I don't know what happened to the original rings that came with my lamp but for some reason after a few years they became very dry, brittle and smelled really BAD. For a long time we couldn't understand what stinks in the bathroom, it smelled like rotten potatoes. Then one day the ring became so brittle that it broke and fell to the ground. The lightbulb caught on the glass fixture so (thankfully!) it didn't fall to the floor. But when I picked up the broken pieces of the ring, it became clear that the BAD SMELL was coming from there. I have no idea what the old rings were made of, but these replacement rings are aluminum and definitely won't dry out, crack or smell bad! Great to find these rings here at Revain as my local hardware stores didn't have them in stock. Problem solved!