Any Opinions onIKEA Under Cabinet Lighting?

Posted on
Sat Nov 19, 2022 3:27 pm
DaveL17 offline
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Any Opinions onIKEA Under Cabinet Lighting?

We want to update our under cabinet lighting and I'm looking at IKEA MITTLED and SKYDRAG lines (US only) . I'd like to control them with Indigo using Aeon lamp modules. As I understand it, the lights require an ANSLUTA or TRÅDFRI driver, so I won't be able to dim them with the Aeon units (on/off only). I'm also not particularly interested in controlling the TRÅDFRI with a bridge/hub. I could roll my own lights, but the IKEA stuff looks very appealing from a cost perspective.

- Do the TRÅDFRI units remember their dimming level when switched at the mains?

- Does anyone have experience with these lights and would you recommend them?

- Has anyone hacked the either strip to drive them with another power supply?

Thanks in advance!

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Posted on
Wed Nov 23, 2022 6:12 pm
DaveL17 offline
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Re: Any Opinions onIKEA Under Cabinet Lighting?

Hearing none, here's what I've got so far. I'll add as I go.

Total cost was about US$110 (incl tax). All lights are 2,700k white lights (the color below refers to the device itself). My first impression is that these are good value and I think I'd be hard-pressed to make this stuff from scratch for less money.

TRÅDFRI Driver for Wireless Control
[30w output, gray, Works with IKEA Home Smart #603.426.61 US$35.00]
The power supply for the MITTLED and SKYDRAG lights. Excludes the ANSLUTA power cable (which is required).
  • During testing, the driver remembered the dimming level when power was removed and restored for about 24 hours. This seems that it will work with a power relay to control on/off. No guarantees and YMMV.
  • Dimming with the remote works well. The lowest dimming level is not zero, and probably closer to something like 10-15%.
  • The power connections for up to 9 lights are keyed so you can't screw up the polarity.
  • Apparently, these drivers can be daisy-chained, although I haven't looked into that.

ANSLUTA Power Cord
[11' 6" (3.5m), white #301.214.11 US$7.00]
Required for the TRÅDFRI driver/power supply. Includes an in-line rocker switch and an integrated clip to hold it in place.

TRÅDFRI Wireless Dimmer Remote
[Works with IKEA Home Smart, Comes with CR2032 battery, white #104.085.98 US$8.99]
  • The remote works well. Press for on/off, press/hold for dim up/down.
  • The remote was easy to pair (reading the manual is a good idea.)

MITTLED Kitchen Countertop Lighting Strip
[Dimmable, 12" (30.5cm), 3.3w, 2700k, white, (includes "T" connector and mounting hardware / excludes driver, power cable and connector cable.) #904.725.14 US$16.99]
  • I don't know how I missed it, but the MITTLED also doesn't come with a connector cable (which is clearly reflected on the box). This lack of cable is completely understandable, as these units are meant to be daisy-chained together and over a long run would result in a bunch of unused cables. It was fortunate that I grabbed a VÅGDAL cable, otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to test the MITTLED.
  • I vastly prefer the form factor of the MITTLED over the SKYDRAG. However; the light from the MITTLED is more muted than the SKYDRAG.
  • Nine of these strips will max out one 30w driver.

MITTLED LED Spotlight
[Dimmable, 3" (7.6cm), 150 lumens, 2.2w, 2,700k, white, (excludes driver and power cable.) #404.536.45 US$12.99]
This is the only light I've tested so far. It's slated to go inside a glass front cabinet.
  • The dimming works well; it's an incremental dim (not smooth). Not an issue for our install which will be set and forget.

SKYDRAG Countertop Light Strip with Sensor
[Dimmable, White, 12" (30.5cm), 2.7w, 160 lumens, 2,700k, white, (includes mounting hardware / excludes driver and power cable.) #004.791.62 US$16.99]
  • Unlike the MITTLED, the SKYDRAG has an integrated power cable.
  • The SKYDRAG also has a built-in motion sensor (which based on my reading doesn't work all that well, but I haven't tested it personally). For over-cabinet lighting, would be a waste.
  • I vastly prefer the form factor of the MITTLED over the SKYDRAG.
  • The light from the SKYDRAG is brighter than the MITTLED. The SKYDRAG comes with additional mounting options for other IKEA furniture (like shelving units) and for our purposes would be waste.

