The lamp is a product which can be found in all households. It’s therefore not surprising that the lamp is one of the most popular items in Repair Cafés. For years now, lamps have been high on our top ten list of common products.
Some issues with lamps are easy to solve. Does your lamp constantly flicker? Then you probably need to replace the light source. Are you wondering exactly which type of light source you need? Then an internet search can help.
You are more than welcome at the Repair Café for other problems. In Repair Café Rodenberg in Germany, lamps are even the most popular product. Martin Weigelt, co-founder and organizer of this Repair Café, is not surprised about that. “Lamps are very often brought to the Repair Café because they are on average very long-living products and the defects are often age-related”, he says.
Lamp repairs often successful
Is your lamp broken? Then there’s a good chance that it can be fixed at a Repair Café. In almost 70% of all registered cases a lamp was successfully repaired. This is evident from the RepairMonitor, the international tool for data collection at community repair events.
Apart from that, lamps often receive a high score for repairability from Repair Café repairers. In 40% of all lamp repairs in the RepairMonitor the repairers rated the repairability of the product as 8 or higher (on a 1 to 10 scale). This indicates that lamps are generally easy to fix.
Success rate of all registered lamp repairs in RepairMonitor worldwideThe RepairMonitor shows the following top 5 common causes of lamp failures:
- Fuse/electronics defective
- Switch defective
- Contacts dirty/ no more contact with the bulb
- Interruption in the power circuit
- Batteries worn out/ defective
Tips for lamp repairs
Martin Weigelt of Repair Café Rodenberg recognises these problems. He distinguishes three main sources of errors/ error locations : 1) Plug/contact to the cable 2) Switch 3) Internal contact to the bulb. Therefore, he recommends other repairers to always take a look at these three errors.
However, when it comes to electronics repairs by laypersons, Martin is strongly against self-repairs of defective lamps. “Repairing lamps requires knowledge of technical safety rules, special tools as well as a lot of practice. For non-experts at home, it can be very dangerous”, he says. “You could get an electric shock or cause a short circuit to happen.” Therefore, his advice is to come to your nearest Repair Café in case you have a defective lamp.
Top five solutions for lamp problems
These are the 5 most frequently mentioned solutions for lamp problems in the RepairMonitor:
- Replace switch
- Wiring replacement/ wire breakage fixed
- Contacts cleaned/Connection repaired
- Dimmer re-connected/ New dimmer installed
- Battery/Adapter replacement
As can be seen, these solutions are all connected to the three frequent errors of lamps that Martin mentioned. The most common solution is the replacement of the switch. Want to follow a similar repair from start to finish? Then watch this hour-long video about fixing a faulty switch.
Repair your lamp yourself or drop by the Repair Café!
Do you need help repairing your lamp? Then come to a Repair Café in your area. Want to do the repair yourself? Then find a repair guide at iFixit! You can also use these step-by-step guides to prepare your visit to the Repair Café. This way you can read what to expect.
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