Recommend good LED work light on tripod stand?

[texasdiver]

My 3 car garage/shop has mediocre lighting. I’ve installed a 4’ hanging LED light fixture right over the workbench but need better light in the rest of the garage. I’m thinking the best solution might be to buy a good LED work light on a tripod stand that I can put where I need as opposed to trying to add more permanent fixtures.

Any recommendations for good LED work lights on stands? I’m thinking of something like the Powersmith 100 light on Amazon. I don’t need some commercial heavy duty job-site quality product that is going to be banged around on outdoor job sites 24/7. Just a good bright work light that folds up and stores easily when not in use.

 

[rpcraft]

Home depot has one that I saw in their work light section not too long ago. I bought a version about 2 years ago that had one of those halogen tubes that gets hot as the sun but I noticed last time I was in that section it is now an LED light and its bright (and produces very little heat comparatively. I think it has a heatsink inside the enclosure that transmits a little to the sheet metal. I have a led to retrofit mine but I just have not gotten around to it.

This is similar to what I saw but the one I saw last time was red...

https://www.homedepot.com/p/All-Pro-2500-Lumen-LED-Tripod-Stand-Work-Light-WL2540LST/205756055


Also, a great rechargeable alternative is the Harbor freight LED Braun 390 magnetic light. https://www.harborfreight.com/390-lumen-magnetic-slim-bar-folding-led-worklight-63958.html

I got that and a setup off amazon that included 2 extra batteries and a charger so it never goes dark on me. I used that light by itself while moving and it did everything I needed to inside a 6 x 12 trailer moving at night. I just stuck it on the roof inside and turned it whichever direction I needed, then while driving stuck it on the USB charging cable for my android phone and it was ready every time I needed it for about 3 nights straight. INcluded me being able to load, tie down several motorcycles, tool chests, screw things to the floor of the trailer, etc etc.

It's also been super helpful while crawling under the dash of my K5 and stripping out all the old wiring and stuff and starting the rewire job. No shop should be without it honestly.

Hell I even keep it and a matching little brother on my nightstand in case I have a power outage at night, lol.

 

[corvettecrazy]

While not exactly what you are looking for I had a similar problem. My solution was to use a LED high bay light and a guitar stand.

The high bay light is wired to have a Nema 5-15 plug on it. From there I can move or hang it anywhere. There are a lot more options for outputs and color temperatures in high bay lights verses all of the LED spotlights available today. For me, when "stored" it is often stored/hung in a spot where it is used as additional lighting.

The guitar stand ends up allowing a pretty great angle for doing painting and general house work. It is small and stores easily.

 

[Ign]

Have you ever worked like this? Any sort of stand light throws horrible shadows and blinds you when you turn around.

Honestly I'd get some 4' LED fixtures and hang 'em from chains....power with an extension cord and splitters if you must. Nice LED shop lights can be had for ~$30 ea and they draw so little power you could have many on one 14ga extension cord plugged into a 15A circuit w power to spare.

 

[texasdiver]

Have you ever worked like this? Any sort of stand light throws horrible shadows and blinds you when you turn around.

Honestly I'd get some 4' LED fixtures and hang 'em from chains....power with an extension cord and splitters if you must. Nice LED shop lights can be had for ~$30 ea and they draw so little power you could have many on one 14ga extension cord plugged into a 15A circuit w power to spare.

That might be a better solution. I don’t have a lot of ceiling room because the roll up garage doors take up a lot of space in the parts of the garage that are darkest and I want light when the doors are up as well. But I’ll take a second look at possible fixture mounting locations. I could always plug into the ceiling fixtures that power the garage door motors and just use pull chains to turn the lights off and on.

 

[rpcraft]

My garage door is pretty close to the roof but the hangers on the led 4 footers allow you to dangle from the chain from a pretty short length. Also if you take the assembly apart you can screw them into the roof with the moly screw inserts or whatever you call them and then the ones I got at home depot can be linked with multiple mini chords so in my case I took down my overhead light, replaced them with plug sockets, and then chained the LED's to one socket per each two lights. I positioned one that is right over my work bench and the other over my big tool box and then the rest fill out light in the middle area of the garage. Honestly, its overkill but I still have one older fluorescent set from my old place that I am going to set up on a overhead shelf that is directly over the work bench to prevent the shadow projection like one of the fellows just mentioned. The cool thing is the LED's are controlled by my overhead light switch and becuase they also have the drawstring trigger, i can turn off the middle ones (but I never do really). I am the brightest garage on the block so at night All the June bugs and other flying critters love to come and visit with me, so that leads to the mosquito netting I will be working on in the distant future, and a magical bug zapper that will probably get overloaded, lol...

