Broken Exterior Light Socket - Secret Screw - Replace, Repair, Fix
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- Опубліковано 22 жов 2024
- Easily replace or repair a broken light socket if you locate a secret screw that secures the socket to the light housing. Older exterior, flood or security light sockets have a screw hidden under the bulb that allows the socket to be disassembled. Once you find the screw, remove it, and the socket separates for the fix.
Then, cut the wires, insert the new socket and rewire the light.
The hard part is finding that confounded screw.
www.mrhardware....
hey man thank you so very much i can't tell you how much your videos have helped me in my new career. I am a maintenance man at the Danbury senior center and find your videos so very helpful as they have rescued me many times and taught me much. thank you
@@skinandbonescassell1017 Thanks, did you see the video on toilet seat ‘wobble washers’? We sell them by the 100’s to complexes like yours. Some toilet seats don’t need them.
Your video & explanation allowed me to fix my backyard light. Thank you!
I wish I had visited your video few weeks ago as I could not get the socket out on my outside garage light fixture. Great info and you certainly make lots of sense. Excellent job on the video! Thank You!
I have two light sockets in my ceiling fan light that needs replacing. I have tried to get the sockets out but was unable to. I will change them out now thanks to you. Great information. I just subscribed.
Thanks Mr Hardware.......I see the light now!
This was exactly what I was looking for! Thank you for your time and the video. Off to fix my porch light now.
Do u need to kill the powrr beforr sticking a screw driver in there
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I was trying to fix a loose socket inside our security light and found the little screw inside the socket like you showed on the second type of socket, and I loosened the tiny screw trying to see the hole where it screws into and I DID lose the screw just like you said not to. Now what? Is there anyway to get a replacement screw or will I have to try to replace the whole socket now?
The replacement socket will have a new screw holding on a bracket you won’t need.
Thanks for the information. I've been looking for them and finally found someone who knows what I'm talking about. I have a chandelier that lost them and you can't put in a bulb or take it out without the screw. Is there a name for them? They are hard to find without a name or someone that understands what I'm looking for. Thanks
@@rjjhsn I have found that’s there are at least 2 sizes of screws. Some stores have bolt displays w/small ‘drawers’ of miniature screws. The bracket that holds the socket to the fixture is usually removable. Take one w/you and save a trip or two. The complete socket w/the bracket is also available but there is not just one style.
@@MrHardware1 Thanks!
You ROCK!!! 🚀💥 Thank you SO much!!!
I live near the ocean in my old socket seems to be having some corrosion and rust and the bulb no longer works but I tested the ball by an indoor socket in the bulb works indoors so I guess I should replace my socket I'm going to try this method thanks for the video
Thank you, I am so glad I found your site. You are a good teacher.🥰 Now I need to inscrew the inners.😊
i have in ikea lamp with a boom and the wire cord leads have no screw in the socket. i need help getting those wires out
Thank u Mr. Hardware great tip
Thank you 😊
So quick question. My elderly parents have a outdoor fixture and the bulb keeps loosening itself( probably due to vibration). What can I do to not have to go over and retighten every few days?
Possibly using bulb grease to get the bulb a little tighter, or change the socket in the fixture.
Thank you for this! I just replaced the socket on my porch light, which is a couple of years older than I am (and I am getting gray at the temples) and your video was a great help, from picking the right socket at the local Wallace Hardware Store to getting it in.
Saving the hickey that it screws into is a great idea. With me, it was a little kind of pressure clip that I hadn't seen attached to any replacement fixture in the store, and it screwed right back in with the new socket and screw. Good for another (mumble) years. :)
I think that's my problem in my flood light. Thanks for the idea Sir 🙂👍
Thanks! Helped a lot
New-to-me house, I just had to change an outdoor recessed bulb up in the porch ceiling. The bulb would not unscrew, it just turned freely along with the same sort of porcelain base. After some precarious disassembly, there was no screw, no way to attach the fixture to the can (perhaps the screw you discussed had fallen out previously). With such poor access, up on a ledge, with the sun setting...I got out the hot glue gun and successfully attached the base to the can, bulb installed, problem hopefully solved.
When the bulb gets hot, your hot glue will melt and your fixture will be loose. Sometimes you have to take the fixture out of the ceiling, if it’s possible and usually is, and then on a bench you can see how that socket was attached to the fixture.
