What Happened to my Christmas Lights?
To get things started, let’s look at the most typical causes that can prevent the holiday lights from shining at their full splendor. Here are a couple of possible causes:
How To Test Christmas Lights With A Voltage Tester
When it is near an electric current, a voltage tester, also known as a Christmas light tester, beeps or illuminates. It has a single probe and can function even without coming into contact with bare wire.
Due to this, it is an easier tool to use to check for voltage within your Christmas wires and bulbs. Using a voltage tester is simple.
Simply plug the string into a power source to test it, then move the tester along the wire until you hear beeps. There may be an issue with a fuse if you hear no beeps at all. However, if you hear beeps and then all of a sudden your hearing stops, there may have been a connection break and you should preferably replace the entire string.
Placing the tester on the bulbs will also allow you to check them. If a lightbulb doesn’t beep, the voltage isn’t getting to it. This indicates that a bulb near the power jack is the source of the issue. Change the last bulb that emits a beep and check to see if the Christmas lights come on.
When you have a voltage tester nearby, diagnosing your Christmas lights is one of the easiest tasks you can complete. However, not everyone has this, and a multimeter is typically more accessible because of its variety of complementary uses.
Whatever you use, your issue is likely in the wire, fuse, or bulb, and if it is identified, you could avoid spending more money. We hope you have mastered using a multimeter to test Christmas lights.
How To Test Christmas Lights With Multimeter
Set your multimeter to AC voltage and check for continuity between the female and male plug ends of any broken Christmas lights. There is no issue with the wire string if the multimeter reads zero. To further identify the issue, you also check the fuses and then the light bulbs.
All of these entail numerous additional steps, which we will explore right away.
To begin with, make sure the return leg wire is functioning properly.
These are the areas you want to pay attention to because they run from the male plug to the female plug.
Ensure your Christmas light isn’t plugged into any power source.
P. S: It’s important to keep in mind that it’s better to replace the entire string of Christmas lights if there is a problem with it after performing this test. This is due to the difficulty in locating potential problems when there is no externally visible damage.
Alternatively, one of the fuses may only be at fault.
Usually, the fuses are positioned between the prongs inside the male jack casing. Check visually for a fuse that is blackened or a fuse filament that is broken after you have opened up this section of the jack.
Alternately, you can check for continuity by attaching the probes of your multimeter to the ends of a fuse. The fuse needs to be replaced if it reads anything other than zero.
After completing these two steps, if the multimeter still reads zero, you should immediately check the bulbs for issues.
If you don’t have a multimeter, refer to our instructions on how to test a fuse without one.
As previously stated, when a single bulb fails, the entire string of bulbs fails to light up. Because you have to check each bulb separately because you don’t know which specific bulb has burned out, this poses a significant problem.
There is a hack to this. What you want to do is examine several lights simultaneously by grouping them.
You unplug the first lightbulb on the string and insert a multimeter probe into the opening. For instance, you might then take out the string’s middle bulb and insert the second multimeter probe into the hole.
All the bulbs between these two points are in good condition if the multimeter displays zero. You then adjust your distance to a new location and choose a different light source or point.
If the multimeter does not display zero, the issue is between the two points where your probes were placed. After that, you continue removing groups until you find the precise bulb.
Your Christmas lights will turn on once you find the broken bulb and replace it with a functioning one.
Instead of laboriously inspecting each bulb individually, this grouping approach is preferable. Here is a video that shows you this process.
However, the more contemporary Christmas lights typically don’t have this issue. Where one burnt-out bulb is present, only that one does so.