oh no! my ikea kulla lamp is possessed
A couple of years ago, we (and many other blogs) gushed about this lovely KULLA lamp from IKEA. It was brand new, available in a gorgeous blood red, and had this nifty “touch” on-off switch that even a cat could operate. We bought one for our cottage bedroom and have loved it and its three light levels — our habit was to leave it on the dimmest one when we put our daughter in her crib, then shut it off completely when we slinked into our bed hours later. Well, it seems to have lost its mind. It started turning itself on and off and cycling through its degrees of brightness all on its own. Constantly, never stopping. No amount of touching or banging or pleading would get it to stop. Chad took it apart to see if we could easily rewire, and that doesn’t seem to be the case. The entire thing is constructed around this “touch” mechanism. I’m so sad! Is there no way to save this lovely bedside companion? Has anyone else had similar experiences? — Angela M.
I actually have the floor lamp size version and the touch mechanizing just stopped working one day. Now I have to plug and unplug it when I want to use it. I’m sad too!
Oh, no! Did it scare your little one?
Unfortunately, I don’t have any experience with “touch” lamps so I have no tips to share.
Can you use the shell and replace the wiring with a new kit from the hardware store? It may not have it’s old “touch” abilities, but you can still have it’s pretty decor. (without the creepy cyling on/of all by itself)
Oh my gosh, the EXACT same thing happened to me.
I have a tall and a short one – the tall is white and the short is red. The tall, white one is perfectly fine – but my red shorty does the same poltergeist-like flickering thing!!!
I eventually unplugged it because I was worried there was something electrical going on. I couldn’t bear to just chuck it and it is now serving as an attractive but unusually large paperweight.
Hearing that someone else has this problem is motivating me to try and see if there is any answer out there – I will let you know if I learn anything useful….
This is outrageously amusing. I’m sorry to laugh at your lamp pain, but it’s hilarious!
Has anyone contacted IKEA about this? If it is an problem…they might replace/repair for you. Worth a try. In any case they should know!
yep! those kulla lamps really are possessed. it happened with my white floor version. freaked me out the first time it happened – it was (i swear this is true) a dark and stormy night, i was home alone, and the lamp started switching itself off. i got so annoyed i said out loud ‘i need some light!’ – and it switched on again. eek!
in the end i returned it and got a new one, which so far has worked perfectly.
Oh, no! I’ve been loving this lamp forever but never got around to getting one. I have had bad luck with other lamps from Ikea. Let us know if you find a solution.
My mom has had a touch lamp for over 20 years now and the thing goes through spells where it cycles through its four settings (off, dim, medium, bright) on its own. The auto-cycling just kind of comes and goes on its own…
Ugh, same here, white floor version. I guess it’s a general issue, since there’s quite a lot of us with the same problem.
[...] i said out loud ‘i need some light!’ – and it switched on again. eek!” How’s your KULLA lamp [...]
I too bought the red table version, and while mine doesn’t flicker (yet), I can only turn it off by unplugging it. I tried taking it back to IKEA, but since they don’t have a warranty guarantee on their lighting (surprise, surprise), and it had been longer than 90 days (6 whole months) since the purchase, so they wouldn’t even allow me to exchange it. Epic IKEA fail. The Cincy IKEA I purchased it from (on opening day, natch) didn’t even carry the bulbs that are recommended for use with that lamp.
Oh, I also tried taking it apart to replace the innards, but I can’t figure out how to get the blasted thing apart. Please let us know if you make any progress with yours!
Same here wih the floor lamp. So sad :-(
Happend actually twice, first time started to turn on and off here and there. Then the cycling started. Changed the lamp, and the new one worked fine for 2 months, and now it already starts, turning on and off – soon comes the cycling. Too bad since the lamp looks really good!!
Keep us informed if you can change the electric part and keep the lamp – I would be interested.
