Most LED neon faults are not faults in the neon at all. In order of how often we see them: the power supply has failed, a connector has worked loose, or water has reached a joint on an outdoor sign. The flexible LED tube itself is the part that fails least.
Work out which of the four symptoms below matches yours before you touch anything. It tells you whether this is a five second fix or a repair, and our warranty covers free repair for two years.
Most neon troubleshooting advice is for a different product
Search for why a neon sign has stopped working and you will mostly find advice about gas leaks, electrode failure, transformer buzz and checking a high voltage supply. That advice is real, but it is about hand bent glass neon, which is a completely different object.
An LED neon sign has no gas, no electrodes and no high voltage transformer. It is a flexible silicone tube containing a strip of LEDs, mounted on an acrylic backboard and run from a low voltage supply. Ours run on 12V DC. Nothing inside the sign is at mains voltage once it is past the adapter.
Start here: which of these four is happening?
Almost every fault we are sent falls into one of four patterns. Find yours, then read that section only.
| What you see | Most likely cause | Can you fix it yourself? |
|---|---|---|
| Nothing lights at all | Power supply or connection | Often yes |
| One section dark, rest normal | Failed LED segment | No, needs repair |
| Whole sign dim, or flickering | Power delivery, not the sign | Often yes |
| Outdoor sign failing gradually | Water at a joint | No, stop using it |
1. Nothing lights at all
This is the most common report and the one most likely to have a simple cause. The problem is almost always somewhere in the chain between the wall and the sign, not in the sign.
Work along the chain in this order:
- The outlet. Plug something else into it. Switched outlets controlled by a wall switch are a genuinely common cause, and so are outlets on a circuit that has tripped.
- The adapter. Most power supplies have a small indicator light. If it is dark, the adapter is the suspect. If the adapter is completely cold after several minutes plugged in, that points the same way. A replacement power adapter is an inexpensive part, and swapping one in is the fastest way to confirm the diagnosis.
- The plug at the sign end. The barrel connector where the adapter meets the sign lead can work loose, especially if the sign has been moved. Unplug and reseat it firmly.
- The dimmer or remote receiver, if you have one in line. Bypass it by connecting the adapter straight to the sign. If the sign lights, the fault is in the control, not the sign. Controls, cords and spare parts are on the accessories page.
If the sign lights when you bypass the dimmer or swap the adapter, you have found it, and a replacement part is a small fraction of the cost of a sign. Do not assume a dead sign means a dead sign. In our experience the power supply is the single most replaced component on any LED neon installation, by a wide margin.
2. One section is dark and the rest is fine
A single dark run of tube, a missing letter, or a stroke that has gone out while everything around it still works. This is a genuine failure inside the sign, and it is not something to fix at home.
The LED strip inside the tube is wired in segments. When one segment fails, usually at a solder joint or an individual chip, that segment goes dark while the rest of the circuit carries on normally. That is why the failure looks so clean and so localised.
This is what the warranty is for. A failed segment within the warranty period is repaired free of charge, and even outside it, replacing a section is normally far cheaper than replacing the sign.
3. The whole sign is dim or flickering
If the entire sign is affected rather than one section, the sign is usually fine and is not receiving the power it needs. There are three usual causes.
- ✓ An underrated power supply. If a supply has been substituted for a generic one, it may not deliver the current the sign draws. The symptom is a sign that looks fine for a moment and then dims. Matching the correct 12V adapter to the sign usually resolves it.
- ✓ Voltage drop down a long or thin extension lead. At 12V, cable length matters much more than it does at mains voltage. A long thin lead between adapter and sign can pull the sign below the voltage it needs.
- ✓ A dimmer set low, or a failing dimmer. Bypass it and see whether the sign returns to full brightness.
Try the sign plugged directly into a wall outlet with its original adapter and no extension, dimmer or timer in the circuit. If it is bright and steady like that, the fault is in what you removed.
4. An outdoor sign that is failing gradually
This one deserves separate treatment because it behaves differently. Sections fail one after another over weeks or months rather than all at once, and often it starts near a joint or the cable entry.
