Cheap Ingraham Lamp Commander (Kitchen) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Ingraham Lamp Commander

FUNctional and Handy
I've gone through two of these since I first discovered it on display at Lowe's. Having paid $19.95, the $80 price tag is WAY out of line, but here are my comments on the unit itself: 1) Very handy in the bedroom, particularly when carrying laundry, a child, etc., or walking out to turn lights on/off without hands - just call out its name and the command. The Clapper would be less effective as it would require hands, just as flipping the switch would. Lifespan for these is about 4 years. Like the other review, when it dies, it becomes very hot to the touch. A little worrysome to consider what could happen if its failure is undetected too long... The voice sensitivity varies by individual. Female voices are picked up easier, but this can be problematic when on the telephone and the system catches your inflection and misinterprets it as the commands. This frequently has resulted in dimming of the lights - typically not a problem in itself, but the dim setting can cause additional static on the telephone. Lends itself to comedy in these cases because, to clear up the line, you must give a command to either turn the lights on or off from dim - very entertaining for the person on the other end of the telephone line if you don't have mute! Anyway, very disappointed to hear/see that the unit has been discontinued and don't know if the new IntelaVoice system is better/worse/same, but will be giving it a go for the handsfree convenience of these types of remotes.

---

Funny ha-ha AND useful
I bought my lamp commader 5+ years ago for my dorm room, which had no switched outlets, and crappy fluorescent lighting -- that way I could have a nice incandescent chandelier without having to crawl under the bed to turn it on/off. I've used The Commander happily until recently, when it had a little meltdown -- almost literally. That being said, I'm still going to buy another, because it was THAT amusing, and that useful. <
> <
>When I bought mine, its features were as follows, and it doesn't look like it's changed all that much -- <
>- You plug the lamp commander into the wall, and your lamp into the commander. <
>- To turn the light on or off, or to dim it, you must first "arm" the lamp commander by saying [get this!] "Lamp Commander!" (I recommend doing this in a slightly evil, authoritative voice -- it's fun.) The commander then beeps to acknowledge you, at which point you say "lights ON" or "lights OFF." It can take a few days before you get the hang of using just the right intonation to consistently get the commander to respond, but eventually it's second nature. <
>- You can adjust the sensitivity/selectivity of the voice activation system by turning a wheel on the device. If you max out the sensitivity, it will respond to almost anything (which can be useful -- this makes it a pretty good "home security" device for turning your lights on and off when you're not home, since even small noises can work). Adding to the fun -- even at a fairly low sensitivity setting, you can get it to respond to things like "porcupiney!" if you say the word(s) just right.... <
> <
>[A few months ago, I heard the lamp commander going through its reset beep cycle repeatedly, smelled a burning smell, and found it hot to the touch. I loved it so much, however, that I'm willing to take a risk with another one. And, I DID use it for 5+ years (although, as an engineer, I'd say there's not much of an excuse for a product smoking in a wall socket....)]

---

Fun and extremely useful
I have owned this product for the past 3 years. It's been wonderful for me since I just issue the command and immediately my lamp, which is in a very inconvenient location, just turns on and off without my actually walking over to it. If you have a location like mine (dark corner of your basement, laundry room, garage, crawlspace this is the product to take care of that. The second big plus is that my grandkids just love to see the magic happen by talking to the lamp!!!