Thank you for showing me how to repair my led lights. I was very pleased with your demonstration. I didn't want to throw away my lights due to one of the bulbs being damaged that caused the string of lights to not work. I really love the set of lights and kept it because of the decorative flowers around the bulbs. So I kept them and wondered if it was repairable. Now that you have shown me how to repair my string of lights, I am so grateful for your help!
A couple of additions: Incandescent lights work by heating a tungsten filament to the point where it glows. There is a heating and cooling time. During cooling, the filament briefly continues to glow even after power is turned off. This dwell time, during which the filament glows while cooling is called “persistence”. So an incandescent bulb never really turns off when the voltage inthe circuit crosses zero every 1/120 of a second. Hence no flicker. 2. The human eye CAN see 120Hz flicker, just not head on. Human peripheral vision is much more frequency sensitive and many people can see 120Hz flicker peripherally. You can test this by using your peripheral vision to view a fluorescent light, which is uses both parts of the voltage cycle, so flickers at 120Hz
I found this explanation very easy to follow! I learned more in these videos than I did in my electrical engineering classes in college! I'm a chemical engineer, but electricity has always been my weakness. Thank you!
As a person who did this professionally in malls all over the country these light fixing guns are a god send. The only issue I have with your. Idea is when you said about leds not being worth the money. The difference is in current consumption. When you do big displays like I did it made a huge difference. It will also make a difference in a house. Great. Video.
Thanks for the comment! For professional jobs like you are talking about, I 100% agree that good LEDs make a lot more sense to maintain good reliability of the installation. That's good advice for anyone working as a pro. On my personal display I found it worthwhile to sacrifice some reliability for the lower up-front cost of incandescent bulbs. It was the only way to make the Christmas display I desired to create affordable. Electrical rates vary everywhere, but in some areas of the country good LED lights don't necessarily pay for themselves in electrical savings alone.
@@kbrandsr, I found that it depends on the manufacturer/brand and type of LED used. I have 2 sets of bright white LEDs from 2 different brands, one is really intensely white, whereas the other is only moderate. I never really liked the soft white as it was just too yellowish to me. Which in a way, its mimicking the old style incandescents. Yeah, the bright white does have a bit of blue tint added to it to make it more of a brilliant white, but I like the pureness of white. My reason is cause the colors of my ornaments and the tree itself are more brilliant and true, than the soft white will give. My recommendation for LEDs will always be Phillips. Never had any other brands best them out yet.
@@LightingUpPaxton "Electrical rates vary everywhere" Yes that is true. "But in some areas of the country, good LED lights dont necessarily pay for themselves in electrical savings alone." Where di you get this from??? LEDs save you nearly 90% more than Incandescents in energy usage. Yeah cost for a strand is a bit more, but the length of life of LEDs vs Incandescents is also significantly longer too. So in a way you are buying either replacement LEDs or strings way less often than Incandescents. I would rather pay a few dollars for LEDs for the month of displaying my christmas lights than paying nearly hundreds of dollars in energy use alone. That hundreds saved is more in your pocket using LEDs, than using Incandescents. LEDs use nearly 90% less power and watts than Incandescents.
@@Magny80 after nearly having a stroke when the electric bill came, we are switching to LED lights. As the old ones go out, we are replacing with LED. We have been buying Walmart brand but will look for a better brand from now on. What brand did you say was better? Thanks ! 🤶❤🎅 ✌🏻❤
This was an excellent video! Thanks so much. We had 4 strands of 100 bulb LED lights purchased last year we were able to save. I would give you a 12 rating out of 10 if I could!!
Sweet Baby Jesus, Then the cat hacked a fur ball , meanwhile the garbage disposal was making a racket turned out be my dentures stuck to a piece Carmel candy yak yak yak , oh yea lights I almost forgot
Your video was just what I needed. I had a 48" lighted wreath that had a string of lights out that I was ready to give up on. After watching your video I ordered the Pro Light Keeper and worked on my wreath as I watch your video again and I fixed it! Thank you!
Never thought this would work. Brought my christmas tree back to life. Put it in, pulled the trigger 10 times, tree lights up and now i can see all the dead bulbs.
Three years ago I realized that I was spending more time fixing those old incandescent light strings than I was hanging the lights !! 🤔🤔🤔🤔 I had maybe a dozen strings and I even had one of those "Impossible to repair" reindeer displays. I collected the lot and gave them all to the Well Good will store. I then went to Wally World and bought a boat load of LED style light strings. After three years of of usage, I have YET to have to repair a single one of them !! With all their color and automatic lighting options, they are a true Christmas Joy.
Omg!!! I have thrown away so many strings because I couldn't find how to fix them and no-one else knew!!! You are my new best friend! I have to find these tools online now..thanks you so much. I also have a heap.of tubular LEDs. Can these be fixed?
Very good explanation, but I have a question. I know Diodes are sensitive to current flow and maybe voltage to a point, but just twisting the two wires together should still work if your spreading that" lack" of resistance over 50 or 100 LEDs ? Great video, Bravo.
I've watched your videos and they are well presented. Here is a problem I can't find a solution for on the web. I have the Christmas light spheres. My brand is Bethlehem Starlight with 50 bulbs. The fuses are good. The bulbs are good. There are no breaks in the wire. Yet I have 3 spheres that I can't get to light. Any ideas on where to go from here? Thanks
Looks great, but...I have several strings of "big-box" LEDs. However, unlike the one you show, each socket has THREE wires going into it, not two. How do I proceed with checking those?
Hi any tips on how to fix a pre lit LED tree where the lights aren't just in a straight line? As in, they are every which way we have a 3 section tree whose middle section is lighting up fine but the top and bottom are not. Thanks!
Wonderful video! I have a GE C9 set that I love for its light functions. One half wasn't working and I just priced it out at $85. I'm going to try the LED keeper. Thank you for sharing.
Stumbled upon your LED Repair Video.. WOW !! All the information I needed, just at the Right Time, to repair a few unlit bulbs.. LED Keeper on Order.. Thanks for all your Insite...
Great video. Question- a critter chewed through all three wires in one spot. I assume I can link up the two wires from the bulb and use the POD. Then just use two connectors to join the other two wires? Are those two different or can I just pick. 50/50, ass I can’t tell… thanks.
