<p>I too am curious about this. While unplugged, lift the tab as notrichenough suggested. Maybe the plastic is aging or shrinking and the connection to the bulb is not close enough anymore?</p>
<p>I bought mine out of a magazine, I will try to find. The have a light sensor and turn off and on. Or you card leave them on. You can pick a steady light or a flicker. They are yellowish. I left 2 double a batteries in them but stored in basement not attic and they are fine.</p>
<p>I have these and love them. They have a built-in timer- 8 hrs on, 16 hrs off. Just plug them in once at the time you want them to go on each day and you’re set for the season. We do 4:00pm-midnight. If someone wants to go to sleep and has a light in their window, just unscrew the bulb and screw it back in the next morning so the timer won’t be disrupted. We have had them for several years and have only had to replace 2 or 3 and we have 25+ windows.</p>
<p>[Electric</a> Timer Candle, Timed Christmas Window Candle | Solutions](<a href=“http://www.solutions.com/jump.jsp?itemID=10968&itemType=PRODUCT&path=1%2C2%2C11531%2C11671&iProductID=10968]Electric”>http://www.solutions.com/jump.jsp?itemID=10968&itemType=PRODUCT&path=1%2C2%2C11531%2C11671&iProductID=10968)</p>
<p>Just going to say this is one of the biggest traditions I miss from living in the northeast now that I’m out in California. I’m actually excited about having just recently bought a house here, and having “borrowed” some extra candles my mom had while visiting her for Thanksgiving!</p>
<p>The ones we’ve used since before I was born are all plastic and plug into the wall. They stay on the window sill by closing the window on top of a little flexible plastic tab that holds the candle up. We only kept them on for a few hours a day by using a timer. Whole house would come on about an hour before dark and go out around 11 PM.</p>
<p>DH grew up in Connecticut. Whenever MIL visited us here in the midwest over the holidays and saw a house with candles in the windows, she always said “That’s what they do in Guilford.” So that’s what I say to DH now when we drive by such homes. Although apparently it’s not just a Guilford tradition. </p>
<p>At our house, we go up nightly from one to eight candles in the window and we have to buy new ones every year. ;)</p>
<p>My3sons, those look pretty similar to what I have or have had so I just don’t know what I’'m doing wrong! I will take a look at the tab and see if I or H can disect one and figure out what’s going on. Calling the manufacturer might also be a good idea. </p>
<p>I bet I have 15 of them in a box that I JUST can’t throw away knowing there must be some solution!</p>
<p>I’ve been using the same 10 electric candles for 15+ years with no problems except a few burned out bulbs each year. Mine have brass bases with turn switches in the middle of the electic cord. Most came from the now defunct Rag Shop and a few from Christmas Tree Shops. </p>
<p>There are on timers to come on from 4pm-midnight from late Nov to Jan 6. I squeeze them between the double hung window & storm window and run an extension cord if they don’t reach the outlet on their own. When I take them out, I store them in the boxes they came in, in a cardboard storage box in our unheated attic.</p>
<p>I have been following this thread with interest, because I bought candles for our windows almost exactly 22 years ago. They went into storage 17 years ago, because the light interferred with our daughter’s sleep. I’ve stored them in a room in the basement that does get damp. Today I brought them up and plugged them in…and they work. They are a colonial style with a tin base and a cardboard candle holder made to look like a dripping candle.</p>
<p>It just seems odd that every year all 9 of your candles don’t work. I would suspect the storage conditions if a percentage of the candles failed, but the fact that all of the candles consistently fail has me perplexed. I wish we could figure it out, because quite frankly this is driving me nuts!</p>
<p>Me too!! (OP) I have stored them in different places/parts of the house, I have taken the bulbs out and left them in. I have wrapped them differently. I have left the switch on and turned the switch off. Replacing the bulbs makes no difference. It MUST be the candle itself. Our house is not overly humid - it’s an old house but we have new windows that don’t sweat and we have radiator heat so it’s more dry. I put them in a sealed plastic box at the end of the season and set them in a place where they are not disturbed/knocked around. </p>
<p>The fact that not a single one works is driving ME nuts!!! (not to mention the $$ for new ones each year!)</p>
<p>I do this every year and store them in a plastic container in the basement. Every year I have to replace about half of the bulbs, but the candles still work. I have gotten them from Solutions catalog and then I picked up some after Christmas at Michael’s. They do seem to be more cheaply made nowadays.</p>
<p>When we bought our house it came with a “holiday light package” which featured an outlet below each front facing window, all tied to the same switch. It seemed frivolous at the time (well, really still is) but it is such a nice perk, to be able to plug in all the lights easily and turn them on together.</p>
<p>My candles are a mix of photo sensor and timer.</p>
<p>I am really mystified as to the OP’s problem!</p>
<p>The way you store them is not the issue, since you have experimented with various methods. The candle is not the issue, since you have purchased different types of candles. What’s left? (Racking my brain)</p>
<p>Haunted house with candle-hating ghost?</p>
<p>Vibrations breaking the filaments?</p>
<p>I asked my husband and he said ‘they’re cheap’, i.e. they are cheaply made of cheap materials. I still suspect that something is shrinking due to cheap plastic curing over the course of the year. If you know someone with a volt-ohm meter you could check out the circuit. The bulb connection isn’t being made for some reason.</p>