The Lily Task Light Has Two Warranties, and Only One Still Applies
Same model numbers, two documents, two sets of figures. Here is which one covers a lamp bought today.
The numbers
- List price: $246 for the Lily LED, $328 for the Lily LEDx in silver
- Lamp life: 90,000 hours per Fellowes today, 70,000 in the ESI guide
- Warranty: 10 years per Fellowes today, 1 year on the transformer and 15 on everything else in the ESI guide
- Output: 900 lumens at 5,000 K
- LED: 8 W, Nichia, CRI above 80
- Power: 100 to 240 V in, 24 V out of the transformer
- Auto shut-off: 6 hours
- Safety listing: ETL on the power supply and the fixture, per Fellowes dealer spec data
Verdict
Worth it if you are content with a mark nobody will show you the paperwork for. On 5 August I wrote that this lamp had no published safety listing. That was wrong, and it was the harshest thing I have said about any product here.
Fellowes’ own current dealer spec data states that the power source and the light are both ETL listed, and four unrelated dealers reproduce that line inside the same spec block. What Fellowes does not publish, anywhere, is a standard number. Its sibling the Glimor publishes the full string, right down to UL 153, UL 8750 and CSA C22.2 No. 250.4, so the silence on this one is a choice.
Everything else holds up. You can buy it today, Fellowes states ten years in writing, and lighting is one of the few things its contract warranty names by category rather than leaving to inference.
Which document governs
Fellowes absorbed ESI and retired the brand. The Lily came through the change with its part numbers untouched. LILY-LED in silver, black and white, LILY-LEDx with a USB-A port in the same three finishes, and no hint in the SKU about which set of paperwork you fall under.
The dividing line is the date on your receipt. Fellowes covers lighting for ten years under its contract warranty, and that warranty applies to purchases made after June 5, 2025. If you bought a Lily before then, the fifteen-year figure printed in your user guide belongs to a company that no longer trades under that name.
The conditions on the ten years
Fellowes writes its contract warranty by component rather than by product, which is why the term for a lamp is easy to find and the term for a chair frame is not. Lighting is named outright. Ten years.
Three limits travel with it. The cover assumes eight hours of use a day and forty a week, so a lamp left burning through a night shift falls outside the terms. It is non-transferable. And it starts only for purchases made after June 5, 2025.
Eight hours a day is fine for almost anybody with a desk job, and the June date will stop mattering in a few years. The transfer clause is different. Contract furniture moves constantly. Offices merge, departments get reshuffled, and a fair amount of the furniture ends up going through a liquidator into somebody’s spare room, at which point the ten years is gone. A warranty that dies at the first resale is really a first-owner warranty wearing a longer number. If you are buying one of these secondhand, price it as though the warranty is worth nothing, because to you it is.
What the light does
Eight watts of Nichia LED, CRI above 80, and 90,000 hours on the current Fellowes figure. A dealer puts the output at 900 lumens and the colour at 5,000 K, with the lamp shutting itself off after six hours.
Five thousand kelvin is cold light. It reads as slightly blue against a warm room and it is the standard choice for task lighting because contrast and detail hold up better under it. If your nook is lit by 2,700 K bulbs and you want the lamp to disappear into the room rather than announce itself, this is the wrong colour and there is no setting to change it.
CRI above 80 is the ordinary office floor. Colours render accurately enough to read, sketch and do most desk work under. It is not the 90-plus you would want for matching paint or judging fabric, and Fellowes does not claim it is.
The plain LED gives you a dimmer with two settings. The LEDx swaps that for continuous dimming that remembers where you left it, and adds a USB-A port rated 5 V at 1 amp. One amp is slow by modern standards. It will trickle a phone overnight and it will not keep a tablet alive while you use it, so treat the port as a convenience rather than a charging solution. That difference and the finish are what separate $246 from $328.
A corner is the darkest part of the room
Two walls meeting means two surfaces blocking whatever ambient light the room has, and ceiling fixtures are almost never positioned to reach into a corner. Sit a desk in one and you will be working in the shadow your own body casts. That is why a task light matters more in a nook than it does at a desk floating in the middle of a room, and it is why the arm geometry is the spec I would want most.
