Why Is My Chandelier Only Lighting Up Halfway?

My necklace chandelier is installed, but only half of it lights up. The top works, the bottom stays dark. What went wrong?

 a homeowner in Chicago

Dear friend,

I want to answer this one honestly, because the mistake here was ours, and the answer might help someone else avoid the same trouble.

The chandelier you ordered was a long one, about 335 cm. When a necklace chandelier is that long, the factory builds it a particular way: instead of one driver, it uses two, one at each end. This is done on purpose, to keep the light steady and even along the whole length. With a single driver on a piece that long, the light can grow unstable over time, flickering or dimming. Two drivers keep it strong and stable, from top to bottom.

But two drivers means something important for installation: the ceiling needs wiring prepared at two points, one for each canopy — not one.

And here is where we fell short. When you placed your order, we forgot to tell you this. So you, quite reasonably, prepared the wiring at a single point in your ceiling, the way most chandeliers need. One end of the light received power. The other did not. And so it lit up only halfway.

That gap was ours, not yours. You did everything right with the information you had. We simply hadn't given you all of it.

So when we understood what had happened, you had an electrician return to run the wiring to the second point, and the chandelier came fully to life. We covered the electrician's cost. It was the least we could do, since the missing piece of information had been ours to give.

So if you're buying a long necklace chandelier, here is the one thing worth knowing before you install it: a piece longer than about 2 meters often uses two drivers, which means your ceiling needs wiring at two points, not one. Ask us, and we'll tell you exactly how yours is built, and what your electrician needs to prepare, before anything goes up on your ceiling.

Thank you for your patience while we made it right. And thank you for letting this become something that can help others, too.

Yours,
Marie
Founder, Lyfairs