About 4-5 years ago TLATDTD bought a pre-wired, lighted artificial Xmas tree.Now perhaps you have too. Or, perhaps youre thinking about it... One word... DONT! After the second year we had it one string of the five on the tree quit working, The box plainly stated that a bulb burning out would not cause an entire string to fail. That soon proved to be an obvious lie.. The box also bragged that this tree was equipped with over 400 GE Long Life bulbs. Apparently long life is two Christmas seasons. Hey! This thing was expensive. After spending over an hour I found the offending light bulb and changed it and restored the tree to its original splendor. But the trouble was only beginning. By the end of its third Christmas season there were now two strings of lights that had failed. When the time came to dismantle it I decided to wait til next year to begin the hunt anew. The following Christmas when we took it out its box there were now three strings that failed to light. We assembled it and strung additional lights on it to light up the dark areas. At the end of the Christmas season it was returned to its storage box and I fully intended to tackle the repairs this year. When we took it out of storage the same three strings of lights refuse to light but I was determined to fix them all no matter how long it took.. To my credit I did maintain my temper, dignity and sense of humor,,, For a while. After several hours of bulb testing and swapping I did get one of the three vile and offensive strings of lights to glow festively but that was all. Once again we added other lights and the tree looked very good. We took that tree down a few days ago and were trying to decide what to do with it. Its quite handsome as artificial trees go and we like it... As far as its treelike appearance. So I got the bright idea to replace all the lights with strings of LED lights. They dont burn out and by the time they did we would feel better about sending it to live out it;s days in a landfill. We have some of them that burn every night outside and have been up for over five years without a failure. So... The first step in this process is to remove all the old lights and wiring. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. This tree was manufactured in China (isnt everything?) and the Chinese must be very patient people. This tree is made in three sections. So far Ive removed the lights and wiring from the bottom and top sections. That has taken about 5-6 hours. I would love to see the blueprints or wiring diagrams for one of these trees. I believe the wiring diagram would resemble a character in the Chinese alphabet that means stupid American or extreme pain depending on its usage. In this case it should mean stupid American in extreme pain. Ive decided that I will not attempt to install the lights permanently on this tree as I value my sanity and do believe that the only way that could be done would be to return it to China along with the desired lights and a blank check, SOOooooo... once the last of the lights are removed it will be returned to its lying carton and stored until next year when i will gleefully drape lights around it and happily remove them when Christmas is, once again, over. So let this be a warning to you. If you plan to buy a pre lit Christmas tree. Make sure it has LED lamps. And beware of certain words on the box like Long Life and Will Not Cause A Failure. THEY LIE
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 23:45:38 +0000
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