[OP]
Member
I'm looking for some good LED puck lights for built-in and undercabinet use. Desired specs - 3W, warm white, around 200lm each.
There seem to be a lot of made in China lights for around $9 a pop on Amazon, with decent reviews but also a fair number of early failure reports.
Lee Valley sells very similar looking lights for $25 a pop, but I imagine they are higher quality.
Wondering what people's experiences are, especially in terms of reliability...
Contributor
Originally Posted by Victor Robinson
We bought 2 12 volt puck lights from Amazon about 3 years ago, little suckers are bright. We have them mounted over the sink. They along with under cabinet LED tape lights are on most of the day and so far so good, no failures. Puck lights & tape lights are driven by a 12 volt power supply mounted in a cabinet. We prefer the tapes to puck lights because they provide even illumination but different strokes for different folks.
Edit: Similar to these.
https://www.amazon.com/Brightest-Cab...ED+puck+lights
Last edited by Curt Harms; 06-09-2016 at 9:20 AM.
Contributor
interesting coincidence, I am looking for a tape LED light for the same location. I agreed with Victor - kind of expensive on Lee Valley site, probably very good quality. If anybody has experience with other source for puck of tape LED, please let us (Victor and me) know.
Ed.
Member
Many woodworkers are familiar with Hafele cabinet hardware, but they also make some of the best LED cabinet lighting products available. Their 'LOOKS' line is very good.interesting coincidence, I am looking for a tape LED light for the same location. I agreed with Victor - kind of expensive on Lee Valley site, probably very good quality. If anybody has experience with other source for puck of tape LED, please let us (Victor and me
Ed.
When used as an undercabinet light many LED products conflict badly with stone and tile counters, because the many, many dots of light reflected back from the counter is annoying- most people won't tolerate it. So Hafele sells an extrusion and cover that eliminates the dot-dot-dot. You buy the extrusion and cover separately and can use their extrusion and get the tape elsewhere if you want.
The warm white products have nice color.
Member
I used LED tape from Menards in our kitchen. Going on 2 years old and still going strong and we use it a ton because it costs virtually nothing to leave it on all evening.
Contributor
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...Ck%3ALED+strip
You can spend weeks sifting through this stuff - I did - but I'm blown away by what's out there. Everything I thought I knew about lighting is obsolete. At pennies per LED the lights are essentially free. The little power they consume is (relatively) free. Wiring, power supplies, switching/control, fixtures, installation - that's something else but doable.
The picture shows one meter of LED's in our kitchen. (My wife is not responsible for the mess). Total cost was about $6. They are 6000k 5630 chips, waterproof (clear plastic coating). A five-meter reel cost about $11 on Amazon (Prime) 2 months ago, cheaper today. The power is a 1000-milliwatt wall-wart I had in a box. I soldered connections. A remote dimmer was about $3.50. I stuck the LED's to 3 short strips of 1/2" aluminum L-metal and screwed it to the underside of the cabinets. The L blocks any direct view of the LED's from the front. If you do this, make sure the cut ends of the strip can't short on the metal. 6000k was too high (you can see the contrast with the light in the stove hood) and my next order will be about 3000k.
IMG_0334r.jpg
Contributor
I installed 5 Lee Valley LED puck lights into an art display. To our eyes the color appears true. In addition, they have been reliable so far - I have them go on automatically every night for something like 5 hours, and they have worked for about a year.
I believe they are made by Armacost Lighting.
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