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.
June 11th, 2009 at 7:30 am
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!
June 11th, 2009 at 9:00 am
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.
June 11th, 2009 at 10:00 am
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)
June 11th, 2009 at 11:00 am
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….
June 11th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
This is outrageously amusing. I’m sorry to laugh at your lamp pain, but it’s hilarious!
June 11th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
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!
June 12th, 2009 at 12:11 am
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.
June 12th, 2009 at 4:46 am
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.
June 12th, 2009 at 5:34 am
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…
June 13th, 2009 at 6:20 am
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.
June 15th, 2009 at 5:00 am
[...] i said out loud ‘i need some light!’ – and it switched on again. eek!” How’s your KULLA lamp [...]
June 16th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
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!
June 18th, 2009 at 3:48 am
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.
June 25th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
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!
June 27th, 2009 at 3:34 am
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.
July 3rd, 2009 at 11:33 pm
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.
July 4th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
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.
July 27th, 2009 at 4:32 am
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!
August 3rd, 2009 at 7:54 am
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.
September 10th, 2009 at 6:02 am
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
September 13th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
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.
October 2nd, 2009 at 6:58 am
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.
October 18th, 2009 at 12:55 am
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…
November 17th, 2009 at 1:14 am
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.
November 17th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
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.
November 25th, 2009 at 6:50 am
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.
January 22nd, 2010 at 5:39 am
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?
January 24th, 2010 at 11:33 pm
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…
February 5th, 2010 at 9:07 am
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.