I absolutely had the same problem! It would cycle through to the bright setting (in the middle of the night, waking me up…) and not go any further, but it would happen again as soon as I turned it off. I used to live near the el in Chicago and I chalked it up to slight vibrations being the cause. I’ve since moved and have not had any more trouble with it. Crazy!
same here!!!!! we had to take it back and we are so sad, i loved it and they have sold out in australia. i hope they fix the problem and keep them in stock!!!! i really miss it.
Mine, too. I have the white table lamp and it fickers when you touch it. Sometimes it take 5 minutes to go through its cycle. Maybe the cold weather has an effect on the touch mechanism… who knows, hey? The guys at Ikea should get their act together, inform the makers and modify it: replace the little touch switch for one that clicks on to off and save everyone the hassle. I wonder if these lamps are quality tested like they say with most of their other furniture.. hmmm… Shame, it really IS a beautifully designed lamp.
Bugger. I picked up what I thought was a fantastic half-price bargain in the AS IS (no returns) with a sticker saying it worked fine, and i have the same flickering issue. I snagged a bulb from a different lamp, and I hoped the strobe effect was the result of a mismatch of bulb, but I’m not holding out hope now seeing all the problems people have had. Darned impulse buy. I was drawn in by that pretty red.
Mine completely stopped working – changed bulbs and fuse in the plug to no avail. Used the online chat at Ikea, they sent me a PDF of the instructions and it basically says on there that the cord cannot be replaced and once it’s broken, then the whole lamp is done.
If I could just open up the bit where the switch is attached to I reckon I could sort it!
The same thing just started happening with our floor model. It will turn itself off and on, cycles through it’s settings, and we’ve unplugged it because we were also worried about electrical overloads.
We love the lamp, and would love to be able to fix it. Of course, we bought it over 6 months ago. Might try to return to Ikea anyway. Lots of people must be complaining about it.
We have the white floor version that turns itself on overnight. I have tried isolating it from the floor with rubber pads and thick corrugated cardboard; does not help. When we go away we unplug the thing. At some future time I may put in a cord with switch. I am disappointed that Ikea has not recalled this thing!!
PWM Woodbridge, On
Ours (the black floor version) just stopped working after one year. I still had the receipt so we took it back yesterday and got a brand new one! The manager at costumer service said that we may have broken it by using an energy efficient bulb. Perhaps we were just lucky but if you still have the receipt I would try to take it back.
same problem as gedee: stop working at all.
in next days, i’ll try to open the metal box ant to rewire the lamp completely adding a more realiable pedal-switch.
I’ve got the black table lamp for the living room and the white one for our bedroom. The white one has stopped working now. I’ve changed the fuse, the bulb and checked the wiring. I can only assume it’s the touch switch that’s also failed.
We are just another statistic…
Come on Ikea sort it out…
How did you guys (other comments) get it open? I can not figure out how to open the casing which houses the dimmer unit! Any help much appreciated.
Bugger! My black floor one and a table white one have stopped working, IKEA Australia re no longer stocking the white ones just the black ones. Will hopefully get an exchange for teh black one. My grandfather is an electrician, may just get him to look at the white one instead of taking it back. I can’t bear to lose it, they are my beside lamps and one still works. I hate ikea today.
Hi,
I live in Italy and my Kulla floor white lamp started turning on by itself last night after five months of perfect functioning. So I searched with Google and found this blog, which confirms me that Kulla are defective anywhere.
Hello!
I have a white floor version. I bought it a year ago. Now it has gone mad. It switched of and I thought it was the bulb. But when I screwed the same one in it worked…a short time. And after a while in dark it turns on again.
I love this one and on IKEA here in Sweden where I live they say that I have 3 years right to exchange the goods. My problem is that I cannot find my receipt. I think this one is a little bit to expensive to just buy another one (if that one does the same).
Any one in Sweden (or somewhere close) having a receipt for sale?
I have the same problem as everyone here and now the lamp just stopped working. Can anyone tell me whether changing to a normal pedal switch will help?
