I have a desk lamp with a two way (?) control switch. Basically, you click it once to get it on with a “dim” setting, click again to get full brightness, and then again to turn it off.
Given that incandescent bulbs are on the way out, I decided to get an LED bulb for the lamp. If I sit and flick around a 100 W incandescent, the lamp works perfectly fine. With my LED bulb, it works…sometimes. Other times it does not! I have to turn the lamp on and off upwards of 20 times before it finally fires up the LED bulb. It’s bizarre, and I’ve checked the plug, wire, etc.
Google is not helping me, any ideas what could be the problem? Let me know if I need to provide more facts.
The side of the bulb says “dimmable,” and “Suitable for use with dimmers.” I also had it working fine for a few weeks before this problem came up, and the fact that it works about, say, 5% of the time, as opposed to 0% of the time, is what makes my head scratch.
the center contact of the socket can get some corrosion or get pushed down to make less than good contact with the bulb.
unplug the lamp. unscrew the bulb. with a small bit of sand paper or the tip of a knife clean the center contact of the socket a bit. with a needle nose pliers/small pliers pull up the center contact just a real small amount, or catch it with the head of a nail/screw and pull up.
oh be sure you unplug the lamp before putting anything besides a bulb in the socket.