@@MrHardware1 Agreed, that's a risk, but not so much with modern light bulbs (e.g., LED), they don't waste energy through heat anymore, so it should be fine!
Great tip. Thank you.
Do type B sockets have the same thing? I have an outdoor light fixture with issues. Thx!
They could, if not pull the fixture down, and you can purchase new sockets, and the rivet will be inside the frame instead of a screw inside the socket
@@MrHardware1 Thank you! They were purchased/installed back in 2003. Not sure if that year had this feature....but I'll definitely look. 👍💯
Thanks! You've made my tomorrow much easier.
Thank you so much.
Hello Mr. Hardware.. Do you know the actual size of the screw and if I could find "a la carte" at the hardware store?
No I don’t, I bet they aren’t standard. It may cost you $3 to purchase a new socket.
@@MrHardware1 Thanks for answering. I ended up cannibalizing a screw from my boy's toy schoolbus. 😂 I recommend it, as long as it isn't a "critical" component for the toy.
This was so helpful. Thank you!
Just saved me a ton of money, glad I found this to fix three bad lights in my driveway before I called the electrician!
thanks thats helpful but how about snap on type light socket holders, how do you remove them from inside a light? I have tried pinching them in but it wont come free.
Some of them are pressed or riveted in. Find a replacement socket first, then determine if you can attach it if you have to destroy the old one out.
Great tips! Thanks.
After 25 years, those old socket lamp did fell apart at my toilet room today (my house is 100 years old) after so long of an usage (changed about 6-10 times the lamp, started from normal lamps to halogens > those halogens lasted very long: 2 to 5 years.) in its lifetime. The socket got rusty from the moisture builded up inside of the iron socket. When I changed the lamp for a new one, I noticed it cracked on that ring holding on to the socket. So that socket had to endure at around 70000 lamp hours or more till it literally fell apart from heat, reheat, moisture and rustiness (if you calculate that you use the bathroom 7 hours a day with 25 years on the lampsocket. So it should be on/off usage of around 1million times if you calculate the small toilet visits interactions with it.) We are with 5 people. So people, if you buy a house: check the lamps how old they are! You do notice how things can fall apart after those years!
Love me a man that gets to the fckn point and doesn't belabor it.
Wow this is really helpful thanks for this video 👍👍👍👍
Thank you. Just the video that I have been looking for, the light on my porch is flickering, now I know how to test it. Great video.
I’m trying to repair a broken socket in a 3 pendant kitchen lamp. Is there a secret screw that would allow me to remove and replace just one socket in the fixture without taking the whole thing apart or replacing it?
ua-cam.com/users/shortsSFrpOuLrIfM?si=OmbUlp0643mL-_W5
Hard to say w/out seeing the fixture, sometimes it does require disassembly to get there.
Thanks for the information. I've been looking for them and finally found someone who knows what I'm talking about. I have a chandelier that lost them and you can't put in a bulb or take it out without the screw. Is there a name for them? They are hard to find without a name or someone that understands what I'm looking for. Thanks
I’m tying to replace the burned out socket that takes a weird bulb with two plugs that stick in & turn, with a normal screw in socket. It in an outdoor light fixture that I have 3 of and love… but they don’t make any more. HELP!
We have conversion sockets from the twist to screw. The CFL bulbs were too expensive for one of our condo complex accounts. I bet we could order you the twist socket…
Call Daniel 586-776-9532, he may be able to order it. I bet it is a GU24 socket.
Mr. Hardware, you are awesome!!!
I need to purchase this type of socket. What are they called?
we call it a 'lamp holder' either keyless or keyed depending if you want a switch on it.
My screw is gone. Can you tell me what screw I need to replace it with?
It might be a 4/40 screw. I have had to buy a new socket and robbed the screw out of it because they are very hard to find.
What about a lamp socket that doesn’t have any screws? I know that you can get them out of their holes by inserting a paper clip or tiny screwdriver, but how do you get the wires to stay put when you put them back in?
Those sockets usually have a replacement, I don’t try to re-use the crimp on connector
@@MrHardware1 yes, that is the conclusion that I came to as well, after just rewriting two such sockets on different lamps. No matter how gentle you are in pushing down with a paper clip on whatever metal piece holds in a wire, it’ll never quite grip the same as it did originally.