Fellowes does not print reach, arm length or how the thing fastens to a desk on the pages you would buy from. Those live in the per-model cut sheet, which is downloadable from the product page and worth opening before you order, particularly if your desk has a thick mitred join at the corner where a clamp would have to sit. Our guide to LED task lights for small desks goes through the fitting problem in general.
Order by SKU
Fellowes lists the silver LILY-LED under the description “Telescoping LED Task Light with USB-A port”. The title on the same tile says single arm, the bullet list on the same tile says nothing about USB, and the LEDx sitting next to it is the model that actually has the port. Order by SKU.
What is wrong with it
Drawbacks
No standard number, on a lamp that is listed. Source: Fellowes’ dealer spec data states ETL listing for the power source and the light, and names no standard against it. The sibling Glimor publishes UL 153, UL 8750 and CSA C22.2 No. 250.4 in full, so Fellowes clearly can do this when it wants to.
The warranty does not survive resale. Source: manufacturer documentation. Non-transferable, which strips the ten years from anyone buying used or inheriting a fitted-out office.
Your guide and your warranty disagree. Source: manufacturer documentation. The user guide shipped with the lamp says 70,000 hours and fifteen years. Fellowes now says 90,000 and ten. Nobody has reconciled the two in public.
Fixed colour temperature. Source: manufacturer documentation. 5,000 K, dimmable but not tuneable, so it will not warm up to match a room lit for evenings.
The catalogue copy is wrong on at least one SKU. Source: manufacturer documentation. The silver LILY-LED is described as telescoping with a USB port. It is neither.
Who it fits
Worth ordering if you are specifying a workspace through a dealer, you want a documented ten-year term on the lamp, and cold light suits the work. Reading, drawing and screen work all sit well under 5,000 K, and 900 lumens on a single arm is enough for a corner without washing out the rest of the room.
Skip it if you are buying one lamp for a home nook. $246 through a quote process for a light with no published safety mark is a hard sell against retail lamps that print the mark on the box, and the ten-year term you are paying for evaporates the day you sell the desk.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between the Lily LED and the Lily LEDx?
The LEDx has a USB-A port and continuous dimming with memory. The plain LED has a two-setting dimmer and no port. In silver, that difference costs $82 at list.
How long is the warranty?
Ten years, per Fellowes, on purchases made after June 5, 2025. The older ESI user guide states one year on the LED transformer and fifteen years on all other components, and that document predates the brand transition.
How long does the LED last?
Fellowes says 90,000 hours. The ESI user guide says 70,000. At eight hours a day the lower figure is still about twenty-four years.
How bright is it?
900 lumens at 5,000 K, from an 8 W Nichia LED with a CRI above 80.
Is the Lily UL listed?
ETL rather than UL, and yes. Fellowes’ current dealer spec data states that the power source and the light are both ETL listed. No standard number is published for this lamp, unlike the Glimor. I could not confirm the entry in Intertek’s own register, which was unreachable, so this rests on the manufacturer’s spec data.
Is this an ESI product or a Fellowes product?
Both, depending on when it was made. ESI designed and sold it, Fellowes absorbed ESI, and the model numbers did not change.
Does it turn itself off?
Yes, after six hours.
Sources
- Fellowes, Lily series listing, the source for the $246.00 and $328.00 list prices, the two-setting dimmer, the 90,000 hour lamp life, the ten year warranty, the model numbers, and the “Telescoping LED Task Light with USB-A port” description on LILY-LED-SLV. Checked August 5, 2026
- ESI, Lily task light user guide (PDF), the source for the 8W Nichia LED, CRI above 80, 70,000 hour life, 100 to 240 V input, 24 V output, the DC5V/1A USB port on the LEDx, the continuous dimming with memory, and the warranty wording “1 year on the LED transformer and 15 years on all other components”
- Simplova, Lily LEDx task light, the source for 900 lumens, 5,000 K, and the six hour automatic shut-off. Checked August 5, 2026
- Fellowes, contract warranty terms (PDF), the source for the ten year term on lighting, the eight hour day and forty hour week limit, the non-transferable clause, and the June 5, 2025 purchase date condition
- Fellowes, ESI transition notice, confirming the brand change