My Christmas Lights turn off when it rains.

BUY COMMERCIAL GRADE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS HERE

At Grants Outdoor, we run into this problem fairly often every time it rains. Water and electricity don’t mix well. Water that infiltrates the sockets on your Christmas lights wire can trip the GFCI socket, or the breaker and any other location water that might touch the wire can cause a trip. That’s the importance of those breakers and GFCI, a trip would easily turn into an electrical fire and could burn the house down.

How can I solve this problem? I tend to look for the simplest solutions first and work my way up to the more costly fixes.

1. Check for any ends that are not taped.

   -Tap any ends on the Christmas light socket wire that does not have a male or female vampire plug. (UNPLUG THE LIGHTS FIRST). The fastest I solved one of these problems for a customer is when some staked ground Christmas lights had a cut end sitting in the grass, took 2 minutes to find and fix, and I was on my way. A common problem for mini lights in shrubs and trees or wrapped around columns is the connections are not tapped together and can cause moisture to get into the plug and cause a short during a rainstorm.

2. Check for burned-out bulbs.

   -They look sort of black on the LED or Bulb. Find the bad bulb and replace it with a new one. Usually, not the issue with Christmas lights shutting off in the rain, but a very common problem

3. Check the wire for any knicks or exposed wire.

   -It is common for Christmas light companies to break the sockets off in order to jump small sections of the roofline without adding a short extension cord. This practice is fine, however, it is also common to not tape over the small knicks in the wire from the vampire's teeth in the socket piece., this causes water to infiltrate and cause a trip.

4. Check the Outlet the Christmas lights are plugged into.

   -Is it in a location where rain will directly hit it? is it missing the cover or is the outlet cover broken. Probably the most common issue is the GFCI outlet, designed to detect issues in your home’s electrical wiring. GFCI outlets will trip before the breaker and save your home from a fire. Simply pressing the reset button on the GFCI Outlet will turn the Christmas Lights back on.