One string of lights on my Christmas tree doesn't work and all the bulbs are black. It's not that one light makes them all out! Why are they black?
If the bulbs are all black that normally means they are burned out and the string of lights has a short in them. I do not believe there is much you can do with these lights except get a new sting and replace them.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I have an older set of incandescent Christmas lights, the mini kind. There are four or five bulbs that are out and each time I replace them with a new bulb it immediately blows.
The section stays lit, but that bulb does not. I'm assuming there's something wrong with the socket? Is there any fix for that?You need to test each fuse. You will need to buy a tester for this. Complete instructions are here. www.familyhandyman.com/
I have a wreath with a 2' blown out section. All the bulbs in this section are blown out with a black coating inside the bulb. Do you have any repair suggestions?
By Daniel G.
If the bulbs are removable, replace the blackened ones. The black coating can be an indicator of a light having burned out.
I have a long strand of mini lights with the middle third of the strand burnt out (blackened bulbs). There are too many to fix.
Is it unsafe to go ahead and use the strand (just bury the blackened section out of sight in the tree)?It is OK to use a string of lights with some burned out bulbs.
I've always continued to use the strands with burnt out bulbs (bulbs still in sockets) on my trees and never had a problem but I usually discard that strand after Christmas and replace it the following year either with new strands (after Christmas sales or thrift store strands). I have never had a problem and they are not very noticeable on a tree that has lots of lights.
I refuse to throw away my half burning lights! They are just fine to use.Just tuck non burning lights in back or underneath to hide burn out ones!
Yes, it is fine. I personally always turn off my Christmas lights before bed and do not leave the lights on without someone home but that is just something I feel comfortable most.
There is no issue at all to use these lights. I keep all my lights no matter what unless they are all burned out and can't be fixed.
I forgot to mention that my daughter recycles all sets that we discard (usually when more than half are no longer working) and her church has a box for members to place all unwanted light sets and she picks these up and recycles.
I have 3 strands of brand new (Target brand) snowflake lights. They all work when tested inside. After being hung and attached end to end, only the set (#1) closest to the power cord works.
I detached the middle set (#2) and plugged that into the extension cord and it worked. The sets specifically say they are meant to be connected to multiple sets. What gives?If they are brand new, I would return them to Target.
did you try to flip them around so that you plug #2 to the wall and then #1 to it?
aside from that, clearly the packaging lied and they do nt like being plugged in end to end
if you dont' want to/can't return them, you could always just run a bunch of extension cords to create the illusion of cohesion
I have a Peanuts nativity scene display. On some of the characters all the lights are black. I assume they are blown. I have replaced all the bulbs and voila they all came back on for a millisecond, but now they are all blown again.
One made it a few hours before it blew again. Anyone know what is going on with this stuff?You probably have bad fuses. Repairing lights is not easy. It is probably cheaper to replace them.
This guy kinda cracks me up, but he has some interesting hacks to try to fix bulbs.
www.youtube.com/
He is clearly selling the tool, but I have friends who swear by it!
If this doesn't work, there may be a video that works better for you.
There is no picture of the set, so it may be possible to remove the old strings and replace with new. I am super nervous about old lights and avoid them at all costs...but that is just me...I am an old fashioned safety first gal!!
This took really works! Has saved me a lot of money!
I checked the fuses, only 1/2 of 1 string is out on a pre-lit artificial tree that plugs into the base in 3 sections.
You may have to replace individual bulbs. The cheapest solution is to put another string of lights on right above or below it. This is one reason people dont like pre-lit trees.
We have a string of large snowflake lights that aren't working. There are 5 large snowflakes. The bulbs are encased in plastic. Any ideas on how to fix? Many thanks!
Normally, if one bulb burns up in these types of light strings, they won't light any longer. You would have to find a way to get to the light bulbs and change them out one at a time.
