Garage kitchen undercabinet lighting

[Schu338]

Ok, got you to bite. Kitchen is not in the garage!

Going to be completely renovating my kitchen soon. I'm an old schooler when it comes to undercabinet lighting (clunky ballasted fluorescents). What's everyone's opinions on LED U/C lighting?

Tape?
Pucks?
Fixtures?

Leaning towards the tape, but have no experience with them. Kitchen will be completely gutted, wiring not an issue. Looking for advise on types, brands, installation. Not certain on counter color yet so may want lighting color-adjustable.

Thank you in advance.

 

[acer66]

I have limited experience but I will go with tape.

 

[TurnipTruck]

I used 12v LED tape in my basement kitchen, and Chinese LED interconnecting blocks in the main kitchen. The tape was much quicker to install, but I had to hide a power supply.

 

[Todd.Brock]

When I redid my kitchen, I put in a switch for under cabinets Originally I had a receptacle at each bank of cabinets and used wall wart transformers for each tape . It was clunky and could see it hanging down past cabinets. I then put a 120v transformer just after the switch. I then repurposed the downstream Romex to carry the low voltage to each bank of cabinets and then just wire nutted the tape to the romex


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[Mike Folks]

Lights for America(Lighting for America?) made under the counter lights with interconnecting power cords. In my former house,I used them, making up wooden light shields,very bright at night.

 

[Chevy-SS]

Subscribing - I am wanting to add U/C lighting to my kitchen too. I want variable brightness, and maybe multiple colors.

 

[Bert_]

Tape light works great. For most runs 18-2 stranded cable works well, run it in the wall and stub it out just above the lower edge of the cabinets. Usually put the transformer under the sink or above the upper cabinets.

 

[Dustball]

-Tape adhered to 45 degree aluminum extrusion (for long term adhesion)
-45 degree aluminum extrusion fastened to the back side of the front of the cabinet box. This will direct the light towards the wall and also down towards the countertop.
-Cable run up to the top using the gap that exists in between cabinet boxes
-Switched receptacle located just above the cabinet, low enough that it's not easily visible
-DC power supply plugged into this receptacle

 

[rok_hunter]

I've got the GE LED strip tape lights from Lowes on three separate cabinets in the kitchen, controlled by an Amazon device (and/or Google home) and am about 90/10 on the recommendation. Overall I like them but every once in a while they go stupid, and I've got to delete/re-setup them in the amazon alexa app.

I tried to go cheap on the plug and bought generic smart plugs for each light strand instead of spending the $$ for the GE smart plugs, which didn't work out. On the plus side (and inexplicably to me) I only need one GE smart plug for one strand of lights, and the other two strands somehow communicate with it as well.

My setup has outlets inside each of the three cabinets to plug in the lights and, like I mentioned, one strand is plugged into a GE smart outlet and the other two plug straight into their respective outlets. The lights themselves are stuck to the forward underhang and about half-way down each side of each cabinet so they illuminate "back" against the wall under the cabinet. I used a dremel with a rotary cutting bit to cut a slot in the cabinet frames where individual cabinet sections were mated up.

For control, I've got three different apps available . Initial setup was done in the GE app where I named each light strand (left, center, right). From there I went to the Amazon Alexa app and created a "room" group (kitchen in my case) and added each strand to the group, so I can just tell the Alexa to "turn on (or off) kitchen lights", set brightness, etc. I can also change basic colors & brightness the same way. I have a couple Google devices on a google home app, and added the lights to a kitchen group there too. This is my go-to when I want to change brightness, or get crafty with colors, i.e. Alexa doesn't understand a "chocolate" color but I can select it in Google home. It's also easier to manipulate brightness or color for the individual strands in Google home than alexa. The lights are purple in some of the pictures above for Halloween; red, white & blue was over independence day weekend, green for St Patrick's, etc....you get the idea.

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[Schu338]

Looks great, thanks for the pictures. I probably won't go for the home automation, just looking for a quality light. I assume all these are probably Chinese made? Any of the brands the better of the them?.

