I have a bunch of these in my kitchen. I saw some "flat" disk looking LED fixtures at HD that can be wired into the existing lamp socket and hung from the housing.
Has anyone had experience with these kits? Any recommendations on what to get or avoid?
Bonus points if you can help me find one with a slightly bigger flange to hide the ugliness in the photo. The opening is 6" diameter.
I have the ones that screw into a socket but are LEDs that look like that. I haven't used them yet though.
I did use the flat, direct wire canless can lights in my bathroom rebuild and cannot recommend them enough.
IIRC, there are 5" and 6" can lights. I retrofitted 3 can lights in the tiny kitchen in our old house with the flat LED panel style. The actual measurement of the can lights was not exactly 5 or 6 inches (I can't remember the size of the cans now) but the replacement panels fit great.
These are the ones I used:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07CXZ6NH6
It sure made a huge difference in the kitchen:
I have put a bunch of these up and love em.
https://a.co/d/c11fDpr
I have replaced old 6" cans with some but the others were cut into the ceiling. Really easy install and SO BRIGHT! I have them on dimmers but keep them at full blast.
Thanks for the replies so far. Good stuff.
The kind that screw into a medium (traditional "lightbulb") base seem like a slam dunk here.
The location in my picture above had a paddle fan in my kitchen when I got the house - and I have just tried not to look at the mess that is up there.
Hopefully I can find one with a larger flange.. to avoid opening a can of worms and removing the popcorn ceiling. Much as I'd love to not see it - I would rather not.
There does seem to be an accessory called a "goof ring" for traditional can light trims. What I need is a fixture with 6" aperture and approx 1.5" of lip (so 9" total diameter).
If you already have the cans, the ones that screw into the socket are the easy button, if not the ones posted by TJL are the easy button. Both are good options and will work well for your issue. Both have 6 inch options that "should" cover your ugly spot.
If you get the ones like TJL posted, I'd recommend the ones that have switch on the box to change the color tone, so you can click them to the one you like. I have These in a few spots and the "night light" feature is useful.
I just put these in my kitchen and so far they have been great. Only a couple weeks of use so no telling how long they will last but they look good and the nightlight feature is handier than I expected.
In reply to Steve_Jones :
That night light idea looks good
OHSCrifle said:In reply to Steve_Jones :
That night light idea looks good
I use it more than I thought I would. The old cans should just have a wingnut holding them, it's all in how much of a project you want. Either way it's an easy upgrade and well worth it.
In reply to Steve_Jones :
How does the night light function relative to the wall switch?
OHSCrifle said:In reply to Steve_Jones :
How does the night light function relative to the wall switch?
On mine if the lights are on normal you flip the wall switch off and on again quickly for night light mode. If it is turned off for a few seconds it defaults to normal mode when turned on.
Same way as Evans. I know it's tough to tell from photos, but I just took one to give you the idea.
A word of future warning - I have lots of these throughout our house but when one decided to malfunction recently discovered that my style was discontinued. Difference wasn't great, the colour of the filter over the light part and the width of the trim ring, but my owner/trainer was insistent that all twenty odd needed to match.
I eventually found some old stock lurking in one of their shops so I bought all three so I have a couple of spares on hand.
TLDR buy a couple of extra's and put them away for a rainy day.
Cheers
R
I've been looking for some alternatives for the can lights in my kitchen.
They work, but I'm not the biggest fan of bright/harsh overhead lights.
Be careful: if you get CAN lights and are dumb about the wiring, then a thief is able to hack in and steal your house.
(Attempt at a joke about cars being stolen via CAN injection thru the headlight connector... it was in the news a couple years back)
RichardNZ said:A word of future warning - I have lots of these throughout our house but when one decided to malfunction recently discovered that my style was discontinued. Difference wasn't great, the colour of the filter over the light part and the width of the trim ring, but my owner/trainer was insistent that all twenty odd needed to match.
I eventually found some old stock lurking in one of their shops so I bought all three so I have a couple of spares on hand.
TLDR buy a couple of extra's and put them away for a rainy day.
CheersR
but LEDs are supposed to last for 20k hours... I have some incandescent edison bulbs in fixtures in my dining room. These old school lights are supposedly only good for 1-2 years with average use (they are on from dusk until 11pm every day and last 2+ years) and in that time I have replaced countless LED bulbs and even when i make a point of buying name brand (FEIT, phillips, etc.) find that I have to replace all of the lights in a series when one burns out or you notice the color difference.
LED bulbs are great and i won't go back, but i would be remiss if I didn't call out how untrue the claims on those are.
Nothing is better than the warm light from an incandescent IMO. I can't stand how harsh LEDs are.
Anyways those nightlight ones were exactly what I've been looking for. Thanks for that lead. The can lights I have in my kitchen and garage are intersting to say the least. They take the same style bulb you put in your exterior flood lights.
DirtyBird222 said:Nothing is better than the warm light from an incandescent IMO. I can't stand how harsh LEDs are.
what about the clinical sterility of florescent? or the inability to simply throw CFL's in the trash?
In reply to DirtyBird222 :
You can get different color temperatures.
Actually the halo 6 pack of canless can lights I got has a switch to select from "Edison light yellow" to "surgeries room whiteblue" which turns out to be a great feature. No need for different lights for different things, just flick the switch and go.
The quality of these retrofits vary wildly. The LED's themselves last forever. The built in drivers don't. I'd recommend sticking with a name brand, they don't cost much more than the cheapest ones. They are also more likely to have a replacement available in the future. That said, a couple spares is not a bad idea. If you are dimming, the name brand ones usually do testing to make sure that they are compatible with most common dimmers, and can give you better results.
Almost everything should be color selectable now via switch on the light. Some offer remote control of the color temp, usually via wireless switch/dimmer. Some offer dim to warm, which mimics incandescent dimming.
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