Balsam Hill 9 ft Berkshire Mountain Fir Slim Review: 2,944 Tips and 900 LEDs on a Base the Page Calls Slim at 54 in

How slim, how dense, how heavy: our figures

Our arithmetic on the maker's figures. The tree size calculator runs the same check for your own ceiling.

The Berkshire Mountain Fir in the maker's own rows

From the maker's product page, read November 14, 2026. A line that says "not stated" is a number the maker does not publish.

A great room, two lifters and a lot of light

The Berkshire is a living-room or entry-hall tree for a household that wants height with density and has the floor: 15.9 square feet, with room around it. It is not a tree for a corner under 4 ft of floor, and for that the 9 ft slim guide has true pencil shapes. A buyer who ranks needle realism first should read the PE or PVC page before ordering. For a lighter nine-footer with a plain page, see the Best Choice 9 ft frosted pencil.

Is a 100% classic needle tree made of PVC or polyethylene?

PVC, according to the material row. The 100% refers to the foliage type, not to a share of molded tips.

The first bullet describes 100% classic needle foliage. The technical rows give the material as polyvinyl chloride and the tree type as fir. Nothing on the page names polyethylene, and it gives no share of molded tips. Read 100% as a claim about how the branches are covered, not as a claim about what the needles are made of.

That puts the realism score at 4 on our scale. The tree makes up for it on density, and the comparison below shows the trade that our scale sees between more tips and better tip material. How to tell PE from PVC shows what to look for when a branch arrives.

Tips per foot is our division; material is what each maker's page says, read November 14, 2026. Reviews: Dunhill, Puleo Aspen.

What do Easy Plug, a foot pedal and spare fuses give you in the Berkshire kit?

One plug for all 900 LEDs, an on/off pedal, and spares in the box if a bulb or a fuse goes.

The page says Easy Plug connects all the lights through the trunk, with sections lighting up as you stack them, so there are no separate sets to find outlets for. A foot pedal switches the tree on and off. The kit adds extra LED bulbs and fuses, which no other nine-footer in our 9 ft pre-lit guide writes.

Fuses are not a detail. The CPSC's 2015 rule on seasonal lighting lists protection against overcurrent, the small fuses in the plug, as one of three features a product must have, and the standard behind it is UL 588. The page does not say which fuses are in the box or where they go, and it names no laboratory. Check the plug on arrival and keep the spare fuses where you can find them in January.

A pedal is a component worth watching. Pedals have a history: the CPSC's July 2020 recall 20-153 pulled the overheating foot-pedal controller of a Home Depot house brand, Home Accents Holiday, from roughly 99,000 pine trees. That is another brand and another part. Keep this pedal on a bare floor, not under a rug.

Has Balsam Hill been recalled, and does it touch the Berkshire?

Twice, in 2011 and 2013. Neither concerns a foot pedal or this model, and none falls in the last ten years.

The CPSC database holds two Balsam Hill pre-lit tree recalls. In February 2013 (recall 13-727) the receiver boxes of the remote controls on about 700 trees of 7.5 to 15 ft could overheat and melt, with 10 reports and no injuries. In February 2011 (recall 11-723) trees sold for indoor or outdoor use came with an extension cord for indoor use only, a shock hazard outdoors.

The Berkshire has a pedal, not a remote, and a search on November 14, 2026 found no Balsam Hill recall in the last ten years. An old recall is still information about how a maker responds to a fault, and the page for this tree does not describe a warranty or a service route, so keep your order confirmation.

From the CPSC recall database, read November 14, 2026. See the recall page for the limits of that search.

How slim is a slim tree that is 54 in wide and 54 lb?

Twice as tall as wide, 15.9 square feet of floor, and 185 tips for each square foot.

The page calls the tree slim and gives a 4.5 ft width, which is 54 in. Against its 108 in height that is a ratio of 2.0, where a true pencil tree runs near 3.0. The floor under the base is 15.9 square feet, and with a 6 in walking margin on each side the clear circle is 23.8 square feet.

Slim here means narrower than a full nine-footer, not narrow. What it does is pack the tips: 2,944 tips on 15.9 square feet is 185 per square foot, about the same as the 9 ft pencil that has a base of 35.5 in. The cost shows in weight. At 54 lb, the heaviest written in our 9 ft pre-lit guide, it ships compressed in one box and needs two lifters and a fluffing session from the bottom up, wearing the cotton gloves in the kit (how to fluff).

Our arithmetic on the heights, bases and tip counts the makers print. Reviews: Twinkling Spruce, Aspen.

How the Berkshire Mountain Fir Slim scores on each line

36 out of 60: 9 for fullness and for lighting, and a 2 for safety marks.

The two 9s come from numbers on the page, 327 tips and 100 lights per foot. The 2 for safety marks is not a verdict on the tree: it records that the page writes no laboratory mark and no flame wording, and gives credit only for the LED bulbs (how we score). The 7 for setup comes from Easy Plug and the pedal.

The scores come from the maker's own text dated November 14, 2026. Find the tree in the slim guide, the 9 ft slim guide and the 9 ft pre-lit guide.

A count that is a floor and a storage line that changes

What the Balsam Hill page gives you in writing

• 2,944 tips or more, 327 per foot and 54.5 tips for every inch of base: a 9 for fullness
• 900 LEDs at 100 per foot, a 9 for lighting, with extra bulbs and fuses in the box
• Easy Plug wiring that links the sections through the trunk, so one plug lights the tree
• A kit that includes gloves, storage and a stand with scratch-proof rubber feet
• A model number, 2810202, and a width, weight and height all printed
• A page that tells you to allow time for fluffing, section by section from the bottom

What the Balsam Hill page does not give

• No warranty length is written, and no UL, ETL or CSA mark and no flame wording appear
• The needles are PVC, with no polyethylene claim, so realism rests on shaping them
• At 54 lb and 54 in wide it is slim only next to a full tree, and it takes two people to place

Choose the Berkshire if you

• Have 15.9 square feet of floor, a ceiling above 9 ft 9 in with a topper, and two people for the 54 lb lift
• Want the densest and brightest nine-footer in our slim guide and accept PVC needles
• Prefer a single plug and a pedal to a string of separate sets, and will read the tags on the cord

Where the Berkshire Mountain Fir lands