 

[Copymutt]

Best source fir the DIY. Home or vehicle. I’m very pleased w/ all the projects where I've used their components. Including custom turn/ marker lights for 55 chevy.

https://www.superbrightleds.com/

Link for under cabinet advise.
https://www.superbrightleds.com/blog/cabinet-cabinet-led-lighting-install-led-strip-lights/5037/

 

[rlitman]

-Tape adhered to 45 degree aluminum extrusion (for long term adhesion)
-45 degree aluminum extrusion fastened to the back side of the front of the cabinet box. This will direct the light towards the wall and also down towards the countertop...

I like this idea. In my case, I applied the tape directly to the cabinet bottom, about 1.5" back from the face frame, so that the face frame doesn't cast a shadow onto the countertop.

 

[Paul_The_Builder]

For my garage cabinets, kitchen cabinets, and electronics bench, I used 12v tape LEDs and diffuser mounting channels like these. Excellent results in all cases. Get LED tape that's on the bright side. You can always dim it later.

 

[allinon72]

I have these from Amazon and they worked perfect for what I was looking to do

https://www.amazon.com/TORCHSTAR-Lighting-Linkable-Showcase-Daylight/dp/B015PQAH88/ref=sr_1_6?crid=L2SM145PYPYQ&dchild=1&keywords=torchstar+under+cabinet+lighting&qid=1602427730&s=hi&sprefix=torchstar+under+%2Ctools%2C183&sr=1-6

 

[Schu338]

How directional is the beam from tape lighting? Some say to angle towards rear, other use a diffuser. Are both / either necessary for good, even lighting?

Also I'm assuming a mounting track ( aluminum or plastic) would make for a cleaner job, and more durable when cleaning?

 

[rlitman]

How directional is the beam from tape lighting? Some say to angle towards rear, other use a diffuser. Are both / either necessary for good, even lighting?

Also I'm assuming a mounting track ( aluminum or plastic) would make for a cleaner job, and more durable when cleaning?

It's not directional at all. Tape's beam angle depends on the LEDs in question, but in my experience it's pretty wide. Like 120 degrees or more.

In my main kitchen, I used bare tape by itself, mounted directly to the cabinets about an inch or so back from the face frame. It lights the countertop and up the wall too.

In my basement kitchen (done more recently), I used a newer and brighter tape and aluminum diffuser tracks. I like the cleaner look, but unless you bend over and look up, you don't see anything in either setup.

The bare tape leaves a weird reflection and shadow pattern due to the many "point" light sources. The diffuser breaks this up nicely.

 

[Schu338]

It's not directional at all. Tape's beam angle depends on the LEDs in question, but in my experience it's pretty wide. Like 120 degrees or more.

In my main kitchen, I used bare tape by itself, mounted directly to the cabinets about an inch or so back from the face frame. It lights the countertop and up the wall too.

In my basement kitchen (done more recently), I used a newer and brighter tape and aluminum diffuser tracks. I like the cleaner look, but unless you bend over and look up, you don't see anything in either setup.

The bare tape leaves a weird reflection and shadow pattern due to the many "point" light sources. The diffuser breaks this up nicely.

What brand did you use?

 

[rlitman]

What brand did you use?

Super Chinese white box (so cheap it didn't come in a box), 5m rolls of tape. I don't actually have any recommendations on the tape, but I can recommend this diffuser:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073W9PCK3/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[Zippercat]

Used these-easy to install and look great:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MZIU86O/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[engineer2]

My take:
Strip lights: are a more work to install so they stay put and don't sag. You can see the individual dots of light, which doesn't look as nice. Good choice for pantry cabinets though. Mine are instant on, which I like.

Puck lights: were easy to install, but more work to hide the wires. AVOID the ones with the remote controls. Ours go into flasher mode or 50% brightness mode randomly. Only way to correct it is with the remote. I got these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MZIU86O/?tag=atomicindus08-20 There is a delay before they turn on, which is annoying.

Under cabinets lights in a housing: the manufacturers must not ever try them out. A 12" cabinet only has about 10.5" in the recess underneath, so a 12" fixture isn't going to fit. Same with 24" and 36" fixtures.