Section of Can Lights Out?

[Casey69]

So I have 2 sections of 6 switched can lights on the same breaker, and one section of 6 lights went out. Each section of six lights has its own switch. Lights are cheap LEDs from Menards. I thought I heard a “pop” from one of the lights as I turned on the switch, and I now understand each can light has its own fuse. my thought is that could one blown fuse cause the remaining 5 lights to go out? I just assumed that it would affect the individual light?
Any thoughts on what to troubleshoot? I’m clearly not an electrician, so apologies for using hacked homeowner terminology above.

 

[Jim greengo]

Some of them have a sort of high limit switch in them incase they get hot,not really a fuse so to speak.
I'd start at 1 end of the dead ones and see if you can find which direction the power comes from.
Then start checking electrical connections in the fixture.
Do you have access to them from above?
If not you can usually take them apart through inside of can to get access to the wiring.

 

[shoot summ]

A lot of those cheaper cans have stab type connectors, check the condition of the connections at the first light. Beyond that check the condition of the connections at the switch. There is no way an issue with the first fixture should affect the remainder. It's a connection issue, or the switch is bad.

 

[Shiftless]

I assume each of the 6 lights is wired into its own electrical box like this one, right?
All 6 fixtures are connected with electrical cable (Romex or similar). The failure of one light shouldn’t affect the other 5.
Alternatively, is there a chance that those lights are daisy chained together with some kind of lightweight cable that runs from one to another with no individual permanent boxes like these?

Like SS just said, I’d look at the breaker and the switch first.

 

[Casey69]

Thanks for the quick replies! I figured it out just by complete dumb luck. I turned ON the switch, and unscrewed one light and a time, and when I came to unscrewing one of them, the rest turned back on (wtf?). So I just replaced the bad bulb. Not sure why one bad bulb would turn off the rest, but thought I’d update the post just in case someone else runs into it.
BTW, the off-brand, cheap, indoor LED light was ~5 years old and wasn’t frequently used. Not new, but not old by LED standards. So you get what you pay for.
thanks again!

 

[Shiftless]

I’m trying to wrap my head around a run of 6 pot lights evidently wired In SERIES like old strings of Christmas tree lights used to be. How would that work at all???

 

[Casey69]

Thats what I was thinking. Christmas lights! But the light was in the middle of the group, so it’d be an odd place to start a run of lights. But, when I started unscrewing the bad bulb, the rest of the lights turned on, so im wondering if there was some weird electrical draw from the bad led light that was causing everything on the switch to go haywire?

 

[jeepxj]

I’m trying to wrap my head around a run of 6 pot lights evidently wired In SERIES like old strings of Christmas tree lights used to be. How would that work at all???

if the wire nut/ connection failed it would make sense.

 

[Walkers]

if the wire nut/ connection failed it would make sense.

This is my thought as well.

 

[justsam]

Unscrewing a bulb in a series string would make all the bulbs go out, not turn on. I would continue to look for a loose connection at the location where the bulb was removed.

 

[larry_g]

Unscrewing a bulb in a series string would make all the bulbs go out, not turn on. I would continue to look for a loose connection at the location where the bulb was removed.

X2 on this. Odds are you have a poor connection in this fixture that you jiggled and it made contact again. Any problem you don't trace to a failure and it goes away will return.

lg
no neat sig line