I know it's 5 years later but do you have the color code or ohm value on that resistor? I also wonder why they don't make the pod just be a bulb socket and include a bulb...
i noted that you said the tester has a small needle that pierces the insulation. When you have tested multiple times and removed a bulb and joined the wires with the little "box resistor" - can I still use the string outside when it rains and drizzles all winter?
Question. Can you simply splice the wires together after cutting out the bad bulb instead of using the black item? I know it also contains a small resistor, but that seems like it could be negligible for the entire stand. Thanks for putting the video together.
Thank you for the video and tutorial for both this and the original Light Keeper Pro! I've fixed both my incandescent and LED lights now and very quickly and easily with the assistance of your videos! Thank you!
Hi. Excellent video. Two questions. 1. When half the light string works fine, but the other half is dim (not out completely), is the problem/repair likely the same as shown in the video? 2. After snipping off the faulty light, why not just solder the two wire ends together instead of using a pod? Thanks.
@@darylspecter8325 I would guess that if you wanted it look "nicer", one could just solder in a proper size resistor between the two wires, shrink tube the splice/resistor, and seal the ends, and call it all good. A bit more work than just using a resistor pod.
Great video. Question: I own the LED Light Keeper Pro. I have LED icicle lights with 3 wires. String with 1/2 out or 1/2 dim. I end up tracing to the end of the string near the female 110v plug, 3-4 lights don’t illuminate but when i remove and test each bulb they work, yet exactly half the string won’t illuminate? In the sting in about 3 places are 2”x.33” round tubes wired to bulbs that have a different, wider bulb base. When you examine the socket their are 3 wires instead of 2. What is this tube and why the different bulb base? I have replaced the LED’s by removing old one from base, and am careful to match polarity, but do these sockets with 3 wires and wider bulb base use a different LED? I am determined to get these strings working, but have several where all bulbs test good, yet half the string doesn’t light up.
I have a similar problem where my entire string doesn't work but each bulb tests good and all bulbs are installed correctly. My bunch is the rectifier is bad.
This is an excellent demonstration that provided a lot of useful information. I feel very confident that if I get the right tool, I will now be able to repair my LED bulb strands. My only suggestions would be that, if you are talking about the sine wave in terms of "left and right" don't illustrate it with a diagram that is in "up and down" format. I appreciate the explanation of the half wave versus full wave strands, but I kind of wish the demo was simply on the half wave strands that most of us pick up at the big box store. One question: does it matter which side of the bulb you put the LED tester on to determine if the bulb is working?
Yes, it does matter, but you won't do any damage putting it in the wrong way. If it doesn't light up at first, then just try it the other direction. If neither way will light up the bulb, then you have a bad led. After doing a few you can get the hang of which way they go
Great vid! Now a deep dive. I have a c7 70 lite string that has one section partially dimly lit, the other half fully lit & bright. They are 5A , there is the 2 to 3 wire setup, and no pod in the wire as you've shown in that set. The bulbs are also non replaceable. So is it the same procedure for dimly lit as completely out section?
I was told by my sweetie to throw away the 'dead' incandescent and led strands. After an hour of fuse and build DX failures, I threw three stands out and sent to the hardware store (a good one), and Lowes. Neither was stocked with replacements that remotely matched what we have. Toss out the whole inventory or figure out how to fix. My sweetie says, " just start over" . They are stored in ideal conditions, with no varmit damage, just a year in a box. Why I love the internet., "there's no incandescent or led stand that can't be repaired. New tools, quick fix. Thank you!
A appreciate your video as you cover how to test led circuits very well. However, I kind of wish you would have purposely applied the tester to either side of the bad bulb, to further prove to the viewer that you indeed located a bad bulb. One other comment/question is- Why do those pods have to be so large, looks like a good place for engineering ingenuity! Thanks.
You are super helpful answering all the questions left to you in the comments! I have a tricky one - I just got my LED Light Keeper and I plugged it in, checked my first section of lights and about half lit up. Then I go to check another section and one singular bulb lights up about 4 lights away from where I pulled the trigger. What does that mean?
on the first half of the string you should be able to keep moving the tool down the "off" portion until the lights until the string lights up in the other direction. That point where it switches and one bulb doesn't light should be the problem bulb. The second half of your string does have an interesting problem. I would grab a few clothes pins to mark good bulbs and move the tool up and down the string until you isolate bad bulbs, replacing them from the outside first and working towards the middle of the half-string.
Love this video. Can you simply use a voltage meter (not the light keeper pro) to find where the voltage stops on the side of the strand that is not working?
Thanks for the very helpful video, my LED light strings have half the bulbs out, but all the lights are working, the secondary rectifier in the middle seems to be faulty? I tested all the bulbs with the LED light pro and they all work. Can I replace the secondary rectifier with the pod? will that complete the circuit correctly? Thank you for answering my question ;-) I read through all the comments and didn't find this problem answered yet!
Net lights will be like other strings of Christmas lights, where the current-carrying wire will go to one bulbs at a time in series. Identify which wire is carrying that current and the directing it is flowing to trace it around the net. Net lights will often have extra plastic wires connecting bulbs to form the net and have no copper conductor in them.
Thanks great video only problem in nobody in canada has any testers and they are $70 bucks on amazon and I may or may not get it before Xmas. Guess I'm buying new lights
It would be nice if you could plug the tool into the socket instead of piecing the insulation for the ones you can pull out which are all of mine. I have a ton of LED strands now and every year a few will go out, most because of where they are outside. Some of my incandescent strands from decades ago are still working, but I do love my bright LEDs. Also you can see some lit LEDs not appear lit on your phone's camera screen, but if you really want to see the flicker you can swing the strand like a jump rope.
When you test does it matter which direction the tester faces? All bulbs lit up to the right the first time, then second they all lit up to left of bad bulb. If you flipped the tester would it make a difference? Also can you just cut the wires and twist them together without the diode? I've had nothing but problems with Christmas LEDS over the last couple years, from an expensive twinkling led lit deer decoration to regular strands on my fence, gutters, and porch.. They're not as robust as they're talked up to be. Maybe in mild weather but not low temperatures, with wind and snow.