If it does, i will get the technician to fix otherwise it will just be a white elephant sitting pretty in a corner :-(
Really love the look but too bad it’s a faulty product…
I can’t believe you guys have the same problem!!! I absolutely adore this lamp (have 2 for my bedroom), but they just stopped working altogether. I don’t want to return them because Ikea Spain is not carrying them in red anymore, and I’m in love with how they look next to my bed. Hubby took matters with his own hands last night and decided to switch the dead Kulla on his bed side by an old lamp we had in the guestroom. I think I was just hoping they would magically start working again (like they’ve done in the past). Will do some research and see if I can fix them.
I have the floor standing lamp and a table lamp in black. They worked perfectly for the first 6-8 months then the both stopped within days of each other and would only work intermittently. In the end I took them both back to Ikea and when they tried them they worked. I told them that they only worked intermittently but they made me feel like a fraud. I too like some others cannot find my original receipt. I am writing to complain to Ikea as I cannot believe they are not aware. I just found out today that they have changed manufactures. I love my lamps but not a lot of good. I too have tried to dismantle and rewire with a normal switch but could not get it apart. As they are next to useless, look nice but not a lot of good for lighting the room, I may just try and alter. Will probalby have to drill it out.
We got ours from Ikea Singapore. Its a black standing lamp. My wife adores it. But it did its fizzle bit and died out. It is frustrating that Ikea does not carry it anymore and they cannot replace the faulty parts.
It is such a nice lamp and we do not want to throw it just because of the faulty dimmer switch.
Did anyone manage to successfully dismantle it? Please let us know how it is done.
Thank you
I was able to dismantle and repair a dead kulla floor lamp. The actual repair is fairly easy, but getting into the electrical housing takes some work. This was my first time doing any wiring work, so if I can do this, you can too.
Repair:
The problem in my case was a failed controller for the touch switch. I removed the controller, wired in a basic $2 pull switch*, and everything’s working fine now.
For those of you with similar problems, looks like we have the good folks at Hong Yuan Company of Electronic Technology to thank for our trouble.
(*One thing to look out for: The neutral wire from the cord only runs to the controller, not to the actual harp of the lamp. The “neutral” wire running to the harp doesn’t connect to anything at all. If you replace the touch controller with a simple switch, make sure to run a neutral line to the harp. The faux-neutral wire is handy for that.)
Opening the housing:
To open the housing you need to remove the metal and plastic bells that sit on top of it and then take off its top plate. Those parts are held together by a threaded metal connector that the wires run through. It screws into the plastic bell on top and into a piece inside the housing that is itself screwed into the lamp base.
The reason the lamp is so difficult to open is that some of these parts are also glued together. Can’t unscrew the plastic bell? There are gobs of glue attaching it to the metal connector.
Everything will unscrew from the connector. It just takes a lot of force at times. (@Carol, there’s no need to drill.)
Two tips:
1. There’s a nut below the plastic bell that’s difficult to get to. A socket wrench with a long socket helps quite a lot.
2. The round, upper plate to the electrical housing isn’t attached to the lower plate/body of the housing. It just fits in very snugly. To remove it, just pull up. I found it helpful to hook something in through the center hole.
Best of luck!
Marc! Thank you for sharing your repair instructions. I think everyone here would love it if you sent some photos to “shelteriffic” so they might publish a visual how-to. I also own a much loved but completely broke-down Kulla lamp.
[...] do we love our readers! Last year, Angela lamented about how the wiring in her Kulla lamp went haywire — and MANY of you chimed in to let her know she was not alone. Well, now reader Marc may have [...]
Hi Marc,
I just started taking apart my Kulla floor lamp. I thought it was just a burnt out bulb, but I replaced the bulb with a couple new ones without success.
Having trouble unscrewing the bells from the top of the housing. I got the threaded plastic part off but not the metal bell that sits right on top fo the plate. i can actually twist it and it turns but doesn’t come loose.
