Lighted Makeup Mirror with 5X Magnification - White - JGL9W

How do you take the Jerdon Model JGL9W apart?DO NOT TRY TO PRY IT APART! That will NEVER work. I tried that. That is some tough plastic. I found out that the back is not made to simply pop off. And no amount of prying will get it off. The unit is held together by four (4) rather substantial screws.Where are the screws? On the back of the unit you will see four (4) round slightly recessed areas. The recessed plastic inside of these four circles hides the screw heads. If you take a medium size phillips screw driver and press it into the center of that circle you should penetrate through the 1/16 inch or so of the covering plastic, and find the screw head right underneath.(I used the word "if" and "should" because I removed the plastic with a 5/16 inch forstner bit on my drill press, not knowing what was under there. I thought it was a support post, internally glued, and I was going to separate it from the back by removing the plastic material around it. But, to my surprise, the drill bit hit metal quickly, and in that way I found the screw head.)Note: Before you seperate the front and the back of the unit, use the flat end of a screw driver to pop out the slider knob.With that caveat, when you get those four screws out, the unit comes apart easily.Why did I take it apart? This unit worked fine for one year, and 11 months, wherein, it came to pass, that both of the lights stopped working. Even if you held the switch down for a minute the lights would not light.Now, because both lights would not light, I figured it was probably not an issue with the lights themselves. I thought I might find something wrong with the switch. When I had the unit apart, and I plugged it in, I operated the switch, and it had a different feel to it, it clicked on, and it clicked off. Before I took the unit apart, the switch had no such mechanical feedback. I am not sure what I did to invoke that change in behavior. Nevertheless, I was rewarded for my efforts, as is often the case in situations like this, where you make the effort, but you are not sure exactly what you did to make it work, but by golly, both the lights come on now!And so, if I had not broken one of the small brackets that holds one end of one of the lense movement assemblies during my effort to pry the unit apart with a big screwdriver, I could simply put it back together and give it back to my mom, as the lights appears to work fine now. But because of this broken bracket issue I need to figure out how to glue it back on before I can put it back together. I don't see a major problem there. (Update: that was no problem. I made a new bracket, glued it on, and the unit is reassembled and functioning properly).While looking inside this unit, I must report to you, that it is well made, and quite substantial. I think people who buy this unit are getting a good deal. All electrical connections are made with solid crimp connections, and everything is well insulated. The ballast transformer looks to be so substantial that one might expect it to last for a century or more. And the lense movement assemblies are quite cleverly and substantially designed too.For those of you who want to know how to change the fluorescent light bulbs in this unit, i.e. if they ever did fail, well then, you would take the unit apart as described above. Beyond that, the rest is speculation on my part derived from looking at the issue from the inside. As noted I did not need to replace the bulbs in this unit.Inside the case, on a label close to the bulbs, it tells you what kind of bulb you need. However, the bulbs do not have sockets. They are hard wired in there with crimp connectors. To remove the old bulb or bulbs, you would have to clip the wires close to the bulb pins, remove the old bulbs, and put in the new ones, and then crimp the wires back onto the pins of the new bulb. I suppose you could solder the wires on, using some shrink wrap insulation to make sure that there is no bare metal showing after you are done.For a person to accomplish this successfully, you would need to have some electrical knowledge before hand. Not a lot, but some. Like don't work on the unit while it's plugged in. And how to crimp, or solder, and how to insulate the bulb pin connections. And how to keep track of where the wires go. You could take a digital photo first, before you disconnect anything.Moreover, the replacement of the light bulbs would be further complicated by the fact that these light bulbs are mounted inside of the lens movement mechanisms. It appears that the main mounting bracket (one per side) for the lens movement mechanism must be unscrewed and moved at least partially out of the way before you can get your hands on the phenolic strips which serve as the mounting structure for the bulbs, and through which the pins extend. I poked around in there and tried to see how these might come out. It is not clear. It Looks like somewhat of a mechanical puzzle. And when it comes to the lens movement mechanism, we are speaking about a string driven spring loaded apparatus, and it will take some mechanical aptitude to get it put back together and properly realigned, that is tracking from side to side.(To adjust tracking, you need to relieve the string tension on one side, and spin the lens into the proper position. I needed to do this before I put this unit back together.)Replacing the light bulbs in this unit is not impossible. But it would NOT be considered easy. Apart from the time it would take to find the right replacement bulbs, and have them at hand ready to install, I think you would be talking about a couple of hours of shop time, factoring in the time you will need to explore and fathom just how to get the old bulbs out of there.A factory technician who has done this a hundred times, who has the bulbs, the tools, and the experience, might be able to complete the job in about fifteen minutes. A person who sees the inside of this unit for the first time will take longer.If you are electrically and mechanically inclined, and have the time to spare, it might be an enjoyable project, which would pay some dividends, I think, in terms of making the end-user very happy. Giving new life to an old friend will certainly give her something to smile about.

