Has anyone ever used the spare bulbs to fix the Christmas lights? (1 Viewer)

Those have to be up there with the spare buttons that come with the shirt, probably worse, because although I'm likely to throw the buttons out as soon as I open the shirt, on the off chance I save them, it doesn't require a miracle to get a button back on. But to figure out which bulb on the light set and/or tree is broken, and properly fix it? I can't imagine that has ever actually happened throughout time.

Anyone?

Yup. I save one box and put all the extras in it. It's not all that uncommon that I end up breaking at least one bulb when I'm hanging the outdoor lights. It's not hard to find a broken bulb when it's the one that's actually shattered.

Most modern lights are parallel meaning you can readily tell which bulb is broken so it can be readily replaced. Hope you aren't using the flasher spare.

http://www.amazon.com/Keeper-01201-Complete-Fixing-Miniature/dp/B000R8KBOK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1448716577&sr=8-2&keywords=christmas+light+bulb+detector

This is what we use in the South.

Snoopy said:

Most modern lights are parallel meaning you can readily tell which bulb is broken so it can be readily replaced. Hope you aren't using the flasher spare.

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How can you readily tell? I bought a new fake tree last year with LED lights. Got home and one strand was already out. Out of the box this year and a second is out. Looks like two complete strands are out, seems like a major PIA to replace every bulb in a strand hoping I get lucky.

Otis said:

Snoopy said:

Most modern lights are parallel meaning you can readily tell which bulb is broken so it can be readily replaced. Hope you aren't using the flasher spare.

Click to expand...

How can you readily tell? I bought a new fake tree last year with LED lights. Got home and one strand was already out. Out of the box this year and a second is out. Looks like two complete strands are out, seems like a major PIA to replace every bulb in a strand hoping I get lucky.

Click to expand...

If the entire strand is out, you probably have a fuse problem rather than a bulb problem. Fuses should be located on the plug of each strand. You have to slide out a little panel on the back of the plug to get to them.

Rookie mistake: check the srting's fuse first.

In The Zone said:

http://www.amazon.com/Keeper-01201-Complete-Fixing-Miniature/dp/B000R8KBOK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1448716577&sr=8-2&keywords=christmas+light+bulb+detector

This is what we use in the South.

Click to expand...

Use it all the time and it works quite well in the North as well.

Otis said:

Snoopy said:

Most modern lights are parallel meaning you can readily tell which bulb is broken so it can be readily replaced. Hope you aren't using the flasher spare.

Click to expand...

How can you readily tell? I bought a new fake tree last year with LED lights. Got home and one strand was already out. Out of the box this year and a second is out. Looks like two complete strands are out, seems like a major PIA to replace every bulb in a strand hoping I get lucky.

Click to expand...

Fake tree? WTF?

glvsav37 said:

Rookie mistake: check the srting's fuse first.

Click to expand...

Just tried that, still didn't work. Running out of options here. And of course it's a major PIA to work on it because it's a pre-lit artificial tree, and removing the strand and putting it back on would suck.

On the bright side, I did see a bulb out on another strand and actually replaced it and got it working. So, it turns out these replacement bulbs do work. And it turns out that one burnt out bulb won't spoil the whole strand, so at least I don't have to go and test replacing every single bulb on the strand.

Of course the bad news is I'm out of options so I'll just have to have a portion of the tree that's not equally lit.

And for some reason I thought I had bought an LED tree when we payed a small fortune for this thing last year. Turns out these aren't LED. Maybe we didn't like the way the LED trees looked, or they were more pricey, I don't remember. But right about now wishing we had splurged for one.

James Daulton said:

Otis said:

Snoopy said:

Most modern lights are parallel meaning you can readily tell which bulb is broken so it can be readily replaced. Hope you aren't using the flasher spare.

Click to expand...

How can you readily tell? I bought a new fake tree last year with LED lights. Got home and one strand was already out. Out of the box this year and a second is out. Looks like two complete strands are out, seems like a major PIA to replace every bulb in a strand hoping I get lucky.

Click to expand...

Fake tree? WTF?

Click to expand...

That's another thread that's been done before.