Let's step out of the shop for a moment into the kitchen.
Short Question: What brand name of low-voltage under-cabinet lights is
good?
Long Story:
I put some ubiquitous cheap puck lights under the cabinets in my wife's
kitchen. They are made in China and are marketed under the brand name
"Quantus".
We used to have a rat-feeder, so there is a power line under the sink
controlled by a switch in the kitchen wall. I installed an outlet box under
the sink.
Since the Quantus instructions say that 2 20-watt pucks are the limit for
one transformer, and we wanted 3 on one side of the sink and 2 on the other,
I mounted two transformers under the sink. Fishing the low-voltage wires
through the walls between upper and lower cabinets was a challenge, but
that's done now.
The problem is that these lights are totally unpredictable. It is a flip of
the coin which ones are going to come on or stay on. Sometimes they flash.
Sometimes they all come on and then half of them quit. I have already spent
all the time I am going to checking all the connections and contacts.
All this system needs is a transformer or two and some low-voltage lights.
This should be a reliable low-tech setup. It does not seem to be working
out that way.
I want to toss all of these lights and transformers in the dustbin and get
something decent. I have uninterrupted wire runs in the walls now, so
that's the only part of the installation I'd like to keep.
Any ideas? I don't want to spend a fortune, but I don't want any more
mystery lights. Although these lights don't show very much, my wife won't
accept a "guy-ugly" solution. The four-foot fluorescent units I have under
the shelves in my shop won't cut it. :-)
Phil Ethier West Side Saint Paul Minnesota USA
1970 Lotus Europa 65/2597, 1992 Saturn SL2, 1993 Suburban, 1962 TR4 CT2846L
pethier@isd.net http://www.mnautox.com/ http://www.lotusowners.com
"Drifting is the synchronized swimming of auto competitions." -Gene Bennett
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