Xmas lights electrical problem.. #$&*(^
 

OK, I have a prewired/lighted xmas tree that ive had for a few years, well this year a section of lights in one of the middle strings is not working. This string has about 50 lights on it, and about 30 in the middle are out. I replaced about 10 of them so far before i had to leave. They were all blown, but still none of them work. I can take one of the blown ones, put it inline in a string that works, it of course it still wont light, but all the others do. Im getting ready to break out a voltmeter, what volts should i be looking for and how to check? In series? ACV? with the bulb in or out?

Check the fuses in the plug, there are probably two tiny ones under a cover you slide out. Yes ACV, 110 volts

Fuses were good. For some reason 37 bulbs on one string were "burnt out". Replaced them and all is well.

We had a dark spot in the middle, found one of the six plugs was unplugged.

Are they those ******* miniature lights? They piss me off so much trying to find the burned out one that I now just throw them away and my wife buys new sets after Christmas when they are on the clearance rack to use the next year.

Guys,

The .99c store sells those damm things and like Kurt if I have one string that does not work they go in the bin and for .99 its not worth the hassle!

+1

Although......
This year I went to replace the 'icicle' lights outside and found the one's I wanted at Home Depot. GE, "Commercial" (meaning essentially nothing as far as I could tell). Got home and didn't check the length of the strings, 9 feet. Crap. Didn't buy enough. Went back the next day, all sold out. All over town. Now I have half of my house lit.
Bastards.
Santa may just have to find the house by 'feel'.

We also have a "new" light deal. We buy what-ever we like at the time for our xmas trees (2), plug them while they are still in the box to test and if all goes well we hang them.

At the end of the season we throw all of them away. No fuss, no tangled cords to re-wrap and sort and most importantly we know the new set will work next year. When we bought the new sets of miniature lights this year we spent a grand total of $14.65

That's my wife's idea and I think we will finally do it.

Well, these are made onto the tree, so you cant take the string off. They are intertwined in the branches. Kinda have to fix them....

wirecutters.........