Christmas Lights Electrical Problem! Help!

[marshman]

Bought 12 new strands of cool white LED icicle lights from Home Depot. Box says you can put up to 15 strands on one outlet. Put them all out on Thursday on a timer to come on at dark and off at daylight. All worked flawlessly until tonight. For some reason when they came on they were very dim. Even after a few minutes they didn’t get any brighter. I unplugged the timer they were on and plugged them directly into the outlet. Same issue except now there are areas that are completely out. I don’t think it’s a power issue as I tried both plugs on the outlet with the same results. I also have a spotlight on a flagpole in my yard with a timer and it’s working fine that’s on the same outlet. I would hate to take 12 strands of icicle lights down and back to the store! Anyone have any suggestions??? Would be most appreciative!

[texasdeerhunter]

I think 15 strands on one outlet is your problem lol. And you may have blown a fuse in one of the plugs for one of the strands. How about trying half as many strands on one outlet and see what happens?

Sorry, meant 12. Try less than 12

[ACbob]

Did you take you sunglasses off? Sorry brother, I don't understand electricity!

[Pedernal]

Try them one at a time perhaps. There is a good chance only one has a problem and it's effecting the others.

[Aggie13]

Have you checked to see what other outlets are on that circuit and see if there is something else on that circuit (Breaker) that is drawing a lot of power? The recommendations of x# of strands usually make the assumption that ONLY those strands are on that circuit, if that circuit is also wired to some outlets in the garage and something is plugged in there then you're likely using too many strands.

What specific brand/lights are they? Might be able to help more with a little more info

[Playa]

I think 15 strands on one outlet is your problem lol. And you may have blown a fuse in one of the plugs for one of the strands. How about trying half as many strands on one outlet and see what happens?

Sorry, meant 12. Try less than 12

Not with LED. You can hundreds of feet with LED with no problem.

It was mentioned earlier, but try them one strand at a time. I bet there is one bad one that is affecting the entire circuit. I had a customer this week with a similar issue and it was a bad plug affecting about 200 LF of c9 lights.

I’ve been in the Christmas light industry for nearly 12 years now.

[Playa]

Have you checked to see what other outlets are on that circuit and see if there is something else on that circuit (Breaker) that is drawing a lot of power? The recommendations of x# of strands usually make the assumption that ONLY those strands are on that circuit, if that circuit is also wired to some outlets in the garage and something is plugged in there then you're likely using too many strands.

What specific brand/lights are they? Might be able to help more with a little more info

That’s not going to cause dim lights in a strand or series of strands. If the circuit is over loaded it should throw the breaker and shut them off.

[marshman]

These are the lights. It’s approx 210ft of lights

[Chew]

We checked every bulb? Right Russ?

Uh...yeah. Sure. Wooooh. Look at the time.

[eradicator]

Dad, you taught me everything I know about exterior illumination-Clark Griswold

[Chew]

Dad, you taught me everything I know about exterior illumination-Clark Griswold

Beat you by seconds!

[eradicator]

Beat you by seconds!

I would expect nothing less

[Longhorn95]

I see the appropriate references have already been made to the expert Clark G.

I have nothing more to add.

[Aggie13]

That’s not going to cause dim lights in a strand or series of strands. If the circuit is over loaded it should throw the breaker and shut them off.

Just a starting point... if the truck aint runnin, make sure its got gas; if the lights arent on, make sure they're plugged in.....gotta start with the basics.

Never know when checking other things plugged in on that circuit can lead to a root cause.

[Rick]

check the strings one at a time, it is likely something has gone wrong w one strand