Thursday, November 1, 2012

How to Repair Mini Christmas lights.

Mini Christmas lights, are a classic christmas light bulb and can be a classic pain in the neck when sections or strings go out. Older mini light strings and bulbs are not shunted so if a bulb burns out the electrical connection ceases at that bulb. Modern bulbs are usually shunted, a shunt is a small piece of wire that will keep electricity flowing if the filament burns out.

If you sets have shunted bulbs you can usually fix the light string quickly and easily. Christmas mini light bulbs can shift and get jarred during shipment and even when they are being handled, it's just the nature of the beast. If you have a section of lights that fail it's pretty common for that section to have a bulb that is loose or twisted and it's causing the section to have a broken electrical connection.


We receive many lights back because of this very minor issue, so before you start searching for return info, follow these simple steps:


  • Layout your string flat, completely stretched out and plug it up
  • On the section that isn't lighting, gently push each bulb into the socket
  • If that doesn't light the string by finding the culprit bulb, gently twist each unlit bulb side to side, like turning a doorknob. Do this step without much pressure, if a bulb is twisted it will not be far from where it needs to be to light. 
  • Thats it! If your set doesn't light from these steps you may have a connection problem in a socket which isn't an easy fix. 
If you have access to any of the various christmas light testers use these before you roll the set back up, these testers test for continuity. They make sure the electricity if flowing from plug to plug and you can use them to find where that connection stops then test that plug.