"Reactor" bruce.gettel-at-myactv.net wrote in message
...
Hi All,

I have a pre-lit, 12', 5-year old Christmas tree with about 2500 lights.
Entire sections (levels of branches, if you will) will not light. You can
imagine what it's like to search and replace burnt bulbs.

The bulbs are of the "shunt type" of course, but still, no lights. I have
good line voltage at the end of the string, so I am pretty certain it's
not a broken wire.

The first bulb in each section is a non-removable, non-shunt type bulb.
The directions say only that it is a safety bulb and cannot be replaced.
On at least one string, this safety bulb appears to be blown.

What gives here? I have shunt bulbs that are supposed to keep a blown
bulb from taking out the whole section, but yet they are all out. I have
line voltage all the way through the string, and yet no lights. And I
have a "safety bulb" that cannot be replaced, yet is blown.

What happens if I cut the safety bulb off (it's molded into its socket)
and twist the three wires together. What safety can this be providing any
way? Any other ideas, aside from what we did last year - just throw a set
of lights on it, which defeats the purpose of paying the price for a
pre-lit tree?

This is driving me and my wife insane.

Thanks in advance for your input.


I've never seen a set with a "safety bulb", but apparently it serves as a
fuse? Personally I would bypass it and instead put an inline fuse in the
set, but I don't recommend others to bypass safety features, use common
sense with this.

For the other bulbs, I've seen a lot of problems with bad connections in the
sockets or broken wire leads on the bulbs cause sets to be out. It can be
frustrating, but a multimeter works well to track down the open.