Customer Reviews

Light Keeper PRO 01201 The Complete Tool for Fixing Miniature Light Sets

5 star:		(241)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(32)

 

 

This item is more expensive than others in its category, but it works great! I was able to fix multiple strings of lights in a matter of minutes instead of getting frustrated and throwing them out like I used to. I liked it so much I bought one for 2 of my family members as well. Just take one of the lights out of the dead string, and plug the empty socket into a receptacle on the front of the device. Pull the trigger about 10-15 times and all of the working lights light up making it easy to identify and replace the dead ones. After trying 2 other similar devices that did not work at all, this was a great find and I highly recommend it.

Okay, admit it: you read the package, mix in even a basic understanding of electricity, and wonder why anyone would fall for such an outlandish claim. Surely, you can't fix a lightbulb by passing more electricity through it, no matter the "shape" of the pulse!

This DOES work, though, and it's because Christmas light bulbs have long been designed to work this way. Every bulb in the light set you own has a "shunt" which is supposed to "melt through" when the filament burns out. And, fairly often, it works just fine. However, every once in a while the shunt doesn't melt through given the "normal" voltage difference across the bulb, and so the circuit (for the 50 lights in that set or portion of the set) is lost. That's when not just one lgith goes out (which you might often not even notice), but the entire section of lights turns off.

That's where the "pulse" fixes things. It provides a low-current, high-voltage difference across the bulbs, which is sufficient to melt the shunts in any burnt-out bulb while not affecting functioning bulbs. Then, you scan for the bulb (or two) which is/are still burnt out, and replace just those. Those are the ones which have been burnt out from the start, but at least one of whose shunts had not melted through.

Now, that said, where can this process, and thus product, fail? For one, if there are a huge number of burnt-out bulbs in your chain and they ALL failed to melt through their filaments, it is likely that the device won't be able to work through them.

Further, if you have a *loose* bulb in the set, this will do nothing at all for you. You'll need to use the current detector (also a part of this device) to scan along the wire to see where continuity is lost, and replace that bulb or try just reseating it. Depending on the quality of your light set (and they all are trending towards identical quality) this might be the result of a slightly "loose" socket, a bulb improperly put in at the factory, or, maybe, a bulb you replaced improperly previously. In storage or in transit, bulbs undergo some stress which can twist or pull on them, transforming a "good enough" bulb-socket connection to a not-gonna-work kind. Long story short: bulbs get unseated, and you'll need the circuit proximity detector in that case, which is a much more involved process than just plugging in and hitting a button.

Being a skeptic it was sheer frustration and some positive web reviews that drove me to get this. I had two strings out on a pre-lit tree and was contemplating my limited options. After buying this I had both strings repaired - two bulbs per string - in 15 minutes. THIS PRODUCT WORKS AS ADVERTISED! I plugged it in and had to give only one pulse on each string and all working bulbs lit up! I no longer stress about a string dying during the season after the ornaments are on. I highly recommend it!

Well, this gadget does work, although not quite as crisply as I had hoped. When you insert individual bulbs in the tester portion of the LightKeeper, these bulbs tend to wobble. You don't know for sure if you have them settled in satisfactorily.

But the bigger problem with this gadget is that it is really not able to salvage many chains of lights. So far, it hasn't salvaged even one of my decorative chains. That's because when you get to the point that your light chain is not lighting at all, and you want to test to see which lights might be the dead culprits - it's likely ALL or almost ALL the lights in the chain are dead and you are better off discarding the chain. That has been the case with me. The LightKeeper has shown virtually all the lights in all my problematic chains to be dead, and I've ended up just going out and buying new chains.

That's always likely to be the case, because when one light in a chain blows out and you don't promptly replace it, the other lights have a higher, taxing voltage distributed across them. They too then quickly become vulnerable to burn-out.

