I bought this lamp online. When I finally received it, I learned that it would be impossible to use CFL bulbs. There was no mention of this anywhere on the website. I know of dimmable CFLs, so I tried that - but since the remote lets you control the intensity of the dimmer simply by pushing a button (and CFLs don't react as quick), it is almost impossible to get the desired lighting. Also, the CFLs turn off when power is under 20%. OK. not the lamp's fault. I ended up installing normal lightbulbs.
However, the pole lamp makes a horrible sound as soon as you dim the lights, even if only slightly. My room sounds like a shitty warehouse. To top it off, I had the intention of using the pole lamp with a wall light switch (wired to the outlet its plugged into) but the lamp doesn't recognize that it was on; so when I flip the switch back on, the light doesn't turn on! I then proceed to search around in the dark for the little black remote.
Finally, the base of the lamp (the last rod that screws into the base) was stripped from the start, and it sits slightly crooked.
I would return this lamp immediately if it didn't cost 50$ for shipping and duty costs across the CAN-US border. The only good thing I can say so far is that the lamp is stylish. ...hooray.
This is an excellent floor lamp for an area that needs a lot of light. It accommodates two bulbs, both up to 150 watts, so it throws a lot of light. It's pretty straightforward to assemble and is reasonably stylish. The globe at the top of the lamp is plastic, which cheapens the quality of the product, but once in place it is hard to tell it's not glass. The tricky part is the remote, which, while convenient, is not that easy to use. It incorporates a dimmer function along with on/off capabilities, but only two buttons. Which function you enable depends on how many times you push a button, and how long the interval between pushes. I can ultimately get it to do what I want, but sometimes it's numerous attempts, or trial and error. The difficulty is compounded by having no instructions included describing the use of the remote, so you just learn as you go.
Unobtrusive lighting for a large area. The remote control was not something I was looking for, but it turns out to be kind of handy. The only downside to it is that it seems to be a similar frequency to our TV remote so every once in a while the light goes on when we're changing channels! Easy to put together. We didn't have 150w bulbs so I used 100w and it provides plenty of light.