![]() SolStock/Getty ImagesĪ great way to prevent future problems is to test your lights at the end of the season, says McCoy. Inspect lights for any signs of damage before and after use. Be sure to firmly seat each bulb in its socket when replacing it. Once you find the faulty bulb, unplug the associated light strand from the outlet and replace the faulty bulb with a new bulb. ![]() Follow the manufacturer's instructions to test each bulb. If no bulbs are visibly damaged, and your lights are not working, use a bulb tester, says McCoy. When to try it: When no bulbs are visibly damaged and the lights aren't working Leaving burnt-out bulbs on a string of working lights increases stress on the working lights, and shortens their lifespan, explains McCoy. Quick tip: To increase the lifespan of a string of lights, replace burnt-out bulbs promptly. "Just be sure to use bulbs with the same voltage rating as the rest of your string lights," says McCoy. To fix burnt-out bulbs, untangle all string lights and check for frayed wires, damaged sockets, or broken bulbs.ĭiscard any damaged bulbs, and then replace them with spare ones. Or, you can use a bridge rectifier which is an even more complicated method that we wouldn’t recommend to non-professionals.If the fuse isn't the problem, there is probably a problem with a bulb, says McCoy. You should be careful when handling the wires, however, and you should make sure to match hot wires with hot wires and neutral with neutral – use a multimeter to determine which is which. If the blinking was due to the control box, this should remove the problem. Locate the blinking bulb(s) in the string, turn off the lights, and change the blinking bulbs with non-blinking ones.Īlternatively, if there’s a control box you can bypass it by cutting the wires coming from both ends of the box and connecting them to one another. If you have blinking Christmas lights and you want to make them stop blinking, all you need to do is the same process but in reverse. How to make Christmas lights stop blinking? This will make all other lights in the series blink together with the blinking light.Īnd that’s about it! Just make sure the light string is turned off from the socket every time you tinker with it. Swap a non-blinking light in each series of lights with a blinking light.several more times until you find all the individual series of lights within the wiring. In the latter case, you should repeat step 2. If only a few did – it’s parallel with mini-series. If all the lights went off, it’s in a series. Take any bulb out and reconnect the lights to the electrical socket to see if the wiring is parallel or in a series.Turn the lights off and disconnect them from the electrical socket. ![]() So, if your Christmas lights are not blinking and you want them to, here’s what you should do: The blinking bulbs, however, should have either a red or silver tip on them. The non-blinking (or “normal”) bulbs have no noticeable markings on them. However, it should also come with two different types of lights – blinking and non-blinking. Blinking vs non-blinking bulbsĪ string of Christmas lights will typically come with at least several extra lights. So, why does this matter? Because the easiest way to make LED Christmas lights blink is to add blinking bulbs to a series. Removing one bulb there won’t affect the entire string but it will affect the smaller series. There’s a third option too – a combination of the other two where you have a parallel string of multiple smaller series. Parallel wiring makes for more costly light strings but also makes them easier to manage. Parallel wiring, on the other hand, means that every bulb is on its own secondary circuit, and removing one bulb won’t affect the others (too much, it will still affect the voltage they receive but that’s beside the point). This is a simpler and more affordable way to set up string lights which is why they’re popular. Simply put, series wiring means that all the lights are on a single circuit and if you remove even just one bulb, the rest will turn off too. ![]() What’s the difference between parallel and series lights? If you’re looking into how to make LED Christmas lights twinkle, the first thing you’ll need to figure out is whether your Christmas lights are wired in a parallel set up or in a series. So, if you’re wondering how to make Christmas lights flicker or how to make them stop, here are a few suggestions. What’s more, the preferences “for” and “against” blinking Christmas lights seem to be divided straight down the middle – some people like their lights to twinkle like stars while others hate it when they do that. Their one most important feature that everyone cares about, however, is whether they blink or not. Christmas tree lights come in all colors, shapes, and sizes.
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