Recessed Ceiling Lights

[Chestnut]

I need to upgrade the light fixture in our laundry room because the cabinet doors can't open because the light is in the way. Someone should have thought about that before they built the cabinets....

I'm considering doing recessed lights but have a couple questions. There are kits that are "can-less" and than there are the traditional cans. I plan on living in this house for the next 30+ years so I want to make a decision that is going to be nice for the next guy, because the next guy is going to be me, he's probably going to have less time and energy that current me as well.

I see the pros to the can-less recessed lights as you don't have to install the can. The Cons I see are that the insulation will sit on top of the electrical box and LED light. If a replacement of the transformer is ever needed it's going to require a trip to the attic. I could make a housing to go over the light and transformer but replacing the unit would still require some electrical work.

Traditional cans may be a bit more to install but the cans in our kitchen have LED lights in them. They are very simple to replace when they fail. It's simple to drop the light puck, unscrew the standard light socket and screw in the new one. Replacement is as easy as replacing a traditional bulb.

I feel like I'm missing something on the can-less units, because they are so popular. Is there a reason to go with them over traditional cans? I really don't want to deal with attic insulation and having to complete work in the attic in the future. Does any one have any advice here? Thanks

[Coop]

I recently added a recessed light in the soffit over my house number. There were two types to choose from, new construction and I forget the name of the one that I bought. You just cut the hole and the can and the transformer pop in with a retaining clip. Mine also came with a dimmer switch. Then the balance of the assembly pops into the can. All of this is is accessible and can be removed if necessary. 

[Chestnut]

6 minutes ago, Coop said:

I recently added a recessed light in the soffit over my house number. There were two types to choose from, new construction and I forget the name of the one that I bought. You just cut the hole and the can and the transformer pop in with a retaining clip. Mine also came with a dimmer switch. Then the balance of the assembly pops into the can. All of this is is accessible and can be removed if necessary. 

There are the retrofit cans. This is the direction I'm leaning as it's not new construction. The lights don't have a lot of mass so they should be able to be supported by the sheet rock for the ceiling.

The 3rd option the can-less are commonly called waffer lights. They don't have a can at all.

[Tom King]

No good reason to use anything else.  I bought some that required some odd sized hole, but I was able to get the correct sized holesaw.  I forget what it was-maybe 3-7/8", but I won't bet on my memory.  I don't think the LED ones even have a transformer.  Just a little box for connecting the wire, that slips over to the side of the hole after you do the connection below the ceiling.  That little box has a hole for a Romex connector, and a snap on lid.

I made a dust catcher for the holesaw out of a bleach bottle bottom.  Made very little mess.

[legenddc]

One of my pet peeves is non-replaceable bulbs in lights/ceiling fans. It's so much easier to unscrew/screw in a lightbulb than it is to replace a whole fixture and my wife/kids can replace a lightbulb if I'm busy or traveling for work. With the way things are made these days I'd rather not be replacing a fixture in 4 years when it prematurely fails.

[JohnG]

The new canless LED lights have spring clips so they can be installed and removed from below in the room without needing access to the ceiling from the attic. You can even change the color temperature on them with a switch (on the light unit, not wall switch). I bought some for our basement project.

[wtnhighlander]

I think you should just hang a few of these Milwaukee lights from the ceiling. Let there be LIGHT!

 

[Chestnut]

12 hours ago, wtnhighlander said:

I think you should just hang a few of these Milwaukee lights from the ceiling. Let there be LIGHT!

 

With 10 foot ceiling it might be kind of hard to turn them on and off. Though the cost seems comparable. I'll add it to my consideration list.... .

I'm always amazed at how far flashlight technology has advanced in the last 20 years thanks to LEDs. I've had a fenix E05 on my key chain for the last 10 years. They made a new version that upgrades from 27 lumens to 120 lumens all off 1 AAA battery. I remember using 3D cell mag lights as a teenager that couldn't hold a candle to these tiny lights i carry in my pocket every day.

[Chestnut]

I went with retrofit cans. I climbed into the attic yesterday after work with a shovel and moved all the insulation away from the area. Once I had a good picture of the attic in the area doing retrofit cans just seemed obvious. So I ran to the store bought what I needed.

I bought one of the recessed light hole saws and was going to use Tom's method. The hole saw was too small. Apparently the retrofit kits are not the same size as the new construction ones and there is no way the can would mount in the hole. So i grabbed my drywall rotozip thing, and used the templates that came with the cans. This meant that I ended up making a massive mess. This was only after cutting 1 hole so it got worse from there.

Started at 6pm, had the 4 cans installed by 7pm. I got super lucky in that the ceiling hadn't been painted and whom ever hung the florescent fixture didn't damage the ceiling. You can't even tell there was a fixture there.

Cans were wired and lights were in by 8pm.

Cleaning was suspended at 9pm, because it was taking too long and Megan wanted to finish our show. Cleaning is easily going to take longer than all the other tasks put together.... On the bright side I can finally mount the cabinet door to the right in the picture above. This all got started because the door hit the old light fixture.

4 cans is about 0.5 cans too many. It's bright in the room and it's awesome.

[gee-dub]

Nice job Drew.  Lots of light and it looks great.

[Tom King]

I go to great lengths not to make a mess.  I hate cleaning up.  I would have cut slowly with a sheetrock saw, using a Shop Vac held close to the source.  A Shop Vac with a yellow bag does fine with sheetrock dust.

https://www.amazon.com/IRWIN-Tools-ProTouch-Drywall-2014100/dp/B000B3CSM4/ref=asc_df_B000B3CSM4/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=242034450866&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9453228145833632797&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9009786&hvtargid=pla-679848676720&psc=1

[Chestnut]

Yeah i thought about doing it that way. I was really unsure how long the electrical and everything would take. I didn't want to end the evening with 4 6" holes into the attic dumping cold air into the house. I opted for messy and quick, hindsight i could have done a cleaner job.

I don't mind cleaning so much, it'll be good to get everything wiped down anyway.