Christmas is celebrated every year. When the festive season finally arrives, you can now unpack your Christmas tree, lights, and more. When unpacking your festive season staff, it can be very disappointing to find out your lights are not lighting up. Maybe a few, or unfortunately, the entire string doesn’t light up. At the same time, you may think of getting rid of the whole string and buying new ones. Some simple steps can help you to repair the string. You can identify the problem then fix it accordingly, and by good luck, your festival decorating will light up again. The following are the steps that can help you fix your lights.
1. Remove corrosion from plug prongs, then plug the string inside again
Since you might have stored your lights for a long period without using them, they might get dirty. In case your plug prongs appear dark or corroded, you can bring them back to shiny condition by rubbing them using a sheet of fine or medium grit sandpaper. You can use a tack cloth or clean cloth to wipe any dust, then plug in the lights again. Corrosion prevents the required voltage from passing through the light string. Hopefully, your lights can work again once you get rid of corrosion. In case they don’t light, try other troubleshooting measures.
2. Diagnose the problem
You should inspect every string of light before connecting to the electrical outlet. In case you come across slit or cracked insulation, damaged plugs, or a bare wire, discard the string. You can also determine whether it’s a bad bulb or something else that is causing the malfunction. In case it’s a small light set, it’s probably wired in series: The electrical current must go through every bulb to complete the circuit then illuminate the set. On the other hand, a larger light set mostly has two or more circuits wired in parallel. This explains why sometimes you can find a section of string dark. In most cases, replacing one bad bulb can fix the entire set or one section of it.
3. Locate the bad bulb, then remove it out.
Finding the bad bulbs that are the source of the problem can be very difficult. You can use either a tester or an electrician’s multimeter. Besides, you can use a tool used to repair Christmas lights like the lightkeeper pro. The good news about lightkeeper pro is a combination of bulb remover, voltage detector, shunt repairer, and bulb/fuse testers in a single tool. You can identify bad bulbs by simply plugging the lights into an electrical outlet. You may be lucky to find out that the bad bulbs are not bad at all. They may be just loose hence needs to be made more firm by pressing down. You can also take your time to observe those bulbs, more so the small wires protruding from below. They should not touch each other and should be firm.
Moreover, every wire should be laid flat to the outside of the bulb. In case you push the bulb to your socket, the wires complete an electrical connection. You can use either a multimeter or LightKeeper pro to test for damaged or burned bulbs. Make sure it has the correct voltage rating, or you risk destroying the whole light set.
4. Fix the faulty shunt or filament
If part of a string or all the lights are dark, the problem might be a faulty shunt or Brocken filament. In the filament breaks, the shunt redirects electrical current below the bulb, hence maintaining the electrical circuit. You can fix a faulty shunt with the lightkeeper pro. Just plug in your light strand, locate a bulb near or in the dark section, and remove it. Next step, insert the tool into the bulb socket, squeeze the trigger to activate the piezo circuit. A high energy pulse then shoots through the set, and after around 20 pulses, the faulty shunt can be reactivated. In case you find it difficult to locate the Brocken circuit, try a voltage detector. You can purchase one, but a lightkeeper has one within it.
5. Replacing blown fuse
When you don’t find anything wrong using your voltage detector. You can try checking your fuse, situated at the end of the plug at the back of the small sliding door. You can use the light keeper pro to check for a blown a fuse. The tool can be purchased at $10 or so. Though many holiday light kits arrive with a replacement fuse, others lack. If your light kit lacks one, look for another one with equal amperage, mostly indicated on the plug. In most cases, the fuse is identical across all the brands, unlike the bulbs. Make sure your replacement fuse has fully seated in the compartment. A pen can help push your fuse in place. In case replacing the fuse and bad bulbs don’t work, you might be having problems with your wiring or connection.
6. Avoid the risk of circuit overload
The Christmas lights should be strung together, though linking many in a chain can lead to all the lights overwhelming the electrical outlet. In case you suspect too zealous can be the source of the issue, try to divide your lights into two or more outlets. You can also purchase a holiday light splitter, and this accessory helps in distributing the electrical current. This enables you to add other light strings without multiple outlets.
7. Check your electrical outlet’s wattage capacity
In case the lights are flickering, then your electrical outlet cannot handle the amount of power needed by your design. You can know the electric outlet capacity by looking at the breaker box. The maximum wattage can be found by multiplying the amp value shown by the outlet volts.
8. Upgrading your lights
When purchasing new lights, the LED Christmas lights can work best, then consider them while upgrading. These lights have a good number of benefits hence a great choice compared to incandescent. The best thing about LED including energy-efficient and can be programmed to produce different patterns and colors. Moreover, they are more durable and don’t break easily like traditional bulbs.