A few years ago, when my children were young, I tried to hang the Christmas lights on the tree, but none of them lit up. If you have ever stringed Christmas lights or plugged in a pre-lit tree, then you have been there. In any case, that Christmas in our family was called Christmas and Dad said something bad.
A broken bulb can prevent the entire string of lights from igniting, because each bulb will supply power to the next bulb on the string. When there is a problem with the bulbs, usually the shunt is broken, and you either have to replace each bulb with a bulb you know, until you encounter a broken bulb and they all light up.
Over the years, you did not do this, instead you had to throw away the entire line and ran to the store to buy more Christmas lights.
A relatively new gadget called Light Keeper Pro was invented to repair lights, and no one said bad things after an hour or two.
It works like this: once you plug in a string of lights and nothing lights up, you can remove a light bulb with a handy tool built into the device, which is basically a plastic gun. Then, remove the empty socket and push it into the socket in the Light Keeper Pro gadget.
Then, you will pull the trigger on the device 7-20 times. Light Keeper Pro will send out a beam of current or pulsed current through the entire line, even through the socket with the broken light bulb, so that they all light up. Except for a bad light bulb that you can identify now.
This should work, but if not, Light Keeper Pro has an audible voltage tester. Using another trigger or button on the gadget, hold it down on the rope until one of the sockets does not beep. Then, you have identified the bad socket where the voltage stopped. Replace that bulb and everything should work normally.
So, Light Keeper Pro works fine. I have talked with a few friends and they use it successfully every year.
The Light Keeper Pro website has instructions and a few videos showing how to use the product.
It works, but honestly, it’s not as easy as it seems in the video, and my friend told me in advance that it requires some practice.
I took a few strands that were not bright at all and another strand that only partly worked. Now, these strands are very old, and I can’t say with certainty that they have been working for many years. There may be a few broken bulbs or something may have been eaten through the wires (although I checked and didn’t see anything).
To better understand whether the gadget is effective, I went to the store to buy a box of brand new lights for about $3, and plugged in a power source to make sure all the bulbs were on. I took an old light bulb and bend the shunt or wire that went into the socket back to receive power and pass it on to the next light bulb. Once I put the broken bulb in the good bulb and tried to use Light Keeper Pro.
The gadget turned on all the lights, and the broken bulb stayed dark. As instructed, I replaced the broken bulb with a good bulb, and each bulb on the string turned on.
If this doesn’t work for your light string, Light Keeper Pro has an audible voltage tester in which you can run the gun along the light string. A good light bulb will beep. When you encounter a light bulb that does not beep, you will know that it is a socket that prevents the rest of the circuit from being energized to complete the circuit.
I should mention that it is not as simple as shown in the video. As my friends who also use it told me, plugging the bulb socket into Light Keeper Pro to illuminate the entire string of lights requires some practice. The same is true for me.
Light Keeper Pro only works with the most common mini incandescent lamps. For LED light strings, you need the LED version of Light Keeper Pro.
I found that Light Keeper Pro and most retailers that sell Christmas lights, including Walmart, Target and Home Depot, sell for about $20.