Why don't Christmas lights last? (1 Viewer)

[Jack Spencer]

I think I store them fine. They get carefully wrapped on those plastic Christmas light holder things, put in a rubbermaid box and stored in the attic. Sure they're not expensive but my multi-function strands were ~$12 each and throwing away half a dozen strands every other year is wasteful and bad for the environment. Also I've only used them indoors on my tree and in windows, never outside, they should still work.

I just like stuff that lasts. I hate throwing away something that is physically immaculate but developed some dumb functional problem even though I was very careful with it. And Christmas lights just seem so cheap, every year I have to replace a few strands.

Thanks for your responses.

 

[StephenHa]

the lights I got at kmart 4 years ago are still working this year they were the martha stewart line and dirt cheap

 

[Matt Butler]

Im sure she can use some light in her life right now.

 

[Greg_R]

Parallel wiring is what to look for. If one bulb burns out, the rest will still work. Bulbs in series (single wire along the length of the strand) are bad... one bulb blows and the whole chain dies (then you have to find the bad bulb!).

From a quality perspective, that is no longer always a bad thing (ala Japan 25yrs ago). I will leave it at that (don't want to get into politics).