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Frequent Contributor
Posts: 91
Registered: ‎04-09-2010

HOW MANY YEARS CAN I EXPECT LIGHTS ON A TREE TO LAST

I have always had real Christmas trees and am thinking of getting an artificial tree with the lights already on it.  How many years do the lights on these trees last?  The cost of a really large tree is so expensive, I am hoping you will all tell me they last for many years.  

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 7,743
Registered: ‎03-15-2010

Re: HOW MANY YEARS CAN I EXPECT LIGHTS ON A TREE TO LAST

[ Edited ]

@BLB

 

Good morning,

 

Don't want to be a negative voice, but the tree I bought with lights lasted exactly 1 year.  The center section would not light after one Christmas.  I don't think it has anything to do with how long the tree is lit.  When the lights are faulty, it's done.  DH is handy and we tried a lot of "fixes."  The lights still didn't work.

 

It was a Bethlehem Lights tree from QVC and, I contacted both places for resolution with no results.  It had been over a year.

 

After that, I bought a 9 ft. slimline tree without lights (hard to find!) and just string them every year.  Once those lights go out (mine did in sections) you can either just string other lights or try to cut them out.

 

I just gave the tree away and will never have another prelit.

 

I'm sure others have had better luck, but I'm not willing to take a second chance.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,195
Registered: ‎04-10-2012

Re: HOW MANY YEARS CAN I EXPECT LIGHTS ON A TREE TO LAST

I think it would all depend upon how much you have the tree "on" with the lights......we had our tree either 5 or 6 years......but didn't have the lights on continiously....i would say we had them on most nights for a couple hours a couple weeks before the holiday through Jan 6th...................we are looking for a new one locally this year....

Good luck......................i loved the real trees....but you had such limits for having the lights on with the tree drying out...remembering to water.....then the needles, etc.....this way you can enjoy the look and lights of a tree when it is artificial....would go back to a real tree at this point...

Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,036
Registered: ‎07-25-2010

Re: HOW MANY YEARS CAN I EXPECT LIGHTS ON A TREE TO LAST

I had a fairly inexpensive one from Home Depot...my tree goes up right after Thanksgiving and stays up through January.  The fifth year the middle section wouldn't light...I added a string of lights.  Have a new, smaller unlit tree for this year...I'll add the lights.  

 

I was was happy with my former tree for what I paid for it...around $80.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,472
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: HOW MANY YEARS CAN I EXPECT LIGHTS ON A TREE TO LAST

[ Edited ]

@BLB

 

Q's trees are way over priced and the amount of lights per tree is a shame.

You should look around and shop because tress do last for years, that being said unless the tree has a trauma.

 Like packed incorrectly, damage putting up or away, bad luck, ornament hook causing damage.  Usually it's not the whole tree just a strand but that's reason enough to give it away or discard it.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 20,019
Registered: ‎08-08-2010

Re: HOW MANY YEARS CAN I EXPECT LIGHTS ON A TREE TO LAST

I just purchased a BL tree on the TSV and hope to get at least five years out of it. I've set my sights rather low, as most things today are simply junk. Something like this, with proper care and storage should last over a decade, but I don't hold out much hope for that.

 

What I tried to do was calculate what we would pay for a real tree, then multiply that by five. I don't want to spend more than that total for a pre lit tree.

 

Our original non lit artificial lasted a decade before it started looking 'tired'. It was replaced (for literally all of 10 minutes) by an expensive prelit tree from a local higher end store. One section didn't light right out of the box, so up went the old ratty tree for one more year.

 

By the next year my husband had found two prelit trees, one still brand new in the box, at an auction, so we used those. One gave up a small section of lighting by the second use, and may be 'fixable' just haven't tried hard. The other one has made two season. Each cost only one dollar, so no complaints about how long they last. 

 

BL advertised that the TSV trees had a five year warranty. I really should read that and see if it includes lights.

 

I hate stringing lights on trees, it never looks as good as when prelit, but if this tree doesn't hold up, we too, may go back to an unlit tree. I have light strands that we have used for 20 plus years and they still work, so I guess I just don't get why the prelit ones fail so easily.

 

Anyone know if the LED or the incandescent are more sturdy and long lasting. Perhaps one type of lighting will give longer service than the other, and we should be considering that in a prelit tree.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 30,238
Registered: ‎03-12-2010

Re: HOW MANY YEARS CAN I EXPECT LIGHTS ON A TREE TO LAST

I've owned several pre-lit artificial trees.  For one reason or another I got bored with them and got new ones.  I've never had lights burn out.  

 

Now if you want to talk about string lights for real trees, about every other week.  Hate the things!

 

No one can predict that.  With any luck you'll get one where all of the others stay lit.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 25,929
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: HOW MANY YEARS CAN I EXPECT LIGHTS ON A TREE TO LAST

We paid around $100 for a 9.5 ft tree at Home Depot and the lights lasted 3 years. Now this is the third year for the replacement tree so I am keeping my fingers crossed.I wonder if more expensive trees like they sell on QVC last longer?

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,619
Registered: ‎03-16-2010

Re: HOW MANY YEARS CAN I EXPECT LIGHTS ON A TREE TO LAST

Had a bethlehem tree that I loved, very similar to the one thst was the TSV the other day which I purchased.  The reAson why is because it has the glisten mode which I just love the look of.  Now this previous BL tree also had the glisten mode which they called at that time , phasing.  The former tree lasted 10 yrs and then we moved cross country and went to put it up that first christmas and the lights just didn't light,  they tried,  but were very weakly lighted then completely off,  so we had to toss it as much as I loved that tree.  So now I am really hoping this new BL does well and lasts a long time.  Lone other thing it was ,mentioned during the presentation of the TSV that they never did that mode of glistening ,  but they did as I had a BL tree that I purchased from qvc that did indeed!  Strange.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 20,019
Registered: ‎08-08-2010

Re: HOW MANY YEARS CAN I EXPECT LIGHTS ON A TREE TO LAST


@Kitty Galore wrote:

Had a bethlehem tree that I loved, very similar to the one thst was the TSV the other day which I purchased.  The reAson why is because it has the glisten mode which I just love the look of.  Now this previous BL tree also had the glisten mode which they called at that time , phasing.  The former tree lasted 10 yrs and then we moved cross country and went to put it up that first christmas and the lights just didn't light,  they tried,  but were very weakly lighted then completely off,  so we had to toss it as much as I loved that tree.  So now I am really hoping this new BL does well and lasts a long time.  Lone other thing it was ,mentioned during the presentation of the TSV that they never did that mode of glistening ,  but they did as I had a BL tree that I purchased from qvc that did indeed!  Strange.


 

@Kitty Galore

 

I find that Q is often making claims of 'new' when something isn't. They change one simple feature, or add a color and change the item number and call it new.

 

In this case, they may well have had that function on an older tree (you know this because you had it!), but it was on an LED tree, or they called that function by another name, or it cycled in a different amount of time etc. So making some minute change, and calling it by a new name allows them to call it 'new'.

 

It gets tiresome trying to decode what Q is saying (and what they are not saying) in their presentations these days. The vendors and hosts have become master manipulators of the English language!