Christmas lights are essential for the festive season, lighting up hallways, trees, and windows in homes across the country, but sometimes Christmas lights won’t work when the fuse is good after a year’s storage or even halfway through the holidays.
With all the busyness at this time of year, it can be frustrating if your house decorations miss this essential ingredient. Here are the reasons why your Christmas lights are not working though the fuses are good, and ways to get them back on.
- How to Fix “Christmas Lights Are Not Working But Fuses Are Good”
- Must-know Tips to Deal with the Broken Christmas Lights
How to Fix “Christmas Lights Are Not Working But Fuses Are Good”
When the time comes to hang your Christmas lights, it is best to test them before hanging them. This will make checking for faults easier. Check whether the lights are working as soon as you unpack them from the box when new or after storage.
- Case 1. The entire string of Christmas lights is not working
- Case 2. Some bulbs of Christmas lights are not working
Case 1. The entire string of Christmas lights is not working
If you find all the Christmas lights not working and fuse good, try the following steps.
1. Check the string carefully
First, check the string for any breaks or any exposed wires. Sometimes the plastic flex surrounding wires dries out during storage, particularly if they have had things like snow spray on them. If you cannot find any breaks or imperfections in the string, you can rule this out as the problem.
2. Check the plug
It is easy for plugs to get damaged during transportation or storage. After you have checked the string, check the plug for any cracks, loose wires, or parts that have been damaged. If the plug itself, the wires going into it, and the metal parts all look intact, you can rule out the plug as the problem.
3. Test for and find a broken bulb
Broken bulbs are very common in strings of incandescent bulbs, though can also occur with strings of LED bulbs. All incandescent bulbs burn out over time, and the filaments in Christmas tree lights are particularly small and fragile.
A broken bulb will cause a cascading effect, with a single bulb on a string causing other bulbs to break due to an imbalance of current between the sockets. You can test for a broken bulb by replacing each of the bulbs one by one using a good bulb. Go through the string of bulbs with the good bulb to see whether the lights come on.
If they come on when you change one of the bulbs for the good bulb, you have found the broken one. There may be more than one, so check all of the bulbs. A broken bulb will prevent the entire string from working, so replace it to get the lights working again.
4. Check the power supply
Although it seems obvious, it is worth checking that the lights are getting power from the house power supply. You can check this in two ways. Check that the plug socket is functioning by trying the lights in a few different sockets. If the lights work in a different plug socket, you know that it is the plug socket that is faulty and not the lights.
It is also worth checking that the electric circuit of the plug socket within the home is working properly. Check this by looking at the house service panel box. If your house was built after 1960, the service panel box will have circuit breakers. Check that none of the circuit breakers have tripped. If it was built before 1960, check that none of the fuses have blown.
5. Double-check the fuses
Christmas lights usually contain one or more fuses hidden inside the plug. Checking the light fuses might have been the first thing you did when the lights were not working, but it is worth double-checking that the fuses are good.
Light fuses are usually transparent, so you can check whether the fuses are working by looking to see if the filament in the fuse is intact. If the filament is broken, replace the fuses with new ones to see if the Christmas lights work or not.
It is easy to break a fuse whilst doing some of the other checks in this list–so always re-check the fuse after some of the other checks to see whether it has blown.
Case 2. Some bulbs of Christmas lights are not working
If just a few bulbs are not working, try the following two steps.
1. Check the bulbs that are not working
Firstly, make sure that the unlit bulbs are not loose. Go through all of the bulbs and check that they are fully inserted. If the bulbs have a screw-in fitting, tighten gently so as not to damage the bulb or the socket.
Try swapping the working and non-working bulbs around to see whether it is the bulbs or the sockets not working. If swapping the bulb doesn’t work, the bulb is broken. If the bulb is working, check the next solution.
2. Check the sockets aren’t broken
If the bulb works when you try it in a different socket, you know that it is the socket that is faulty or broken. If you know the bulb is working, check for dirt and damaged components in the socket to see whether you can get it working again.
Must-know Tips to Deal with the Broken Christmas Lights
Here are two tips for dealing with broken Christmas lights.
1. Don’t leave malfunctioning bulbs on
If you find some of the bulbs not working, but the rest of the string functions perfectly, be sure to replace the non-working bulbs as soon as possible. Malfunctioning bulbs will influence the lifespan of working bulbs, so making sure all the bulbs work will prolong their life.
2. Don’t leave any socket empty
If you find a bulb not working and need to replace it, do not leave a socket empty whilst using the lights. An empty socket can cause a fire, so be sure to switch the lights off or fill the socket with a bulb as soon as possible.
