and I spent about 2 1/2 hours tonight removing all the strings of lights on it with wire cutters!!. I bet there were 40 pounds of lights!

The problem with our lights is that to make them safe, they have a fuse type bulb that's not replaceable and when it goes out, the whole string is dead. It's the first bulb next to the power plug (the end with the prongs) and has a white ring around the base of the bulb. Next years it's back to regular lights and a light tester.

 

[KikiFan]

I am extremely thankful that my tree has made it through three years. I figure at this point if I have to replace the tree I'll have gotten my money's worth. Of course mine is just a little 4 footer I got from Target cost me less then a natural tree would.

 

[UrsulasShadow]

Same thing happened with my fake tree a couple of years ago. Ended up just stringing the dead section with another string of lights. There was no way I was going to re-string the stupid tree!

Got a real tree this year. Much easier.

 

[SplshMtn99]

We got our tree at BJ's ($150). This was the 2nd year using it. No problems - yet. But I wondered why they give you soooooo many replacement bulbs -- like 20 of them -- and some fuses. We always keep that stuff anyway, but at least I know why now.

BTW, out tree only came down last weekend.