The best Himalayan salt lamps

Buy the Himalayan Glow 5-7 lb lamp with the touch dimmer. The dimmer is the only specification on a salt lamp that changes anything, and most lamps at this price do not have one. If you want the lamp to light a corner rather than a nightstand, the 8-10 inch version comes with a dimmer and spare bulbs.

Let us deal with the claims first, because they are why most people arrive here. There is no good evidence that a salt lamp purifies air, releases useful quantities of negative ions, or does anything for your health. What it does do is produce a very warm, very dim orange glow from an object that looks like a rock, and that is a perfectly good reason to own one.

This site's rule is that we do not print a figure we cannot source. The same rule applies to claims.

Air purification. No support. A rock does not filter air, and nothing about warming it makes it start.

Negative ions. The mechanism exists in physics; the quantity does not exist in a bedroom. A few watts of warmth on a salt crystal is not an ionizer, and the lamps are not sold with any measurement attached because there is none to attach.

Sleep and mood. Here there is something real, and it has nothing to do with salt. A very warm, very dim light in the evening is better company than a bright cool one, which is true of any warm dim lamp. If that is what you are after, the salt is the shade and the candle-amber end of the color scale explains the effect you are actually buying.

1. The dimmer, and which kind. A touch dimmer on the body beats an in-line cord dimmer for convenience; a cord dimmer is the more reliable mechanism. A lamp with neither is a lamp with one brightness.
2. Size band. 5-7 lbs for a nightstand, 8-10 inches for a corner.
3. Replaceable bulb. A screw-in bulb makes a failure a dollar problem. A sealed LED makes it a new lamp.
4. Power type. USB frees an outlet and costs you brightness, because an LED behind rock is dimmer than the small incandescent these were designed around.

We did not test these; every figure is the listing's own.

Himalayan Glow, 5-7 lbs, touch dimmer - the pick. The standard size with the control most of the category leaves out, from a seller with a name on it.
Who it is for: a nightstand or a side table, as a warm evening lamp. Who should skip it: anyone in a humid house or an unheated room - the salt will weep.
Cons: no published output figure, and there cannot be one; weight is a range and the shape is whatever the rock was; the health claims around the category are not supported.

Large 8-10 inch lamp with dimmer and spare bulbs - for a corner. Big enough to be a genuine ambient source in a bedroom corner, with spare bulbs in the box - which is the actual running cost of a salt lamp.
Who it is for: a floor-level corner or a sturdy side table. Who should skip it: small tables and homes with children or animals - this is a heavy rock at height.
Cons: heaviest here; more surface to weep; most expensive salt lamp on the page.

WBM USB salt lamp - for a desk. The same rock and touch dimmer running off USB, so it works from a monitor, a power strip or a phone charger.
Who it is for: a desk or shelf with no spare outlet. Who should skip it: anyone who wants the warmest, brightest glow - an LED behind salt is noticeably dimmer than the incandescent version.
Cons: dimmer glow; cable length decides placement; the LED is harder to replace than a screw-in bulb.

7 inch lamp with dimmer cord - the plainest one. An in-line cord dimmer, a classic wood base, a replaceable bulb and nothing else.
Who it is for: a hall table or a nightstand where you want it set once and left. Who should skip it: anyone who will resent reaching for the floor to change the level.
Cons: the dimmer is on the cord, not the lamp; no published output figure; plain base, no finish options.