Repairing Miniature Light sets

Note : For safety reasons, you should only repair a light set if it is irreplaceable.

A split socket on a miniature light set. This will be repaired using heat shrinkable plastic tubing.

"Shrink Tubing" is used extensively in the electronics industry and is a lifesaver. You can buy the stuff at any good electronics supply outfit.
An internet search using the term "heat shrink tubing" should return several matches. Some examples are All Electronics Corp., Cable Ties Plus and NTE Electronics. Many Radio Shack stores carry the tubing as well.

Here's what you will need:
3/8 Inch heat shrinkable plastic tubing in clear or green.
A heat gun or a butane lighter.
Utility knife.

Here's what you should do:
Remove the bulb and cut a piece of tubing about 7/8 to 1 inch long, then place it on the socket.
Heat the tubing to shrink it using a heat gun, or if using a butane lighter, hold it so the flame tip
is 1 inch below the shrink tubing. Be careful not to overheat the tubing - you could melt the socket.
After the tubing has cooled, trim the excess with a utility knife - Watch your fingers !
Reinstall the bulb.
Repeat for any other split sockets you may find. Your set is now safe to use again.

Cut and place the tubing	Shrink the tubing	Trim the excess	The completed repair

Use this chart - which covers the 5 Millimeter diameter miniature bulbs- as a guide for finding the right bulb for your set. You should find it quite helpful, but remember it is by no means complete. Selecting the correct replacement bulb for series wired mini sets is difficult because in many cases the voltage AND current ratings are important.

Always replace burned out bulbs promptly to prolong the life of the remaining bulbs.

When you install a replacement bulb, it should light with about the same brightness as the other bulbs in the string.
If the new bulb is much brighter or dimmer, you probably have the wrong bulb.

If you find more than half of the bulbs in a string are burned out, you should replace all of the bulbs as the remaining
good bulbs will be severely stressed and will only last a short time anyway. (This is known as re-lamping.)

If you are re-lamping a set,  try to use all of the same brand of bulbs as different brands often have slightly
different voltage/current ratings. This could cause one brand to burn out faster.

Old sets may use bulbs which are now obsolete. The only option is to re-lamp with modern equivalent bulbs.

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