On Dec 18, 7:16*pm, John-Del wrote:
Surely the idea is to replace the blown bulb when noticed ??

Why wait until the situation you described develops ??

If you notice them... These miniature lamps are usually wrapped around trees or otherwise stuffed into decorative foliage, and single lamp failures often go unnoticed unless you're specifically looking for them.. *Lenny's idea of adding lamps in series is a good idea. *Years ago, I had an X10 setup for holiday lighting, and would run the dimmer modules for the light strings. *Just dropping the brightness a bit kept them running almost forever.

My son just bought a set of similar lights that use LEDs. *We'll see how long these last.

I took a good look at these lamps tonight under a magnifier, I
noticed a very curious thing. At the base of each lamp the thin wires
go through the bulb and attach to the posts that the filaments are
then welded to; If you look into the bulb, at the base of these posts,
inside each lamp there seems to be a thin wire wrapped around the
posts that one would think would short them out. It obviously doesn't
happen right away but after a period of time, (heating), it does seem
to. Perhaps that is it's purpose, to burn through an insulating layer
on the posts after a brief time and destroy the lamp. And one further
observation. In looking at the filaments on all the "shorted" Kamakazi
lamps It appears that the filaments never opened, rather the shorting
wire must have finally burned through the posts and shorted the lamp
out.
What an insidious clever way to sell more Christmas lights. Isn't it
fascinating the lengths that some people will go to to separate us
from our money? Merry Christmas! Lenny