On the top portion of my pre-lit tree, a small strand of lights went out. I took out the white fuse light. Did I do anything bad to my tree?
By Sarah R.
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The problem is in the fuse bulb. It is a very bad design because it is not replaceable and when it blows the entire string goes out and this is a real problem on a pre-lit tree. Why there is a fuse bulb on top off the fuses in the plug itself is beyond me. On my tree, only one year old, five of the fuse bulbs had failed!
GE sent under warranty three new strands but I really didn't want to thread them all in on top of the dead bulbs and wires, so I did this: (1) unplugged the tree (2) pulled on the fuse bulb until it came out (3) carefully, with an ice pick, levered out the white fuse bulb socket enough to use a pair of needle-nose pliers to fully remove it (4) with those pliers, molded it back into shape (5) from the spare bulbs, removed one from its green base and threaded it into the white base (6) put the bulb and white base back into the socket (7) with the needle-nose pliers, pushed it back down fully.
Result: A beautiful tree, fully lit again. Yes, this supposedly violates the warranty, but I already have three free new strands I'm now not going to use, but will keep just in case.
GE really needs to make that fusible bulb replaceable (and provide spares); otherwise, get rid of it entirely.
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