Christmas lights, need electrical help!

JBMac · Dec 15, 2011

Sweet wife"s got me hanging some lights. I think they are 100 years old! These are the small mini-bulbed type. Half the strand wont work on some of them. Replaced the last bulb before the rest were out. You can take another random out and they all quit! There appers to be three strands of wire feeding. One of you electrical gurus explain, please, I aint about to check 50 bulbs! Thanks in advance!

Bob Huntress · Dec 15, 2011

Sorry my friend, but, back in the day Christmas lights were wired in series, so if a bulb goes out, they all do. New ones are wired in parallel, so only the bad bulb is out.

Allis Chalmers D15 · Dec 15, 2011

Sorry, that what you do. there is a little tester you can get with a 9 volt battery. You don't have to check them all. You stop when you find the bad one.

Tim in OR · Dec 15, 2011

We put a few lights up every year. We have moved up to LED lights for most all of the lights this year.
There used to be a tool that you held over each light of the string. When you got to the point that the light in the tool didn't work, the previous light was the burned out one. It could also be something as simple as a bad connection where the bulb plugs into the socket. BTDT.
Happy hunting.
Merry Christmas
Tim in OR
Sorry about the poor picture quality, I used my phone this time.

Bob Huntress · Dec 15, 2011

Good news if you are considering replacing, but you may fear that this will just happen to your new set next season is that the new ones are not wired in series. If a bulb goes out of a new string of Christmas lights, just the bulb goes out.

Paul from MI · Dec 15, 2011

Assuming the are the small "Italian" type, and considering the cost of new ones, I pretty much just pitch 'em when they don't work. Not worth my time, now the conventional lights are another story. I fix those!

big fred · Dec 15, 2011

Not quite the way it works. They are wired in series and when one goes out, a shunt within the bulb closes to continue passing current. If an entire string (or section) goes dark, it's often because that shunt has failed to make contact, usually due to corrosion. There's a "fixer" on the market called Light Keeper Pro that can apply a pulse of current to fix a bad shunt and will often fix a bad string.

Anonymous-0 · Dec 15, 2011

(quoted from post at 19:47:54 12/15/11) We put a few lights up every year. We have moved up to LED lights for most all of the lights this year.
There used to be a tool that you held over each light of the string. When you got to the point that the light in the tool didn't work, the previous light was the burned out one. It could also be something as simple as a bad connection where the bulb plugs into the socket. BTDT.
Happy hunting.
Merry Christmas
Tim in OR
Sorry about the poor picture quality, I used my phone this time.

Hey!!! Is that Santa's helper bent over in front of that bear???? Comin outta the closet is one thing, but don'tcha think that's a little bold at Christmas time???? :shock:

Mark - IN. · Dec 15, 2011

"...I aint about to check 50 bulbs..." - JBMac

Wanna bet? Not only will you check those 50 bulbs, you will enjoy it or you will sleep on the sofa, after moving it into the barn, with no help. And thats just the beginning of it. If you dont get those lights working and Santa crashes into a tree on approach to your roof top because he couldnt see the runway, not only will he not leave you any presents, he will probably sew your sock shut and rehang it upside down by the fireplace. And it doesnt end there either. Santa will have a talk with the Easter Bunny about you, and when it comes to getting even, nobody is as good as it as that guy. Dont make the Easter Bunny mad at you too, because he will hide your tractors just in time for planting season.

Now I ask, are you going to check 50 tiny Christmas bulbs to make your life much easier in the long run? Yes, I think that you will.

Mark

JMOR · Dec 15, 2011

(quoted from post at 22:17:53 12/15/11) Sweet wife"s got me hanging some lights. I think they are 100 years old! These are the small mini-bulbed type. Half the strand wont work on some of them. Replaced the last bulb before the rest were out. You can take another random out and they all quit! There appers to be three strands of wire feeding. One of you electrical gurus explain, please, I aint about to check 50 bulbs! Thanks in advance!

Three strands of wire".. working on several year old memory here, but I believe 3 strands means that among the 50, that they are not all 50 in series, but rather some subset of 50 are in series....perhaps 5 sets (10 bulbs in each). I.e., 5 groups of 10 in series and the 5 groups are in parallel. So, in this case, if 10 are out, you only need to check those 10, not all 50.

JerryS · Dec 15, 2011

Quit doing Christmas lights a long time ago. That's why.

Bob Huntress · Dec 15, 2011

You may be right. I took this from a course that I took a couple years ago in the USCG. It was taught by an electrician, who used the lights as an example. It wouldn't be the first time an electrician told me wrong, yet, the new lights do tend to have a single bulb go out vise the entire string. I would check my lights, but, the only lights I have up are a fake tree with prelights on it. I can say that if the circuit were two long wires wit each light connected to each wire in parallel the end result would be if a bulb went out, the remaining bulbs would be unaffected.

S2710 · Dec 15, 2011

50 lights are a walk in the park campared to this guys lights.

Bob Huntress · Dec 15, 2011

I just looked it up on Wilki and some are still series to allow the 120 volts to not put so much power on individual bulbs, and some(C7 & C9) are wired in parallel with a resistor to limit excessive power from burning individual bulbs in the circuit and allow uniform brightness.
What I should have read first

ss55 · Dec 15, 2011

I agree with Paul from MI, pitch and replace the cheap light strings when they start to be trouble. Once they start acting up they continue to get worse. It's gotten to be a new string will only last about 3 years of outdoor use for me.

Steve A W · Dec 15, 2011

Check out this tool;
http://lightkeeperpro.com/
Every Husband who's Wife likes those little lights should have one!
Picked one up last week at Ace hardware. It works real good.
Good Luck
Steve A W
Light Keeper Pro

fireland · Dec 15, 2011

throw them out and replace them with the new led type. they use less electricity and are practically bulletproof. i have 3 strings of them around my deck that have been on for over 3 years. no failures.

showcrop · Dec 16, 2011

I believe that three strands means two circuits within the string. Mine have tiny fuses in a tiny compartment in the plug body. One fuse for each half of the string.

agonair · Dec 16, 2011

This is what I discovered this year. I went to purchase some replacement bulbs. They were $1.30 for 5 in a package. I noticed I could buy a brand new strand of 150 for $3.50. Junk the old ones. You can take the old strands to Lowes and they will recycle them.

big fred · Dec 16, 2011

Read your other post. I thought you were referring only to the mini lights. But yes, the larger bulbs are in parallel. The mini bulbs are only good for about 3 volts.

rhouston · Dec 16, 2011

here is how I handle those (other than toss and buy new which is best practice)

get a spare buld (test it in the working section)

Start with the first non working bulb pull it and put in the working spare. Proceed to the next one and replace with the one you just removed. most of the time you will not have to go through the entire set of non working bulbs until you find the offending one. If you do get all they way through and still have not found the bad one then for sure just toss and buy new ones.

JBMac · Dec 16, 2011

Thanks for the help! I got a good laugh, Mark!

Christmas lights, need electrical help!

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