"David W.E. Roberts" wrote in message
...
Hi,

we have one of those floor standing lamps from Ikea which have an
uplighter
(150W screw in bulb) and a reading lamp.

All worked via a foot switch with a slider (rheostat?) for the uplighter
and
an on/off switch for the reading lamp.

The uplighter isn't working - hasn't been for some time as I thought it
was
the bulb and they don't sell them apart from in Ikea.

I now have a new Ikea bulb, but have also checked the old one in another
Ikea uplighter and it works.

I have cleaned up the contacts with (dry) wet&dry so they are shiny.

I have checked with my little analogue multi-meter and I am getting about
240 volts to the contacts in the bulb holder.

As far as I can tell, the bulb is touching both contacts (bent them out,
the
bulb pushed them back).

So all I can think of is that the rheostat is knackered - putting out 240V
but at such low power that it won't light the bulb.

As the switch is a sealed unit I can't get at the innards.

Any suggestions about what to do next (apart from just use the reading
light)?


.... or the mains is wired backwards and the dimmer (electronic) is on the
neutral.
We mended one at work and had to replace a fast blow fuse.

I've never put a meter on the output of a dimmer, but I guess it might read
240 volts on the average multimeter if for some reason the slider had become
disengaged from the slider potentiometer - might just not be enough mark to
space to light the lamp visibly.

... I never found an electrical appliance that couldn't be opened BTW - if
you discount the coffee percolator which saw me in casualty when the 3mm
drill snapped and went through my finger :-(

Jeremy