When I set up my home office in 2015, I knew I wanted a motorized standing desk. The easier it is to raise and lower, the less commitment there is in standing up. The less commitment, the easier it is to stand up. At the time, IKEA had just released their Bekant Sit/Stand desk for about 2/3 the cost of the competition. I wish I had paid more to get a better desk.
The problem: It’s well documented that the Bekant has a power supply issue. The symptom is that it stops after raising just a few millimeters, then later refuses to move at all. This is caused by the power supply not putting out enough juice, according to some reports. My desk got stuck in a standing position for a week, maybe the longest work week I’ve had.
The workaround: Unplug the power supply when you are not actively raising or lowering the desk. Leave it unplugged until the moment you feel like switching between sitting and standing. I’ve been doing this for the past week and have had extremely consistent success. My power supply is hanging in the netting under the desk so I just need to pop the cord into that. No need to mess with the outlet.
The real fix: Keep returning your power supply to IKEA until you get one that works. Some people report never having an issue, and maybe you will get a power supply as glorious as theirs.
The good news is that the desk has a 10 year warranty – if you have your receipt. And your return will be much smoother if you get an employee who doesn’t demand that you disassemble your entire desk just for a detachable power supply.
I was lucky to have an employee tell me that they accept scanned copies of receipts, so mine lives in Evernote and comes out once a year when I want to try to fix my desk yet again. It takes about an hour to do the exchange in my experience, and I’m on my 3rd power supply. I also happen to live 10 minutes from an IKEA; I can’t imagine driving a couple of hours to do the exchange.
You may have some luck in contacting Rol Ergo directly for a replacement, according to this Facebook comment.
[Photo credit: mastermaq under CC 2.0 BY-SA license. Because my desk is in no condition be seen by anyone.]
Update: Feb 11, 2021: My desk has been working fine for the past couple years. The current power supply works great. I would recommend a Bekant now, assuming that they’ve fixed the power supply issues.