Fix Your Broken Christmas Lights with the Lightkeeper Pro Gun

Your Christmas lights are out of storage for another year. You have a sharp enough memory to remember that you bought all-new sets of lights last year because the previous ones you bought a year before last only lasted for one year. You see, the ones from last year and the year before (and before) appeared to go out...halfway. One half of a string of lights were lit and the other half appeared to be shot--thus rendering the lights worthless in your mind with relegation to the trash can.

The grumbling commenced that Christmas lights for outdoor or indoor use are no longer made to last and became a statement of fact in the extreme within the last two decades. Nostalgia overtook your family in vehemently uttering that, at one time in America, Christmas lights were made to last for twenty years without fail.

Yes, when lights sold in our country started coming primarily from China, the new prognosis was built that the lights will burn out after short use and buying a new box of them a year later will be a strong probability. This isn't to say that an electrician somewhere in America wasn't listening while toiling away with inventions in his workshop. Fortunately, an electrician was paying attention to the money being wasted, created a product to amend the problem and started a company around it. Conversely, he also sold his product via mail order and infomercials in the beginning--hence creating a stigma about the product.

Then it became a little-known and secret tool that was sold in your local Walmart & Target. What other name could be conjured for this invention other than Lightkeeper Pro to garner frustrated people's attention? When the President of the company, John DeCosmo, started Ultalit (there must be a company somewhere named Ultralit), the intention was to create an electrician's tool that anybody could use. Ultimately, the Lightkeeper Pro tool became the central product of the company, even though it also sells a nifty safety alarm in the event of Christmas tree fires.

But the skepticism still reigned on just how effective the Lightkeeper Pro gun is. It looks like a red Taser gun, yet took the risk of having myriad features to give you a complete Christmas light repair kit in one storable tool.

The trouble with shunts

If you finally want an explanation as to why all those Christmas light sets partially burned out, it's because that set you buy is actually three sets instead of one. What I mean is that there's more of a fragmented circuit on the newer miniature lights available on the market today--meaning if a shunt goes out in one of those sections, the set will only be partially lit. The shunt needs to be reenergized via a shaped electrical pulse that, before, could only be done with professional electrician's equipment not accessible to the general population.

The Lightkeeper Pro gun promises that if you insert the gun into an empty light socket and press the trigger anywhere from five to twenty times, it won't make your light set explode into a raging fireball. Instead, it sends that needed electrical pulse into the shunt and should make the section of your light set that went out come back on again. And it does work, most of the time. Keep in mind that this tool sometimes gets mixed reviews simply because users of the product don't realize what you need to do after using it or if it fails.

One of the convenient features of the Lightkeeper Pro gun is in its ability to show you which lights need to be replaced after repairing the shunt. Many people neglect to do this, so if you want your light set to keep working, replace the burned out bulbs. Also, you're going to find times when a light set is beyond repair and can't be fixed by this product. Mind you, this would be on lights that are much older and perhaps developed electrical issues while in storage. Unfortunately, many people recount these failures as a way to tear down this product as unworkable.

What users forget is that the Lightkeeper Pro also doubles as a continuity and voltage detector to help you scope out more complex electrical problems. Through a scanning method, you can test the electrical field through your light set to see if you're getting a hot contact through a particular socket. You can locate where the electrical field flaw is via the Lightkeeper Pro's beeping mechanism. This alerts you to where the electricity is flowing and where it isn't. Once you detect a problem, though, you'll have to repair a socket or bulb on your own.

To show you the thoroughness of this tool, it has an additional light and fuse tester to help get repairs on your light set done faster. The bulb tester is easy to use as is the fuse tester and a convenient bulb puller, despite pulling bulbs being a tricky procedure for some people. It also has a storage container in the handle for storage of extra lights to make it one of those inventions that has to have everything in order to get ahead of the herd.

The secret in your local discount store

Even though I never saw the infomercial for the Lightkeeper Pro, I've heard there is or was one with Ultalit's President John DeCosmo as host. That must have instigated a dash of skepticism on the product the minute the 800 number was given. However, I've seen these tools in local Targets and they're also available in virtually every other discount or hardware store you can name. A lot of times consumers run across them by accident and give it a try, only to praise it to the skies on Amazon that may get misinterpreted as paid endorsements.

From someone who's dealt with every possible calamity with Christmas lights, an invention that turns you into a professional electrician and usurps Chinese product incompetency is worth every dollar.

Add this to your collection of products and methods that keep the peace during the holiday season. As with all expectations, though, keep an astute awareness if it doesn't always bring peace and perfection.

Note: The author of this article endorses the Lightkeeper Pro gun under his own volition with no payment from Ultalit.

Sources:

http://www.lightkeeperpro.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Good-Tidings-ULT1201-LightKeeper-Pro/dp/B000R8KBOK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1259752147&sr=8-1