Prelit Christmas Tree Light Quality and Density
Lights on a pre-lit Christmas tree should be evaluated based on looks, longevity, and density. They should be high quality and durable, with quality outweighing quantity. Lights should be attached securely, UL rated for safety, include burn-out protection so that one light can go out without affecting the others, and shine brightly. The best milliamp ratings are greater than 170mA, since they will burn out less quickly than those with lower ratings. Lights generally do not last as long as the tree itself, which is why you will notice that a tree may have a 5 season structural warranty while the included lights are guaranteed for 2-3 years. There are non-traditional light options as well, including fiber optic and LED choices.
Light Count vs. Density
As with branches, density is a more significant quality factor than quantity alone. 80 to 100 lights per foot for a full tree is a high quality ratio. For a seven foot tree, 560 to 700 lights would be top of the line. A thinner tree may have less lights per foot. The best way to judge a pre-lit tree is to look at it and decide for yourself whether it is lit pleasingly.
ProTime™ Lighting Technology
Treetime's ProTime™ lighting is an innovation in Christmas lighting and revolutionary to the Christmas industry. Several competing sites will claim to have lights that remain on after a problem occurs, but what you're likely purchasing is a knock-off of this patented, award-winning technology. As many of you know, mini lights are historically the Achilles heel of holiday decorations. The most significant impact that we can have on your overall experience is to supply a lighting system that doesn't exhibit the ongoing failure problems associated with traditional Christmas lighting. Other technologies have been evolving in an attempt to solve some of these problems but have previously been incapable of reproducing what you have come to expect from a quality product.
Our Platinum Collection pre-lit artificial Christmas trees use the finest lighting available today. Burned out lights are something that will eventually happen, but helping to mitigate a major outage is what these lights are all about. The secret to fixing the first problem isn’t in the bulb – it is in the socket and wiring system. Each socket in a ProTime™ light set has a tiny thermistor microchip that acts as a ‘silent sentry’ to keep the light string operating. When all bulbs in the string are operating properly, the chip does nothing. However, as soon as something happens to a bulb – whether it gets broken; becomes loose in the socket; falls from the socket; or burns out– the chip takes over and acts as if it were a bulb to keep the rest of the string operating properly. It even acts as a kind of “surge protector” to protect the bulbs (to a certain limit) from power surges caused by other bulbs in the string burning out. Regular lights sets don't come nearly close to this level of features to keep your tree looking bright each Christmas!
Industry-Standard Lighting
Currently, no one offers better pre-lit lighting technology than Treetime. This unique design isn't just for reliability but also for looks. There are never more than 50 lights to each set (improves lifespan) and no light set failure will cause a black-out in any portion of the tree except for the bulb that burns out. Even if a bulb does burn out, it will not take out a strand! These are truly commercial-grade mini lights and all Platinum Collection™ Treetime Christmas trees are backed by a 5 season light warranty—the industry's best.