Christmas lights with sealed non-removeable bulb : Possible to repair or...

fixit_fiona

One of my sets of Christmas lights is not lighting up at all. It has sealed non-removeable bulbs. The wiring is still fine because the socket end has power when the plug end is plugged in. There are no fuses to replace anyways. Is there any way to find, and repair or replace, the burnt out bulb(s)? I figure the answer is no, it's not possible, because the bulbs are sealed non-removeable, but looking for a second opinion before I dispose of them....

Originally asked by JohnC on Stack Exchange (diy) (CC BY-SA 4.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

"Possible" is a funny word. I was able to get one of these strings working when it failed Christmas night. It was the string going around my doorway so really important. With the string plugged in to a GFCI outlet, I got an insulated coax staple and stuck it into the insulation of both wires going into a socket. If the bulb was good, nothing happened but if the bulb was the bad one, open circuit, shorting out the wires would light up the string. After going through half the string, I hit the bad bulb. Then I cut off the bad bulb and spliced the two wires together. Removing a bulb from a series string of lights probably increased the voltage per bulb from 4.8 volts to 5 volts. Doing this too...

Full answer by JACK: https://diy.stackexchange.com/a/270825 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Need it done for your business? UphillTech.