QA

Quick Answer: Why Do Christmas Lights Go Out

Individual lights usually stop functioning for one of two reasons: they’re loose or they’re burnt out. When bulbs loosen from the string, they may disconnect from their housing. All you’ll have to do in that case is tighten them a little bit. They should turn back on as soon as they’re housed properly.

What causes Christmas lights to go out?

Whether you’re using traditional incandescent lights or LED lights, your plug in Christmas lights may have gone out for any of the following reasons: The circuit isn’t carrying power. A fuse has blown. A bulb has burnt out and has created a cascading outage.

What do you do when your section of Christmas lights go out?

This is the simplest fix, requiring you to simply swap out the bulb for a new one. Assuming your bulbs are removable — not hardwired, as some LED strings are — there should be spare bulbs in the original box. You might also consider buying a strand of matching lights solely as a source to pilfer extra bulbs.

Why do my lights keep blowing a fuse?

When several lights are all trying to draw power from one outlet, it can overload the circuit, resulting in a blown fuse or tripped circuit breaker. Various types of lighting often have a range of amp sizes, which is why chaining these differing types together typically creates power surges and blown fuses.

Will Christmas lights work if one fuse is blown?

Blown fuses are one of the biggest culprits of broken Christmas lights — especially if the entire chain of lights is non-functional. The good news is that they can easily be replaced! If the fuse is good, you should see an unbroken strand of wire running between the two metal contacts.

How do you find a blown out Christmas light?

You can tell which bulb is out on your string of traditional Christmas lights by looking for the bulb that is “burned out” by looking at the tiny little filaments in the light bulbs to see which bulb is “burned out” or has lost it’s filament. Many times the bulb will be “smoked” as well.

How do you find the bad bulb on Christmas tree lights?

The easiest way to find faulty bulbs on incandescent Christmas lights is with a Christmas light tester. Simply bring the light tester close to each bulb. The tester’s indicator will light up when it’s near a functioning bulb.

Why is a section of my LED lights out?

If one of your LED light strands isn’t working, it’s probably just because it has a bad bulb. If one bulb dies, it can cause the rest of the strand to stop working. The only way to fix the problem is to find the bad bulb. Sometimes only a section of the lights will go out, making your job pretty easy.

Why does half a string of lights go out?

1. A light bulb has come out of its socket or is half out of its socket and it has brought down the circuit. For light strings that commonly have over 50 bulbs, they are constructed in 2 or more continuous circuits. If a bulb is missing in a circuit only the bulbs in series of it will go out.

Why are half of my Christmas lights blinking?

There are a couple of reasons your Christmas light string is flashing on and off. You have a red-tipped flasher bulb installed in a socket. The flasher bulb will only cause the circuit it is a part of to flash on and off. If your light string has multiple circuits then that’s the reason only a portion is flashing.

How can I tell which Christmas light is out without a tester?

Pull out one bulb at a time, and stick a piece of folded up foil into the bulb socket. If the lights come on, you know that’s the bad bulb. If they don’t, put the bulb back in and move on to the next one.

What to do if a fuse keeps tripping?

If your fuse switch has tripped after you’ve been using a lot of appliances in one room, you’ve likely overloaded the circuit. The simple answer is to unplug some of them and move the tripped fuse switch in your fuse box back to the ‘on’ position.

Why won’t my Christmas tree lights work?

Most likely a bulb is loose, and the connection is getting lost as the bulb moves in its socket. This often occurs through rough handling or improper storage of a tree. Look to find the loose bulb, check the wires to ensure they are properly aligned, and secure the bulb tightly within the socket.

How can you tell if a Christmas light fuse is bad?

Check Christmas Light Fuse With the flat-head screwdriver, slide open the door. Remove the tiny, cylindrical fuse. Hold the fuse up to the light. If it is brown or black inside or if the filament is visibly severed, the fuse likely no longer works.

How can you tell if a light bulb fuse is blown?

Remove the fuse from its holder. In some cases you may need a small screwdriver to unscrew the fuse holder cap. Look at the fuse wire. If there is a visible gap in the wire or a dark or metallic smear inside the glass then the fuse is blown and needs to be replaced.