Harbor Freight 97448/60642 Desktop Magnifying Lamp

May 30, 2016

I bought this lamp from harbor freight a while back because I wanted a small desktop lamp with a magnifying glass when I work on small stuff. My room lighting sucks so I really needed this. The number on my box is 97448. The new number is 60642. I found this one and liked it due to the size. The neck is  on the short side so you don't get much extension if you will, but I have a small desk where I use this so it works well. I also like that it's plenty bright and the bottom cover is clear plastic so the light doesn't get blocked much. This was all good until a few days ago when I noticed the lamp died on it. It blinked a couple of times and that was it. To make a long story short, it was great when it worked which was probably more than a year, but I went to try and find a replacement lamp and I just couldn't find any. So I thought I check out what lamps I could find locally and figured I try to get something that also had replacement bulbs or pass on a lamp that didn't. Fortunately I stopped by fry's to check out the lamps there and found my replacement there! I also found a couple of other similar lamps, but the bottom cover on the light was like a frosted plastic which seemed to not let too much light through. I just didn't like those because they seem dimmer. They use the same size lamp replacements so it was nice to be able to find it locally.

I also found some on line, but I just wasn't sure these would make it through the mail in one piece. I'll add the links below. Shipping was about 8 dollars and the lamp about 5 or so which was almost 20 dollars for two. You will need to buy a couple in order to make it worth it. The lamp was 24.99 so you can trash it and get a new one, or get an LED type of desk lamp which I was also thinking about replacing it with. In the end I just decided get it there since it's local to me and I like the original ligh. Also, I got different size replacements when I googled those numbers on the computer so that's another thing that makes it hard to find these I think.

So here's the info on the replacement bulbs and the original.
The one that came with the lamp originally says FCL/T4 11W Daylight
The replacement says T4 12W 6400K. This is what is written on the lights themselves.

This is another number on the lamp clear housing. It's s clear sticker that says G10q 11W lamp.
The manual tells you to use a T4 Type 12W lamp. So maybe they'll finally get this sorted out and standardized to make it easier on us.

Also, the picture of the box I have has a different part number than the one on the site now which is fine as they tend to use different part numbers for the same product. It doesn't help on replacement parts though.

 All you need to do to change the light is take out those five screws from the clear cover under the light.

 Then the light just snaps out and you can unplug it. Notice how the letters are facing towards the clear plastic. I don't think it matters but I just installed the new one facing the same way.

 This light comes with four pins on it. Some have two from what I saw but had something else in between them so you really can't mix them up no matter how hard you try.

 Original labeling.

 This lamp is about 4 and 3/4" for the OD. This is important to know specially on line when trying to find a replacement.

 I think this is where I was trying to measure the ID.

 Here is the replacement I found at Fry's electronics. I tried home depot, but they didn't carry this one. I went to office depot and staples yesterday but they were already closed so I don't know if they have any. I was near Fry's today so I thought I checked the lamps there.

 Here's the back cover.

 They are the same size.

Different labeling but it's the same recommended replacement.

 And here is my little lamp back and ready for me again.

 This is the box mine came with. If you look at the item number you may not find it on the HF site since they seem to have changed it, but it looks to be the same lamp.

Just copy and paste the link in your browser.
http://www.harborfreight.com/desktop-magnifying-lamp-60642.html

I just hope the price of the lamp itself and replacements gets lowered because when the replacement part cost about half of the lamp, that just doesn't make too much sense. I like the lamp but I'll definitely keep an eye out for some LED versions too. It would be nice if HF would also carry the lamp replacements.

I'm looking at the larger version here, but I don't need it now. Maybe when the price goes down and I have a better need for it.
http://www.harborfreight.com/fluorescent-magnifying-lamp-60643.html

Well, I hope this was helpful.

Other online replacements...
http://www.replacementlightbulbs.com/lampfc11t4_865.html
http://www.amazon.com/Normande-Lighting-NFS12WC-Daylight-Circular/dp/B002G59J72?ie=UTF8&keywords=nfs12wc&qid=1464652655&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1