It’s never too late to start learning, but it’s best to have teacher, so infringe upon the graces of a handy-man friend or neighbor to help you. Also any electrician could do the job in a half hour. A local TV repai shop or appliance repair shop could ls do it. Just offer them $10 & they’ll do it.

Just found this site today, and I’m happy to see that there are so many others who are as attached to their beloved halogen lamps as I am to mine. I have a torchiere that I inherited from a former roommate (who states it’s at least 10 years old), and I’m having some trouble with it and am hoping that someone will have some advice. Basically, it’s a wiring issue.

My floor lamp takes a 300w (max) halogen bulb, which is the bulb I always use with no problems. The other day, after having been on for a few hours, the lamp suddenly turned off. After replacing the bulb did nothing, I poked around and discovered that one of the 2 wires (there’s one from each end of the bulb) that eventually disappears into the center pole was severed, about *halfway* between the contact point for the bulb and the center pole exit. Once I recovered from the confusion of how that could have spontaneously happened (and why only now?), I began to worry about how (or whether) I could fix it.

I have a very basic understanding of wires and conduction, but I have absolutely no experience with halogen bulbs (other than gingerly replacing the bulb twice in the three years I’ve had the lamp), and I’m unclear about how the high temperatures from the halogen bulb may potentially affect wiring (or my attempts at wiring repairs) that are only inches away from the bulb. The wire is covered in white cloth.

These are the options I’m considering. I have no idea which would work better, or if either of them are even practical. This is where you come in.

1. Attach the two severed ends of the wire with solder. I’m concerned about the temperature. Some websites claim that 300w halogens can exceed 900F, and most solder (I think) wouldn’t stand up to that.

2. Bridge the gap with a similar gauge (and cloth-sheathed) wire, and solder the ends to the original wire. The original wire does *not* have much slack when the severed ends are placed together (I thought that was a strange manufacturing decision), so I briefly considered this idea. However, same concerns as above.

I found lots of discussion about dimmers, bulbs, etc. on this page but didn’t see anything that sounded like the issue with my lamp. (I didn’t read every post so maybe I missed something.) Basically, I’m trying to repair a severed wire (replacing it would require dissecting the lamp), with the added twist of trying to avoid frying the wire from the high halogen temps. The lamp is about ten years old, but was rarely/never used for about five years, until I acquired it and started using it about 3 years ago. It has a low and high setting, controlled by the power knob. No crazy metal “cage” over the bulb, just a thin metal casing underneath it and a round glass casing over the bulb.

Am I crazy for even considering solder? I’m totally in denial about needing a new lamp. Thanks for your input!

Kate

After reading this blog, I was motivated to do a little more research, and yesterday I found Lutron dimmers (http://www.lutron.com/Products/StandAloneControls/Dimmers-Switches/Pages/DimmersSwitches.aspx) at Home Depot.

Two Attache lamp dimmers cost me a total of $32… and all I had to do was cut the cord from the original dimmer and insert it into the new lamp dimmer. I paid $19.99 for a pack of six industrial 300w bulbs in a padded case (also Home Depot), and now I’ve got these great lamps functioning again.

Don’t give up hope, people. While it might be more energy efficient to use the little LED lamps, or the compact fluorescents, nothing beats the ambiance of a dimmed high-watt torchiere. Just don’t run it all the time, and be sane about placement.

Basically, if you’ve got the lamp posts, you can still buy all the other parts and pieces and put a lamp back together. You just can’t buy a new one all assembled in a box. Sometimes i think we forget that somebody had to put all those pieces together in the first place… And a lamp is incredibly simple to rebuild or repair. i’m sure you could google a walk through.

Speaking of which, here is the result of my forty second search for “halogen light bulb”:

http://www.lightingsupply.com/halogen_bulbs/double_ended_halogens/4_11-16-_-118mm-.aspx

As you can see there are numerous models of 300W bulbs to purchase.

Mark

While I see that you mean well, I must say that I do no believe you are the realistic one. You cannot make laws nor everything “completely safe.” And as a scuba diver I cannot see listing scuba gear or the halogen torchie lamps has “high hazard items nor a chain saw. As they say you cannot fix stupid. Futher, I do not believe children, the diminished capacity and many elderly are consmerers, the consumbers would be their caregivers, thus they would be the ones in my stupid list that would make the torchies any hazard. I read the research by the two young ladies that made the items unsafe based on as I recall 296 reported incidients. Not much to go to deny the general population of potential consumbers in my view.

A consumer product needs to be reasonably safe when operated by the full population of consumers. This includes children, the elderly, and anyone else who has diminished capacity to, for example, keep the curtains away from the incendiary torchiere.

The hazards of a torchiere are not obvious and are not generally known to society at large — unlike machine guns, chain saws, scuba gear and other high hazard items that are sold.

So I fully support the CPSC even though I personally pine for a halogen tochiere. Flame me baby! -John

Has anyone else noted the seeming short life-cycle of the current 300W bulbs? From three different sources now my bulbs begin do dim after two months and burning out in 5 to 7 months! I have 5 lamps, 2 in constant use (8+ hrs /day). I have tried alcohol cleaning bulbs each time with no noticeable improvement. I have removed all dimmer’s and factory switches to just on/off’s. Been at this for years now. Just got this year 2 more lamps from street side trash, on still had a working bulb in it after just blowing off the dust!

Lets keep up the call for real light and not mercury filled trash in our homes and bowing to the will of the ignorant and careless. Af “Forrest Gump” noted “stupid is as stupid does.”

i wish i could see this lamp which you’ve imagined, Josie. It truly sounds awesome!