Christmas lights
 

I'm in the process of setting up my Xmas tree an the lights don't work. It is not the fuses 'cause I've replaced them with new ones and the outlets have power. I thought that lights these days will come on even if one of the bulbs is dead. Please help - the kids ( 5 and 7) are killin' me 'bout this!:eek:

do what i did.. say screw this and go out and buy a new strand..and about the dead lighst and still working.. it works.. sometimes

Gotta admit...I remember buying replacement bulbs simply because you could keep a string of lights for years! Nowadays, you can lose a series or the entire string...and the troubleshooting time just isn't worth it considering how cheap a string of lights cost!

I usually go ahead and buy four or five sets each year in anticipation of the DOA sets I discover each year! :o

If it's a Mercedes tree light set, it could be the dimmer switch rheostat, which is also the mileage reset for the tree. :D

MTI is a funny guy...

Light sets are like Chevy Cavaliers...they work for awhile...and once something breaks you might as well buy a new one...but...where's the employee pricing program for my Target light sets? Enjoy the holidays...

PS: I have a set of orange lights for halloween that are about 5 years old...ahh the MB of light sets...especially since I've had to rig one of the sockets with clear tape to hold the bulb in just right...in order to keep that half of the strand lit...can't find any mini bulbs to fit the socket...maybe Germany can send me one for 10 bucks...

And as an aside those prelit trees are a PIA...I bought one from Macys a couple years ago and once a section goes out you have to unclip the light set and troubleshoot...

I think the Mercedes Benz of Christmas Lights is those big strands of C-9 lights. They continue to run afterone bulb goes out, they are invulnerable, except to the human error, easy to use, and most of all, they are look good when they are on.

The Mercedes-Benz of Christmas light strands would be a set that had a bulb-out indicator at the plug socket...and you would be shopping everywhere looking for OSRAM-type bulbs to replace the burned-out ones...

I don't remember where I got it (Walmart, maybe?), but I have a cheap little tester that you push a button, it lights an LED. Move the device along the string until the LED goes out and you've found the burned out bulb.

The newer strings will stand one or two bulbs being burned out before they quit.

Another thing to watch for is that the latest strings have 2.5 volt bulbs while the older ones were 3.5 volts. They're not really interchangeable.

(Yeah, I know that's more than you wanted to know about those cheap Christmas lights, but I'd rather fix my cheap sets than feed China $ for new strings every year. Eventually though, when the color starts to fade, you've got to get new ones.)

Wes

word has it... christmass lights are cheap theese days because they are made out of recycled MB wireing harnesses from the 92/94 era that the elves got a massive discount on...

hmm...that explains a lot...though I'm interested how they found pure white for my icicle lights' sheathing...