If you can, could you look at the photos and tell me what parts exactly i am supposed to be pulling apart?
http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/8339/photo3db.jpg
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/7972/photoknr.jpg
the part that I was able to unscrew that you screw the lightbulb into:
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/801/photo2se.jpg
Thanks so much for any help!
“The reason the lamp is so difficult to open is that some of these parts are also glued together. Can’t unscrew the plastic bell? There are gobs of glue attaching it to the metal connector.” Okay, this looks like where i’m stuck. how did you manage to get the plastic bit undone? it’s set inside the metal conector so there’s nothing to grab hold of to twist…did you do something to loosen up the glue?
This product is clearly problematic. I love the design, but have now returned three of these to IKEA. Each time they tell me that there is no known problem with this product. However long you’ve had this product, if it breaks return it to them. They appear to be selling goods not fit for purpose.
Hi, Patrick.
Afraid I can’t be much help there. It really just took a lot of force to get the plastic piece to unscrew. If there’s a trick to weaken the glue, I don’t know it.
A pair of needle nose pliers does come in handy, though. You can grip the center of the plastic piece where the wires come through and use that to get some leverage.
Hi,
I had the same problem and of course without a receipt IKEA wouldnt exchange, “For all we know you could have bought it 2nd hand from eBay”!
It’s interesting that although they are clearly aware there is a problem – the touch mechanism has been changed to a different sort now in the newer models – they still arent willing to exchange or replace the faulty lamps.
Im very annoyed, mostly becasue I love the store and really cant boycott it!
Hi,
Just wanted to add another disappointed Kulla lamp owner to the list…
Same problem: switches level automatically and can only turn on/off by unplugging it.
I will now try to fix it like Marc..
I submitted the following Kulla fix to ikeahacker.blogspot.com
i’m not sure if they’ll publish it, so i thought i’d share it here too!
__________________________________
i was disappointed by the 6 month lifespan of my Kulla floor lamp, the glossy enameled bauhaus-y piece I finally let myself spend $100 on. One day, it just didn’t turn on.
When I checked online to see if there were any quick fixes, I found plenty of company. Many people reported their Kulla had a mind of its own, cycling through the light settings in the middle of the night.
But people still LOVED their Kullas! Many kept them as non-functional ornaments, unable to simply discard them.
My 90-day warranty was up, I couldn’t find my receipt and IKEA was a 2-hour drive, so I figured I was on my own. I loved my Kulla too. There had to be a way!
This post shed some, uh, light on what I was up against:
http://www.shelterrific.com/2009/06/11/oh-no-my-ikea-kulla-lamp-is-possessed/
Commenter Marc had gave me the confidence to take the lamp apart and the rest I improvised. Following are instructions on how to get the Kulla up and running when it becomes possessed or just dies totally.
The problem is that the dimmer control board has burned out, so we are going to replace it. The replacement module is $10 at Lowe’s (online or brick & mortar):
http://www.lowes.com/pd_131083-1372-DIY-L3_0_?productId=1013597&Ntt=touch+dimmer&Ntk=i_products&pl=1¤tURL=/pl__0__s?newSearch=true$Ntt=touch%20dimmer$y=0$x=0#prod-tabs
***UNPLUG THE LAMP FROM THE WALL FIRST!***
1. Remove the shade, bulb and wire shade support and unscrew plastic ring under the bulb.
2. While holding the main lamp post with one hand, turn the entire top assembly with the other, using the plastic diffuser disc and the touch post for leverage. (You may prefer to have a helper hold the pole while you turn.) Unscrew the top assembly, feeding some cord slack through the grommet by the lamp’s base if things seem to get difficult.