I have the same problem in Florida here. Only a few nights dip below 40 and every year leds are lucky to last 1 season. Maybe the humidity? Things rust that are inside my house even so I imagine that gets in there
Great video! I have an outdoor 5 foot nutcracker which lights up with LED's that are replaceable. The light in the arm of the nutcracker are out. However I cannot find replaceable bulbs. It originally came with 2 replacement bulbs which I already used. In the instructions it says they are 3.0 volt, 0.072 Watt. The LED's are mini conical white lights. Do you know where I can get these lights or do you think the LED Keeper would work to repair.
I just bought a balsam hill LED prelit tree last month. Spent a small fortune. Those little fairy lights are glued on those branches. The top two sections are working fine but bottom section is not. What do I do? If I have to remove this set will I wreck the other sets of lights? Ugh.
Dear Xmas Light God, I’ve had some success. Going bulb by build on a section of lights on pre-lit tree. I’ve got 96% working. I have 4 bulbs somewhat near each other that instantly blow when I change the bulbs. I’ve tried replacing all 4, they each blow when re-installed. It’s only these and they are not in perfect sequence. There are a bulb or two in between that work. Any ideas?
If some of the bulbs are lit but dim while testing with the tool, does that mean those bulbs are getting ready to fail or is it just a bad connection with the tool? (When testing the dim bulbs individually with the tester they'll sometimes illuminate completely.)
Great Video but I have a problem not mentioned. I have LED Christmas lights with 3 strands on the connection end plug and 3 strands coming out of the power plug, but 4 strands of wire between every single light bulb and I cannot figure so I can get out where the 4th wire begins and ends?
Thanks for the tutorial. Just bought tool and fixed my lights. Question: Do I need to use the pods? Can I just connect the two cut wires together? Thanks.
Hi, great video. I have multicolor led icicle lights on my house. Every single year sections of a string, goes dim and afterwards just die. Why is this happening? They are Holiday Time brand from Walmart. It can be the 1st, or 3rd or 5th string on the house it’s a crap shoot.
That is a peculiar problem. The most common problem with store-bought LED strings with removable bulbs is corrosion. This could be the issue as an LED bulb begins to fail and then fails completely. The LED keeper should help identify which bulbs are the problem so you can replace them. If you run out of replacement bulbs you can sacrifice one of your strings as a full set of extra bulbs.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have had to order the LED Light keeper Pro (no one locally had it) , and was wondering how to fix my LED'S as they are not removable. All lights were from big box stores, but none can be removed. Your videos are so helpful. Much appreciated.
Geat job thank you i have a peacock that the head and tail don't light up and it has a short in it because when the wind blows sometime it will light up. How do you find a short?
The LED Keeper will find the short in the same way it finds a bad bulb, by isolating parts of the string one at a time and narrowing down the problem. Without the tool you will have to go socket by socket and check for corrosion or loose wires that lack firm connection to the bulb. Sometimes wiggling the problem bulb will make the string come back on briefly which would isolate the problem bulb.
Question: what’s going on when I’m testing the LEDs and instead of all lighting on one or the other side of the tester, I’m getting dimly lit bulbs on both sides. What do I do then?? I did successfully fix one strand; thank you.
@@matthewsmith3634 you likely have a bad bulb somewhere. Led’s are more of a pain to work on... instead of a partial strand outage (like incandescent bulbs) they will go dim. Then you gotta use the LED Keeper to find the bad bulb. @Katie Garner The dim on each side is when you are tracking down the bad spot (with the Led Keeper). The tool is putting power to the strand. If the lights come on keep moving until they don’t. That’s where you work with the clothespins on either side. You will eventually meet in the middle and find the bad bulb. Make sense?
Great video. Thanks. Question: Does a non-working LED bulb in the string harm the other working bulbs in the string by increasing the voltage going to those working lights the way it does in an incandescent string? Thanks for your reply.
I have a strand of multi-colored, and actioned (controlled via cellphone app) sealed LED bulbs that have four wires entering into the bottom of each bulb. Currently, 1/2 of my strand won't light, while the first half does. I suspect the procedure might be different, buy can I use the LED keeper to correct these bulbs, and if so, do you make the 'pods' which would support four stands entering the bottom of each bulb?
If the strand only makes three colors, likely it is similar to a normal LED strand and 3 of the 4 wires are supplying power to each color individually. If this strand can make many different colors, the bulbs likely have RGB bulbs in them and this tool will not work for those. I would suggest searching how to fix RGB strings if that is the case.
@@LightingUpPaxton Thanks for the quick response. And yes, the bulbs can make many different colors, brightness, flashing patterns, alternate colors, patterns, etc. So, sounds like I need to search on a fix for RGB strings. Thanks for the suggestion and advice. I appreciate it.
Just to get a little more understanding about how LED lights work......why can you not just cut out and remove a bad light and splice the wires back together where the bad light is missing? Why so you need the resistor in the little splice box?
The bulbs each draw a little bit of current. The more you take out, the brighter the bulbs get. This can decrease the life of the lights. If it's just 1 light you're removing, it really doesn't make a noticeable difference. Sometimes I just splice them when it's a cheap set of lights I'm fixing.
excellent. only thing is the pods. sorry if youre selling these but wouldnt a simple wire strip, twist together and sealed with waterproof heat shrink be cheaper and more effective? The pod looks like if it got hung up and pulled it would just leave a stripped wire.
The pods don't just splice the wires together. They also contain resistors to take the place of the LED. Without the resistor the remaining LEDs in the series will experience greater voltage, limiting their life span and increasing the chances your string will go out again.
Thank you for a great video. I already have the original Lightkeeper Pro and it has helped many times with my Christmas Tree. I just bought the LCD fixer through your link and am hoping it will help with my outside deer. For years I bought the less expensive ones that were mostly animated, but was lucky if I got a year out of them. I tossed all of them and this was before I bought the original Pro Keeper. Last year I bought a larger buck that didn't move and paid a lot more money for it. This season we discovered the back lights on his leg didn't light up. We tried the original Lightkeeper Pro and of course it didn't work because this has what I think are LED lights on it. Do you think the new one will work on the large buck? I would hate to toss it after just one season. Most are talking about strands of wire and haven't seen anything on fixing lights on any kind of deer. I know this video is old and hope you are still taking questions. Thanking you in advance.
If the deer has LED lights, then the LED Keeper should work just fine. Even though the lights are twined around the deer, it still works just as a normal lights strand. Trace the wires around the spot that doesn't work and you'll realize it should resemble a standard string of LED lights and use the LED Keeper just as I did in the video.