 

[texasdiver]

My garage door is pretty close to the roof but the hangers on the led 4 footers allow you to dangle from the chain from a pretty short length. Also if you take the assembly apart you can screw them into the roof with the moly screw inserts or whatever you call them and then the ones I got at home depot can be linked with multiple mini chords so in my case I took down my overhead light, replaced them with plug sockets, and then chained the LED's to one socket per each two lights. I positioned one that is right over my work bench and the other over my big tool box and then the rest fill out light in the middle area of the garage. Honestly, its overkill but I still have one older fluorescent set from my old place that I am going to set up on a overhead shelf that is directly over the work bench to prevent the shadow projection like one of the fellows just mentioned. The cool thing is the LED's are controlled by my overhead light switch and becuase they also have the drawstring trigger, i can turn off the middle ones (but I never do really). I am the brightest garage on the block so at night All the June bugs and other flying critters love to come and visit with me, so that leads to the mosquito netting I will be working on in the distant future, and a magical bug zapper that will probably get overloaded, lol...

That’s a great idea. The only built in light fixtures in my garage are two ceramic white bare bulb fixtures. I swapped out the old 100w bulbs for the largest CFL bulbs I could find. But that still isn’t enough. Now that I’m thinking about it I remember that I had interference problems with my garage door openers and the LED bulbs when I tried to swap out for LEDs so I was forced to use CFLs. That was two years ago. Since then I have put in one 4’ LED shop works fine but swapping out the single CFL bulbs for plug sockets and 4’ LED fixtures would probably help a lot. Hopefullly they won’t interfere with the garage door opener like the round LED bulbs did.

 

[shoe1]

I have been buying the 4' led for my shop and really like them $20 a piece at menards. Last weekend they had them for 17.99 and 11% sale I bought all 13 they had on the shelf. I only need about 6 more lol been buying a few at a time when I get the money. I have seen a difference in my electric bill since changing over from florasent and lots more light.

 

[rpcraft]

I think these are the ones I got. Not sure on the height. It will be a pickle to take them apart and surface mount them (and especially get them back together, but if you look inside one and just make sure you are missing the wiring there is no reason why you can not just use some really long deck or drywall type screws and just go under the lens I would think. I might take mine down and redo them at some point because I was rushing to get some light up before it got dark when i did them but I am not home right now to inspect them closer and figure out the best way right now...


https://www.homedepot.com/p/Commerc...inkable-Shop-Light-Fixture-54103161/205331022

 

[tarbellb]

You should guinee pig this model!

Ive been wanting to pull the trigger on a nicer LED worklight/tripod but havent had the need just yet.

Looks like the most legit tripod under $250 imo (this is currently $120 on Ebay). I believe those are COB LEDS as well which is nice, and no gimmicky "removable satellite" battery pods or other bs.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/TEMCo-Trip...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

 

[tarbellb]

Other than that, the Snap-on single light w/o tripods paired with some nicer DJ speaker tripods is the best solution.

If KCTyphoon was still around he could chime in, he had a ton of LED worklight info and hands-on experience.

 

[gdocktor3]

I have one at home, one at work and my coworkers use them. I've had mine for 6 years or so. Couldn't be happier. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-3200-Lumen-Multi-Directional-LED-Tripod-Work-Light-DE007/206839059

 

[gdocktor3]

Other than that, the Snap-on single light w/o tripods paired with some nicer DJ speaker tripods is the best solution.

If KCTyphoon was still around he could chime in, he had a ton of LED worklight info and hands-on experience.

Just do a search through his threads.

 

[texasdiver]

Just a follow-up.

I followed Ign's suggestion and bought three 4' LED shop lights from Costco. They had a big stack of Felt 4000 lumen LED shop lights for $27 each which was $10 cheaper than Home Depot. We don't have Menards out here. https://www.costco.com/Feit-4'-Linkable-LED-Shop-Light-2-pack.product.100410429.html

Daisy-chained them together and plugged them into a socket outlet that I screwed into one of the permanent ceiling fixtures. Very happy with the result. I"ll probably buy a free standing worklight at some point anyway, but the urgency is gone as I now have plenty of light in the garage.

 

[rpcraft]

One of these days I really need to get a costco membership, lol.

I will say, I got a LED panel to convert with my free standing shop light, and then i picked up that HF Braun light. If I did the panel it probably would be brighter but I don't think it would be nearly as useful as the HF Braun unit because of its adjustability, size, and magnetic base. If i were you I would probably get one of those, and then they have another one that is made to go under hoots and has some magnetic base/hangers on it. That would probably do everything you ever needed between your new LED's and those two units.

IN fact I still have the panel in the box, lol.