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I have a large lighted snowflake wall decoration that I hang on the front of my house but this year two of the six sides of the snowflake won't light. I replaced the fuses in the plug, didn't help. It's a total of 50 mini-lights out of 150 that won't light. So do those light tester "guns" work on something like this?
The snowflake is not LED, in fact it's about ten or twelve years old and I was thinking about just replacing it but I can't find one like it and similar ones are pricey. So have you had any experience with the light testers and is it worth spending $20 on one?
Many times if an entire section goes out, it isn't a bulb that is burned out, but rather one that is loose, missing, or broken. If you have spare time before getting a tester, just start at one end and go through, with the string plugged in, and wiggle or push in each light. If one is loose, the lights should come on when you push it in.
That being said, I have had a situation where moisture apparently got into the system somehow and burned out every light in the string. The tip off was when I noticed every bulb was black inside.
Many times if an entire section goes out, it isn't a bulb that is burned out, but rather one that is loose, missing, or broken. If you have spare time before getting a tester, just start at one end and go through, with the string plugged in, and wiggle or push in each light. If one is loose, the lights should come on when you push it in.
That being said, I have had a situation where moisture apparently got into the system somehow and burned out every light in the string. The tip off was when I noticed every bulb was black inside.
This is probably what happened to mine as the problem bulbs are dark inside. I've tried the wiggle trick with no luck.
And $20 is the price I found online, including my local Ace Hardware and others. For $4.99 I'd give it a go!
We bought one this year and it TOTALLY WORKS! We had two garlands where one half worked and the other half did not. Used the gun and voila - both garlands 100% lit. So happy because they were huge, high quality garlands we've been using for years. I did NOT want to go have to go through and find which bulb was causing the problem.
Okay, I went and bought a tester. Yes, they're really $20. As I read the instructions there was a disclaimer: won't work on lights that are blackened. So I started to try to replace the 50 blackened lights but my replacements aren't the same size mini-bulb. Plus the bulb puller on the tester doesn't work because my lights are configured so close to each other. I give up.
Oh well, I've gotten years of use out of it and maybe it just came to the end of its life, supposedly 2,000 hours. I went way over that.
But phooey anyway.
I have a "Light keeper PRO" and it is fantastic, it does all kinds of tests and really works.
Don't remember what I paid for it, but it's worth every penny.
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