Ikea’s products are known for being a pain to assemble, but, in the case of their Calypso lamp, the real struggle will be keeping the device assembled. The Swedish furniture store has announced a recall of one of their popular ceiling lamps due to its dangerous habit of falling on people. The report states that the glass shade on the Calypso ceiling lamp can sometimes fall and result in “impact and laceration hazards.”
In the recall report, Ikea mentions that there have been 19 reported incidents which have occurred as a result of the lamp’s glass shade falling on people. Three of those 19 reports mentioned that the shades caused “minor injuries.”
In order to prevent further injuries, Ikea has issued a voluntary recall of these shades and is working with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to address this issue.
In addition to the reports filed with the CPSC, there are several reviews on Ikea’s website warning customers away from the lamp due to the safety hazard. One reviewer even provided an explanation regarding why the lamps break so easily. In short, the Calypso’s base is only supported by four small prongs which aren’t always strong enough to hold the shade’s weight. When inspecting the lamp, the reviewer noted that several of the prongs were showing cracks. The reviewer said that one of the lamps even shattered as they were trying to uninstall it.
In response to the aforementioned review, Ikea sent the user an email requesting more information on the lamp so that they could conduct an internal safety review of the product.
It’s worth noting that not all of the Calypso lamps have this design flaw. Ikea’s recall notice says that only those lamps which were manufactured between August 1st, 2016 and July 1st, 2018 are being affected by the recall. The report advises those who did purchase their lamps between those dates to carefully disassemble the lamp and check their date code. Those whose lamps bear date codes between 1625 and 1744 should return the devices to Ikea for an exchange or full refund.
Still, a period covering two years worth of manufacturing means a lot of faulty lamps out there. Fortunately, as of the time of this story’s publication, there have been no reports of any serious injuries related to the Calypso lamps and Ikea is taking steps to address this issue.