One section of my 150 bulbs went out, followed the instructions; time consuming, frustration, and nothing worked. Finally fixed it in 5 min by buying a new set of lights for $6.
I don't know if you'll answer or not but I need help. I have these lights that I bought from WalMart about 2 years ago, they're 25 C7 LED color-changing christmas lights and nearing Christmas of 2016, I noticed that a part of the lights went dim. I just want to know if there's a way I can fix them. I don't want to think I just threw money in the garbage.
That is an interesting problem. You may have a corroded contact point in one of the bulb sockets that is causing some voltage drop in that section of the string. With my LED Keeper I would use it to isolate parts of the dim section until I found the problem spot. Without that tool you may have to pull out each bulb one by one to find a possible corrosion point.
I purchased one of these on clearance after christmas a few years ago and forgot about it. I just found it the other day after going thru all of my strings bulb by bulb.
I believe if you wanted to find the resistance of your led you could use a multimeter and then just solder an appropriate resister inline to replace the faulty LED light and cover the whole joint with shrinkwrap tubing.
@@chrishad95 LED's are "non-linear" so they do not have a characteristic resistance. My GUESS is the resistor is around 150 ohms. The color bands would answer the question but all he said was "it's colorful"...
Every comment you made about how the various LEDs never or rarely burn out, or fail, has NOT been my experience. I've also read elsewhere that there is generally an expected 30% failure rate for the strands. I'll admit that I have been working with a LOT more LED holiday lights than most residential folks, but I get really tired of all the lights I have to repair or replace. I have, easily, 12+ 60 qt boxes full of lights needing repair, and three piles more under cover, also needing repair.
It seems to have to do with the quality of the strand. I have one that didn't even last 4 years, but I have several others that are between 10 and 14 years old and not a single bulb is out, and I've used all the strands in the same manner under the same weather conditions, etc. Could be the newer ones are lower quality than the older ones. The old saying "they don't make 'em like they used to."
Im with you. I have a small meager setup and hoped leds would be better but in my experience they burn out and have problems EVERY season just like incandescent. Im lucky if I get 2 seasons. Im here because I'm tired of it and have 1 brand new string last year that's totally dead veggie setting up this, and 2 strings that are half dead that are 2 seasons old (this would have been the 3rd). Only 1 survived last Christmas without failing.
Do you know how to fix LED lights that have a controller box, ones that have a box connected to it for different light shows and works with a hand controller as well. We have tried what you shared but still not working. Any idea you can help us with?
PS: Any suggestions on how to not have your yard be uncrossable and looking like Medusa lost her hair? My time (hours) is spent mainly in trying to figure out which end goes to which, how many 3 enders do I need, and it gets really funky looking. Plus I've found I have to wrap every multi-connection point in saran wrap and/or walmart bags taped at the ends to prevent water from short circuiting everything. Right Now, I'm having that problem because I didn't get them wrapped before the storm hit the other night.
If you learn and become familiar with the process, you can make your own custom extension cords. I have another video explaining the process. You can put plugs along your cord anywhere you want them. ruclips.net/video/o81kf2VvbO4/видео.html
I have 100 string lights from Walmart. The first 12 lights (from the plug)work but the rest do not. The lights from there on seem to not work. I went to the middle and nothing worked, I went to the other end and nothing worked. I checked about 7 or 8 bulbs from the last working light and they were all bad lights (used the bulb checker on Ledkeeper). Is the wiring bad. Sever strands went out the same evening of a heavy rain but not all strands hooked together went out. WHAT is the issue?
Very Nice Video. Your presentation was spot on.
Dennis
Inventor of the LED Keeper
Thanks Dennis. It's a great product that does its job perfectly.
@@LightingUpPaxton Someone's having a merry Christmas. ;)
Congrats Mr. Cherry!
Yep, a very nice video, indeed. Cheers!
Bad ass!!!
Mmmmm
Mlllllllllmmmm
Mmmmm
Mmmmm
Mmmllllmmmmmm
What about the box brands they have 3 wires that go into socket
Thank you for showing me how to repair my led lights. I was very pleased with your demonstration. I didn't want to throw away my lights due to one of the bulbs being damaged that caused the string of lights to not work. I really love the set of lights and kept it because of the decorative flowers around the bulbs. So I kept them and wondered if it was repairable. Now that you have shown me how to repair my string of lights, I am so grateful for your help!
A couple of additions:
Incandescent lights work by heating a tungsten filament to the point where it glows. There is a heating and cooling time. During cooling, the filament briefly continues to glow even after power is turned off. This dwell time, during which the filament glows while cooling is called “persistence”. So an incandescent bulb never really turns off when the voltage inthe circuit crosses zero every 1/120 of a second. Hence no flicker.
2. The human eye CAN see 120Hz flicker, just not head on. Human peripheral vision is much more frequency sensitive and many people can see 120Hz flicker peripherally. You can test this by using your peripheral vision to view a fluorescent light, which is uses both parts of the voltage cycle, so flickers at 120Hz
I found this explanation very easy to follow! I learned more in these videos than I did in my electrical engineering classes in college! I'm a chemical engineer, but electricity has always been my weakness. Thank you!
Loved your video, we just fixed 9 strings of lights with the LED Keeper. Where do you buy better quality led string lights online?
As a person who did this professionally in malls all over the country these light fixing guns are a god send. The only issue I have with your. Idea is when you said about leds not being worth the money. The difference is in current consumption. When you do big displays like I did it made a huge difference. It will also make a difference in a house. Great. Video.
Thanks for the comment! For professional jobs like you are talking about, I 100% agree that good LEDs make a lot more sense to maintain good reliability of the installation. That's good advice for anyone working as a pro.
On my personal display I found it worthwhile to sacrifice some reliability for the lower up-front cost of incandescent bulbs. It was the only way to make the Christmas display I desired to create affordable. Electrical rates vary everywhere, but in some areas of the country good LED lights don't necessarily pay for themselves in electrical savings alone.
Lighting Up Paxton in my area (NJ right outside NYC) it definitely pays for itself. My biggest complaint is they aren’t as bright as incandescent.
