Friday, November 30, 2012

Repairing Christmas Displays

When All American Christmas Co. got started we mainly focused at selling lights to cities and businesses for large decorating jobs, and during the season we sold (and still do sell) countless screw in C7 and C9 bulbs for repairing large Christmas Displays. Most displays are put up late november and are burning for many hours and since incandescent bulbs have a bulb life from 2,500 or 3,000 hours their life gets eaten up pretty quick during the season. Inevitably bulbs burn out and break after being moved in and out of storage so it's a good plan to have spare bulbs in the colors you need on hand.

For the most part repairing displays be it Pole Mounted pieces, Ground mount, or building mount is fairly straight forward.

  • Give any display a once over before you put power to it, any broken bulbs should be removed (wear gloves when dealing with broken glass) and make sure the cord has no cuts or breaks that could cause a short.
  • After you check the bulbs and wire plug the display in, note any burned out bulbs and remove them. Adjust the wire if it's shifted to create a uniform appearance, if sockets have loosened affix them to the frame with new tape or zip ties.
  • Once the displays is completely reviewed you can begin to replace the bulbs that were shot, now one caveat new Incandescent bulbs are almost always brighter and whiter (for clear anyway) than bulbs that have been up for a season or two. Some times this can create brighter spots on a display but if you need to get it up and lit it's usually not a huge deal, just be aware of it
  • Always test your displays before you get on a job or hang them up because of Murphy's Law, what can go wrong will go wrong. And being able to stay on top of potential problems will help alleviate headaches down the road.
Now incandescent lights will have be repaired and replaced every season, thats the nature of the beast. Most cities are making the switch to LED bulbs. LED C7 and C9 bulbs let you use the displays you love without having to completely strip them and rewire the frame.  Both of our LED screw in bulbs use .96 watts per bulb, whereas Incandescent C7 use 5 watts and C9 use 7 so there's a tremendous savings in power consumption. LED bulbs have a bulb life rated at 50,000 hours, which is pretty long and while no one will guarantee bulbs for that long period of time LEDs will outlast old school bulbs by many many years. Screw in LEDs are also made of durable plastic so they wont shatter and their colors do not fade because the LED inside the bulb itself is making the color not the color of the plastic itself. They may have a higher up front cost but making the switch will save many man hours of repair time and save a lot of money on the power bill.

For more info on our bulbs visit www.aachristmas.com
For more info on our Christmas Displays visit www.allamericanchristmas.com

--
Zach

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

20 count Craft lights back in stock

We have our 20 count Craft lights with short lead wires back in stock! We bought all our supplier had so we would have as many as possible in stock for as long as possible in 2013, but as you can see we don't have a ton! So stock up early so you can have some for all your craft projects next year.

We are also considering buying new wine bottles in various styles, we are talking to many of our largest craft light strings purchasers about carrying wine bottles and have found a great supplier for bottles of all colors, shapes, and styles! Stay tuned to our blog or facebook for more info!

Click here to go to our Craft Lights page to shop.

--
Zach
All American Christmas Co.
www.aachristmas.com
www.allamericanchristmas.com

Monday, November 12, 2012

New C7 LED Globe Lights

We are big fans of Globe lights here at All American Christmas Co. and over the past few years they have become more and more popular for year around applications but just in time for the 2012 holiday season we have got in new LED C7 Globe lights in G40 and G50 size.

These LED Globe bulbs are the same basic size as their incandescent counterparts except you get all the great LED benefits of very low wattage, bright vibrant colors, and ability to string a seemingly endless number of bulbs together.

We have both C7 and C9 LED Globes now and they are great for all occasions, they look great for  parties, proms, weddings, events, holidays, anytime and with LED you don't have to worry about the bulbs breaking and can run around 600 max if need be!

Visit our LED Globe lights page to check our all the great new LED Globe bulbs we carry.

--
Zach
All American Christmas Co.
www.aachristmas.com
www.allamericanchristmas.com

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Christmas Light Outlet Flasher, or Winker!

Flashing Christmas lights are a staple in countless households across the country and a classic effect for the holidays. One old school method of getting your lights to flash randomly is using a small in line flasher like the classic Winker flasher. These small black units go in between your lights and the power source, they heat up via a small thermocouple and it basically switches the power on and off.

Outlet flashers can handle 100 watts of power, so thats around 20 C7 Bulbs, 14 C9 bulbs, and around 250 or so Mini christmas lights. Unfortunately LED lights won't work on the Outlet winker by them self  they don't pull enough power to cause the thermocouple to heat up and cause the switching to occur. One trick that we've discovered with a lot of LED products is if you use a incandescent light in between the controller and the light string it will have a buffer effect and cause led christmas strings to be easily controlled. You can use this trick for this flasher and faders.

If you want to check out our Outlet Flashers for Christmas lights, Click here.

--
Zach
All American Christmas Co.
www.aachristmas.com
www.allamericanchristmas.com