VÅGDAL Connection Cord
[11' 6" (3.5m), white #704.636.00 US$5.00]
A simple extension cable for the LED strips, puck lights, etc. Not sure I will need this, but it was only five bucks.

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Last edited by DaveL17 on Fri Nov 25, 2022 8:48 am, edited 5 times in total.

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Posted on
Thu Nov 24, 2022 10:36 am
DaveL17 offline
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Re: Any Opinions onIKEA Under Cabinet Lighting?

UPDATE 2:

Everything out of the boxes and connected. Additional details on the MITTLED and SKYDRAG strips. Another photo.

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Posted on
Thu Nov 24, 2022 5:49 pm
matt (support) offline
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Re: Any Opinions onIKEA Under Cabinet Lighting?

Thanks for sharing this write-up. I'm going to start looking into LED cabinet lighting soon. I kind-of would like color control, but I like the pricing you posted above for the IDEA line.

Image

Posted on
Thu Nov 24, 2022 6:50 pm
DaveL17 offline
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Re: Any Opinions onIKEA Under Cabinet Lighting?

My pleasure.

I know that IKEA has color, but that wasn't our interest (so I didn't look very deeply into those). I was focused on 2,700-3,000k white dimmable.
Last edited by DaveL17 on Wed Feb 01, 2023 7:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Posted on
Fri Nov 25, 2022 8:43 am
DaveL17 offline
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Re: Any Opinions onIKEA Under Cabinet Lighting?

Another update.

The driver remembered the dimming level after roughly 24 hours of no power. Very encouraging.

The dimming level doesn't go down to zero, and stops at something like 10-15%.

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Posted on
Fri Nov 25, 2022 10:28 am
neilk offline
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Re: Any Opinions onIKEA Under Cabinet Lighting?

I know you mentioned the desire to avoid a hub, but just an FYI I have a three Hue Hubs and lots of Hue Bulbs, and a number of Ikea bulbs that are controlled via Zigbee2MQTT running on a PI, and it is much more solid than pairing them with the Hue Hub. It is a little work to set them up especially when you have 15 Gu10 bulbs in a room but once setup it works really well with one of these.

https://electrolama.com/projects/zig-a-zig-ah/

Not sure about worldwide frequency etc, and this is a UK based seller but much better range than the Philips hubs.

Hope you are enjoying the break !

Neil

Posted on
Fri Nov 25, 2022 1:52 pm
DaveL17 offline
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Re: Any Opinions onIKEA Under Cabinet Lighting?

Appreciate the feedback, but (as you noted) this is something I'd like to avoid. For us, once the light strips are installed, they'll be set to the desired dimming level and then (hopefully) never touched again. All we need is on/off.

Great information to consider nonetheless. Thanks for sharing!

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Posted on
Mon Nov 28, 2022 5:43 pm
ryanbuckner offline
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Re: Any Opinions onIKEA Under Cabinet Lighting?

Dave, if it's not too intrusive, would you mind posting a picture of the finished product? I'm considering a full kitchen redo soon and over/under cabinet lights will be a consideration

Posted on
Mon Nov 28, 2022 6:00 pm
DaveL17 offline
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Re: Any Opinions onIKEA Under Cabinet Lighting?

I'll be happy to share whatever we land on. It looks like we're going to reuse our old over-cabinet lights because the IKEA units don't dim enough for us. I think we're going to use the MITTLED puck lights for everything else (turns out, we may use none of them)--one under each cabinet and one inside the glass-front unit.

I don't think it's going to be super inspiring, but I'll show my work. :lol:
Last edited by DaveL17 on Wed Feb 01, 2023 7:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Posted on
Thu Jan 26, 2023 1:26 pm
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Re: Any Opinions onIKEA Under Cabinet Lighting?

Kitchen construction is nearly complete. We tried using our old over-cabinet lighting but the color was too yellow for our new color palette (new off-white vs. old golden oak) so that was a bust. As a result, I'm rolling my own.

LEDs = SuperBright 5m White LED Strip Light - Eco Series Tape Light - 12V / 24V - IP20 4000K (x2)
LED Channel = hunhun 10-Pack 3.3ft/1Meter U Shape LED Aluminum Channel System (x1)
LED Controllers = Zooz Z-Wave Plus S2 12/24 V DC RGBW Dimmer ZEN31 (x2)
Generic 12v power supplies that I have on hand. (x2)

I couldn't find anything that came close to the hunhun aluminum channel on price. Parts on order.