@@kbrandsr, I found that it depends on the manufacturer/brand and type of LED used. I have 2 sets of bright white LEDs from 2 different brands, one is really intensely white, whereas the other is only moderate. I never really liked the soft white as it was just too yellowish to me. Which in a way, its mimicking the old style incandescents. Yeah, the bright white does have a bit of blue tint added to it to make it more of a brilliant white, but I like the pureness of white. My reason is cause the colors of my ornaments and the tree itself are more brilliant and true, than the soft white will give. My recommendation for LEDs will always be Phillips. Never had any other brands best them out yet.
@@LightingUpPaxton "Electrical rates vary everywhere" Yes that is true. "But in some areas of the country, good LED lights dont necessarily pay for themselves in electrical savings alone." Where di you get this from??? LEDs save you nearly 90% more than Incandescents in energy usage. Yeah cost for a strand is a bit more, but the length of life of LEDs vs Incandescents is also significantly longer too. So in a way you are buying either replacement LEDs or strings way less often than Incandescents. I would rather pay a few dollars for LEDs for the month of displaying my christmas lights than paying nearly hundreds of dollars in energy use alone. That hundreds saved is more in your pocket using LEDs, than using Incandescents. LEDs use nearly 90% less power and watts than Incandescents.
@@Magny80 after nearly having a stroke when the electric bill came, we are switching to LED lights. As the old ones go out, we are replacing with LED. We have been buying Walmart brand but will look for a better brand from now on. What brand did you say was better? Thanks ! 🤶❤🎅 ✌🏻❤
This was an excellent video! Thanks so much. We had 4 strands of 100 bulb LED lights purchased last year we were able to save. I would give you a 12 rating out of 10 if I could!!
8:57 - When the actual fixing part starts. You're welcome.
Sweet Baby Jesus,
Then the cat hacked a fur ball , meanwhile the garbage disposal was making a racket turned out be my dentures stuck to a piece Carmel candy yak yak yak , oh yea lights I almost forgot
Rude! I enjoyed the entire video.
Thankyou
Stupid yapper video I stg thanks
Your video was just what I needed. I had a 48" lighted wreath that had a string of lights out that I was ready to give up on. After watching your video I ordered the Pro Light Keeper and worked on my wreath as I watch your video again and I fixed it! Thank you!
Never thought this would work. Brought my christmas tree back to life. Put it in, pulled the trigger 10 times, tree lights up and now i can see all the dead bulbs.
Do you have an LED tree?
Three years ago I realized that I was spending more time fixing those old incandescent light strings than I was hanging the lights !! 🤔🤔🤔🤔
I had maybe a dozen strings and I even had one of those "Impossible to repair" reindeer displays.
I collected the lot and gave them all to the Well Good will store.
I then went to Wally World and bought a boat load of LED style light strings.
After three years of of usage, I have YET to have to repair a single one of them !!
With all their color and automatic lighting options, they are a true Christmas Joy.
Omg!!! I have thrown away so many strings because I couldn't find how to fix them and no-one else knew!!! You are my new best friend! I have to find these tools online now..thanks you so much. I also have a heap.of tubular LEDs. Can these be fixed?
Awesome lesson from an awesome teacher! Thank you for this video. I'm in the process of fixing my window lights. 😀
Very good explanation, but I have a question. I know Diodes are sensitive to current flow and maybe voltage to a point, but just twisting the two wires together should still work if your spreading that" lack" of resistance over 50 or 100 LEDs ?
Great video, Bravo.
Fantastically well done! Clear and simple, I am ordering my LED Keeper right now.
I bought both at Menards around Christmas for a little over $10 each. They both work wonderfully.
Prices have went up. $36 on Amazon! $18 on sale at Menards so I bought both units they had.
I've watched your videos and they are well presented. Here is a problem I can't find a solution for on the web. I have the Christmas light spheres. My brand is Bethlehem Starlight with 50 bulbs. The fuses are good. The bulbs are good. There are no breaks in the wire. Yet I have 3 spheres that I can't get to light. Any ideas on where to go from here? Thanks
Just finished fixing my bad string! Lucky for me I had several spares from the manufacturer. Whole process took less than five minutes.
Looks great, but...I have several strings of "big-box" LEDs. However, unlike the one you show, each socket has THREE wires going into it, not two. How do I proceed with checking those?
Very well made video describing how the LED Keeper tool works and how to use it!
Hi any tips on how to fix a pre lit LED tree where the lights aren't just in a straight line? As in, they are every which way we have a 3 section tree whose middle section is lighting up fine but the top and bottom are not. Thanks!
Awesome video…thanks for sharing!
I must say, you caught my attention. Very knowledgeable and easy to follow. You should be an electrical teacher! Now off to buy the LED Keeper pro
What store did you get it at? If you found one.
@@travisporter0801 At home depot www.homedepot.com/p/LED-Keeper-Diagnose-and-Repair-LED-Light-Sets-3203-4/205786326
@@travisporter0801 Ace Hardware in Mass. I've seen them on amazon too!
Wonderful video! I have a GE C9 set that I love for its light functions. One half wasn't working and I just priced it out at $85. I'm going to try the LED keeper. Thank you for sharing.
Stumbled upon your LED Repair Video..
WOW !!
All the information I needed, just at the Right Time, to repair a few unlit bulbs..
LED Keeper on Order..
Thanks for all your Insite...
Yeah!!!!! Before i found you i was totally frustrated even with the lightkeeperpro...BUT You made it so easy...Thank You
Great video. Question- a critter chewed through all three wires in one spot. I assume I can link up the two wires from the bulb and use the POD. Then just use two connectors to join the other two wires? Are those two different or can I just pick. 50/50, ass I can’t tell… thanks.
I know it's 5 years later but do you have the color code or ohm value on that resistor? I also wonder why they don't make the pod just be a bulb socket and include a bulb...
i noted that you said the tester has a small needle that pierces the insulation. When you have tested multiple times and removed a bulb and joined the wires with the little "box resistor" - can I still use the string outside when it rains and drizzles all winter?
Question. Can you simply splice the wires together after cutting out the bad bulb instead of using the black item? I know it also contains a small resistor, but that seems like it could be negligible for the entire stand. Thanks for putting the video together.
I was thinking the same thing!
Thank you for the video and tutorial for both this and the original Light Keeper Pro! I've fixed both my incandescent and LED lights now and very quickly and easily with the assistance of your videos! Thank you!