That pattern points to water. Once moisture reaches a connection it corrodes the contacts, and the failure spreads along the circuit from that point. It rarely repairs itself and it rarely stays limited to one spot.
Our outdoor signs are built and tested to IP67, and we can supply the test report. An indoor sign moved outdoors, or an outdoor sign whose cable entry has been drilled, cut or extended after it left us, no longer has that protection whatever the original rating was. If you are planning an exterior installation, say so before production rather than adapting an indoor sign afterwards.
Three things that are not faults
The tube looks white or pale when it is switched off
That is normal and it is what the silicone looks like unlit. The colour you see when it is on comes from the LEDs, not from a coloured tube, unless you have specifically ordered coloured sleeving.
It is warm to the touch
LED neon runs warm, not hot. Warmth at the power supply in particular is normal operation. Heat that is uncomfortable to touch is not, and is worth reporting.
The colour looks different from the mockup
Screens and lit signs render colour differently, and a sign photographed against a dark wall will look different again in a bright room. This is a reason to check colour on the mockup carefully before production rather than a fault after it. We do not limit how many revisions you can request before you approve.
What the warranty covers
Our signs carry a two year warranty with free repair. That means a covered fault is repaired at no charge to you, rather than swapped for a new sign. In practice most faults are a power supply or a section of tube, and both are repairable.
The signs are rated at 50,000 hours, which is why component and connection failures are far more common than the LEDs simply wearing out. If a sign has failed early, something specific has usually caused it, and identifying that is part of the repair.
To start a repair, send a photograph or a short video of the sign showing the fault, along with your order details. A video is more useful than a still for anything intermittent. Contact us and we will tell you whether it is a part you can swap yourself or something to send in. For questions that are not about a fault, the general FAQ covers ordering, shipping and returns.
Frequently asked questions
Why has my LED neon sign stopped working?
Most often the power supply has failed or a connector has worked loose, rather than the sign itself. Check that the outlet is live and not switched, that the adapter indicator is lit, and that the connector at the sign end is fully seated. If the whole sign is dead, the cause is usually in the power chain. If one section is dark while the rest works, that is a failed LED segment inside the sign and needs repair.
Can a section of an LED neon sign be repaired?
Yes. LED neon is repairable rather than disposable. A failed section can be replaced without rebuilding the whole sign, and under our two year warranty that repair is free. Outside the warranty a section repair still costs a fraction of what a new custom sign costs. Do not cut into the silicone tube yourself, because opening it can turn a repairable fault into an unrepairable one.
Why is my neon sign flickering?
In LED neon, flickering is almost always a power delivery problem rather than a sign that is failing. The usual causes are a substituted or underrated power supply, voltage drop down a long or thin extension lead, or a dimmer that is failing. Plug the sign directly into a wall outlet with its original adapter and nothing else in the circuit. If it is steady, the fault is in what you removed. Unlike glass neon, a flicker does not mean an LED sign is near the end of its life.
Is it safe to touch an LED neon sign that is not working?
The sign itself runs at 12V DC, so the low voltage side is not a shock hazard in the way glass neon with a high voltage transformer is. The mains side, meaning the plug and the adapter, should be treated like any other mains appliance. Unplug at the wall before handling anything, and do not open the power supply.
My outdoor sign is failing section by section. What is happening?
That progressive pattern usually means water has reached a connection and is corroding the contacts, with the failure spreading from that point. Unplug the sign and stop using it, because continuing to run it accelerates the damage. Check whether the sign was specified for outdoor use, and whether the cable entry has been cut or extended since it was made, as either will defeat the original sealing. If the sign is a permanent storefront fixture rather than a decorative one, channel letters and light box signs are the formats built for continuous exterior use.
How long should an LED neon sign last?
Ours are rated at 50,000 hours. In practice the LEDs are rarely what fails first. Power supplies, connectors and, on exterior installations, sealing at the joints are the components that determine real world lifespan, which is why most faults are repairable rather than terminal. How the sign is mounted matters too, because strain on the lead at the connector is a common early cause of failure, and hanging it properly avoids that.