How to Fix Christmas Lights

Our Most Often Heard Christmas Light Troubleshooting Questions.

Help from our Youtube Channel

Summary of our best troubleshooting tips

It happens. All of a sudden, half of your Christmas lights quit working. Your string of lights flashes intermittently. Or, worst of all, you plug in an entire run of light strings and they all light, then quit.

Here are some common things that cause these issues. It may just be 5 minutes and you'll have your Christmas lights display up and fully functional again!!

My entire string of lights won't come on. What do I do? (Or they flashed on and all went off.)

More than likely, you've blown a fuse. Check the specification of your light sets and see what the manufacturer says is the maximum connectivity. If you purchased your lights from us, there should be a maximum connection specification for your light sets.

If you exceed the maximum connectivity for your light strand it will blow the fuse.

Most sets of Christmas lights have fuses located in the male end-plug. Just use a short flat head screwdriver to slide back the door and replace the blown fuse with one of the two replacement fuses that originally came with your set.

If your light set comes on, then goes off when the set is moved, the plug prongs may need a little squeeze because they've either been stretched or you have an older plug.

Squeeze the plug prongs slightly towards each other to see if that solves an issue with your outlet or plug.

Half of my set is off. OR My set looks fine, it just doesn't come on. How do I fix that? (And I checked my fuse already.)

More than likely, one of your mini light bulbs has popped out of its socket. Modern Christmas light strings are manufactured with a shunt wire that keeps the circuit intact if a bulb burns out. In other words, if a bulb burns out - the filament is blown - the rest of the lights stay lit. If a bulb becomes unseated or pops out of the socket, the electrical connection is interrupted.

Do a quick visual inspection of the side of the string that is out and make sure that each bulb is properly seated. A bulb can come loose in an installation or can be helped with little fingers... this is the number one reason light sets in reading nooks go out.

Whatever you do, don't pull out and reinsert each bulb. That can create problems where there were none. (And wear off the skin on your fingers.)

If you've taken a look at all the possible causes for light strand outage that we've just reviewed and it doesn't solve your problem, you may have an issue with the wiring - or your light set may be at the end of its lifespan and it's time for it to retire.

Light strings that worked just fine before you took them down might have suffered damage during "de-installation" when they were taken down, wrapped and stored. Or they suffered in storage. High heat and pests can take a toll on lights.

(Friends from Wisconsin say that squirrels love to eat their lights.)

Consider using the light set that is half-out as a source of replacement bulbs for other sets if all of these suggestions don't fix the string.

Issues with Rope Lights

My rope light has a section that has gone out. How do I fix that?

The rope light internal electric connections "float" to allow for twisting and bending the rope lights.

If they are twisted around too small of a diameter column or structure, the internal connections of the rope lights in the tightly wound area of rope may be disconnected.

Straighten out the section that's unlit. That might be enough to repair the outage. If the unlit section refuses to light up, the next step for repair is to to cut between the cut-marks on each side of the outage and use invisible splice connectors to repair that part of the run.

My entire rope light went out, what do I do?

More than likely, the fuse is blown. Especially if the spool is incandescent and the entire length of rope is plugged in without unwrapping it from the spool. The tightly wound spool will instantly heat up, dropping the resistance of the rope lights and which overloads the fuses.

Replace the fuse in the plug housing. Hopefully, that will solve the problem.