Hi. Excellent video. Two questions. 1. When half the light string works fine, but the other half is dim (not out completely), is the problem/repair likely the same as shown in the video? 2. After snipping off the faulty light, why not just solder the two wire ends together instead of using a pod? Thanks.
Because you need to add the resistance of the burned out LED into the circuit.
@@darylspecter8325 I would guess that if you wanted it look "nicer", one could just solder in a proper size resistor between the two wires, shrink tube the splice/resistor, and seal the ends, and call it all good. A bit more work than just using a resistor pod.
Great video. Question: I own the LED Light Keeper Pro. I have LED icicle lights with 3 wires. String with 1/2 out or 1/2 dim. I end up tracing to the end of the string near the female 110v plug, 3-4 lights don’t illuminate but when i remove and test each bulb they work, yet exactly half the string won’t illuminate? In the sting in about 3 places are 2”x.33” round tubes wired to bulbs that have a different, wider bulb base. When you examine the socket their are 3 wires instead of 2. What is this tube and why the different bulb base? I have replaced the LED’s by removing old one from base, and am careful to match polarity, but do these sockets with 3 wires and wider bulb base use a different LED? I am determined to get these strings working, but have several where all bulbs test good, yet half the string doesn’t light up.
I have a similar problem where my entire string doesn't work but each bulb tests good and all bulbs are installed correctly. My bunch is the rectifier is bad.
This is an excellent demonstration that provided a lot of useful information. I feel very confident that if I get the right tool, I will now be able to repair my LED bulb strands. My only suggestions would be that, if you are talking about the sine wave in terms of "left and right" don't illustrate it with a diagram that is in "up and down" format. I appreciate the explanation of the half wave versus full wave strands, but I kind of wish the demo was simply on the half wave strands that most of us pick up at the big box store. One question: does it matter which side of the bulb you put the LED tester on to determine if the bulb is working?
Yes, it does matter, but you won't do any damage putting it in the wrong way. If it doesn't light up at first, then just try it the other direction. If neither way will light up the bulb, then you have a bad led. After doing a few you can get the hang of which way they go
Hi, great video, could a similar led bulb be spliced in instead of using the black pod with resistor? Thanks.
Great vid! Now a deep dive.
I have a c7 70 lite string that has one section partially dimly lit, the other half fully lit & bright.
They are 5A , there is the 2 to 3 wire setup, and no pod in the wire as you've shown in that set.
The bulbs are also non replaceable. So is it the same procedure for dimly lit as completely out section?
Can you just use a non-contact voltage meter to find out where the current has stopped through the part of the strand that is not working?
I was told by my sweetie to throw away the 'dead' incandescent and led strands. After an hour of fuse and build DX failures, I threw three stands out and sent to the hardware store (a good one), and Lowes. Neither was stocked with replacements that remotely matched what we have. Toss out the whole inventory or figure out how to fix. My sweetie says, " just start over" . They are stored in ideal conditions, with no varmit damage, just a year in a box. Why I love the internet., "there's no incandescent or led stand that can't be repaired. New tools, quick fix. Thank you!
The most helpful video of all, thank you.
Very well presented step by step, really saved me and Dad a lot of time.
A appreciate your video as you cover how to test led circuits very well. However, I kind of wish you would have purposely applied the tester to either side of the bad bulb, to further prove to the viewer that you indeed located a bad bulb. One other comment/question is- Why do those pods have to be so large, looks like a good place for engineering ingenuity! Thanks.
You are super helpful answering all the questions left to you in the comments! I have a tricky one - I just got my LED Light Keeper and I plugged it in, checked my first section of lights and about half lit up. Then I go to check another section and one singular bulb lights up about 4 lights away from where I pulled the trigger. What does that mean?
on the first half of the string you should be able to keep moving the tool down the "off" portion until the lights until the string lights up in the other direction. That point where it switches and one bulb doesn't light should be the problem bulb. The second half of your string does have an interesting problem. I would grab a few clothes pins to mark good bulbs and move the tool up and down the string until you isolate bad bulbs, replacing them from the outside first and working towards the middle of the half-string.
Love this video. Can you simply use a voltage meter (not the light keeper pro) to find where the voltage stops on the side of the strand that is not working?
I tried this with my pen voltage detector but couldn’t figure out where the break was
Thanks for the very helpful video, my LED light strings have half the bulbs out, but all the lights are working, the secondary rectifier in the middle seems to be faulty? I tested all the bulbs with the LED light pro and they all work. Can I replace the secondary rectifier with the pod? will that complete the circuit correctly? Thank you for answering my question ;-) I read through all the comments and didn't find this problem answered yet!
Good video. Very well done.
Thank you for a great video. Very clean clear tutorial on how to fix led lights
Thanks for the video, any tips for isolating the bad bulb on net lights?
Net lights will be like other strings of Christmas lights, where the current-carrying wire will go to one bulbs at a time in series. Identify which wire is carrying that current and the directing it is flowing to trace it around the net. Net lights will often have extra plastic wires connecting bulbs to form the net and have no copper conductor in them.
Thanks great video only problem in nobody in canada has any testers and they are $70 bucks on amazon and I may or may not get it before Xmas. Guess I'm buying new lights
First off. Great video. Question. What is plastic piece that is after the first bulb. Is it a resistor or diode?
You are excellent & easy to understand! Thank you so very much!!!!!
It would be nice if you could plug the tool into the socket instead of piecing the insulation for the ones you can pull out which are all of mine. I have a ton of LED strands now and every year a few will go out, most because of where they are outside. Some of my incandescent strands from decades ago are still working, but I do love my bright LEDs. Also you can see some lit LEDs not appear lit on your phone's camera screen, but if you really want to see the flicker you can swing the strand like a jump rope.
Amazing demo.... Thanks
When you test does it matter which direction the tester faces? All bulbs lit up to the right the first time, then second they all lit up to left of bad bulb. If you flipped the tester would it make a difference? Also can you just cut the wires and twist them together without the diode?
I've had nothing but problems with Christmas LEDS over the last couple years, from an expensive twinkling led lit deer decoration to regular strands on my fence, gutters, and porch.. They're not as robust as they're talked up to be. Maybe in mild weather but not low temperatures, with wind and snow.
