Smart sockets for lamps you already love

Keep the lamp. Upgrade the socket.

wick turns the lamps you already own into smart lamps, without the hassles of smart plugs or smart bulbs. If you've tried those, you know the frustration: the lamp's knob is suddenly off-limits, because turning it off cuts out the smart part, and you can't just reach up from your book and dim the light. wick solves that and then some. It puts the smarts in the lamp's socket, so you can use any bulb you like and still turn it on, off or down with the knob, or just ask Apple Home, Google Home or Alexa. The choice is yours.

Reserve from the first batch How a retrofit works

E26 bulbs1/8 IPS lamp pipe120 V · US & CanadaSmart Home over Wi‑Fi or Thread

The wick socket in Tuxedo, bell shape, white top and black base, holding a glowing bulb

Made for lamps with stories

The brass lamp from your grandmother's piano. The thrift-store find with the perfect pleated shade. The ceramic lamp you carried through four apartments. Lamps outlive us. Their sockets don't have to fall behind.

Smart bulbs make you give up the bulb you like and the knob you reach for. wick keeps both. It lives where the old socket was, under the shade, and the lamp looks exactly as it always has.

Six finishes, two shapes

Hidden under a shade, or proudly on show

Most sockets live out of sight. Some don't: the bare-bulb lamp on the bookshelf, the brass stem with a vintage globe. Pick the finish that suits the lamp, and the shape: a crisp cone, or a rounded bell top and bottom. Same parts inside, same fit.

Gloss whiteDisappears under a shade; brass knob.

Gloss blackPiano black, for lamps where it shows.

Matte blackThe quietest wick: no shine.

BrassSatin brass and a turned brass knob.

BronzeOil-rubbed, its edges worn warm.

HeleniteEmerald, after the glass made from Mount St. Helens' ash.

Twelve more, from 1930s glazes to pressed glass, when you build your own

A green ceramic table lamp with a white shade, a white wick socket on the harp under the shade — **Table lamps**Under the shade, Gloss white all but disappears, and the knob stays right where your hand expects it.

A Brass wick in the bell shape with an Uno thread holding an opal glass shade on a floor lamp's brass stem — **Floor lamps**Brass with the Uno thread on top, so a glass shade screws right onto the socket.

A walnut and brass table lamp with a bare globe bulb on a Gloss black wick in the cone shape, its louvers lit from within — **On show**Gloss black, Brass or Bronze for bare bulbs, globe lamps and open sconces.

At night with the bulb off, warm light falls from the louvers under a Gloss white wick in the bell shape onto a brass stem and walnut base — **Night light**With the bulb off, Ember models glow down from the louvers under the socket: a soft, warm light over the lamp below.

The retrofit

About fifteen minutes and one screwdriver

wick threads onto the same lamp pipe your old socket used. If you've ever changed a lamp socket, you've done this before. If you haven't, the guide in the box walks you through it, and so does the install guide and video.

Unplug, unscrew the old socket
Pop the brass shell off its cap and loosen the two wire screws. Keep the harp and shade.
Connect two wires
The lamp cord's two wires go into wick's terminal block, the ridged one to the neutral side. L and N are molded in beside the two wire slots.
Screw it on, add a bulb
wick screws onto the 1/8 IPS pipe. Put the shade back, plug in, and add it to your home app with the setup code on the card in the box (the same code is under the base).

Underside of a White wick in the bell shape: the radial louvers and the threaded brass bush that screws onto the lamp pipe

Lamp pipe: Standard 1/8 IPS thread, found in nearly every North American table and floor lamp. Versions for other mounts are on the way
Bulbs: E26, the regular screw-in base (what's that?). Dimmer models need dimmable bulbs; 3‑Way models take a 3‑way bulb
Size: 45 mm wide, 72 mm tall (1.8 × 2.8 in). Most harps leave room; measure if your shade sits tight
Power: 120 V AC, 60 Hz, through your lamp's own cord and plug

What's an E26 bulb?