First of all I love to read the reviews and look at the pictures. It helps make online shopping so much easier to know what you are getting.This morning my husband and I had a discussion about mirrors. I just turned 55, just got my first pair of real, full-time, long overdue, eyeglasses to replace those reading glasses I have lived in denial with for so long. For a little makeover I got a new hairstyle and, with my new hair and glasses look, I now want to spruce myself up and start wearing makeup more often again too. I discovered though, that you couldn't wear the glasses and apply eye makeup. So I was back to where I was before, not caring about putting on makeup because I simply can't see to apply it. I mentioned, to hubby, I now needed a magnifying mirror.This got started when my husband was looking for a hand-held mirror (for another, non-grooming reason) this morning. At that time I also remembered that back in the late 60's and early 70's, my mom had given me a, variable lighted, standup, swiveling, magnifying, makeup mirror, similar to this style. I think it was a GE brand. I loved it. They were a popular item back then. Today it seems they are hard to find, with only a few models made anymore. I had lost track of that mirror and hadn't thought about needing another makeup mirror until now, 40 years later!The real clincher was that hubby also said he'd always thought it would be great to have a mirror for shaving. (I'm not sure whether he meant tilting or magnifying or both? Yes, of course, we have a regular mirror on the wall we have always used!)I hunted this mirror down on Amazon and the price was right with free shipping. I looked at the Conair model (Conair also has one without the side mirrors). A reviewer mentioned a Jilbere brand. I looked at those too. The Jilbere's were more expensive and the Conair could be had for about $9 less than this Jerdon one. But reviewers convinced me that the Jerdon was better lit. I'm not sure hubby ever considered or knew about mirrors being lit at all, but when he sees it, I know he's going to be a stickler about the lights being bright enough for him. I also know, at my age, how I'd like nice bright lights too. This made the little bit of extra money for better lighting well worth it.I also read a review of the Conair (somewhere, maybe not even Amazon) that complained that the center mirror swivel should be horizontal to tilt without having to adjust the mirror stand, and not vertical. I suppose you can look at it both ways though. The Conair is adjustable horizontally on the mirror stand AND swivels vertically. Maybe the dual action, even if a little more inconvenient, is a plus for you. I opted though, through reading the Jerdon reviews, and the picture showing the horizontal tilt (very helpful), that this made more sense. The Jilbere appears to swivel vertically. (My old GE swiveled vertically, as I remember, and I vaguely recall thinking it wasn't my favorite feature to have to adjust the stand for the horizontal tilt.) I figured the vertical angle views could be adjusted enough for my needs on the side panels. Although the side panels are not magnified (side panels are not magnified on any models at all) this still seemed like the one for me.Pictures of it in different views, especially the closed up view, also revealed that it was styled with clean lines that hubby would like and wouldn't seem like too much of a feminine appliance.I have to laugh though. Hubby indicated a round standing mirror with his hands when talking about it. Oh my, I looked at the hundreds of those babies that are available now. My personal opinion of them is that even the nicest ones look like a chintzy little utility tool item (albeit handy) that was made in China and you got from Fingerhut. The mirror floating in space (but necessarily supported by some apparatus) style just turns me off. There are a few modern looking rectangle, freestanding and wall mounted jobs but they are always more expensive than they I'd care to pay and, in my minds eye, don't look a whole lot different than the little round ones. No matter how they dress it up they just look like a time worn, antiquated (albeit handy!) design. It's sort of like a toaster. There's not much you can do with a toaster that makes it so significantly modernized and updated that it doesn't still look much like any toaster that was made 50 years ago.In reality even the cheapest unlit round ones are ridiculously priced for such small little viewing areas. Forget the designer lit ones with fancy frame and base finishes. They run in the hundreds of dollars! Unbelievable! I also read that the lights are often specialized and irreplaceable. They are often battery operated, no thanks. Features like dimming, color change, or an outlet on the base, wall mounting brackets ect... make the itty-bitty things incredibly pricey. Give me a makeup mirror that looks like an official appliance and doesn't cost an arm and a leg, instead of a cheap looking tool that cost more than my microwave oven! Maybe hubby didn't know they had these big mirrors. I did because I remember my one from the good old days. He's going to love it!Oh, and many thanks to the reviewer that explained about holding the light switch a few seconds. It doesn't bother me to do that and, if I remember correctly, I think I had to hold the switch on my old GE mirror too. One of the first upfront reviews I looked at was the one about the bulbs burning out but the other reviewer, favorably clearing up the mystery, eased my mind. Great piece of advice, instead of thinking the bulbs don't work. When I got the thing I did spot the note right above the button, explaining the holding of the switch also. Some people never read labels though.My next challenge is that those stupid little round mirrors would have fit much better on my tiny little bathroom vanity countertop a whole lot better than this rig, but I'll make it work somehow. After all you can close it up and store it, and those little round ones are pretty much destined to sit on the vanity top all the time.

Thank you, this is the best Makeup mirror ever! Its heavy duty, it doesnt break down, and I will enjoy using this mirror for years to come! Glad this is still sold, I used to use this kind years ago. and lost it moving! Happy with it!

Caught on fire on the 4th year I had it but I love this mirror and I’m buying it again . I’ve been using the same brand / same model since i was 12, so 15 years.

Very similar to one I had for probably 40 years. It finally wore out and had to be replaced. Not exactly thrilled with the lighting options on this one. But it will suffice.

it works grate

Bought for my granddaughter, he loves it for her make-up table

Great works well love different light settings