How To Fix Christmas Lights

Squeeze some other season out of your strings of lights!

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Time

A few minutes

Introduction

Burned-out vacation lights, even the cheap kind, are often fixable with a pocket-sized investment in time and money. Hither'south how to diagnose and fix mutual problems.

Tools Required

Materials Required

  • Light cord fuses
  • Replacement lite bulb

Figuring Out How To Set Christmas Lights

Most of us have experienced the frustration of uncooperative holiday lights. Later a yr of storage, Christmas tree lights oft need repairs before they're prepare for utilise. In that location's a uncomplicated way to solve the problem. Hither, we'll walk yous through how to fix Christmas lights.

Project step-by-step (iv)

Step ane

How To Set up Christmas Light Fuses

  • Christmas tree lite repair is actually really unproblematic.
  • Commencement, slide back the plastic covering on the plug to bank check the Christmas light fuse.
    • Pro tip: Some Christmas calorie-free strings take more than i fuse, in which case they'll be next to each other.
  • Replace any blown Christmas light fuses.

christmas lights fuse diagram

Step ii

Find and Repair Christmas Tree Light Bulbs

  • Examination the Christmas calorie-free bulbs with an cheap tester.
  • A Christmas tree light tester is an essential Christmas light repair tool. Some Christmas light testers piece of work by sliding each bulb through a hole, like the paradigm shown below.
    • Pro tip: Unremarkably, changing a trouble bulb (or tightening it) will fix the entire strand.
  • The Christmas light tester will indicate which bulbs are bad and need to exist replaced. If you're wondering how to fix Christmas lights, finding the faulty bulb is oft the quickest and simplest set up.
    • Pro tip: For the Christmas low-cal tester to work, the lights must exist plugged into the electrical outlet correctly — the narrow "hot" blade into the narrow slot and the wide neutral bract into the wide slot.

christmas tree lights bulb tester

Step 3

Christmas Tree Light Tester Pen

  • With other Christmas light testers, similar the 1 shown below, you merely touch each bulb. You can test an entire strand in a few minutes.
  • Sometimes yous have two or more than lacking bulbs, then only identifying one bad seedling may non fix the Christmas lights.

christmas tree light bulb tester

Step 4

Forestall Broken Christmas Lights: Safety and Storage

  • Go along in mind that cheap strings of Christmas lights aren't durable. So at the cease of the holiday season, take down the lights with care.
    • Pro tip: Don't pull too hard on the wires. A loose bulb, broken socket or frayed wire is sometimes all information technology takes for the strand to malfunction.
  • After taking down the lights, plug them in before storing them to brand sure they nonetheless piece of work.
  • Then advisedly wrap the lights in their original or similar containers, making certain the bulbs don't bang together. Proper storage is key to their continued success.
    • Pro tip: Wadding them up in a roll and stuffing them into a box volition almost guarantee they won't work next twelvemonth.
  • Also, exist aware that most holiday low-cal bulbs accept brusk life expectancies, well-nigh 1,000 to 1,500 hours. This means the lights are designed to final one to 3 seasons, depending on your usage.
  • Newer style LED (low-cal-emitting diode) lights are the exception. LED Christmas lights can last 10 times longer than traditional lights.
  • To ready Christmas lights, the simply tool you'll need is a seedling tester.

Christmas Light Safety and Storage

Originally Published: December 01, 2022