Old lamps require more than turn of the switch

Days are getting shorter and nights are getting nippy. It is hard to ignore that fact of approaching winter.

And as days shorten and become cooler, we inevitably spend more time indoors using our lamps.

So this is a smart time to take a look at the lamps in your house to see if they are safe to use, according to Fred Meyerowitz, owner of The Lamp Outlet, 621 E. Central Road, Des Plaines.

"Pay particular attention to lamps that you have inherited from older relatives or bought at garage sales," he said.

"Ninety-nine percent of lamps that are sold at garage sales are there because they don't work, so I get people coming in here all summer with lamps they have picked up that way, wanting me to fix them," Meyerowitz said.

"And sometimes they get some really neat, unusual antiques that way, so it's not a bad thing to do, but you need to be cautious," he explained.

The same is true of lamps that you have inherited or which are still sitting in your elderly parents' homes or nursing home rooms.

"If you have a lamp that has been in the family for 40-plus years, chances are the wiring is old and dried out and dangerous," Meyerowitz asserted.

"It is a scary proposition. I have sons and daughters come in here all the time after they have noticed some dangerous wiring in their parents' home and want me to change it out," he continued.

If the lamp sits in the same place for many years and then is moved, brittle wires can become exposed and there can be a danger of fire or electrical shock.

"We are very complacent in this country," Meyerowitz admitted. "We plug it in, it works and we don't think about it until it starts a fire."

Lamps that are old and have been "cooking" for many years can develop many different problems, ranging from sockets that have lost their cardboard insulator, to cloth wire covers that have frayed; to rubber coating in the lamp base that has begun to break down.

"People don't think about it and if they do, they don't want to be bothered with finding a place to take it for rewiring and then paying the costs. But the truth is, these lamps could start a fire and that's pretty silly when the average cost for a new socket and wiring in an average lamp ranges from $21.50 to $24.50 - at least in my shop."

Meyerowitz is in his 25th year of business and his third location. He began in Niles, then moved to Mount Prospect and now does business in Des Plaines. He can be reached at (847) 590-0300.