The holidays are almost set. Well before Christmas, you’ve got your tree trimmed, you’ve hung your LED Christmas lights, and all the presents are safely wrapped. You’re about to plug in your holiday light display when –uh oh—disaster strikes, and your lights aren’t working. Sadly, this is a reality for many people and puts a damper on the festive season.

However, instead of running out to purchase another string of lights, you can actually repair your LED Christmas lights at home. With a few common household tools and a little bit of patience, you can save on costs and bring that glow back to your holiday display. To help keep your holiday season bright, we walk you through how to safely and effectively repair your LED Christmas lights. 

SAFETY PRECAUTIONS

Before beginning any repair project involving electrical components, it’s important to take the necessary safety precautions. Make sure all the lights are unplugged before working on them and have the necessary tools and materials nearby. Luckily, LED Christmas lights are much safer to repair than incandescent bulbs. Traditional bulbs are prone to breaking and run much hotter than LED lights, which can burn your hands while working on them. 

TOOLS AND MATERIALS

The tools needed for the job will depend on the type of LED Christmas lights you’re fixing. If you luck out with a string of replaceable bulbs, the repair is relatively straightforward (although time consuming) and you’ll only need your hands, replacement bulbs, and possibly pliers.

If your LED lights don’t have removable bulbs, the process becomes a bit more complicated and requires more tools and electrical repair know-how. To repair these types of lights, you’ll need a voltage detector, soldering iron, heat shrink tube, wire cutters and wire strippers.

HOW TO REPAIR LED CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

If you have a string of lights with replaceable bulbs, the repair process is straightforward. All you have to do is hunt down the bad bulb that could be causing just one row or the entire string of lights to malfunction. This can be time consuming, but all you need to do is replace each bulb with a new one until you locate the faulty bulb. Again, a simple repair, but you will need some patience.

Repairing LED Christmas lights without replaceable bulbs is much more complicated, but can still be done successfully to save you a trip to the store. First, you’ll need to identify the faulty light. With the lights on, use your voltage detector to check the volts between each light. When you hit a light with no voltage detected, you’ve found the source.

Next, using your wire cutters, you’ll make an incision into the faulty LED cord. Using two heat shrink tubes, solder the wires and then shrink the tube. If done correctly (and if there’s only one faulty light) this should fix your string of LED Christmas lights. Your lights should now glow properly, minus the faulty light, of course, and will be safe to hang up. However, it should be noted that removing a light from a string with increase the current in that string of lights. One light shouldn’t make a major impact, but LED lights are known for difficulties with high currents.

BENEFITS OF LED CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

In recent years, LED Christmas lights have become an overwhelmingly popular choice for all types of holiday decorations. From trees to entire office buildings, more people are choosing LED Christmas lights, compared to traditional incandescent bulbs, for a variety of reasons. Here are some of the primary benefits of choosing LED Christmas lights for your seasonal display this year:

1. Safety

As previously mentioned, LED lights are safer than incandescent bulbs. Why is this? Two primary reasons: LED lights are made of plastic, not glass, so there’s no risk of these lights shattering. Second, LED lights burn much cooler, so you’ll never have to worry about singeing your fingertips again.

2. Save on Energy Costs

LED Christmas lights may be more expensive than some traditional bulbs, but they save you money over time. Electricity bills tend to skyrocket in December, but that doesn’t need to happen with LED lights. According to the Department of Energy, LED Christmas lights use 75 percent less energy than other bulbs (not to mention they last a lot longer, too—on average 25 times longer than incandescent bulbs).

3. Storage

Since LED lights are plastic, they’re also much easier to pack up and store at the end of the holiday season (whenever you decide that should be). Glass bulbs require careful packing, bubble wrap, and other measures to keep your lights safe. However, with plastic LED bulbs, simply toss them in a box and you don’t have to worry.

4. Versatility

When LED Christmas lights first hit the market, there weren’t many options in terms of colors or design styles—this is why so many people stuck with their traditional lights. However, in recent years, the LED lights market has caught up and you can now find these high-quality lights in any color you could imagine. You can also find LED Christmas lights in a variety of fun designs, including snowmen, reindeer, and even Santa Claus, to add a little creativity to your seasonal display.

CONCLUSION – HOW TO REPAIR LED CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

There’s no quicker way to put a damper on your festivities than a blown fuse or broken string of Christmas lights. To avoid this, it’s important to purchase high-quality lights, and all of your other holiday decorations, from a trusted Christmas light supplier. Even if LED Christmas lights are more expensive up front, you’ll save money each season that you don’t need to have them replaced.

If you are having difficulties with your Christmas lights, there are methods for repairing your LED Christmas lights at home. Depending on the type of lights you have, this can be a relatively straightforward process or slightly more complex. We hope this quick guide to repairing LED Christmas lights helps make your season even brighter.

MENAFN18112020004871011209ID1101149484