As for the LightKeeper's other function - its ability to deliver a jolt of voltage across the gap in a burnt-out light and thereby to melt the connections back into series - that too seems to be a better idea in principle than in practice. In the cases where I've had just a light or two out in a chain and have delivered the LightKeeper's jolt to the offending light in order to solder it back in line - the light has lit for a few seconds. Then the entire chain has gone out. This is probably again because the presence of even that one dead light in the chain over time weakened all the other lights with the increased voltage being delivered to them. Then when the LightKeeper delivered its additional jolt of voltage - it was all just too much for the entire chain of stressed lights.

So in short, if you don't catch a dead light in a chain IMMEDIATELY - the LightKeeper isn't likely to help you. You'll just end up having paid for the LightKeeper - and then for new light chains to boot.

I found this product in Target. I have several strands of star and snowflake lights that were half out. I was frustrated they would have to be thrown away and I bought this as a last ditch effort thinking I had just wasted $20, but IT WORKS. In a few minutes i had all my lights working again. This would be perfect for Pre-lit trees. Great product.

This product really works, right out of the box! I first tried it on a small Christmas tree that I had worked on for a half hour. Three pulls of the trigger and it lit right up. Next, I fixed two older light strings with one pull each. The instructions are very clear. The clear plastic case is re-closable. It's a great value.

This wonderful tool came out Oct 2004 as an improvement to the first Lightkeeper. Basic differences are addition of ability to pulse to a bulb socket in addition to the outlet plug, so you can activate failed bulb shunt in just one section of a string now. The other addition is a fuse tester perpendicular to the bulb tester. Typical 2006 retail price $16.97 - $17.99 at places like Lowes and Home Depot. I saved several hours work with this tool when I wanted to repair rather than replace my many mini-light sets.

I spent years fighting my Christmas lights. Two years ago I bought all heavy-duty icicle lights to avoid problems. No luck. Last Christmas I pulled out all of my lights and ended up throwing away three strings of expensive icicle lights and buying replacements. This was very frustrating as they all worked when I put them away the previous year.

This year I had the same situation. One full string didn't work at all and two other strings had several sections each that would not light. No amount of switching bulbs resulted in any success. I even started hacking one set apart trying to find the problem - no luck.

I was resigned to buying more replacements when I stumbled across this gadget. I thought, "It's got to be a gimmick and is probably a waste of money, but I'll give it a shot." Hear me now. THIS IS NO GIMMICK AND WORTH EVERY PENNY! I hooked this up to the first faulty section and `BAM" they lit right up. It was the same for every string. It worked without fail and was quick and easy. This fixed every faulty string I had. No more will I have to buy replacement strings of lights and it calmed my fears about my new pre-lit tree. If a section of lights goes out on that they are not so easily replaceable. Now that will never be a problem.

I highly recommend this gizmo and guarantee you won't regret the purchase.

I bought this at my local Walmart for twenty dollars -figuring I'd take it back since it probably wouldn't work... Got it home and watched the videos on the manufacturers website. It really works and just as easily as in the video. I had 10 strands of 300 count miniature icicle lights that I could no longer buy (white wire with green bulbs). Here was the procedure.

1. Remove 1 bulb (with the lights plugged in).
2. Plug the tester in where you removed the bulb.
3. Pull the trigger a few times (In most cases the section lit on the first pull).

This will be especially helpful on prelit trees or lights that go out once there on the tree. This product really is true genius. This was the best money I've spent in a long time. It literally saved me about 3 hours of playing with bulbs.

There are other functions on the tester -tool to easily pull bulbs, non-touch tester to find a loose bulb, built in light to see what your doing, and replaceable batteries (3 button cells). I used the additional features to find strands that were missing a bulb or other weird stuff.

The LightKeeper Pro's design doesn't fit mini-size light sockets and bulbs which have snaps to hold the bulb in the socket. All newer light strings, especially those on pre-lit trees and accessories, seem to have this feature. The LightKeeper Pro's design needs to be modified for use with a variety of mini sockets. Until then, do not buy the LightKeeper Pro if your lights have a clip that fastens to the socket.