Normande Brushed Steel Halogen Desk Lamp (Not CA Compliant)

I was looking hard for a lamp to sit on top of my digital piano. I looked everywhere. IKEA, Target, etc. I wanted something contemporary and low profile, and those places had nothing of the sort. Finally I came upon this lamp on Amazon. At an average of 3.5 stars, I was very hesitant. In fact, I didn't order this product for 3 weeks after I saw it online. I kept mulling it over. I even asked my uncle, an industrial designer, about this type of lamp. To my surprise, he told me he had 3 of these style lamps that he bought 20 years ago and they all still worked. I was a bit skeptical since he bought them 20 years ago, and I would assume the quality nowadays probably suffered in comparison. A quick glance at some of these 1-star reviews exacerbated my fears. I don't like buying cheap stuff that breaks, and that's why it took me three weeks to come around. Then one night I was playing piano in the dark, and I was fed up. I took a gamble on this $40 lamp. And it paid off. QUALITY: As I mentioned, at this price point (compared to the $70 and $130 ones Amazon sells) I was a little worried about the quality. Let me tell you, the quality is absolutely fine. Based on the reviews, I was also worried about the packaging/damage: you have nothing to worry about. The lamp came well packaged in its retail box (Normande), surrounded by Amazon's large shipping box. It was very well packaged. The bulb was not broken or bent. DESIGN: The design is timeless and it looks good in any room, on any desk, in any decade. My uncle has 3 of these lamps, and he's very design conscious. PRICE: You won't find a better lamp at $40. Not even at Target or Ikea. You also won't find halogen lamps this cheap, since halogen is a little more expensive (I think). MISC: I live in CA, so when I saw "Not CA Compliant" I was a little worried Amazon.com wasn't going to ship it to me. Boy am I thankful they did!! As far as I'm concerned, anything that says "Not CA Compliant" is probably one kick-butt product.

I bought this lamp, and was happy enough with it that I bought a second one a few days later. It's fabulously bright, which was my primary goal. It's a halogen lamp, so it runs hot, but I expected that. It looks great, and the counterbalance on my units works beautifully. The biggest negative is the way it's shipped-- as others have noted, the bulb comes loose in shipping. On the first one I bought, the bulb was completely loose. I reinstalled it, but it burned out within a few minutes of my turning the lamp on the first time. (I handled it properly, so as not to get oil on the bulb.) The second one arrived with the bulb half-loose, so it also needed to be reinstalled, but because it wasn't completely loose it didn't get bounced around on its way to me. Overall I'm quite happy with my purchases, and I'd definitely buy another one if I had a use for it. I'd factor the cost of possibly needing a new bulb immediately into the price, though, since I expect that many of them burn out quickly after being jarred during shipping.

I ordered this lamp to replace a very expensive similar lamp that failed. This one looks beautiful, and was less than half the price. It puts out plenty of light, and I immediately put it in the office. The second lamp had a scratch on it. I though I might be able to get it off, so I proceeded to cut a felt pad out for the bottom. This lamp is going on top of my piano, and I wanted to make sure it wouldn't scratch. But I couldn't get the scratch off (I think it was glue, but nothing could get it off), so I did an online return. I ordered a replacement, and it came the next day! I got out my glue gun, put on the felt pad, and I am very pleased with how it looks on the piano. If you have a modern décor, I very much recommend this lamp. When our bedside lamps give out, I will be buying two more to replace those. If I bought this lamp locally, I would have gone back and returned it. They may or may not have had another. But within 24 hours, I have two beautiful lamps, and just have to drop the box off at UPS, which is on my husband's way to work.

The gear mechanism that permits the lamp height to be adjusted is designed so that the full weight of the lamp arm AND the load of the counterweight are transmitted through just a couple of tiny little gear teeth at the common fulcrum where the two lever arms that carry these weights cross. The position of the weights way out at the extremities of their respective lever-arms exacerbates the gear-loading situation. There is no adjustment possible on the engagement of the gear teeth. The result of these design features is that, if the gears are not made of durable materials and are not precisely aligned at assembly, they will strip. They do. The gears on the lamp I received were obviously very cheap 'pot metal' and arrived already stripped, probably from simply moving the arm at the factory when the unit was packaged. This is an execution and quality-control weakness, made more or less inevitable by the weak mechanical design. It seems that some reviewers have had not problems with the gears. I can think of two possibilities: (1) the assembly tolerances might result in some units that are fine for a while, but even then if the arm is adjusted frequently eventual stripping of these gears is almost certain to occur, (2) there may have been recent design or material or manufacturing changes that have degraded the quality. On the plus side - the lamp _looks_ great. I'm returning mine for a refund.

This lamp has a very nice look and it provides the perfect amount of light for me at my desk. The bad part is that it's not a sturdy lamp. I rarely move it, and I'm careful when I do. Yet within a few months the gears than enable you to change the height of the lamp broke. It couldn't be fixed, and the lamp was at it lowest position and could no longer be raised. I had it rigged with rubber bands for a short time but it's not ideal. It's unfortunate, because it is a nice clean looking desk lamp.