Floor lamp

[Mary24]

Our dog chewed through the cord of our very expensive floor lamp. It's that type of lamp that simulates the sun. My husband put a new plug on the cord, but now it really makes a loud buzzing noise when we turn it on. It goes to a low buzzing noise when we turn it off. Any ideas how to get rid of the buzzing? Thanks, Mary

[John Nelson]

Did he replace the whole cord, or just the plug? You said that your dog chewed the cord and your husband replaced the plug. This doesn't seem to make sense. Did you husband replace what the dog damaged? If so, did he splice the cord or replace all of it?

[Mary24]

John, Yes, that was very confusing. I'm sorry. The dog chewed through the cord and also chewed up the plug. So my husband bought an extension cord, cut it, and used it to put on what was left of the cord of the lamp so we had a long enough cord and plug. I hope that makes sense. Somethings are so hard to explain via internet. Thanks again, Mary

[John Nelson]

Perhaps he didn't do a good job at the splice. What did he use to connect the cords together? He should have used wire nuts. Better yet he should have replaced the entire cord to get rid of the ugly and failure-prone splice.

[Mary24]

John, I asked my husband and he said that he just cut the cord where it was damaged and put on a new plug. He tried to replace the entire cord, but couldn't remove the base. Mary

[John Nelson]

Oh, so he just shortened the plug. That's okay. Double-check the connections on the plug just to be sure. The buzzing may be unrelated to the new plug and maybe a coincidence. Having said that, I have no really good guess as to the cause of the buzzing. Did anything exciting happen as a result of the dog chewing (e.g., big sparks, a tripped breaker)?