Customer Reviews

Barcana 7 1/2-Foot Alaskan Christmas Tree with 1500 Multi and Clear and Eight Button Remote Control

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My wife and I hesitated a bit about buying this tree at first. It was listed here on Amazon for $399.99, plus an extra $19.95 for shipping, even though we have a Prime account. We have purchased a few different artificial Christmas trees over the past 15 years of our marriage; although this is our first pre-lit tree. It seems as though every 3 to 5 years we have to buy a new tree because the average store-bought trees are just not made of high quality materials. Pieces break and come apart, and it always takes at least a couple of hours to string the darn lights! Our average tree purchase ranged between $140 and $220. We were finally ready to purchase a pre-lit tree, and we were ready to spend some extra cash for a quality product, but this Barcana Alaskan Christmas tree did not have any reviews yet on Amazon.com. We searched all over the Internet and found nothing but good reviews about Barcana pre-lit trees.

We decided to purchase the tree, thinking that it would take at least a week or better to receive it. We ordered it on a Friday evening and received the tree that following Tuesday! I still can't believe the speed of Amazon's shipping! The box arrived without a scratch so we eagerly tore it open to setup our new tree. There are very few pieces to this package. A two piece, heavy duty stand simply snaps together. The tree itself is in three pieces; the bottom two portions have hinged branches. We had the entire tree fully assembled in less than 15 minutes! It took my wife nearly an hour to "fluff" all of the branches; pulling and shaping all of the stems to give a natural, full appearance. The tree comes with a Barcana "Light Changer" power controller, which has six outlets and a remote sensor on a lengthy green cable. The six outlets are split into two different banks of three; each bank color coded to seperate the clear and multi-colored light strands. You simply match the colors of each plug to the coordinating power socket. It's that simple. You then attach the remote sensor to one of the tree branches, via the attached alligator clip. Install two AA alkaline batteries into the provided remote control (batteries NOT included) and you are ready to bring your new tree to life.

Now that we have finished setting up our new Barcana 7.5 ft. Alaskan Christmas tree, and have been enjoying it for a couple of days, we couldn't be happier with our purchase. Every part of this package is high quality. It is extremely easy and quick to setup. With a total of 1600 pre-strung lights this tree puts out a nice amount of light. The handy remote control makes it simple and fun to operate the lighting features of the tree. The remote allows you to control the clear and multi-colored lights seperately. The basic remote functions controls constant on (and off), blinking, fading and cascading. My only complaint about this tree is the lack of light control. Although you can blink and fade the lights, you cannot control the speed (which is rather slow!). My wife and I do not like the cascade feature at all. We thought the lights would cascade down the tree, but instead each section of the tree lights up and then goes dark once the next section lights. This creates large blocks of light and dark sections on the tree, split into thirds. It's hard to explain in words, so you really have to see it to understand. It is really quite unattractive. If the remote allowed speed control of the blinking and fading of lights, this tree package would be perfect!

We are still giving this Barcana tree 5 stars due to the heavy duty, high quality materials. The tree stands a perfect 7.5 feet, from the bottom of the stand to the very tip of the top vertical stem. We measured and confirmed an almost perfect 60 inch circumference at the base of the tree. This tree weighs nearly 80 pounds, with the majority of the weight being in the bottom two sections. Although it can definately be setup by one person, it goes much easier with two people. I am confident that this tree will last us for many, many years. It may be the last Christmas tree we ever have to purchase. It comes with everything you need, including spare bulbs, two spare strands of lights (one clear and one multi-colored), and even comes with a storage bag to pack everything away in after the holiday season. I highly recommend this Barcana tree to anyone that is looking for extremely high quality and wants both clear and multi-colored lights (and plenty of them!).

Oh, just one more thing. Remember I said that we paid $399.99 (plus shipping) for this item? Well Amazon.com reduced the price to $324.99 just 5 days after we purchased it! I was a bit upset at first but one simple call to Amazon customer service and they credited our credit card the $75 difference on the spot. Amazon customer service is AWESOME! I have been and will remain a loyal customer of Amazon.com. =o)


UPDATE (12/04/2008): We are now on our second year with this tree, and still absolutely love it. We have not had any problems with it at all. Setting it up and taking it down are really a breeze, and my wife really likes the fact that she can have it setup and fully decorated in just a couple of hours, as she used to spend an entire Saturday setting up our previous artificial trees. This is a very high quality tree, with outstanding lighting, and I have no doubt that we will be using this same tree for many years to come. Happy holidays to everyone!

I bought this tree 2 years ago and it was worth every penny I spent. It is easy to put up, but it is heavy from all the lights. My son and I love a tree with only clear lights, my husband and daughter love a multi colored tree. This tree makes everyone happy, because with the remote you choose what color lights you want on. The remote does has other options to choose from. The construction of the tree and quality of the lights are better than any of the trees you find in your typical Lowe's, Home Depot, Walmart stores. I am very pleased with my Barcana tree and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a new tree.

The Barcana Alaskan Fir that I bought has been a real lemon. I have had trouble from day one with the lights. Have taken it back to the retailer for the past years to trouble shoot the problem. I called Barcana and was as much as told to get lost, we have been in business for 50 years. They (Barcana) were not the least bit sympathic and had no desire to solve an obvious problem with their product. I will never buy another Barcana product and would never encourage anyone else to do so. If you wish to buy an artificial Christmas tree buy one from a manufacture who will back up their product or don't buy their product.

Aftre reading earlier reviewes, we decided to get this tree. It was very easy to setup, although I recommend having two people put it together based on the weight of the pieces.

The lighting options are great, and the white and colored lights can both be on at the same time, and can be set to different lighting options (for example, white lights on, and colored lights cascading). The remote control is easy to use, and allowed us to turn the tree on/off or change the lighting options easily without having to crawl under or behind the tree as we did with prior trees.

Even without any additional decoration, this tree looks finished. Of course, adding standard decorations such as tinsel and ornaments does make it feel more personal.

The tree arrived in two days and needed two people to pick it up, though I dragged it in the house and was able to open the box. It came out in three pieces, and snapped together easiely. The hardest part was figuring out which light plugs where, but once I figured out the brown plug went in the brown slot and the green plug went in the green slots, it was easy. My only disappointment: 1) was my family tree topper was too heavy for this tree, 2) the lights don't twinkle. Other than that once fluffed and branches pulled down in an irregular fashion it looks better than a real tree. My daughter saw it and ordered one! I didn't even use the extra lights that came with it. It's gorgeous! Well worth the money.