I have LED strips under my upper cabinets that shine on my white quartz countertop. There is no "reflection", in fact, the pendants over my island are quite a bit worse than the LED strips in terms of reflection and glare.

do they point down at the counter or are they in a valence and pointing back toward the splash (or something else).

@Mama Rachel - it sounds to me like your lighting sales lady has an agenda to push the puck lights to lower her inventory of stuff no one wants anymore. You will not get a glare or reflection that is significant enough to be annoying. Some LED strips have a "lens" that will diffuse some harshness, and others don't but, don't need it anyways. In my opinion as a licensed electrical contractor, with 30 years experience in residential and commercial electric, having the lighting under cabinet angled back towards the backsplash doesn't change things much except the shadow it casts on your work surface from your hands and large mixing bowls, etc... . You're better off having them focused straight down from the cabinets.

Thanks Kaiser - I tend to agree about the reflection issue. It just *is* when you have a shiny surface in play.

I think she wants to sell me lights is all. We were looking at just getting a roll of LED strip lighting and DIYing it since my DH can solder and has all the tools. Even if we went with a clip system and tape light it's still WAY cheaper.

Can I put power boxes (the 2 plug kind) under the cabinets flush against the bottom? I don't want the plugs on my backsplash if I can help it.

My LED strip lighting is "bare" meaning it's attached to the bottom of the upper cabinet and yes, points down. It's installed toward the front edge of the upper cabinet, which gives better lighting coverage and also avoids glare on the backsplash (which would happen if it were installed toward the back of the upper cabinet).

@sjhockeyfan

You did exactly as you should have with that install of the strip light.

I installed the same way as sjhockeyfan, and on 4-way dimmer. I have a light polished granite and don't have glare issues, even on high.

I agree with sjhockey and errant. Love the LED on a dimmer. I can see my light reflection, but in no way is it a glare.

We did LED tape ourselves and decided to wash the dark backsplash. We installed the tape at the front edge perpendicular to the counter facing the backsplash. It just brightens our kitchen and I have it on a wall switch timer. I turn on the overhead led can lights when I need more light.

Some people don't like the LED reflection when it is installed pointed at the counter. Personal preference! May depend on the LED design.

The LED reflection I am referring to is seen in the picture above my previous post. The individual bulbs can be seen on the shiny surface. I really like the led tape lighting in my kitchen and would do it again. If you do it yourself, you can wire it up and before attaching it to the light rail, see if you like it washing the wall or pointing down on the counter.

I'll throw in another two cents worth of my preference. I think, anywhere in your home that you have a light (other than a small coat closet or maybe or your service porch, mud room, and laundry room, you should have a dimmer switch controlling your lights.

There is something about bringing down the lamps to set a mood or a relaxing comfortable level so you can watch a movie or to keep a room lit enough to walk through without turning a light all the way on. Dimmers also save you money. They can shorten the life of incandescent lamps but not really significantly. It used to be that dimmers were only available for incandescent, then halogen and then cfl's, and now LED's. Most are available as universal and work on all for as well as being able to have a dimmer on both ends of a three-way switching system. Where as before you could only have a dimmer at one end. In my opinion they are worth the price. Just remember that multiple dimmers in a multigang box get hot and usually you have to break off the tabs (heat sinks) to make them fit. In doing so you are derating the maximum wattage of the dimmer so you need to calculate your wattage in lamps and buy 600 or 1000 watt dimmers depending on derating if you need to break tabs off.

Was that more than .02¢ worth?

Kaiser electric,

Have you chosen your led strip light yet? It would be most helpful to know. THe two lighting stores in my area quoted me $900+ for a 6', 5', and 17"x2 for WAC stand alone strips.

I am gun shy about spending that when there are much cheaper alternatives- of course I want good quality. I tried to buy Hafele but the distributor here doesn't know anything about lighting and their customer service and online alternative was awful, "I need a product code to order".

I should have these for the electrician asap so any help would be appreciated. thanks

Pelletis, hi.

I haven't bought any LED undercabinet lights for the job I was writing about above because the owners didn't think them necessary. They aren't remodeling the kitchen yet. It is just a power upgrade for now. Meaning I'm bringing in all the needed circuits to meet code for a modern kitchen. They are waiting a year or so to do that.

What I posted about originally was brands of plug strips for undercabinet power. I'm still looking for a strip that meets what needs I would like and what code specifications it has to meet. Luckily the install of those strips has been changed and I have three weeks more, due to additional work the client gave the flooring and tile contractor.

Now, to your dilemma. You said $900 for the lights, is that total cost for all? I hope so? It seems steep to me. But, there are different LED's made by different companies, just like any other product. Not the unit, fixture itself but, the actual LED's themselves. There are some that are made better, that light up better, have longer life, different color efficacy, among other things. You just have to do some "interweb"LOL searching and look up the manufacturer of the fixtures you like, as far as look, number of LED's per foot or inch, color, price, lifespan, and compare the different manufacturers. Also, get the name and model number of the ones the sales person is trying to sell you and call around to other lighting or electric supply companies and give them the info and see if you get a better price. You should tell them the prices you were quoted and usually they will try to beat that price. They may try to sell you a different brand also so be careful to look up what they want to sell you as well.

I hope I was helpful in some way.

Good luck

Yes thanks, do you have a favorite go to for under cabinet lighting ?

Not really. It all depends on the client and their wallet. I used to use Nora xenon undercabinet lights before LED became affordable. They are low profile 120v and come in standard cabinet sizes 12, 18, 24, inch lengths and they are only about an inch thick with a low and high setting rocker switch. The xenon lamps burn like a halogen in color and brightness but without the heat of a halogen. It's something most people don't think about.

As far as LED everyone out there in the business has em and for undercabinet go with your pocketbook. At this point in the game you won't find much difference in the lighting only the design and build of the fixture. Whether you go with LED strip that is soft and flexible or a traditional style body its whatever works for the application. I would recommend sticking with Line Voltage though. Trying to hide a Low Voltage transformer is never fun or easy and then you have the risk of it burning out or the many plastic connector plugs melting or just not working and trying to conceal them also. Line Voltage, 120 volts will hard wire into the fixtures and that's it. No muss no fuss.

That is great advise because I was looking at both. Thanks again!

My pleasure. Good luck.

I highly recommend you get in touch with inspiredled online or by phone. Not only were they great about helping us layout our strip lighting and ordering the correct parts, they were also much less expensive than the brand names, the product has worked perfectly for 2 years, and when we needed to change something in the layout (our change) they sent us the new parts and took back the old. Excellent customer service.

Well, no gold stars or bonus points for me (yet!) since our kitchen's still drywall and dangling wires . But I'll take this opportunity to also give high marks to inspiredled for their outstanding customer service. I haven't compared prices, but the total came to ~ $225 for 2x 4' plus 2x5' strips, transformer, dimmer switch and all the necessary cable and wires for DH to DIY the job. The rep and I swapped pics of my kitchen back and forth, and their design was very well mapped out. We had a few late Friday afternoon emergencies, and they were a phone call away to help us out -- very friendly and knowledgeable staff. We didn't have to pay for shipping with our original order. Mid-install, we realized a couple of the cables we received were about a foot short. Total misunderstanding as we didn't make it clear (?) that the cables were going in-wall. We purchased the correct set of cables, and they rushed the set to us without charge us the shipping (I guess, because they still considered this part of the original order). What company does THAT?