Monday, December 07, 2009

Uh Houston - yeah, you know.

Problem?

I strung up all the lights on our freshly cut Christmas tree (let me tell you, this tree doesn't have a soft spot anywhere and getting the lights up was like playing with a porcupine).

Every time I plug the tree in 2/3 of the tree blows out.

We've discovered a bulb that acts like a fuse and it blows out instead of maybe an entire string blowing out. We've changed that bulb a few times but the darn thing keeps tripping.

In all honesty, I so don't want to have to unravel all the lights off the tree as Bob has suggested.

So I'm wondering if there is anyone out there that has had a similar problem?

I'm wondering if I should put in another extension cord and run half the lights off a separate plug. Hey, it's all I got and I'm not sure the lights were made to have all 800 run off one circuit.

Wish me luck.

If you hear a roar sometime tomorrow it will be me, unraveling the darn strings off the tree.

Figures this season wouldn't start out easy.

Grrrr!!

2 comments:

Bev(QB) said...

When all else fails, read the directions. Chances are the lights tell you how many you can string together- usually 4 or 5. Once you've reached that limit, you've got to string another cord in there (trust me... been there/done that, blew many a fuse).

You can run multiple cords off the same outlet strip (use one with a breaker built in)- but one cord per receptacle on the outlet strip, don't piggyback the extension cords too because that's just asking for a fire.

C2 said...

You might hear an echoing scream from the south. Hmmph. I lost the top half of the white lights on my tree before I put the ornaments on so I reworked the cords and everything seemed to be fine. A day after the ornaments went up and the ladders went back to the garage, half (I think) of one string up near the top blew again. Curses!!