What reasons for outdoor chrismtas led string lights not to work, even if electric signal detected?

[lozcozard]

I have 80m outdoor LED lights which worked last year. This year they wont come on. Thing is, if I use a electricity detector pen, it shows electric IS flowing through the whole thing. I can't imagine ALL the LEDs have gone? And they are ones that are supposed to keep the circuit working even if one fails.

So I just wondered if anyone knows what reason could the bulbs not be working even though electric is flowing through it?

Thanks

 

[AndyPRK]

your pen is detecting the live connection.

Therefore I would suspect you have a failed neutral connection near the plug or first LED

 

[davelx]

Those pens detect the presence of a voltage above a given level, not the flow of current.

 

[flameport]

I have 80m outdoor LED lights which worked last year. This year they wont come on.

Most of the LEDs will have water ingress which has resulted in corrosion and rust. There will be multiple breaks in the wires, and any repair attempt will end in failure as they will be ultra fine aluminium or some other alloy which is impossible to solder, join or even strip properly.

Most of these LED light sets are made to be used once so you have to buy new ones every year. Cheap tat intended to fail and any repair will be more than buying a new set.

 

[ericmark]

All the LED lights I have for Christmas are extra low voltage, if they were lighting my non-contact volts detector I would be worried the power supply was faulty and would stop using them.

I think the first bar on my non-contact volts detector starts at around 80 volts to earth, but not actually tested.

 

[SUNRAY]

Most of the LEDs will have water ingress which has resulted in corrosion and rust. There will be multiple breaks in the wires, and any repair attempt will end in failure as they will be ultra fine aluminium or some other alloy which is impossible to solder, join or even strip properly.

A bit of a generalisation there although I don't dispute there are some of that ilk.

Most of these LED light sets are made to be used once so you have to buy new ones every year.

Some of my outdoor LED lights are 15 years old and still working trouble free.

Cheap tat intended to fail and any repair will be more than buying a new set.

The biggest problem I see with them is the poor stowage and tangling requiring lot's of handling and pulling to ready them for next use.

 

[JohnW2]

A bit of a generalisation there although I don't dispute there are some of that ilk.

Indeed - and generalisations are almost always less than always correct.

Some of my outdoor LED lights are 15 years old and still working trouble free.

Same here - and I have at least some (very cheap) sets which have been 'exposed to the elements' continuously for several years and still work fine.

 

[flameport]

A bit of a generalisation there although I don't dispute there are some of that ilk.

As usual

Some of my outdoor LED lights are 15 years old and still working trouble free.

They would be

Indeed - and generalisations are almost always less than always correct.

Whatever.

 

[RepairingDave]

I have 80m outdoor LED lights which worked last year. This year they wont come on. Thing is, if I use a electricity detector pen, it shows electric IS flowing through the whole thing. I can't imagine ALL the LEDs have gone? And they are ones that are supposed to keep the circuit working even if one fails.

So I just wondered if anyone knows what reason could the bulbs not be working even though electric is flowing through it?

Thanks

A photo of the LEDs and the plug/adapter/transformer might help people see what options you have and what quantity the lights are.

 

[SUNRAY]

Some of my outdoor LED lights are 15 years old and still working trouble free.

They would be

And why shouldn't they?
My home Dec 2022:

The light on the barge boards were new 2022, doesn't show in the pic but blue and gold in tribute to the Ukraine invasion.
The tree on the left is 4 sets of 500, 3 of which I can't put a date on and sadly now decommisioned due to being chewed by foxes 2023, however due to their reliability of a number of years I used the same products to replace the patio lights, I noticed the date whilst packing them away so now used for 9 seasons.

those (5 sets) marked 2014 had previously been used around the garden along the wooden fence panels for about 3 or 4 years but were what I would describe as cheap junk and seems some lasted only 5 or 6 years. However one set of those can be seen as yellow above the fence to the right of the tree, this year the ground was too wet to risk erecting a step ladder so that 'cheap set' has clocked up 15 years but despite looking worse for wear and a couple of repairs (yes some have the ability to make soldered repairs) is still functional. As to end of life? some of those were repurposed when my grandson made a nativity scene as a competition at school, at the time he would have been 6 or 7 and wanted me to add lights and the following year a disco scene... ah ah no. I taught him to use a soldering iron to do it himself and filmed him doing it for the benefit of the judges.
The lights on the right have clocked up 7 (corrected typo) seasons since this:

they replaced 40x 3W of incancescent (hence the 'LEDs' notation) which I inherited as old when my parents passed in 1993 (and a member on another forum site now owns for theatre work).

So I take it back, I withdraw the '15 years trouble free' comment as the only set I'm 100% certain has functioned for that long has been repaired a couple of times

The tree lights of ~ 2012 ish era and home made star (looks better in the dark) taken 2021

I have no expectation that any of the above is suddenly likely to disintregate.

 

[blup]

I swapped to battery lights and now the batteries fail every year

 

[JohnW2]

I swapped to battery lights and now the batteries fail every year

 

[SUNRAY]

I swapped to battery lights and now the batteries fail every year

But the lights don't.