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Richard Gallagher photo
Germany, Berlin
1 Level
680 Review
29 Karma

Review on ๐ŸŒŸ Ustellar 20ft LED Under Cabinet Lighting Kit: Hand Wave Activated, Dimmable Strip Lights for Kitchen Cabinet & Counter - ETL Listed, 360 LEDs 3000K Warm White by Richard Gallagher

Revainrating 4 out of 5

Quality lighting, flexible installation, Cool Motion switch, good value for money with a few small flaws

I used these for a table lamp on a work shelf in the garage, mounted under an unfinished wooden shelf . Since I didn't have a smooth, clean surface to stick the LEDs on, I decided to make a flat foam pad. This worked well, although as I found with most "simple" projects, it took longer than I expected. for planning, layout and completion. Overall I'm happy with the LED kit, but as mentioned, the connectors can be very finicky. Of the four connections I made, three worked fine the first time, the other I had to undo and reconnect at least five times before it maintained a stable connection. I think the key is to cut the LED strip strictly perpendicular to the exact line indicated, and then insert it exactly at right angles to the connector at exactly the right depth, otherwise the terminal pins in the connector will miss the mark. A "bug" that should be noted. is that the LED strip was 3 inches short of the advertised 10 feet, almost an inch short of the advertised 3 meters. Another quibble was that one of the plastic screw clips used to attach the LED strip was incorrectly shaped and only two-thirds longer than the other 5. Otherwise my rating would have been five stars. The motion switch works well and will really come in handy when you have your hands full. The light never burns out, much more than is usually the case with similar 120VAC/12VDC converter plugs. I also noticed a noticeable jump in the arcing across the pins of the plug each time the converter was plugged into the outlet. This is also not the behavior I usually observe. So I tested the connector with a Kill-A-Watt meter. This indicated that the converter was drawing "0.0" current (i.e. less than 0.1 amps and apparently minimal) with the lights off. When the light is on, I've found it draws about 15 watts of power, which makes sense. However, the Kill-A-Watt meter also recorded power draw of about 28VA, well above the wattage and showing a power factor of just over 0.5, consistent with an inefficient converter that generates a significant amount of waste heat. All this leaves me with the impression that the device I received is equipped with an inferior power converter, where I would not be surprised if the flashlight is used constantly if the lifespan is short.

Pros
  • Quality construction
Cons
  • Requires electrical outlet