Guide
Why Landscape Lights Stop Working (and What to Check First)
When landscape lights go dark, the cause is almost always one of five things — and four of them are cheap to fix. Here is how to tell which one you have before calling anyone.
The five usual suspects
After twenty-plus years of service calls across Orange County, the causes repeat. Work through them in this order.
- One fixture dark: usually a failed lamp or a corroded socket — the cheapest fix there is
- A whole zone dark: a cut wire (gardeners and edgers are the usual cause) or a failed splice
- Everything dark: the transformer — check the breaker, the timer and the photocell first
- Transformer trips repeatedly: a short in a buried splice or a nicked wire underground
- Far fixtures dim and orange: voltage drop on a long or overloaded run
What you can check yourself
Before a service call: confirm the transformer has power, check that the timer or photocell has not been knocked off schedule, and look for a tripped GFCI. Those three account for a surprising share of 'dead system' calls.
When to call
Anything involving buried wire, splices or the transformer's internal taps wants proper metering. We read voltage at the transformer and at each fixture, isolate runs zone by zone, and trace faults to the exact splice instead of trenching the whole yard. Most systems are repairable far more cheaply than they are replaceable.
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