I actually used a mini screw driver to get wires out of one of the sockets and the wires wouldn’t stay in at all when I tried to reinsert them-it was like throwing a hotdog down a hallway 🤣.
Thanks for the reply, @Mr. Hardware.
thank you
Very helpful. My kid kept breaking this lamp so now im "lefty loosey... Well maybe its left from this side.", all afternoon. i said i have to watch a video .. Lol you solved the mystery. I didn't have internet until adulthood but i swear I don't know how we knew anything .
So sorry you are not showing what you are taking apart or putting back, this would help if you are showing it close up. You can see what you are doing but we cant, well I cant. Good explanation. but cant see.
Yes! I could not se the magic screw either!
Mine appears to have a screw, its a n allen screw, it just turns and turns in both directions but never comes out. Any ideas?
Pull out on the socket while you are turning the screw counterclockwise. Sometimes it’s just stripped in the first three threads so if you pull hard enough, it’ll bite and come out. You can, with safety goggles, break out the porcelain w/channelocks or other strong pliers.
You had me at "I'm".
Mr. Gilbert, I am rewiring antique pendants. The porcelain sockets do not have wire screws instead, they have what looks to be like a whole in the bottom of the socket in which the wire comes up through and is fasten with a rivet or grommet of some kind. Can anyone tell me how to remove and reattach the wire to this kind of socket.
Either you have to solder a wire to a short piece of wire still attached to the rivet, then use shrink tubing to protect the joint or replace the socket. Blair
i’m having a terrible time . My socket has no screw . It’s wobbly bc i can see a piece of the plastics broke down inside of socket cup that holds the socket and it’s connected to a pole that goes down into my base . I need more help !!!!! Please
Send a couple of pics to Blair@mrhardware.com and then I can advise.
I have a burnt out bulb in an outside house light that's been there 15 years. It doesn't want to come out of the socket and is corroded to the socket. Any advice for getting the corroded bulb out?
I just had one, I took the fixture down so I could safely break the bulb, then use needle nose pliers to grab the metal bulb base and roll it out of the fixture. Blair
@@MrHardware1 , thank you, I will give it a try as soon as it stops raining and can get up on the ladder.
@@MrHardware1 I'll add to this--if the metal rim of that broken bulb isn't quite accessible to the pliers at first, after turning off the power, you can use needle nose pliers INSIDE the bulb and apply force by opening the handles with two hands, and rotating until it's free and/or out enough to grab on the outside.
@@scottbierly3398 I’ve used that trick before, it’s a good one. I can’t get in everything I know in three minutes or less, that’s the standard people watch UA-cam.
Nice but please show up close.
How do u know if the sockets are bad or not?
Loose rivets are the first telltale, brown or black deposits inside the socket and the second time I change a bulb in a year.
Thank very informative... I don’t want to throw away my backyard lantern
Can I do this to switch a candelabra socket to a e26 socket?
We do it all the time. It's as easy as getting the right adapters to match what the lamp is built with.
I broke the screw while screwing in a light bulb. Do I just need to get a new socket entirely?
Probably, once you disassemble the fixture you should be able to identify the parts you need and then go get your repair parts.
I (will) find this screw but, I have looked to find one and it sure didn't look like there was one. Thanks
Some sockets are rivited in place and not designed to be replaced. Not very common though.
If so, I suppose I'll have to drill the rivet out. Thanks I'll find a way.
My type is neither of the 2 what should i do if it does not have screws?
Then the sheilding around the socket is removable. Or some other way to access the socket. After all someone assembled it first. Few are press fit, not many.
I purchased a light fixture with a european socket and I want to convert it to american. Would you be able to help me with that.
You will need a good hardware of lamp shop to purchase a replacement lamp socket and housing. Once you figure out how to remove the old lamp holder it will all be downhill.
I do not have the magic screw, sir
Some, few, sockets are riveted
😊
This happens when the bulb fried with the Socket together 2v1 and cannot be replaced
me, staring at a stage light that has a corroded socket in it with 0 idea as to how i should remove it 👁💧👄💧👁
Something like a stage light will have a manual on parts and assembly. Over my pay grade.
Of course, I have a goofy lamp with a rivet instead of a screw. : /
This video did not help me😢
This comment didn't help anyone.
His eyes scare me