Can you repair a cut wire?

[SquidgyMaltLoaf]

My idiot DH has somehow managed to cut through a wire in our year-old LED outdoor lights that we can't afford to replace. Can it be fixed - he suggested soldering - and will it be safe?

DH says: Yes it's easy to fix but soldering is not the way to do it. Search for outdoor junction box. He also says that if your DH doesn't know what he's doing, call someone who does and he adds that he works in an office and is not an electrician.

If it's the wire that goes into a normal plug then it's quite easy to fix. Strip the wires back so you can see the metal, twist the 2 ends of the wire together and use some electrical tape to wrap the live to the live and the neutral to the neutral - make sure the brown coated wire is connected to the brown and the blue to the blue. Make sure the tape is tight and covers all the metal of the wire. Then tape up the 2 wires so it's all contained and won't get pulled apart. Should work fine.

I work in an office too but this worked on my hedge trimmers when I managed to cut the wire as well as the privet

There are four separate plastic-coated strands as they're icicle lights that do the snowing effect. It's one of the strands that has been cut - looks like copper wire in it.

Please don't do the above mentioned twist the wires together wrap in tape and pray for dry weather repair on OUTDOOR lights. not a smart move. It might stay dry long enough for this year or it might not. Use a waterproof junction box and do it properly. If your not confident about doing that, ask an electrician to do it, we don't bite, and some of us do undertake repair work ( some don't as they dislike it).

I had a right mare at work yesterday with muppets who wanted to use indoor lighting kit and extension reels, outside, in the rain. RCDs tripping out right left and centre and muppets unwilling to accept it was their fault their lights went out not mine, my RCDs did their job and stopped them getting hurt.

Oh those icicle things. Generally fairly low voltage.

IF I were repairing it, I'd consider using a crimped ferule to rejoin the two cut ends, then squeezable silicon then a heat shrink tube over the top. That should give a neat and weather proof repair.

Thanks all. It does help that the bit that's damaged will be on the inside so we don't need to worry about it being weatherproof.

You can get very simple kits to fix this wires - such as when people cut through the cable of their hedge clippers. m.screwfix.com/p/masterplug-orange-connector-2-pin/46232?filtered=true

The "twist and tape" method is not safe for indoor cables either.

If there is a transformer plugged into the wall with 4 wires coming off it - it is a low-voltage LED system. The break is also indoors.

The low current and voltage is of no real danger and the transformer will have a "guillotine" safety cut off.

Solder the wires together and wrap in insulating tape - it will be fine.

LED christmas lights however are a special case. If the wires are black insulated, about as thick as as pencil lead including their insulation, and come out of a small transformer, they are probably at 3volts or thereabouts.

DH could use a soldered joint and heat-shrink sleeving, obtainable at a hardware or DIY shed at modest cost, or a choc-bloc and choc-box (not for outdoor work).

I doubt he has a ratchet crimper.

...too slow :-(

heat-shrink sleeving

it shrinks with a hot-air gun, not sure if a hair-drier would do it.

Insulating tape comes undone in time.

Thank you! DH is off the hook. even though it wasn't really his fault anyway and I was just blaming him because I was in a bad mood

Love the name change PigletJohn