"One light goes out, they all go out!" (1 Viewer)

[DeathStar1]

Anyone else have problems with fuses and whole strings of lights blowing out?

We've never haed a problem with it, at least up untill 3 years ago. When, all of a sudden, fuses started blowing by the packfull. Even a string of lights that has no more than 5 sets on it will blow within a night.

My father is going to cut out the fuse portion of the wire and make a 'special plug' for it to fix this problem. One advantage of having an electrician in the familly, I guess. But has anyone else had this problem pop up out of nowhere? The lights went up the day after Thanksgiving, and burnt out December 1st :/....

 

[Michael*K]

I assume you mean the fuses built into the light strings. Unless you have "heavy duty" lights sets, most are only rated for three continous strings connected end to end. You'd have to check the box to make sure. I always follow the recommendations. The problem I've had the last two years is using those multi-outlet extension cords. They are about 9 feet long and have three outlets spaced every three feet. I run them up the center of the tree so I can zone the lights...bottom, middle and top. They use larger fuses (the type used in C-7 light sets.) I guess they've been drawing too much power because the last two years I've had fuses blow on them. Two years ago was a bitch. The fuse blew on Christmas morning and I didn't have a spare fuse. I went to Walgreens (they're open Christmas Day) and bought a duplicate cord. Let me tell you, it was a serious pain in the ass re-threading that thing through the lights sets to get them connected again. This year I'll be more careful in regards to how many sets I have running off each of the extensions.
By the way, electrician or not, I think it's a bad idea to cut of the fused plugs and attach non-fused ones. There's a reason those fuses are on there...to prevent too much current from being drawn and overloading the wiring. Without the fuse to blow, the wires could heat up and start a fire.

 

[Philip_G]

stupid things. I live in an apartment so I put lights up on my patio rail last year, and didn't want to take em down in the bitter cold, so I was gonna wait until spring.. spring came around and it was too hot then it's xmas again and none of the damn things work

 

[ace peterson]

3 strings in a row: maximum. Period.

If you need more, start a new chain at the extension cord.

 

[Ted Lee]

i gotta agree with michael. i'd seriously re-think cutting out the fuses. don't forget about how flammable trees really are. just my .02 though...

 

[DeathStar1]

>Without the fuse to blow, the wires could heat up and start a fire. >

Yep, was thinking the same thing. Guess he thinks he has a solution to do that. Although I'd much rather break down and buy 4 sets of new lights and find some way to re-wire it. There's no plug between a long stretch of bushes in the front of our house, so we have to improvise by using the heavy duty outlet located in the garage.

 

[bruce townley]

Funny Story - My boss (who does not celebrate christmas due to his faith) put up holiday lights at our office. He kept screaming that why is the one person who does not celebrate christmas in charge of lights, and why doe we do it as it is such a hassle. After they were finally up (much replacing of bulbs, fuses, etc.) we started changing out the bulb that causes it to blink every time he left the office.
He would come back and scream, "why are they blinking now? They weren't blinking when I left." Then he would leave, and we would change them back.
Made for a fun afternoon of driving another individual slowly but surely insane.