3. With the top assembly off, it’s time to separate the halves of the Kulla’s skull! It’s pretty easy but requires a firm hand. Grasp the threaded rod that secures the top assembly to the lamp post (I used big pliers called Channel Locks) and while holding the outer cup-shaped shell of the top assembly, push straight in on those threads until it gives and separates, breaking open the electrical chamber. I think what you are doing here is breaking a bead of adhesive that keeps the skull together. Finally, with firmness, free the cup-shaped half from the threaded rod entirely. This might require some jiggling at the very end.
4. Next, free the dimmer control board from the inner skull by peeling the black plastic case away (it’s held with double-sided foam tape. Open but don’t discard the black plastic housing. We wil be reusing half of this plastic capsule for the new board. You will probably smell a burned electronics smell at this point; that’s the old dimmer control board which is fried.
5. Prepare the new board by breaking it out of its casing with a small putty knife or similar tool. Unfortunately its gray housing is slightly too bulky to fit into Kulla’s skull.
6. Now comes the brain transplant! For this step, match the black and white wire positions and substitute the gray wire of the new board for the blue wire of the old board:
Remove the old, defective dimmer control board by clipping off the tiny zip ties, cutting off the black heat shrink tubing and un-crimping the connectors one at a time. I used a technique of wiring in the new board as I unwired the old: un-crimp one connector and attach the appropriate wire from the new board, the twist on the tiny, supplied wire nut. Then repeat the process for the other two crimped connections. This way you don’t get confused by the loose wires that would otherwise result. I used a crimping tool to un-crimp, but pliers will do.
7. When the new board is in and the wire nuts twisted tightly, use tiny zip ties to hold the wires together right near the wire nuts (just like the old ones that you cut off earlier). Clip off the tails of the zip ties. Wind electrical tape around the zip ties and wire nuts.
8. Place the new dimmer control board (component-side first) into half of the black housing from the old board, leaving the heat sink as the exposed side.
9. The eyelet on the yellow wire of the new board is too big, so we need to replace it with a smaller one from radio shack or a hardware store. I just cut off the original one, stripped a bit of wire and crimped a smaller one on to fit over the fitting of the touch post.
10.TEST IT OUT! The moment of truth… put in a bulb, plug in the lamp and touch the exposed eyelet at the end of the yellow wire of the new dimmer board. The lamp should cycle through the various dimmer settings. Don’t worry, no current runs through that piece. Actually at this point there should be nothing exposed that could cause a shock. Assuming it works, let’s put Kulla back together!
***UNPLUG THE LAMP AND REMOVE THE BULB!***
11. Using the double-sided tape supplied with the new board, stick the new board by its recycled housing back down into the Kulla skull interior floor from whence the old board came.
12. Pack everything in nice and tight and press the two halves of the skull together. Holding the halves together, place the top assembly back onto the lamp post and screw it back on. When it is nice and tight, the skull will be closed up tightly again.
13. Reassemble and enjoy!
[...] This post shed some, uh, light on what I was up against: [...]
[...] This post shed some, uh, light on what I was up against: [...]
I see there are more like me! Everything in my house is red or purple, so the table red lamp was for me. Trying to take it apart today-with no success. Printed out how it should come apart-would like to even have it stay on all the time-could plug it into a power strip for easier turning off and on. Thanks, Trish
trish, you really have to twist the top part hard to unscrew it from the lamp post shaft. don’t be afraid to to turn by the plastic diffuser ring while a helper holds the lamp post. you’ll get it!
well i tore apart that plastic bit that holds the threaded plastic ring that holds the bulb… not sure if that will matter. i guess I can always glue it back together or something. Anyway, think a flat bike wrench might help to undo the nut that’s right at the bottom of the inside of the bell. I’ll try that. god I hate Ikea for this. They don’t even sell this lamp anymore. has anyone just gone and snipped the whole unit from the cord and installed something else using the same lampshade?
[...] This post shed some, uh, light on what I was up against: [...]
[...] This post shed some, uh, light on what I was up against: [...]
just open it up from the bottom of the metal plate, no need to unscrew anything from the top plate.