How to Replace the Power Supply on the IKEA Bekant

tl;dr

Contact Rol Ergo directly at their website. They’re very responsive, and will ship you a new power supply in a couple weeks. You’ll just need to provide them with a photo of the power supply, your name, address, and phone number.

The full story:

In 2015, I bought the IKEA Bekant. At the time, it was one of the cheapest motorized sit/stand desks on the market. It worked well in the store, and was reassuring to see that it had a 10-year warranty.

Fast-forward to 2017, and…my desk was no longer raising. Pressing the “up” arrow would raise it about half an inch, and then it would stop.

After perusing through some Google results, I discovered that many others were seeing similar problems. Apparently, the power supply commonly burns out after a certain amount of usage.

I called Ikea customer service twice, and was on hold for over an hour before I gave up. I sent them an e-mail, and it took nearly 3 weeks for them to get back to me. IKEA is well-known for their awful customer service, which doesn’t bode well for anyone who actually needs to make use of the 10-year warranty.

I tried the workaround mentioned by George Hotelling of shutting off power to the desk until I needed to move it. This worked for about a week, but then the problem happened again.

Finally, I stumbled across a Facebook comment which advised me to go to Rol Ergo directly. Looking at the power supply, it’s indeed made by Rol Ergo:

I contacted them at their website and sure enough, they responded right away! They were very helpful, and shipped out a new power supply in a couple weeks. My desk is back in working order again.

If you’re shopping around for a standing desk, I would just avoid the Bekant. There are much better options now in that price range. At work, we all have the Jarvis and I’ve been very happy with it. I like the option of saving height presets.