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Posted on
Mon Jan 30, 2023 4:04 pm
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Re: Any Opinions onIKEA Under Cabinet Lighting?

Parts have arrived and assembly is nearly complete. First section:

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Diffuser installed and run through the Zooz device.

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You can't tell from the photo, but there's visible hot spots with these. It won't be an issue for us because the lights won't be visible. I'm a little concerned that when we get to the under cabinet lights they might be reflected in the countertop. Guess we'll find out.

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Assembly nearly finished and all sections tested. Still need to solder the jumpers.

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Things I didn't know when I started:
  • It's best to let the LED strips drive the length of the sections in order to get the most even light distribution. I cut a few channels and found the cut lines on the strips didn't match up and had to cut the channels a second time.
  • When installing the diffusers, it's very easy to get your fingers caught between the plastic and the channel; so it's also easy to leave bits of your fingers behind.
  • Where there are joints between sections of channel, it's helps to stagger the channel joints with the diffuser joints so both aren't lined up. This helps make longer sections more solid.
  • I used hand tools. When I do the next round, I'm going to get a blade for my miter saw and cut the channel and diffuser as a unit.

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Posted on
Wed Feb 01, 2023 7:18 am
DaveL17 offline
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Re: Any Opinions onIKEA Under Cabinet Lighting?

Assembly is done and lights tested.

I joined the "independent" sections together with repurposed 20 AWG solid-core telephone wire. After the picture, I removed the green and yellow conductors to make the wire a bit more flexible. See the inconsistency in the ends of the two sections? That's what I was referring to in the prior post. You can see it more prominently in the pictures below.

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The longer (solid) sections are joined together using small 20 AWG jumpers. Sorry, no pictures of the final. Let's just say I'm not Tony Stark.

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In hindsight, I think I would run the LEDs as a single strip across all the whole of the longer channels; avoiding the jumpers entirely. My initial thought was to make it so the sections could be disassembled at some future time and reused. Honestly, that could still be done by sacrificing a little bit of LED strip.

The final lights are in two separate sections. This is the first section. The longer of the two has a jumper connection in it; thankfully, you really can't tell. I decided not to use the plastic 90º elbow that was included in the kit. Yes, I have repurposed carpeting in my workshop. I think it (the carpet) looks pretty good after 25 years. I haven't set on fire even once.

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This is the second section. For scale, the smaller bits are roughly 40" long (I plan to strap it to a 1"x2" for transport). There looks to be a gap in the lights about mid-way--it looks more pronounced here than it is in real life. I put electrician's tape between the butt joints to minimize the chance of a short, which makes the joint stand out. I'm curious to see if I'll be able to wrangle this longer one from the basement shop up the stairs to the first floor kitchen. I may have built a ship in a bottle...

I still haven't decided how I'm going to button up the final wiring. I'm going to go ahead and install them as is while I decide.

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(Seriously though, if it's an issue getting the thing up the stairs, I can get it out a basement window.)

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Posted on
Wed Feb 01, 2023 9:45 am
DaveL17 offline
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Re: Any Opinions onIKEA Under Cabinet Lighting?

Luckily, no ship in a bottle. Here is the initial placement, with the lights jacked up to 100% during the day. I'm pretty excited about how even the light looks. I suspect that we'll be running these at something like 20% brightness at night.

Next up is the glass-front cabinet. Going to try the MITTLED puck light (see above) and see how badly the 2,700K puck looks against the 4,000K up lights. Will need to wait until dark to know for sure.

To be honest, the hardest part of getting this stuff done has been trying to match the light color across everything. The lamp in the range hood is 2,850K, the old under-cabinet lights are 3,000K, and the light above the sink is 2,700K (the ceiling fixture is unfortunately G-9 Halogen and slightly dimmer than the sun). I even made a new lens for the range hood to change the color of the light. They're getting close, but still not perfect. (The reason for the difference in the way they look is--I think--due to the color of the stuff they're illuminating.)

Shorter string

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Longer string:

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Posted on
Wed Feb 01, 2023 4:29 pm
norcoscia offline
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Re: Any Opinions onIKEA Under Cabinet Lighting?

Thanks for posting Dave - it is a lot of time to do a write up (at least for me) so I appreciate you taking the time to post it. I have always wanted to do something with LED strip lighting but it really is not easy to figure out what is the best approach (again, for me anyway).

Just wanted to say — what you ended up with looks great and I hope you enjoy it (and you new kitchen) !!!

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Norm

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