[Capt'n Mike]

Avoid buying a GE artificial pre-lit tree! Below is a picture of our 10' pre-lit tree in it's 5th year. It started with 1000 lights and now has maybe 600. The rest have literally burned out, mostly this year. Replacing the bulbs doesn't help, once a branch goes out entirely, it's out.

These lights have the GE technology called "Constant On" that allows the rest of the strand to stay lit even if a bulb falls out. I'm thinking this wizardry has something to do with the reason that once that fuse bulb burns out (which are not replaceable btw) -- the lights are useless. This is REALLY bad when they are intertwined in a ten foot tree!

GE is less than helpful as the lights have a 1 year warranty. I'm sure their logic in these disposable lights is that consumers can just buy a new tree every 5 years, but at $700.. I was really hoping to get a few more years out of it!

 

[spacelord]

ouch that sucks. Maybe newer ones with LEDs will have a better life.

 

[Capn Ken]

I've already heard from a few friends with LED trees that have the same problem...
I don't have a GE tree (maybe GE lights), but it is a 'pre-lit tree', but two strings were unlit this year when I first plugged in the tree... and a lot of single lights were out all over the tree. It took three days, an ohm-meter and 64+ bulbs to get ALL the lights lit again.

I swear... I wish we were still using the old 3-4 watt each, screw-in strings... at least they were easy to repair! (but they'd probably MELT an artificial tree)

 

[Barty]

I gave up on the prelit trees for this very reason.

 

[hammer]

We did a pre lit LED tree and will never do anything else. Put the setions together, let the branches fall into place, done. You do pay $$$ for a good tree though.

 

[Capt'n Mike]

Yeah, I've been thinking if we go pre-lit again it will have to be LED. I think the incandescent bulbs look much better, but I guess the LED's is something you get used to.

BTW, this tree was actually branded as Santa's Best Craft, they were producing trees under license from GE. Not sure if they still are or not. I found a similar tree online at Amazon with a 2 star rating and complaints identical to mine.

 

[hammer]

Yeah, I've been thinking if we go pre-lit again it will have to be LED. I think the incandescent bulbs look much better, but I guess the LED's is something you get used to.

BTW, this tree was actually branded as Santa's Best Craft, they were producing trees under license from GE. Not sure if they still are or not. I found a similar tree online at Amazon with a 2 star rating and complaints identical to mine.

Get the soft light or whatever its called LED. Cant tell the difference. We looked at santas best, poor ratings kept us away. I think ours was through Costco online.

 

[Focker]

We have a GE prelit tree too. In each section, there is 1 or 2 bulbs that have a white base... you will notice there is 3 wires instead of 2 wires like the rest of the bulbs. When these burn out, the rest of the strand doesn't work. You can remove and replace the bulb, keeping the white base, or cut out the socket and use a butt splice.

 

[Riddle]

We got one at Costco that works well. It can change from clear to multicolor. Doesn't blink the same though.

 

[ghettshin]

Yeah, I've been thinking if we go pre-lit again it will have to be LED. I think the incandescent bulbs look much better, but I guess the LED's is something you get used to. BTW, this tree was actually branded as Santa's Best Craft, they were producing trees under license from GE. Not sure if they still are or not. I found a similar tree online at Amazon with a 2 star rating and complaints identical to mine.