Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I bought two Ott-Lite lamps, one desk lamp and one floor lamp. The light is great from the lamps when they work. Unfortunately the ballast in the Ott-Lite lamps will die prematurely and the lamp becomes totally useless as soon as that happens.
My floor lamp ballast died and I was able to buy a replacement a couple of years ago from Ott-Lite. The only reason they had ballasts available and were willing to sell them was due to the fact that the same ballast type had been recalled, and they were forced to offer replacements. When calling Ott-Lite, you will deal with snooty and arrogant people who treat you like you are a telemarketer at dinnertime. That is if you are lucky enough to talk to anyone at all. I suggest if you want this or any other Ott-Lite lamp, to call the company in Florida and try to order a replacement ballast before you buy it. Of course they won't sell you one, but it will save you $100 and untold aggravation.
As soon as I bought my desklamp, I had a bad feeling it wasn't going to last very long. Sure enough, couple of months later, the ballast died and the lamp became useless.
On my desk I still have a $20 fluorescent lamp I bought 12 years ago and use continuously. It still works like new and the ballast and lamp have never failed.
The bottom line is Ott-Lite could care less about your faulty lamp and frying ballasts. Unless you are willing to buy a new lamp every year for around $100, don't waste your time and money on this junk.
My $80 Ott-Junk desk lamp that lasted less than 20 hours is going to the scrapheap and will be replaced by a Bluemax from Full Spectrum Solutions, or a Verilux desk lamp, or any other manufacturer that has an ounce left of self respect and quality control.
You will love the light, but at $4 an hour, there are better lamps out there that will last a lot longer.
UPDATE: I had by chance saved the 13W bulb from this scrap heap Ott-Lite desk lamp and had it sitting in my file drawer. Looking at my trusty old $20 desk lamp I bought 14 years ago and still works great, the bulb in it looked kind of similar to the Ott-Lite bulb.
So I did the expected thing and yanked the bulb out of the lamp and compared the two. They happened to look very similar and the plug in base is almost identical.
I figured, not much to lose here, I plugged in the Ott-Lite bulb in my trusty old fluorescent lamp and turned it on, and it works!! I mean perfectly, the lamp now has the daylight true-color bulb, no flicker and no problems.
So if you find or have a 13W fluorescent desk lamp and want to turn it into a working Ott-Lite cheap, AND have it last more than a week, buy any desk lamp that takes 13W fluorescent lamps such as the Advantus Black Desk Lamp, sold at Staples, then get a Full Spectrum bulb (See the GEF13BX bulb for how it looks), replace the stock bulb with the Ott-Lite OTL13R, or the Bi-Pin Ott-Lite TruColor and you have the same light for half price.
As a bonus, that lamp will probably last 10 years, not 10 days like the ballast burning Ott-Lite.
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OTT-LITE(R) TrueColor(TM) Original 18W Grey FloorThe same "sunlight" that increases contrast and brightness, while reducing glare, is available in this attractive floor lamp. Its weighted base gives it stability while its flexible top section lets the user rotate the light to the best location. Height can be adjusted from 4 to 5 feet by extending the top section. Uses an 18 watt fluorescent bulb (included) that is rated to last 10,000 hours. It is the equivalent of about a 75 watt incandescent. Its light is composed of a specialized phosphorous mix that makes this light particularly bright and useful for individuals with vision problems. See optional magnifier attachment. Height: 64" Base: 11.75" Weight: 16 lbs. Color: Dove Grey. #369210
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