A Shout Out to Hampton Bay
I think the incentives are bad for manufacturers to write good instructions, since people have already purchased the product by the time they see the instructions, and more important because you already learned how to put the #)%$#$ thing together (in spite of the awful instructions) the first time. I.e., you would not be deterred from buying the same model because of bad instructions. Really, it seems that the only pragmatic benefit is that it builds up brand-name trust, so that you buy other (novel) items from that manufacturer, since you had such a good experience with them with another product.
Annnyway, that is my long-winded introduction to my praise for Hampton Bay. We bought their Adjustable Cone Pendant Track Light (model #440 724–I’m also blogging this in case we need to buy a replacement and forget what we bought!) and the directions had a great tip. I had to cut the wire to adjust the height of the light (hanging from the ceiling). The directions had this great tip: “NOTE: If you are installing more than one light, be sure all the wires are cut to the same length” or something like that. I.e., it was saying you should take out all your lights and get them to that stage of the directions, and then cut them all at the same time, when you can hold the wires next to each other.
Had it not been for that tip, I would have completely installed the first light, before even opening the second light’s box. And then when I went to measure and cut the wire on the second light, I would not have been nearly as accurate in matching the length of the first one. Thanks guys!
One criticism though: The directions were discussing which wires to attach to the blue versus red wire (you had to disconnect them in order to trim). So fortunately I had jotted down a note to myself about which wire went with which other wire color, before undoing them.
