Cool Tool: Light Keeper PRO

Given that Lisa and I expect to be new parents right around Thanksgiving, we decided to get a jump on decorating for the holidays. Part of that process, of course, is bringing out the light strings from last year and trying to get them all to work or throwing away the broken ones and just buying new strings.

After spending hours trying to get things working last year, I was determined that this year if a string wouldn't light, we were just going to chuck it.

We stopped off today at our local Ace Hardware to pick up a few things (I collect the Ace Winter village buildings). I was browsing down the lighting aisle looking for 3.5V clear replacement bulbs for the lighted deer family which usually takes up residence under our big spruce tree out front. Suddenly I saw a gadget on the shelf which intrigued me.

It was the "Light Keeper PRO" and it has changed my life.

OK, maybe it's not quite that momentous, but I sure is going to make my life a heck of a lot easier in the future.

This gadget looks like a red plastic ray gun. What it does though is make dead light strings live again.

Apparently one of the main reasons that light strings die is that a bulb burns out and its internal shunt doesn't kick in. The shunt is the doohickey which completes the electrical circuit for the string which allows all of the other lights to stay lit. When the shunt fails, the circuit is broken and darkness reigns.

With the Light Keeper, you just pull a bulb from the dead area of the string and plug the socket into the front of the ray gun. Then you click the trigger a few times and presto! the lights come on.

Apparently, the gadget sends an electrical pulse down the wire which causes the shunts to trip in the dead lights. Once the string is lit, it's pretty trivial to change the burnt out bulbs.

Take it from me: If you are planning to put up any lights over the holidays (or ever for that matter) get one of these gadgets. I've seen it in a few places for between $15-$25. It is worth every penny.

So, how much time have you wasted tracking down that elusive burnt out bulb?