Its a bit late to help the originator of the question but I am working on what sounds like the same snowflakes. I was able to gently pry apart the two halves of the plastic snowflake with a glathead sctewdriver. All bulbs are black inside the first flake, and it looks as if all are from what I can see through the white plastic.
I put in a new fuse. Now need 30 new white bulbs. Bah humbug.
We have attempted to put on Xmas lights. We have outlets under the eaves on both sides of house. One side is working perfectly. The other side not so much. We tested all the strands and the one closest to our power cord was out. We changed the fuse in that strand and once again it went out once we plugged it into the main outlet. Next we changed the strand out completely and started over, with same thing happening. The lights worked for about a minute and then all went out.
Are we tripping another outlet or using the wrong kind of electrical cord?
By Amy A
Have you left it on long enough to make sure that you don't have a blinker bulb in the string?
yes all the bulbs light with tester but no when in the string
Yesterday I strung 6 sets of hanging snowflake lights together outside. Those were plugged into one socket of an outlet. I had 3 other lit up decorations strung together and I plugged those into the other socket of the outlet. A few hours later all of the snowflake lights stopped working.
I reversed the lights in the outlet. Same thing happened; the decorations lit, but not the snowflakes. I switched extension cords, but that did not help. What do I do next? These took many hours and a tall ladder to hang. Take them all down is not what I want to hear.
By Debbie H.
Did you check the fuse located in each plug (male end)? Perhaps the fuse on one.or more string of lights blew.
We've been putting a set of approx. 50 mini lights in our bay window for years and within 2 days, 2 sets have burned out completely, with each bulb blackened. What could be causing this?
By Pete D.
Most of the time it's from age. No matter how good you take care of the whole set and replace the bulbs as they burn out here and there, after a few years the little wires on the bulb start to oxidize and the oxidization eventually works its way up the small wires into the hermetically sealed envelope of the bulbs which causes the vacuum to leak out and makes the filament blow out. This happens to every bulb almost at the same time. You take them all down the previous year when they were all working and they get stored in the attic, basement, garage etc. which is when they get exposed to the moisture and humidity during the spring and summer months and when you put them up the following year you're thinking "They were all working when I took them down last year! What happened?!" Unfortunately the only remedy is to buy all new bulbs or replace the entire string.
My Christmas tree lights are not working properly. One strand burnt out all the lights. I replaced all of the lights, plugged them in and some branches are dim, some are normal, and one is extra bright. I don't know what to do. Please help. The part number is P-3269.
Ron
If you still have the box the lights came in, check to see the wattage of the bulbs it takes. Assuming you are talking about mini-lights, you can't mix wattages. Some take the 2.5 - 3.5 watt bulbs, and others take 6 watt bulbs. Also, some bulbs are "super bright" and others are regular. You might also want to check the fuses - most light sets have the tiny fuses somewhere in the plug. I have a feeling you mixed the wattages and that's why you have a mix of dim and bright bulbs. The string won't last long that way.
After Christmas I sometimes buy new strings at 75-90% off and cannibalize them for bulbs for older strings. Today I got a 100-bulb multicolor string for nothing at a supermarket, because it was the only one left and no one knew what price to charge, so they gave it to me! I plugged it in and it works perfectly.
You could see if you can still get post-Christmas discounted lights and either replace your old string or cannibalize the new string for bulbs - just make sure they're the right wattage. Usually strings of 35 lights or more take the 2.5 - 3.5 watt bulbs. Shorter strings and tree toppers may take the higher wattage. If the bulb bases in one string won't fit the other, you just unbend the two wires and pull the bulb out of one base and transfer it into the base that fits.
It also helps to have a bulb tester on hand. The whole string can go out if 5 or more bulbs burn out, and then you have to find the blown bulbs by hunt and peck. There's a bulb tester that slips over the bulb and reads it. I have another kind that requires me to pull the bulb out of the socket and insert the bulb into the tester, which takes a 9-volt battery. These things help a lot when fixing a light string. Good luck!
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My Christmas lights are half gone. Several strings of lights only work on half the string. What do I do?
