Alvin, Swing-Arm Lamp, Spring-balanced for Drafting Lamp Combination, 100 WATT - Black

Having just moved into a new office with no overhead light, I needed a desk lamp. My desk has two well-sized desktop monitors on it, so space is very important. As such, I opted to search for a clamp-arm lamp. I found about half a dozen candidates, but was skeptical about most of them; I have had many bad experiences with lamps of this type for such low prices before. The hinges have been weak, the springs have been completely insufficient, the lamp shades have fallen off without warning, the on/off knobs have fallen off, and the power cords have been too short. This unit does well in every single one of these areas. The dual springs make for fantastic tension that keeps the lamp arms exactly where you put them; the hinges can take a fair amount of abuse; and the on/off knob has remained very firmly in place and functional. The cable could definitely be longer, but it's just long enough for my purposes. As for the lamp shade, it gets noticeably loose over the span of two months or so, but it has never gotten close to falling off on its own and it is very easy to re-tighten in five seconds. Basically, it's not perfect, but it's close, and you can make it perfect with one easy fix. The lamp is great, but it has one significant flaw. The hand-turn screws on the clamp and on the lamp head (which sets the lamp's angle) provide too little torque for them to serve their purposes to satisfaction. Luckily, there is an incredibly simple fix. The real problem is not in the bolts, but in the 3-point star knobs that are used to tighten the bolts by hand. These knobs are very easy to remove altogether. Simply unscrew them all the way, remove the black part, and then replace the bolt on the screw. This allows for the use of a wrench for tightening instead of one's hand. The wrench easily provides enough torque to tighten them to satisfaction, thereby getting rid of that incredibly annoying "head angle slowly droops down with time" problem. I understand that Alvin wanted to make it easily adjustable with hands only, but it does more to hinder than to help, so it's lucky they made the knobs so easily removable. With that remarkably simple fix, the lamp becomes simply ideal. I have used it for many hours, every day, for three months now and it continues to serve my purposes perfectly. I highly recommend it. Just remember to remove those black knobs and use a wrench directly on the bolts instead.

I was skeptical that this lamp could hold up to moderate usage based on other reviews of similar products of this style. I must tell you that I'm impressed with this desk lamp. I pulled it out of the package, screwed in a CFL and clamped her down. The arm action is smooth and plenty stiff enough to hold any position you please. Again, I was skeptical that this product would be sloppy and droopy and that I'd be tying this down here and tightening that down there. Nope. She works perfectly. Also, I'm using one of those light bulb shaped CFLs rated for 60W. I cannot hear it humm unless I put my ear right up next to it. Another aspect of this product that I was worried about was the on/off switch. This piece broke on the lamp that I'm replacing long ago and I had to turn it on and off by screwing and unscrewing the bulb itself. As for the switch on this unit, it works very smoothly and provides a nice solid "click" when it turns on and off. The clamp used on this lamp is standard and allows you to clamp the lamp on both a horizontal and vertical surface. It is largely composed of plastic except for the tie-down shank and the nut which applies clamping force to the plastic jaw. Though the nut is surrounded by plastic, it held up to the force of the pair of channel lock pliers I used to cinch her down good. The little jaw of the clamp is studded with triangular teeth for gripping while the opposite mating surface has an odd felt-like veneer glued to it. I don't think that veneer will last too long if you have to move the lamp very often. My advice is to put it where you want it for a long time and cinch it down good with pliers. Again, I tortured myself wondering if I should just make a run to some generic box store to pick one of these up. Don't bother, just buy this one (free shipping if a prime member) and know that you'll be getting a solid product.