You can move that spare out of the holding spot and into the side with the contacts. If you notice there is one set of fuse contacts but two fuses in the plug, that means you are lucky enough to have a spare. Some light strands actually have a spare fuse inside the plug. To get to the fuse, use a small, flat screwdriver to pry the little “door” open and to remove the fuse. Make sure you bring a current fuse from the strand with you to get the right amp. If not, you can pick up replacements at home improvement and other stores, including auto parts stores. You might have gotten an extra fuse or two when you bought the lights. Look at the plug end of the strand, and you will see a little “door” on one side. That’s where you should go to check on the fuse or fuses. Most holiday lights have fuses in the plug end of the strand. But if your entire strand goes out, the problem is likely a blown fuse. If only one section of your lights is out, that’s one thing. In the case of light strands, the cause is generally stringing together too many in a row, all into the same outlet. And like anything with fuses, they can blow out. Many homeowners don’t realize that not only do those strands of holiday lights plug into your outlets, but they also have fuses. How To Tell If a Christmas Light Fuse is Blown In this case, it’s time to use a new strand of lights. Squirrels, age or the tugging that goes on when taking the lights down for the season can cause this type of damage. Specifically, there is likely a break in the strand circuit’s copper wire. So, if you have checked each bulb and they are all set correctly, and they aren’t smoked, your problem might be with the actual wiring harness. Visually check the part of the light string that is out and replace any smoked bulbs. The solution: Check the rating of the light string and don’t plug in more lights than the manufacturer specifies. This might work, but sometimes when you put too many light strands into one series, the strands are permanently damaged and you will have to use new ones. If you know the rating, look at each bulb in the strand to check for any “smoky” bulbs and replace them. If your measurement exceeds the number on the string’s tag, the excess power is likely your issue. Then measure the rating against how many strands of lights you strung together. In this case, look at the tag at the end of the light string. If you see that some of the bulbs in the dark part look like smoke has collected inside, that is a tell-tale sign that too much power went through the lights. The wire at the bulb’s base conducts electricity from bulb to bulb. What To Do If Bulbs Have Blown OutĪnother common cause for part of the lights going dark is when the light string’s rating has been exceeded and subsequently, the bulbs have blown out. If it’s just loose, be gentle when you push it back into its proper spot. If you see a spot where a bulb is completely missing, replace it with a new one (each strand should have come with a couple of extra, but you can always get replacements at stores). It also isn’t good for your hands! Take a look to see if a bulb in that part of the strand is not in place. Don’t remove and push each one back in because it can cause further issues. To check on this issue, take a good look at each bulb on the part of the string of lights that is out. Only if the bulb has disconnected or is missing entirely would there be an issue with more than just one bulb. Just having one of the bulbs burned out shouldn’t affect others on its circuit, however. Bulbs on any other circuit in the string should still stay on in this scenario. If one bulb is missing or not connected, the bulbs in the same series on the same circuit will all go out. If your string of lights has 50 bulbs or more, which is the vast majority of the strings, it works by using two or more continuous circuits. Troubleshooting Your Christmas Lightsįirst off, one of the strand’s light bulbs might have popped out of its socket or is partially out of the socket and might have crashed the circuit. Let’s troubleshoot some potential causes for the outage. You don’t want to hang your lights only to find they need to come right off! If you do have issues, your choices are to try to fix the lights yourself or contact a professional who can bring new LED lights for you and hang them up. What’s next? The first step is to always plug in your lights and check for issues before you hang them for decorating. Or when you pull last year’s spools of shining glory out of storage, half of the lights aren’t ready to shine. Sometimes when you flip the switch, the twinkle looks a little unbalanced. A huge part of the decorating ritual every year includes festive lights on the exterior of your home. Decking the halls for the Christmas season fills many people with excitement for the coming celebrations.
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