How To Find Burnt Christmas Light Bulb

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The joyous vacation season is virtually upon us, merely at that place's i tradition I hope to avoid this year: dealing with burned-out Christmas lights.

Each holiday season I unpack, untangle, and plug in the previous twelvemonth's mini lights, only to detect they don't piece of work. Sometimes individual lights are burned out, and other times the entire string seems dead. Are these lights worth saving, or should I just toss them out and purchase new ones?

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I admit that diagnosing and fixing Christmas lights can exist frustrating, just with a little determination and a few specialty tools, you can repair most faulty light strings.

How to Fix Christmas Lights

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1. Diagnose the trouble.

Carefully inspect each string of lights earlier plugging it into an electrical outlet. If you see croaky or slit insulation, frayed or blank wires, or damaged plugs, discard the string.

Now, determine if it'south actually a bad seedling causing the malfunction or something else. If it's a smaller light set, it'southward likely wired in series: the electrical current passes through each individual seedling in order to complete the circuit and illuminate the set.

Larger light sets frequently have ii or more circuits wired in parallel, which explains why sometimes just a department of the string goes dark. In most cases, simply replacing ane bad bulb will fix the entire prepare or one darkened section of information technology.

ii. Detect the bad bulb, and swap it out.

Locating the one faulty bulb that's causing the trouble can be tricky. The best selection is to utilize either an electrician's multimeter or a tool specifically designed for repairing Christmas lights, such as the Lightkeeper Pro. Information technology combines a voltage detector, seedling remover, seedling and fuse testers, and shunt repairer in one compact tool.

You may exist able to reveal the bad bulb by simply plugging the lights into an electric outlet. If y'all're lucky, the "bad" bulb isn't actually bad at all. It may just exist loose and needs to be pressed down more firmly into its socket.

Besides, remove the bulb and await closely at the two tiny wires protruding from its base. They should exist firmly attached and not touching each other. Plus, each wire should be laid apartment against the outside of the bulb. When you lot push the seedling back into its socket, the wires complete the electrical connection.

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You can as well exam the bulb using the LightKeeper Pro, or a multimeter. If you discover the bulb is burned out or damaged, supervene upon information technology with a new bulb. Just be certain information technology has the proper voltage rating or you take chances damaging the whole light gear up.

3. Fix the faulty filament or shunt.

If all or office of a string of lights is nighttime, the problem may be a broken filament or a faulty shunt. (A shunt is a device that allows current to go along flowing through a circuit past creating a path of lower resistance than the original path. In incandescent holiday lights, shunts are small-scale wires wrapped beneath the filament.)

If a bulb'due south filament breaks, the shunt redirects electric current through the base of the bulb, maintaining the electrical circuit. A faulty shunt may sound like a catastrophic failure, but you can often set up it with the LightKeeper Pro.

But plug in the light strand and remove a bulb that's in or near the dark section. Next, insert the tool into the bulb's socket and clasp the trigger to activate a piezo circuit. A high-energy pulse will shoot through the set up and after about 20 pulses any faulty shunt should be re-activated. Pretty absurd, right?

If yous're still having trouble locating the broken circuit, effort using a voltage detector. You can buy one for virtually $10 or so, simply there'due south also one built into the LightKeeper Pro.

4. Replace the fried fuse.

If the voltage detector doesn't discover annihilation incorrect, there's one more matter to endeavour: Check the tiny fuse located behind a small sliding door on the male person end of the plug. If the fuse is fried (you tin can cheque information technology with the LightKeeper Pro), supervene upon information technology with a new ane of the aforementioned amperage, which should be indicated on the plug. If after all the testing the light string still doesn't illuminate, it'south time to get some new lights.

5. Upgrade your lights.

If you lot're buying new lights, consider upgrading to LED Christmas lights. There are many benefits to LEDs that make them a great choice over incandescents. They're more free energy efficient, terminal much longer, and tin can be programmed to display different colors and patterns. Plus, LED lights are more durable and less likely to break than traditional bulbs. Hither are some of our favorite string Christmas lights for indoors and out.