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[quote=Anonymous]In my last house I put up 17 trees. Current house 10. So I think this qualifies me as an "expert" of some kind (haha!).

My takeaway after decades of multiple trees is that I will never, ever buy a pre-lit tree or garland again. We are fortunate to have huge closets and we store all the trees decorated. This means minimal stress on the light strings. But we still get several light strands per tree just suddenly going out. It's not a bulb issue, it has to be a wiring issue.

So on a pre-lit tree, this means when a strand (and sometimes half the strand) goes out, it's almost impossible to remove the dead strand. They zip tie each light to the branch and it takes a wire cutter to get it out. Then the challenge of finding a matching box of lights - almost impossible. If they are white, there is true "warm white", then there are many, many brands claiming to be "warm white" but they are really blinding, and then there is bright white, and on and on.

My other tip, is to never connect the strands end-to-end. This makes it really hard to remove a dead strand. I start every strand from mid back and out to its section. If it dies, much easier to find, remove and replace.

DH decided this year to move from iridescent to LED, but we like the old-fashioned warm/beige white and the muted colored lights. We found some at Target and bought out their supply of 18 boxes of truly warm white (100 count) and went online to order 20 boxes of colored (100 count). Supposedly the regular lights last several seasons before they start burning out or getting the wires messed up. The LED is supposed to last 10 or more years before failure.

We went to Hobby Lobby, Lowes and Target today. Every tree at HL was pre-lit except one. So it is harder to find unlighted, but in the end, it really is easier than the lighted trees which are great the first few years, then become a frustrating effort when the first strand goes out.[/quote]

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