A year ago we bought an old house and did some remodeling before moving
in. We pretty much redid the kitchen which now has beautiful oak
cabinets and granite countertops. Knowing very little about lighting,
and liking the look of the halogen line-voltage puck lights that were
installed under the old cabinets, we decided to keep them under the new
cabinets for the time being. As I said, I love the look. It's the
right task/ambience lighting for me. But it turns out that these are
the cheapest Home Depot pucks you can get. Every few weeks a bulb
burns out, and they've also burned out some of the multi-outlet
extension cords they've been plugged into despite the fact that they
are not too high voltage for these cords. Also, they flicker if we
place a plate or a glass in the cabinet just above the puck. So,
basically, now I just want to replace them with the best, since I'm
so disgusted with the quality of the ones I have. I've seen some
very nice LED's that were $200+ per puck - too expensive for me.
And between what I've read and heard, xenon is probably what I should
be looking for since the light rendered is quite comparable to that of
halogen, and it doesn't run quite as hot. I guess I'd also be open
to incandescent if I could find a nice unit. Anyway, can anyone point
me in the right direction as to which company to go with? Pegasus,
American Lighting, Hera, Bellacor, Seagull, Juno, Kickler(?). I hear
Hera is very good, but their pucks don't seem to have ventilation
holes. Is that something I should care about? I wouldn't mind
spending $20 - $40 a puck. Thanks much!

Maybe I should quickly add that I'm located in the Midwest (US).
Thanks.

"elened" wrote in message
ups.com...
A year ago we bought an old house and did some remodeling before moving
in. We pretty much redid the kitchen which now has beautiful oak
cabinets and granite countertops. Knowing very little about lighting,
and liking the look of the halogen line-voltage puck lights that were
installed under the old cabinets, we decided to keep them under the new
cabinets for the time being. As I said, I love the look. It's the
right task/ambience lighting for me. But it turns out that these are
the cheapest Home Depot pucks you can get. Every few weeks a bulb
burns out, and they've also burned out some of the multi-outlet
extension cords they've been plugged into despite the fact that they
are not too high voltage for these cords. Also, they flicker if we
place a plate or a glass in the cabinet just above the puck.

By chance, are the pucks on a dimmer?

and liking the look of the halogen line-voltage puck lights that were
installed under the old cabinets, we decided to keep them under the new
cabinets for the time being.
Every few weeks a bulb burns out

I tried some low voltage puck lights when we installed our kitchen
cabinets. But, I didn't care for the concentrated beams of light at each
puck. They also got rather warm in operation.

So, I replaced the puck lights with thin profile (about 1" thick)
fluorescent lights (line voltage). I like them much better. They run
cool, provide wide bands of even lighting, use very little power, and the
fluorescent bulbs will last years. The brand I got (GE I think?) includes
sockets and cables for daisy chaining lights if you wish, but because of
our cabinet layout, I plugged each into dedicated switched outlets. My
lights are about 12 inches long, but they also make longer fixtures if
you need them. They also have electronic ballasts so they come on
instantly, with no flicker like older fluorescents.

Home Depot and Lowes both sell the lights around here.

The only possible negative is that they can't be used on a dimmer. That
wasn't an issue for me, but it could be a problem for others.

Good luck,

Anthony

Thanks. Actually, they come from Home Depot with a 3-level dimmer
switch. Of course that part broke. I bought, from a lighting store,
another multi-socket extension cord that comes with a slide-dimmer.
And that works fine, except the bulbs which keep on burning out and the
flicker when there is a vibration from putting a plate in the cabinet
above.

"elened" wrote in message
ups.com...
Thanks. Actually, they come from Home Depot with a 3-level dimmer
switch. Of course that part broke. I bought, from a lighting store,
another multi-socket extension cord that comes with a slide-dimmer.
And that works fine, except the bulbs which keep on burning out and the
flicker when there is a vibration from putting a plate in the cabinet
above.


I see. I misread your original post and thought you had low voltage lights
and was wondering if you had an incompatible dimmer. FWIW, I have a set of
cheapo low voltage halogen pucks (Good Earth, or something like that ) with
a transformer that is wired to a low voltage dimmer switch and so far so
good.