Moving away from can killerz

[macmikeman]

Just letting everyone know I am moving away from can killerz led wafer lights for a number of reasons and will be recommending traditional housing with LED bulbs. Here is why:

1. I have had some issues with buzzing and noise from the wafer lights, and these are obviously a nightmare to change if you have such a problem. I had two projects with a ton of these and I noticed the noise, and I was terrified the client would want them replaced, but fortunately they didn't notice.

2. Clearly they are more difficult to change than just a bulb if / when they go bad, and of course finding identical replacements down the road may be difficult.

3. You essentially have to lay these out twice, once when you get the wires in place and then again when you cut them in.

4. It's stressful to keep track of the wires and find them and cut your holes in the right spot just kind of a hassle all around.

5. I don't want to cut the holes in the drywall, it's miserable and makes a mess.

I understand they make ther rough in pans that would solve problems 3 4 and 5,. So if the customer insisted on these, I would probably insist on stalling the rough-in pans.

This will be the new East West electric policy, please make a note of it, and tell all of your friends

1. + 2. I have had a few either go out on me or start pulsing. I go back to job and it was quite easy to pull out the bad light and driver and replace them for the conditions (but it was a go back so there's that.) My supplier replaces at no cost for a year. After I year from installation completion I charge for go backs .

3. I lay out once, make cross hair mark on floor with sharpie, send down a drywall screw into plywood floor , or a tap con into concrete floors, or in worst case, blue tape and mark tile, carpet, sheet vinyl flooring in existing dwelling remodel jobs. Come back after sheet rock and paint and laser up to the ceiling for the cut in of the light opening. Be a nice guy and remove the screw or blue tape on the floor afterwards.

4. My stress relief for dealing with the cable or cables for the driver is to use my Dewalt Cable stapler, and secure the one or two cables perpendicular to the side of the bottom cord of the nearest truss or joist right at the tail end of the cables during rough in , leaving a long enough loop of cable above the staple shot in to be able to pull the cables up and out of the staple ( if you have ever used the Dewalt gun you know that is quite easily done with no strain) to retrieve them from the staple, and pull them out thru the hole to attach driver. Credit where it is due- it was my son who came up with that method for me one day when he was assisting me rough in a house.

5. I agree , no argument there. Charge appropriately. I have yet to use one of the rough in pans .

 

[macmikeman]

When I buy regular cans from a certain manufacturer that uses an orange and white cardboard box to ship, and their name starts with the letter "H" , usually at least one of the support sliding arms out of the six fixtures is missing or loose on the floor of the box or whatever. Not always so easy to manage. In general all things being ready to go, legacy cans are fairly easy to hang and walk away from in a fast manner , unless a truss or a joist or a curving type layout becomes an issue. One thing though is it makes it possible for homeowner to replace the trims and lamps in the future easy if they decide to change the looks of things or color of the trim at a future point in time. I'm pretty old so I don't worry myself much about what the customer decides he wants ten years down the road.....

 

[James L]

I've seen two kinds of the rough-in pans. One kind is just a flat piece of metal with a hole in it. It's roughly 8" x 24" and has holes along the edges so they can be nailed or screwed to the bottoms of the joists

The other kind is what you find at the big box stores. It's basically a can light frame without the can in it. You have to nail it between the joists and it's about 4 in from the edge of the joists to the center of the hole. No real point in using those. I would much rather just use a regular can

Either way, they cost about $4 each

 

[jmellc]

I haven’t seen or used any of these since I’m not doing much in the market any more. I Googled & found lights with a j box & light on a short whip. I assume the j box is the driver box also. How would you ever get back into it without cutting the ceiling? How does the light portion anchor, with ceiling clamps?
I have had same issues all around with replacement bulbs & trim rings for can lights. 1 customer was very frugal & bought a number of can trims at HD, ahead of a project. They saved money again to pay for our work. Mid project, wanted another light. I went to HD & they no longer had them. Manufacturer had discontinued them. And this was long before Covid, so worse now. They settled for something close. Over buying seems the only way to have more for later.
I saw a lot of faux trims to fit existing light boxes. Some had housing to fit the box but intruded & couldn’t go into a box full of wire. Customers naturally didn’t think of this when they bought them. For a time, I kept notes on brands that would work OK. If I roughed in for such lights, I used deep metal octagon boxes & only 1 cable per box, fed separate switch legs.
I don’t see any if it getting simpler. LED bulb variations still seem to come & go. I find something I like & it’s extinct 6 months later. I do like LED’s for good light & lower energy/less heat.