Christmas lights help!!

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photo_kyla
photo_kyla Posts: 322 Member
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Any electrical geniuses out there?

We're putting up our pre-lit tree (it's 2 years old). When we put it away last year it was fine; all the lights worked. There are 3 sections that all have plugs to plug in to a central extension cord. The problem is, half of the lights are out on each section. We've checked all the bulbs for any loose ones and there aren't any.

Any ideas?

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  • rolliepollie087
    rolliepollie087 Posts: 251 Member
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    We had a bunch of strands out this year. It is tedious but we went through with a good bulb and replaced it in each dead bulb to see if that was a bulb that maybe had some erosion or rust on the little metal pieces. We didn't replace each individual bulb, to clarify, just used one and removed one old one at a time and tested that socket. I hope that makes sense?
  • photo_kyla
    photo_kyla Posts: 322 Member
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    I don't think it's something as simple as a bulb out. These are supposed to keep working if one burns out, and since they are permanently wired onto the tree, we can't just replace the strings that are out.
  • JellyJaks
    JellyJaks Posts: 589 Member
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    Do what we did and buy a fiber-optic tree :laugh: The lights are the one thing on the tree that both my husband and I hate dealing with.
  • CatchMom11
    CatchMom11 Posts: 462 Member
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    It could be a short. My husband's an electrician and we still deal with this stuff every year. It seems that no matter how well you pack it away, something doesn't work the following year.
  • rolliepollie087
    rolliepollie087 Posts: 251 Member
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    I don't think it's something as simple as a bulb out. These are supposed to keep working if one burns out, and since they are permanently wired onto the tree, we can't just replace the strings that are out.

    In the case of our lights I didn't think so either. But the little wires on each side of the bulb break, bend, snap off. And my lights also were not supposed to have the strand go out but if there were two or more bulbs out it knocked out a chunk of the strand. :)

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