It can sometimes prove difficult to slide open the access door on a plug. To replace the fuse, you must slide the access door open, pop out the tiny fuse, and replace with a new one. The fuse is most often located behind an access door on the strand’s plug. Most brands of LED Christmas light incorporate a fuse in each strand. Replacing a Fuse on Your Christmas Lights Many a house fire has resulted from faulty Christmas decorations. While there are steps you might be able to take to restore the strand to working condition, you must ask yourself is it really worth the compromise in safety. If this does not solve the problem, you could be faced with a faulty or corroded socket or a strand with faulty wiring. Replace the bulbs in question with a new bulb or one borrowed from a working strand. Start with the strands that might include a dimly lit or non-working bulb. Boom, you've just repurposed some cardboard and given yourself an early gift for the next holiday season.ĭavid Kender is the editor in chief of Reviewed, a product review website and part of the USA TODAY Network.Now that you have exhausted your supply of working LED Christmas lights, it is time to address the malfunctioning group. Just cut a small slit to stick the electrical plug through, wrap your lights around, and then poke the other end through the same slit. Save yourself a headache next year by wrapping them around something like a piece of cardboard. Sorry to tell you now, but prevention really is the best medicine. To make matters worse, vigorous tugging on the string will only further damage the bulbs. Unless you've been practicing your escape routines, you could be at those knots for a long time. Impossible tanglesĪ tangled string of Christmas lights really is its own special brand of torture. For those cases, LED Keeper seems to be the tool of choice. In fact, it's a standard for commercial lighting due to their higher reliability and longer lifespan.Įven so, non-removable bulbs can eventually burn out or become damaged and take out the whole strand. Contrary to what you might think, this can be more of a boon than an inconvenience. Some LED string lights have non-removable bulbs. Spare fuses and bulbs are also recommended - just make sure they correctly match the strand. Unless you're replacing a single burned-out bulb you can easily identify, hunting down the problem bulb that killed your whole strand is dull work.Ī light tester, like the one from Light Keeper Pro, is relatively simple to operate and will save you a lot of time for only $20. Specialty repair tools that might speed things up If you need more than one, replacements are typically available at most hardware and craft stores during the holidays. If you have only one extra fuse, try replacing them one at a time. Then gently pop out the fuse and replace it with new ones. To replace a fuse, take a small set of pliers or flathead screwdriver and slide open the cover. Typically, a box of lights is also packaged with a replacement fuse or two. ![]() Most string lights have two tiny fuses inside the plug. See the previous section for instructions. If that's not the problem, it could be a loose or broken bulb. First, try plugging it into another electrical outlet. ![]() If you find yourself with a dead string of lights, a number of things could be wrong. You'll know it when the strand lights back up. If not, you have the more tedious job of going down the row of unlit bulbs, one at a time, and swapping them for a known, good bulb until you find the culprit. If it flickers, that's your cue to replace it. Start with the first unlit bulb and work your way down, wiggling them to check for looseness. If half a strand is working and the other half is not, you probably have a loose or broken bulb. The remaining bulbs could be contending with excess voltage that shorten their lifespan. You might also consider buying a strand of matching lights solely as a source to pilfer extra bulbs.Įxperts have an additional piece of advice here: If you have one or two burned-out bulbs on an otherwise functioning strand, don't ignore them. Assuming your bulbs are removable - not hardwired, as some LED strings are - there should be spare bulbs in the original box. This is the simplest fix, requiring you to simply swap out the bulb for a new one. ![]() One bulb is out, but the rest of the string works
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