Every year I put up Christmas lights on the front of my house usually around Thanksgiving.
This year I have numerous strings that worked perfectly last year when I put them away, now only light up half the string.
What could be causing this? Corrosion from being damp and left to sit for a year? They’re just inexpensive Walmart lights and I seem to get 2-3 years out of them but it’s just frustrating to deal with this when I know they were working when I put them away for the season.
I really don’t have the time or know-how to be screwing with them so I end up just tossing them. The fuses seems OK, looks like it’s two of them in the plug.
Posts: 35143 | Location: Pennsylvania | Registered: November 12, 2007
Could be either a bulb or fuse, Went through that last year. had two strings that only lit halfway, I just set them aside to not use them but the wife dug out some of the replacement fuses from the tubs of christmas decorations and even though I didn't see anything wrong with the old fuses, both strings came back to working the full length.
Posts: 1053 | Location: East of the DFW Metromess | Registered: January 03, 2009
I like the way led light strings look but HATE how a single dead light will kill the string and make you have to hunt it down bulb by bulb… if it’s only one. We never had that problem with good old vintage incan bulbs. When one died, you replaced it.
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Originally posted by gearhounds: We never had that problem with good old vintage incan bulbs.
Ha! One fun thing about being old is remembering your father in the 1950s complaining about how when one incandescent bulb in a string went out, they all went out.
It was only later that the strings were wired (parallel?) so that only the bad bulb died.
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Posts: 47951 | Location: 10,150 Feet Above Sea Level in Colorado | Registered: April 04, 2002
Originally posted by P250UA5: Had that happen with 2 strands, luckily on opposite ends. Snipped & spliced, to make 1 good run.
Yep! Been there, done that.
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Posts: 5332 | Location: Pottstown, PA | Registered: April 26, 2002
Ha! One fun thing about being old is remembering your father in the 1950s complaining about how when one incandescent bulb in a string went out, they all went out.
It was only later that the strings were wired (parallel?) so that only the bad bulb died.
I remember that it was my job to sit on the floor and replace each bulb until the string lit up. Also the heat from the bulbs caused the nearby needles to dry out so the tree was only lit when someone was in the room.
Everyone seems to have the same problem. I bought voltage tester and tried finding the problem and gave upon with most of them considering there are 100 lights on a string. Most likely wires have broken connection with bulb socket probably from handling if the problem is not the little in socket fuse. Of course if you are really lucky it will work when you test it but not once in place or suddenly go out after install LOL.
We just buy more new sets every year like BigSwede which usually is less than $20 total. I noticed one store had "commercial" grade lights for more money. I wonder if those would be worth the extra cost.
Originally posted by BigSwede: Which is why I load up on clearance sale lights after Christmas every year. No worky? Goes in the trash
I had occassion, a couple of year ago, to talk to some folks who hung residential holiday lights professionally and they took this a step further.
When ever they took down lights after the season, they automatically threw them away...sometimes they'd donate them to the local shelter. It wasn't worth the headache to wonder if the lights were going to work the next year. As a business, everything had to work when they arrived at a job site
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Posts: 14290 | Location: northern california | Registered: February 07, 2003
