My cheap Amazon LED lights I purchased a couple of years ago are dying, one-by-one. My shop is in my garage and I installed 16 4’ single fixtures a couple years ago and now I’m down to 8 that still work. Anyone have any recommendations on a decent brand/vendor for a new setup?
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I could no longer tell you the brand I have, but I replaced my tubes with LED from sams about 8 years ago and all of the LED fixtures still work. I also ordered some shorter LED fixtures from amazon to supplement and at this point, as unreliable as they've been, I think the next time I order anything small, it'll just be from aliexpress instead.
Initially, I went with flourescent, then overhead LED's like you. I have found now that Task lighting works effectively for me. Using the old fashioned reflectors and 3000K LED bulbs I can now concentrate the lighting on what I am doing. They also swivel so they can light various machines. There are about 12 of them in all.
I have used florescents for years and they have been very reliable and have provided good light. Over time, as the ballasts have gone bad (they were old use ones to begin with) I have replaced them with electronic one and this provided even more reliability.
I bought these Sunco lights on Amazon a couple of years ago and it made a huge difference in my garage shop brightness. I’ve also used them in several walk-in closets in the house as well. Haven’t had any issues with any of them. They have a selectable color temperature (4000 - 6000 kelvin) and they are “linkable” so you can add more without adding electrical outlets. The link cables that come with them are short though so I purchased longer ones. I replaced 4 florescent fixtures with 7 of these.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CWVT3Z2L/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
When I added on to my shop back in 2019. I replaced most of the florescent lights and added these in the addition so they are all the same. They have different versions. They were recommended by my local electrician and have been reliable.
Lithonia Lighting® 9000 Lumen 96" Intergrated LED Striplight MNSL-L96-2LL-MVOLT-40K-80CRI
Thanks, I’ll check it out.
Are your LED bulbs the kind that are installed in the old fixtures with a ballast? I replaced all of my 48" T-8 fluorescent bulbs with direct wire LED's. Removed the ballast. Power consumption reduced by half. LED'S in the cold storage area do not buzz and flicker. No issues at all.
No, they non-replaceable bulbs, they’re built into the LED fixture.
So not a direct answer to your question, but I have a recommendation that does deal with lighting. Get a magnetic, rechargeable LED work light (flash light). Super easy to move from machine to machine and there is nothing like focused light on your exact cut line. $40 investment but so much value.
Yeah, I already have 3 of those, I keep one on my bandsaw and two on my bench for when I’m marking and cutting joinery. But I still want some decent overhead lighten to brighten up the entire shop.
I recently found a solution I like more than rechargeable LED task lights.
This Laguna lathe light has temperature and brightness adjustments on dials and a power switch.
It's corded, which I like; no more recharging batteries.
It's a screw mount only, but I epoxied four powerful magnets into the base and put a nonslip material on the bottom.
I can easily move this thing anywhere on my table saw, and the direct light is so much better than anything I've used or seen.
They only cost a little more than my small rechargeables.
I will buy at least two more to station around other machines.
I know you want overhead, but I wanted to mention it.
It's my favorite purchase recently.
I also buy from Sam, he works at my local electrical supply house. I got rid of the tube lights and bought commercial 1x4 troffer LED flat panels with ceiling mounting plates. If they failed he'd replace them. Online is convenient but not always better. The light from a few panels becomes almost shadowless because the sources are so broad. Far easire to see than with the multi-shadows cast by tube LEDs.
I would like to recommend to you the three proof garage lights in ShineLong. It has a special parkade tri-proof light series, the lamp shell is made of aluminum alloy, and then matched with tempered glass panel, so that waterproof, dustproof, anti-corrosion. Its design is not complicated, and the lamp beads and power supply inside are also convenient to replace.
there is another long thread on this topic, did you review all that yet? I think its titled 'shop lighting suggestions'. in that thread I posted my choice, which were from 1000bulbs.com, product # plt-11078-4k, 4000k, 26,000 lumens each, dimmable, approx $200 each. I put 5 in my 1000sf shop, and its VERY bright, no shadows, wonderful light for my aging eyes!
I have 16 4-ft LED shop lights (inexpensive Honeywell from Sam's club and American Lighting from BJ's). I like 5000K color temperature and a high CRI. These fit the bill, have a 5-year warranty and work well. Two of the Honeywells did go on the fritz, but I just took them back to Sam's for easy replacement.
The American Lighting ones were by far the best quality, but can no longer be found. The Honeywells make good light, but the build quality is just adequate. The Westinghouse shop lights sold at Sam's IMO are pure crap.
I opted not to wire in the LEDs. Instead, I added a bunch of outlets in the ceiling joists so I would not have to rely on chainable fixtures (early ones did not do that). These simple plug-in shop lights are almost as easy to replace as screwing in a lightbulb.
I would not choose high-bay lights recommended by one person here unless you have extremely high ceilings (20 ft.). I bought a Lutron high-bay LED to try, but the light is not as diffuse as cheap shop lights. High-bay lights have reflectors designed to throw the light straight down, and I did not like the intense light in my 10-ft. tall shop
I purchased 4' Feit brand lights at Costco. They are linkable, thin, and have performed perfectly for 7+ years. They also have a customer service department (needed help with outdoor string lights) that responds.
They're a real brand versus much of the pop-up stuff on Amazon (buyer beware).
I put in 16 four foot LED fixtures that I got from Sams. Had them in for over 5 years now with no issues whatsoever (knock on wood).