Ikea lamp AC adaptor

[Timothy Murphy]

I have two Ikea lamps which clamp on shelves, and which I rather like. Unfortunately, the AC adaptors on both have stopped working. (They broke down almost as soon as I got the lights.) The adaptor gives output as 1580mA at 12v. I wonder if it is possible to get adaptors like that?

Unfortunately I bought the lamps abroad - there is no IKEA in Ireland (though it is supposed to be coming).

[The plug that goes from the lamp into the socket is rather odd, but I guess one could just cut the wire and attach a different socket?]

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yes - it should be possible to get a generic type. Maplin, CPC, RS, etc.

Is it a small two pin with one flat and one tiny round pin? If so it's actually a DIN speaker plug.

[Skipweasel]

You haven't got long to wait...

[Timothy Murphy]

They've been talking about opening in Dublin literally for years; I think there was some planning problem - for some reason Ikea's proposed building was considered too large.

However, I'v had the lamps so long, I'm not sure if they will qualify for a new adaptor, though there must have been something wrong with the old one.

[Timothy Murphy]

...

Yes, that's it. I guess that's not really much use, though, as I am unlikely to find an adaptor with a DIN socket on it ...

[meow2222]

So you need a 1.5A 12v transformer. Available from any electronic supplier. I cant imagine why youre unwilling to fit a DIN socket to its output lead, but its your choice.

NT

[F]

My wife and I met a couple of Irish girls on holiday last year who told us how they flew easyJet to Glasgow and then hired an easyCar to get them to Ikea where they did their shopping. The total cost, apparently, wasn't too much, they had made the journey on a number of occasions, and they got the Ikea items they wanted...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Simple enough matter to solder one on.

[Doki]

Fuck me. They must be the luckiest people on earth. Everytime I've gone to Ikea, they've never had all the stuff I wanted, but the branch a hundred miles away has, so you end up driving about 200 miles in the god awful quest to get a chair and a desk. And then when you get home, and something is missing, or eventually one of the items breaks (it will, it's Ikea stuff), the stuff that's broken is invariably from both branches, and the most local branch will insist for at least half an our that they can only accept returns from their branch, and that no, they don't have the replacement item in stock, so could you come back another day? And no, they can't drop it in the post.

My last trip to Ikea had me asking them how on earth they can get tonnes of furniture from all over the world but can't put something in the post or on a courier van. When the courier eventually arrived, he told us the entireity of his work was delivering missing bits from Ikea kits...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

That was my last experience with Ikea - many years ago. I bought a computer workstation for the workshop - perfect fit for the space available - made of solid pine and at a price I couldn't have even vaguely made it for materials only. It had the factory seals on the box, but when I got it home the keyboard shelf runners were missing. I went back the next day, which happened to be Saturday, to discover I had to go to returns to complain - and everyone and his missus was returning stuff that day. Took most of the morning. Never again.

[matthew.larkin]

I'm sure it will appall many here, but there isn't a room in my house that doesn't have some Ikea furniture, the oldest items just over 11 years old. They have survived moves between four different houses in that time (much of the furniture being dismantled on the way and rebuilt at the other end with the original fittings). I can't recall a single flat pack that hasn't had the right components inside, and I think I've only had one instance of damaged goods. Returns have always been politely (if slightly time consumingly!) accepted. So whilst some people's experience of Ikea stuff is that it is flimsy and poorly packaged, that hasn't been my experience!

Matt

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Oh I've no complaints about the quality - that item and several others have given sterling service. Just their policy of making you use returns to sort out their cockups. I simply don't have the patience to queue for hours for *their* convenience.

[F]

But I hardly know you...

[snip rant :-)]

Not my experience, but YMMV. Odd times they've not had everything but that really has been very much the exception.

We've made more than a few returns (they started to recognise me in the Returns Dept.!) and there has never been a problem. Most were due to a change of mind when we started to install things and some were well outside the 90 day return period.

We've got a lot of their furniture in the house and it's all solidly made at a price that is lower than I could ever had expected. And we like their designs.

Another plus, you can generally put together, say, a kitchen with a whole range of accessories and you know they'll fit together unlike previous experiences where I've had to buy from different suppliers/manufacturers to get just what I wanted only to find there were slight 'discrepancies' in sizing.

[mogga]

They were going to get one in Stockport but it never happened ... something about it being too obtrusive for people along the motorway, like a zillion foot high blue pyramid doesn't do that for most people. Instead they've put one in Ashton which causes nice tailbacks when they have the sale on (As it does everywhere there is one I suspect) and they claim it to be the "Manchester Ikea"

[geoff]

I had a multi-part wardrobe from them last year - what really pissed me off was that they shipped it knowing that there was a unit missing, and seemed completely unconcerned about it being an incomplete shipment

Then the missing bits arrived ... damaged (which was obvious without even opening the packaging)

There seems to be no "buck stops here"

Like the royal mail - which is why I always use couriers now