Krinner 94730 Christmas Tree Genie L

Shortly after I wrote this review, I wrote to Krinner suggesting they put the fill button on all of its products. They sent me an XL tree stand for free (the one that has the button) which I was shocked about since I didn’t ask for one. It is too big for me to use, but it was a nice gesture on their part since this thing is pretty expensive!!!

I was so smitten with the ads and things I’d read about this product…I finally found it at HomeDepot and picked it up. They only had the Large sized one, which is all I needed anyway. Well, setting up the tree was pretty simple, but when I filled the water dish, I saw water seeping out of the base. I finished reading the directions and read that you are not supposed to fill it all the way but only to the “fill line”….here’s why I gave this thing only 3 stars. You CANNOT see the fill line when the tree is in the stand….the fill line is inside the base! I had to guess where it might be. I noticed in the ads it shows a button thing that pops up when it needs to be refilled. Well, that is only on the other models, not on this one. I had to keep sticking my fingers in the stand to feel where the water was and fill it accordingly. That is something you can do on a cheap tree stand! It did go up easy and came down a bit quick when I released the tree, but the whole water thing was a bother! Krinner should have put the button on ALL models and whoever thought of putting the fill line inside the tree well wasn’t thinking straight! If I’d known these things, I would have bought the other models with the button indicator. So much for my $60 tree holder!!!!

Bought this in 2006 and really liked the way it worked–easy, one-person tree set-up. The Krinner stands are great in concept–they use a cable mechanism to tighten a “claw” that holds the tree. It is much nicer than the cheaper, “bolt type” stands; however, locking mechanisms and the release are a bit confusing. The major problem is when I went to use the stand in 2007 the pedal mechanism would not tighten the cable. Either something was jammed or the cable had come loose–unfortunately there’s no way to take the thing apart to find out. The build quality of the tightening mechanism is poor (note: my stand was marked “Made in China”). The product warranty is vague and they require you to pay the shipping for product replacement.