How To Fix Christmas Lights

Squeeze another 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 small investment in time and money. Here'south how to diagnose and set common issues.

Tools Required

Materials Required

  • Light string fuses
  • Replacement light bulb

Figuring Out How To Fix Christmas Lights

Most of us have experienced the frustration of uncooperative holiday lights. Later a twelvemonth of storage, Christmas tree lights often need repairs before they're fix for use. There'southward a uncomplicated way to solve the trouble. Hither, nosotros'll walk y'all through how to fix Christmas lights.

Project step-past-pace (4)

Step 1

How To Fix Christmas Light Fuses

  • Christmas tree light repair is actually actually simple.
  • First, slide back the plastic roofing on the plug to cheque the Christmas low-cal fuse.
    • Pro tip: Some Christmas low-cal strings have more than than i fuse, in which case they'll be side by side to each other.
  • Supersede whatsoever blown Christmas light fuses.

christmas lights fuse diagram

Step 2

Notice and Repair Christmas Tree Light Bulbs

  • Test the Christmas light bulbs with an cheap tester.
  • A Christmas tree light tester is an essential Christmas light repair tool. Some Christmas calorie-free testers work by sliding each bulb through a hole, like the epitome shown beneath.
    • Pro tip: Commonly, changing a problem bulb (or tightening it) will set up the unabridged strand.
  • The Christmas light tester will indicate which bulbs are bad and need to be replaced. If yous're wondering how to set up Christmas lights, finding the faulty seedling is often the quickest and simplest prepare.
    • Pro tip: For the Christmas light tester to piece of work, the lights must be plugged into the electric outlet correctly — the narrow "hot" blade into the narrow slot and the wide neutral blade into the wide slot.

christmas tree lights bulb tester

Step iii

Christmas Tree Light Tester Pen

  • With other Christmas light testers, like the one shown below, you merely bear on each seedling. You lot can test an entire strand in a few minutes.
  • Sometimes you have ii or more defective bulbs, so just identifying one bad bulb may non fix the Christmas lights.

christmas tree light bulb tester

Step four

Forestall Cleaved Christmas Lights: Safety and Storage

  • Go along in mind that inexpensive strings of Christmas lights aren't durable. And so at the end of the vacation season, take downwards the lights with care.
    • Pro tip: Don't pull too hard on the wires. A loose seedling, cleaved socket or frayed wire is sometimes all it takes for the strand to malfunction.
  • Later on taking downward the lights, plug them in before storing them to make sure they still piece of work.
  • And so advisedly wrap the lights in their original or similar containers, making sure the bulbs don't bang together. Proper storage is key to their continued success.
    • Pro tip: Wadding them upwards in a coil and stuffing them into a box will almost guarantee they won't piece of work next year.
  • Also, be aware that most vacation calorie-free bulbs accept short life expectancies, about ane,000 to 1,500 hours. This means the lights are designed to terminal 1 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 set Christmas lights, the only tool you'll need is a bulb tester.

Christmas Light Safety and Storage