How to Repair Christmas Lights

Hello, and welcome to the Cuban Redneck website. In this post, I want to address an issue I see many people searching the internet, and that is how to repair Christmas lights? Given that Christmas lights are very affordable nowadays, should you be putting time and effort into repairing your Christmas lights? I do because if I don’t, I will be buying new lights every holiday season. You know that all saying, they don’t make them like they used to! Well, it definitely applies to Christmas light!

When you search the internet for fixing Christmas lights, you will run into two sets of articles and how-to videos on things like Christmas light replacement fuse and another set trying to sell you a Christmas light repair tool. There are two trendy tools specially designed for Christmas light repairs. They are the Ulta Lit Keeper LED Light Set Repair Tool for LED Christmas lights repair and the Ulta Lit Light Keeper PRO for regular (incandescent) Christmas light repair tool. Either one is going to set you back about $20.00 last I checked! Yes, I recommend using a tool for fixing Christmas lights, but I am suggesting about 10% of those others’ costs.

I understand that for some people, that taught of putting five minutes towards fixing or repairing a string of Christmas lights is nonsense. But know that it is effortless and it does not take much time at all! Manu of the videos and how-to videos I have seen on YouTube refer to the Christmas light replace fuse, but in my experience, that is rarely the case. However, it is something to consider. With that said and if you are going to replace your Christmas lights, consider buying the incandescent type. I know that everyone is focused on LED, but just like in many other applications, in my opinion, LEDs are not the best option for Christmas lights. The power consumption difference does not equate to even $.50 over the two-three months you will have them on. They look like LEDs! What do I mean? To me, LED Christmas lights look like just a blob of color. They lack the sparkle and glimmering effect Christmas lights are known for, which has to do with the fact that they are plastic and not glass!

Unlike the Christmas light repair tool, you find at your local stores and online that are only good for testing and repairing “Christmas lights.” The tool I recommended, which is known as a non-contact voltage tester, is not only for this purpose but a handy tool around the house. The non-contact voltage tester is how even experienced electricians use to diagnose a blown fuse, blown light bulb, malfunctioning switch, if an outlet has power, and more other things. Along with a hammer, a phillips, and a flat screw drive, everyone should have a non-contact voltage tester in their home.

When it comes to using it to repair your Christmas lights, I want to point out that it is most useful when talking about the incandescent type. Although I have used it when it comes to LEDs, it is not as efficient may yield some false positives. Before we go on, you must understand how Christmas lights are wired. Here is a simple diagram.

As you can see, electricity flows from one prong in the plug to the first bulb, the bulb’s output goes to the next, and so on. What happens is that if the filament of anyone bulb is broken, the flow of electricity is also broken, keeping the next bulb from lighting up.

This is a function, or should I say, a malfunction that we can easily detect using the non-contact voltage tester by simply testing each bulb in the area that is not lighting up. Unlike the image above, 100, 200, and even 300 light strings are sections in sets of ten to twelve bulbs, making the number of bulbs test about five to six on average. Repairing your Christmas lights with a non-contact voltage tester is easy, and in most cases, it takes only a few minutes. Unlike the Christmas light test tool, you can have a handy tool around the house capable of doing many other functions.