It's the regular screw-in base on almost every household bulb in the US and Canada: E for Edison, 26 for its 26 mm thread. The socket is the threaded cup that bulb screws into, and that's the part wick replaces.

Not E26: the slim candelabra base (E12) on chandelier and night-light bulbs, and the big mogul base (E39) on some older floor lamps.

Retro outside, clever inside

The lamp behaves the way it always did. It just knows more.

What stays familiar

The twist of the knobOn/Off and 3‑Way click four times a turn, like the sockets they replace. Dimmer clicks off, turns smoothly and stops at full. No phone required.

Your bulb, your lightAny E26 bulb you like: warm filament LEDs, vintage globes, a 3‑way reading bulb.

The look of the lampwick sits under the shade where the old socket was. The wordmark is inlaid flush, never stuck on.

wick in Bronze with its rubber-tired twist knob and its USB-C port

What's new

Talks to your homeSmart Home over Wi‑Fi or Thread: it pairs with Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa and SmartThings. On Thread, every wick also strengthens your smart-home mesh. Control stays on your own network.

Ember: a night light that keeps watchTwo small upward LEDs glow softly through the shade, and a warm downlight shines from the louvers under the socket. With the lamp off, they are a night light you dim from your home app. When the power drops, they light the room for about fifteen minutes, enough to find the door or the flashlight.

Sense: notices you're thereA 24 GHz presence sensor sees people even when they sit still, so the reading lamp stays on while you read. No camera, no microphone.

Gets better over timeNew features arrive as over‑the‑air updates. Add long-range Wi‑Fi, a USB‑C port, or both when you build your own: a far-reaching antenna, and a port for setup and tinkering.

Three ways to make a lamp smart

Only one keeps the knob working.

Smart bulbs and smart plugs both work around your lamp's switch, and the switch always wins. Turn the lamp off at its knob and the bulb drops off your app; the plug can switch the outlet, but not a lamp that's already off. wick is the switch, so the knob, the bulb you love and your app always agree.

Feature	wick	Smart bulb	Smart plug
Turn it off at the lamp's knob	Still smart: the knob is the switch	The bulb goes offline	The plug can't turn it back on
Dim it from the knob	Dimmer models	From the app only	Most plugs can't dim
Use any bulb: filament, vintage globe, 3‑way, high‑CRI	●	A few shapes	●
Nothing extra plugged into the wall	●	●	A box in the outlet
The smarts outlive the bulb	●	Thrown away with the bulb	●
Glows through a power outage, and doubles as a night light	Ember	–	–
Notices when you walk in	sense	Uncommon	–

The line

Pick your wick

Four stock sockets cover most lamps. wick, wick ember and wick sense come as On/Off, Dimmer or 3‑Way, in a cone or bell base and six finishes (eighteen when you build your own); wick compact fits lamps with a switch on the cord. Reserve now with no payment; we confirm price and ship date before anything is charged.

An example of a socket made for one lamp: a Helenite wick hung in a desk lamp under an orange glass shade

Build your ownMake it yoursEighteen finishes, from 1930s glazes to pressed glass, mixed by part. Cups and threads made to fit your lamp. The knob where you want it.Build your own

Build your own

Make it yours

Every part of wick is a separate component, so you can mix them, in eighteen finishes from Brass and Helenite to the glazes and pressed glass of 1930s tableware. Each change from stock adds a little: a color mix costs a few dollars, a thread adapter a few more, and moving the knob the most. Parts made to fit your lamp start with a few photos and measurements after you reserve.

wick$69

A vintage chartreuse thumbprint-glass table lamp with a striped drum shade, a translucent green wick in the bell shape under the shade — **Steve's signature wick**Translucent Green, tuned to the chartreuse of his vintage thumbprint-glass lamp.

A Brass wick in the bell shape with an Uno thread holding an opal glass shade on a brass stem — **Uno shades**With the Uno thread on top, a glass shade sits right on the socket and wick becomes part of the lamp's look.