I have the same problem in Florida here. Only a few nights dip below 40 and every year leds are lucky to last 1 season. Maybe the humidity? Things rust that are inside my house even so I imagine that gets in there
@@MrJoshcc600 yea, could be too. I think mine might be from the extrene cold and winds by me, yours might be corrosion.
Great video! I have an outdoor 5 foot nutcracker which lights up with LED's that are replaceable. The light in the arm of the nutcracker are out. However I cannot find replaceable bulbs. It originally came with 2 replacement bulbs which I already used. In the instructions it says they are 3.0 volt, 0.072 Watt. The LED's are mini conical white lights. Do you know where I can get these lights or do you think the LED Keeper would work to repair.
I just bought a balsam hill LED prelit tree last month. Spent a small fortune. Those little fairy lights are glued on those branches. The top two sections are working fine but bottom section is not. What do I do? If I have to remove this set will I wreck the other sets of lights? Ugh.
What if the bad spot is at one of the "bubbles" you mentioned? Still use a pod?
Thank you so much for a thoroughly informative and helpful video!
Dear Xmas Light God, I’ve had some success. Going bulb by build on a section of lights on pre-lit tree. I’ve got 96% working. I have 4 bulbs somewhat near each other that instantly blow when I change the bulbs. I’ve tried replacing all 4, they each blow when re-installed. It’s only these and they are not in perfect sequence. There are a bulb or two in between that work. Any ideas?
If some of the bulbs are lit but dim while testing with the tool, does that mean those bulbs are getting ready to fail or is it just a bad connection with the tool? (When testing the dim bulbs individually with the tester they'll sometimes illuminate completely.)
I'm definitely going to buy both tools, but the light bulb pods? No....can someone tell me what type of resistance it is?
Great Video but I have a problem not mentioned. I have LED Christmas lights with 3 strands on the connection end plug and 3 strands coming out of the power plug, but 4 strands of wire between every single light bulb and I cannot figure so I can get out where the 4th wire begins and ends?
That is the coolest tool-never knew it existed! Thanks for your video!
Great video, thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the tutorial. Just bought tool and fixed my lights. Question: Do I need to use the pods? Can I just connect the two cut wires together? Thanks.
Nevermind. Saw answer on a prior post. Thanks.
In most cases you can, but be aware it produces greater current to the other LEDs and will decrease the life of the whole strand.
Hi, great video. I have multicolor led icicle lights on my house. Every single year sections of a string, goes dim and afterwards just die. Why is this happening? They are Holiday Time brand from Walmart. It can be the 1st, or 3rd or 5th string on the house it’s a crap shoot.
That is a peculiar problem. The most common problem with store-bought LED strings with removable bulbs is corrosion. This could be the issue as an LED bulb begins to fail and then fails completely. The LED keeper should help identify which bulbs are the problem so you can replace them. If you run out of replacement bulbs you can sacrifice one of your strings as a full set of extra bulbs.
I have a few sets of LED that have extra bulbs. Is there a particular way to change them or just replace like incandescent bulbs?
Awesome video it helped a lot. Question: why does a new set of Christmas lights blow fuse after a few seconds?
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have had to order the LED Light keeper Pro (no one locally had it) , and was wondering how to fix my LED'S as they are not removable. All lights were from big box stores, but none can be removed. Your videos are so helpful. Much appreciated.
Thanks for sharing your good work great video 👍
Thank you Sir it works like a champ 👍
Great Video thanks for sharing
Geat job thank you i have a peacock that the head and tail don't light up and it has a short in it because when the wind blows sometime it will light up. How do you find a short?
The LED Keeper will find the short in the same way it finds a bad bulb, by isolating parts of the string one at a time and narrowing down the problem. Without the tool you will have to go socket by socket and check for corrosion or loose wires that lack firm connection to the bulb. Sometimes wiggling the problem bulb will make the string come back on briefly which would isolate the problem bulb.
Nice ! Thanks for the video....
Any ideas on troubleshooting LED icicle lights, half the strand is on but the LEDKEEPER doesn't seem to light up anything. Fuses are good.
You talked about getting to the full wave rectified pods but didn't. Did you create a video regarding those?
Question: what’s going on when I’m testing the LEDs and instead of all lighting on one or the other side of the tester, I’m getting dimly lit bulbs on both sides. What do I do then?? I did successfully fix one strand; thank you.
That is what I want to know. I baught some upgrading my lights, but 2 strands went partically dim... What is the problem?
@@matthewsmith3634 you likely have a bad bulb somewhere.
Led’s are more of a pain to work on... instead of a partial strand outage (like incandescent bulbs) they will go dim. Then you gotta use the LED Keeper to find the bad bulb.
@Katie Garner The dim on each side is when you are tracking down the bad spot (with the Led Keeper). The tool is putting power to the strand. If the lights come on keep moving until they don’t.
That’s where you work with the clothespins on either side. You will eventually meet in the middle and find the bad bulb.
Make sense?
Excellent presentation...
What a great video! Just what I was looking for that I could find no where else!
Great video. Thanks. Question: Does a non-working LED bulb in the string harm the other working bulbs in the string by increasing the voltage going to those working lights the way it does in an incandescent string? Thanks for your reply.
I have a strand of multi-colored, and actioned (controlled via cellphone app) sealed LED bulbs that have four wires entering into the bottom of each bulb. Currently, 1/2 of my strand won't light, while the first half does. I suspect the procedure might be different, buy can I use the LED keeper to correct these bulbs, and if so, do you make the 'pods' which would support four stands entering the bottom of each bulb?
I have the same problem. Following
If the strand only makes three colors, likely it is similar to a normal LED strand and 3 of the 4 wires are supplying power to each color individually. If this strand can make many different colors, the bulbs likely have RGB bulbs in them and this tool will not work for those. I would suggest searching how to fix RGB strings if that is the case.
@@LightingUpPaxton Thanks for the quick response. And yes, the bulbs can make many different colors, brightness, flashing patterns, alternate colors, patterns, etc. So, sounds like I need to search on a fix for RGB strings. Thanks for the suggestion and advice. I appreciate it.
Just to get a little more understanding about how LED lights work......why can you not just cut out and remove a bad light and splice the wires back together where the bad light is missing? Why so you need the resistor in the little splice box?
The bulbs each draw a little bit of current. The more you take out, the brighter the bulbs get. This can decrease the life of the lights.
