Pre-Made Under Cabinet Lighting Vs LED Light Strips: Which Is Better For Your Kitchen

If you're wondering how to choose the best under-cabinet lighting for your kitchen, you have quite a few options. However, some represent older technologies that you might prefer to avoid. Puck lights using xenon or halogen bulbs are older choices for people who want pleasing illumination, but they generate unwanted heat. Fluorescent under-cabinet lights were a common option for early adopters to install, but many people prefer upgrades to popular modern LED options.

Using LEDs under your kitchen cabinets provides a desirable mixture of functionality and contemporary styling. When you have lighting in areas under the cabinets, you can often overcome the slight shadows that occur when the cabinets block the room's main light from reaching the countertop. Adding quality lighting makes close-up tasks and cooking easier and safer. The LEDs add to the ambiance of the kitchen, especially when you want to create an intimate dining experience. (And they're great to use when looking for a late-night snack and don't want to disturb anyone else in the house.) Adding LEDs underneath cabinets can even increase the value of your home.

If you're sold on installing LED under-cabinet lights, you have two primary options. You can purchase pre-made lights with a designated length in a plastic or aluminum casing that looks great. You can also purchase LED strips that are easy to cut to length before installing. However, some people think they look cheap with occasional poor light quality that can cause patchy coverage. Learn more about the pros and cons of using pre-made LED under-cabinet lights compared to LED strips.

Pre-made under-cabinet LED lights have a finished look that greatly appeals to some people. They are available from multiple retailers. They usually have the LEDs inside a plastic or aluminum case that protects them. By selecting pre-made LEDs that fit in aluminum housing, you should receive a longer lifespan. The aluminum case includes solid-state connections that receive protection from moisture found in a kitchen environment. A diffuser shield makes the quality of light more pleasing by removing hot spot reflections on the countertop while making everything look more professional and polished.

You'll purchase these encased designs in a pre-made length. For example, IKEA delivers under-cabinet lighting solutions like this that perfectly fit IKEA's SEKTION series of kitchen cabinets. With other types of IKEA under-cabinet LEDs, you can connect up to 10 of the pre-made units together to provide light across the entire width of cabinets installed adjacent to each other. Some retailers sell these pre-made encased lights in 6-inch increments from 6 to 42 total inches in length. GE creates encased under-cabinet light bars available in 12-, 18-, and 24-inch lengths. However, if the pre-made lengths don't fit the width of your cabinets well, you may have unlit sections on the countertop that detract from the ambience of adding these products. Some retailers offer custom lengths for the pre-made encased LEDs that you can order to precisely fit your cabinets.

Although LEDs have been around for more than 50 years, the first LED light strips appeared in the early 2000s. They're popular because of their energy efficiency, versatility in usage options, and ease of installation. There are dozens of ways to use LED light strips to brighten a home, including as under-cabinet lights.

One of the most significant advantages of using strip lights as under-cabinet lighting is the low price. You could purchase a 16-foot strip for about $60, while a pre-made encased GE LED fixture that measures 1 foot in length also costs about $60. Another major advantage of LED strips is that you can cut them to fit the length of your cabinets as long as you cut on the designated line on the strip. The cut lines are spread every 1 to 2 inches, providing plenty of flexibility in the length you can use. Many pre-made LED under-cabinet lights are available in 6-inch increments.

If you're concerned about the hot spot reflections from the individual LEDs on the countertop material, you can purchase aluminum mounting channels to house the strip and then add plastic covers with a frosted finish that helps diffuse the LEDs, removing the hot spots. To achieve the desired level of quality, it is essential to purchase higher-grade LED strips with consistent color temperatures and brightness levels.