How to Inspect Christmas Lights for Safety

Every holiday season, you hear about the inevitable house fire caused by faulty Christmas lights. It takes only a bare wire or overheated bulb to generate enough heat to start a fire. Before setting up either outdoor or indoor Christmas lights, you should inspect these lights thoroughly. The safety of you and your family depends on your spending a few minutes to inspect your Christmas lights.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

1. Lay out each strand of Christmas lights and check for loose connections, broken bulbs and frayed or bare wires. It's best to discard any damaged Christmas lights and buy new ones if you find any damage.

2. Plug strands of Christmas lights into an electrical outlet before putting outdoors or on the tree. Make sure the wires don't get warm to the touch, a sign of overheating. Connect no more than three strands together.

3. Check each socket to ensure none are cracked or broken. Again, discard the strand if you find any damaged sockets rather than attempting to make any repairs.

4. Replace burnt out bulbs, as remaining bulbs will burn brighter and hotter. Use bulbs with the same wattage. Test the strand after replacing all burnt out bulbs to make sure each light is working.

5. Inspect each individual bulb. If you can easily separate the glass of the bulb from the base, discard the bulb. Make sure bulbs don't have too much solder at the base; this may make it difficult to make a proper connection.

Tips & Warnings

• Use Christmas lights that have passed safety testing. Those labeled ETL or UL are best.

• Place lights on a non-flammable surface when testing for possible overheating.

• Don't insert or remove bulbs with the strand plugged in.