Swing Arm Lamp - White Review

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List Price: $24.99
Sale Price: $17.04
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This is not a bad swing-arm lamp for the money. Looked at several similar products in this price range which are not as well made. Be sure to get the Studio Designs adjustable metal arm clamp to support it (sold separately). The metal clamp is quite solid whereas the supplied plastic arm clamp looks flimsy. Of course, if you have $200 to spend, consider purchasing a professional grade drafting table lamp!

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This lamp costs about $8 more than the comparable Alvin swing arm lamp, but it's SO worth the $8!! Within a week, plastic parts were breaking off the Alvin the parts that are plastic on the Alvin are metal on this lamp. Studio Design is the way to go!

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10/3/12 UPDATE:

I notice the cord is a bit shorter than I anticipated. The cord is 5 feet, so you must decide where to place the lamp where a plug or extension cord is accessible.

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I have a small desk and I have been trying to find the perfect lamp while I do my school work. I already know I want a baseless lamp, so I searched for lamps that clamp onto the desk.

My first search was through IKEA's website. I found TERTIAL, a silver work lamp that would clamp onto the desk. It costs $8.99 and and $9.99 for the recommended LEDARE LED bulb. After a few Google searches I read that the bulb heats up and actually makes the shade too hot to touch. (Maybe IKEA updated the bulb so it doesn't heat up, but I haven't read any updated reviews on that.) I planned on buying the TERTIAL lamp, but IKEA's website informed me that my nearest store doesn't have it in stock.

Onto my next search was through Amazon! I found the highest rated clamp lamp which is the Studio Designs Swing Arm Lamp. A few Google searches of that, and you'll see that this company makes a solid work lamp, and sells for approximately $24 on HayNeedle. Amazon sellers at the time were selling it for $30+! Being cheap, I submitted a price match and waited.

Eventually, Home and Living on Amazon dropped the price to $25 and I bit the bullet and bought it. The item shipped and arrived pretty fast as the warehouse was within 100 miles of my shipping location.

This IS a solidly built lamp. Bulb is sold separately. All I had to do was to screw in the bulb and lamp shade. Everything is already assembled.

The clamp is made of plastic, so I made sure I did not over screw the clamp. The knob to adjust the angle of the lamp is also plastic, so be sure to not screw it too tightly.

Finally, the bulb I use is very hot, but not hot enough where the lamp shade burns. Well, whenever it's wintertime, I guess I'll be warm. :)

BTW, this lamp comes in 2 colors: black Swing Arm Lamp in Black and white (this one). I bought the white one because it's cheaper.

Honest reviews on Swing Arm Lamp - White

I took a big risk and bought two of these at once, because I have matching swing arm lamps, on each side of my solid wood door (sitting on filing cabinets) which serves as my computer desk. For several years, I have been buying this kind of lamp from Staples for less than $20, and they always had two flaws. First, the springs holding the cantilevered arm were never strong enough to hold the lamp in position, even right out of the box and the socket failed to light the lamp after about a year. I have no idea why they failed, but they failed consistently between 12 and 18 months of service. Of course, they were far too cheap to consider repairing, so I simply replaced them. But it was annoying to think of buying something so shoddy (No other model of swing lamp at Staples quite fit my situation.

This time, my very old, non-Staples swing lamp (which I have had for about 12 years) finally gave up the ghost and its perfectly good bulb went dim. So, instead of driving down to Staples, I picked these, with overnight delivery. (I am becoming the real troglodite.)

This lamp in design is very similar to the Staples brand. You have to look closely to see the differences, other than color. But the springs, right out of the box, are demonstrably stronger. I had to do no tightening the thumb screws (with pliers) or add rubber bands to achieve the desired tension on the cantilevered arm. I had a brief caution, when the lamp did not light upon screwing in a perfectly good energy efficient bulb. I tried another bulb of the same kind. STill no light. I tried an incadescent bulb, and still no light. I moved the plug around a bit. For no apparent reason, the bulb lit, and has stayed lit for good. I took the incadescent bulb out and tried it again with the two power saver lamps. They did not light. So, there may be some issue with this lamp socket and energy saver bulbs ( you know, the ones that look like glass cork screws.)

So, have traditional incadescent bulbs on hand when you buy these. Note that my Staples lamps had no problems with the corkscrew bulbs. We shall see now how long the springs hold out on this model, and how long it takes to failure.

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I am a graphic designer with decades of experience. Very rarely do I actually use a board anymore with computers, but when I do lighting is always important. I had worn out 2 'cheapo' lamps from regular use over the past 6-7 years. I went to several low end superstores as well as higher end office supply stores but no one I saw stocks these anymore. This is a very good and flexible, adjustable lamp I couldn't be more happy with.