If it's just 1 light you're removing, it really doesn't make a noticeable difference. Sometimes I just splice them when it's a cheap set of lights I'm fixing.
Too much current through an led light will burn it out. A resistor in series prevents that from happening.
excellent. only thing is the pods. sorry if youre selling these but wouldnt a simple wire strip, twist together and sealed with waterproof heat shrink be cheaper and more effective? The pod looks like if it got hung up and pulled it would just leave a stripped wire.
The pods don't just splice the wires together. They also contain resistors to take the place of the LED. Without the resistor the remaining LEDs in the series will experience greater voltage, limiting their life span and increasing the chances your string will go out again.
Remember the pod has a small resistor in series to replace the resistance of the missing LED
@@TheMaximzodal Yep, 330 ohms.
Thank you merry Christmas
I'm curious but @ 16:14 why not make a "splice pod" with an actual LED replacement, then no bulb lost? Great presentation
Good solution. Perhaps use an led from a donor string? Or simply replace with 330 ohm resistor.
At 10:31 "What we're going to do to start..." ok, finally!
great video
You are great, ty
Any recommendations on shortening LED light strand. I have the GE icicle lights from Costco and need remove 6-8 icicles for custom fit.
Just backtrack the lights so they overlap at the end nstead of cutting it. YOu won't even noice the difference
@@susanpolanski4528 Thats my question too--but your answer dosen't suit my situation, I NEED to shorten the cable . Anyone ?
Thank you for a great video. I already have the original Lightkeeper Pro and it has helped many times with my Christmas Tree. I just bought the LCD fixer through your link and am hoping it will help with my outside deer. For years I bought the less expensive ones that were mostly animated, but was lucky if I got a year out of them. I tossed all of them and this was before I bought the original Pro Keeper. Last year I bought a larger buck that didn't move and paid a lot more money for it. This season we discovered the back lights on his leg didn't light up. We tried the original Lightkeeper Pro and of course it didn't work because this has what I think are LED lights on it. Do you think the new one will work on the large buck? I would hate to toss it after just one season. Most are talking about strands of wire and haven't seen anything on fixing lights on any kind of deer. I know this video is old and hope you are still taking questions. Thanking you in advance.
If the deer has LED lights, then the LED Keeper should work just fine. Even though the lights are twined around the deer, it still works just as a normal lights strand. Trace the wires around the spot that doesn't work and you'll realize it should resemble a standard string of LED lights and use the LED Keeper just as I did in the video.
One section of my 150 bulbs went out, followed the instructions; time consuming, frustration, and nothing worked. Finally fixed it in 5 min by buying a new set of lights for $6.
those aren't LED bulbs then lol
I got two light keeper pro's at goodwill for 5 bucks, It is awesome.
I don't know if you'll answer or not but I need help. I have these lights that I bought from WalMart about 2 years ago, they're 25 C7 LED color-changing christmas lights and nearing Christmas of 2016, I noticed that a part of the lights went dim. I just want to know if there's a way I can fix them. I don't want to think I just threw money in the garbage.
That is an interesting problem. You may have a corroded contact point in one of the bulb sockets that is causing some voltage drop in that section of the string. With my LED Keeper I would use it to isolate parts of the dim section until I found the problem spot. Without that tool you may have to pull out each bulb one by one to find a possible corrosion point.
Lighting Up Paxton Okay, I will buy the LED Keeper and see where the problem is, thank you
I purchased one of these on clearance after christmas a few years ago and forgot about it. I just found it the other day after going thru all of my strings bulb by bulb.
So good thank you
Super helpful video, thanks! Any idea how many Ohms the resistor is in the pod?
I believe if you wanted to find the resistance of your led you could use a multimeter and then just solder an appropriate resister inline to replace the faulty LED light and cover the whole joint with shrinkwrap tubing.
@@chrishad95 LED's are "non-linear" so they do not have a characteristic resistance. My GUESS is the resistor is around 150 ohms. The color bands would answer the question but all he said was "it's colorful"...
330 ohm
Every comment you made about how the various LEDs never or rarely burn out, or fail, has NOT been my experience. I've also read elsewhere that there is generally an expected 30% failure rate for the strands. I'll admit that I have been working with a LOT more LED holiday lights than most residential folks, but I get really tired of all the lights I have to repair or replace. I have, easily, 12+ 60 qt boxes full of lights needing repair, and three piles more under cover, also needing repair.
It seems to have to do with the quality of the strand. I have one that didn't even last 4 years, but I have several others that are between 10 and 14 years old and not a single bulb is out, and I've used all the strands in the same manner under the same weather conditions, etc. Could be the newer ones are lower quality than the older ones. The old saying "they don't make 'em like they used to."
Im with you. I have a small meager setup and hoped leds would be better but in my experience they burn out and have problems EVERY season just like incandescent. Im lucky if I get 2 seasons. Im here because I'm tired of it and have 1 brand new string last year that's totally dead veggie setting up this, and 2 strings that are half dead that are 2 seasons old (this would have been the 3rd). Only 1 survived last Christmas without failing.
Do you know how to fix LED lights that have a controller box, ones that have a box connected to it for different light shows and works with a hand controller as well. We have tried what you shared but still not working. Any idea you can help us with?
This is a useful video at this time of year (every year) ..
Can you tell us the value of the resistor within the POD ?
PS: Any suggestions on how to not have your yard be uncrossable and looking like Medusa lost her hair? My time (hours) is spent mainly in trying to figure out which end goes to which, how many 3 enders do I need, and it gets really funky looking. Plus I've found I have to wrap every multi-connection point in saran wrap and/or walmart bags taped at the ends to prevent water from short circuiting everything.
Right Now, I'm having that problem because I didn't get them wrapped before the storm hit the other night.
If you learn and become familiar with the process, you can make your own custom extension cords. I have another video explaining the process. You can put plugs along your cord anywhere you want them.
ruclips.net/video/o81kf2VvbO4/видео.html
I have 100 string lights from Walmart. The first 12 lights (from the plug)work but the rest do not. The lights from there on seem to not work. I went to the middle and nothing worked, I went to the other end and nothing worked. I checked about 7 or 8 bulbs from the last working light and they were all bad lights (used the bulb checker on Ledkeeper). Is the wiring bad. Sever strands went out the same evening of a heavy rain but not all strands hooked together went out. WHAT is the issue?
Issue?