Side by side

Feature	wick compact	wick	wick ember	wick sense
Twist knob that clicks like a classic socket	●	●	●	●
Smart Home over Wi‑Fi or Thread	●	●	●	●
Switch types	On/Off	On/Off, Dimmer, 3‑Way	On/Off, Dimmer, 3‑Way	On/Off, Dimmer, 3‑Way
Size	45 mm tall, for cord-switched lamps	Standard	Standard	Standard
Shade mount	Uno thread	Harp (Uno: build your own)	Harp (Uno: build your own)	Harp (Uno: build your own)
Ember night light and outage glow	–	–	●	●
Long-range Wi‑Fi	–	Build your own	Build your own	●
USB‑C port	–	Build your own	Build your own	●
Presence sensing	–	–	–	●

Questions

Before you reserve

Where wick is todayPrototypes are in assembly now. Before the first batch ships, wick still has to earn its electrical safety listing and its smart-home certification. We will tell you when each is done.

Will it fit my lamp?

If your lamp takes a standard E26 bulb and the socket screws onto a threaded tube, almost certainly. That tube is 1/8 IPS pipe, the North American standard. wick is 45 mm wide and 72 mm tall, a little wider than a classic brass socket, so check that your harp clears it. Like any good socket, the threaded shell sits down inside the housing, out of reach of fingers while you change a bulb.

My fixture isn't a table lamp. Will wick fit?

The first wick threads onto 1/8 IPS lamp pipe. Versions for other mounting patterns are coming, along with shade-holder versions, including one that holds a glass shade with a neck of about 2 inches. Reserve the one you want and tell us about your fixture in the note.

My lamp's switch is in its base. Can I still use wick?

Yes, with a retrofit kit: a small box that wires into the base of your lamp and uses the switch you already have. wick stays powered and connected, and the switch you're used to still turns the light on and off. Tell us about your lamp in the note when you reserve.

Do I need an app?

No. The knob works on its own, exactly like the socket it replaces. Add wick to Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa or SmartThings when you want schedules, voice or scenes.

Which bulbs work?

Any E26 LED or incandescent bulb: the regular screw-in kind (picture above). Dimmer models need bulbs marked dimmable. 3‑Way models step a 3‑way bulb through low, medium and high.

What does Thread add?

If your home has a Thread hub (many recent Apple, Google and Amazon speakers and streaming boxes are one), wick can join over Thread instead of Wi‑Fi. Every wick then relays for your other Thread gadgets, so a sensor or lock at the far end of the house stays connected. It strengthens your smart-home mesh; it is not a Wi‑Fi extender for phones and laptops.

What happens in a power outage?

Ember models carry a small rechargeable cell. When the power goes out, two upward LEDs light the room softly for about fifteen minutes, then switch off to save the cell. The cell recharges on its own once power returns.

Can Ember be a night light?

Yes. While the lamp is off, the two upward LEDs and the downlight under the socket can glow as a soft night light, at whatever level you set in your home app: all night, on a schedule, or on wick sense, only while someone is up and about. The night light runs on wall power, never the cell, so the outage glow is always there when you need it.

What are the two shapes?

Every wick comes in a crisp cone or a rounded bell, top and bottom. The parts inside, the fit and the features are the same; pick the one that suits the lamp.

Does wick take Uno shades?

Yes, with the Uno top. It has the standard Uno thread above the louvers: slide on a glass or fabric shade with an Uno fitter and screw the Uno ring down onto it. Pick the Uno thread under Shade mount when you build your own; wick compact has it already.

Is presence sensing private?

wick sense uses a 24 GHz radar that measures movement and stillness. It has no camera and no microphone, and it doesn't record or send images or sound.

Is it safe to put in my lamp?

wick is built like a power product: line-voltage parts sit 5.5 mm from low-voltage parts on every layer of the circuit board, the line-voltage section is potted, and the closure screws are non-conductive PEEK. It ships only after its electrical safety listing is complete.

Where do you ship?

The United States and Canada, where lamps run on 120 V and E26 bulbs.