Recessed lights

[Charles Taylor]

We're thinking about adding recessed lights in several places in our house. Actually we might have been finished already if we could get a contractor to follow up with a quote, but it's looking more and more like a DIY effort.

There are traditional cans with replaceable lamps, of course, and there are "canless" offerings such as this one: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Halo-White-LED-Remodel-and-New-Construction-Recessed-Light-Kit-Fits-Opening-5-in/1001772158 The same big box Web site has another, cheaper brand with less favorable ratings. Has anyone had experience with the longevity of these types of lights?

[Charlie Velasquez]

No first hand, but the Halo lights get good reviews on the Mike Holt forum.
I have the knock-offs in my shop
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FFPYWHJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Dimmable, the lighting is outstanding; but only three months in, I can not speak to the longevity of the brand.

[Bill Dufour]

In my experience the power supply fails within one year or it will last for years and years. I would go with Edison base lamps. Guaranteed to be available in 20 years. If you get a one piece unit what happens in 3 years when you have to replace one that is no longer made? replace them all in that room or have one mismatched unit.
Similar to coordless drills with no battery support. I find the ones designed to take only LEDs use an oddball base so the lamps are hard to find and they are dimmer then what they really should be so you will need to have more fixtures to get equal light.
Bil lD

[Lee Schierer]

I just installed two of the 4 inch size. One in a stairway and one in a hall. The stairway and hall are well illuminated. I got the 4000 k color ones. Daisy chaining them is possible but you have to use the end knockout with a clamp and stagger the lengths of the wires by 3/4 inch to you the push in connectors.

[Shawn Siegrist]

I’ve installed 5 of the Halo lights in our house about 3 months ago, so far we love them. Easy to install and the have multiple temp (color) settings.

[Alan Lightstone]

I have a house full of these due to a total remodel of my present home. I learned a lot of lessons.

If you have, or plan to get good electronic dimmers (I have the Lutron RadioRA system (which is very expensive, but can be controlled over your iPhone)), the type of LED fixture matters a lot.

It turns out that unbelievably, most of these dimmer manufacturers never really redesigned their dimmer switches for LEDs.

Why does this matter? It turns out that unless these dimmers see a minimum load, the will keep one or more of the can lights dimly lit, even when they are turned off. I had this happen all over the house. Nothing like having the reading can light over your head in bed on all night. The Halo bulbs are on Lutron's short list of recommended can lights, and they have been great.

First rule of LED lights - HD has better quality lights than Lowes. The sell Cree, which is the best, and their house line (EcoSmart) is made by Cree. But these aren't the lights you want for can lighting (not sure they make can LED lights). I use 2700K throughout the house, but you choose what you like.

Buy the Halo color-selectable downlights. You can change their color temperature to what you prefer with a simple switch, and they turn off fully. Acceptably good CRI. I put them everywhere, as have multiple friends. We're all happy with them.

[Gary Ragatz]

We have about a half-dozen of these in our home (new construction):

https://www.waclightinglights.com/product/wac-lighting-disc-flush-mount-fm-306-930-wt.html (https://www.waclightinglights.com/product/wac-lighting-disc-flush-mount-fm-306-930-wt.html)

Not quite four years in the home, and no problems. We also have a couple of the exterior version of the same fixture on our porch.

None of ours are on dimmer switches. We paid to have a bunch of our ceiling fixtures dimmable, and pretty much never use that feature. YMMV.

[Erik Loza]

We have a mix of Sylvania and Feit LED cans throughout the house, since our remodel in 2012. Zero problems with any of them. The front porch ones have basically run 24/7 during that time and have been on the lowest setting of a first-gen dimmer switch. I cannot agree with PAR-based LED bulbs being a better option. We have a bunch of those, too. Likewise have never had one burn out on me or otherwise give any problems. Aside from the initial cost, there is no reason to get a PAR-based fitting if you can get a direct-fit LED fitting. Just my experience.

Erik

[Charles Taylor]

Thank you all for the responses. My wife is giving one more contractor a chance, but after that the job may fall into my hands. I appreciate your opinions.

[Aaron Rosenthal]

I've been responsible for changing a huge number of lights to LED in my non-profit, and perhaps I can help you. (I subscribe to a financial podcast where the 'caster lives in FL and I can understand your frustration).
1. My electrician did all the work, with me being the "gofer" when needed.
2. We replaced all the PAR 20 with screw-in LED bulbs, having built-in ballasts, so no conversion issues there.
3. MR-16 needed new drivers installed, (they are dimmable). Occasionally they fail, some times the ballast, other times they go dim and need replacing.
4. In a different area, we replaced the cans and the screw-in lights with all new fixtures. Because I know they have a defined best case life of ~50,000 hours, I installed timers on the lights so they're only on when needed, and if the staff forget to turn them off, the timer does.
5. In my house, I had to replace the main kitchen fluorescent and bought a "skylight" sized fixture, coupled with the Lutron Caseta system fpr that room's knob and tube wiring to the switch, and it works like a champ. One lesson I learned was that the Lutron system wants dimmable fixtures or it goes crazy.
Because I needed to use timers and remote set-up screens for all the installations, and they work on my ios phone, but also, because I use windows computers exclusively I installed an Android emulator to control the Lutron systems.