The LED fixture clearly outshines the fluorescents that it replaced. I chose the "daylight" color option which turns out to be 6500 degrees K. The "warm" color option (around 4000 degrees K) would have been a better and more "natural" choice indoors.
My fixture came with a one page installation sheet written in broken English but it was clear enough to understand. I made a mounting template from the cardboard box that Amazon shipped it in. Basically you need three mounting holes comprising an equilateral triangle measuring 23 cm on each side. The electrical leads were labeled and the installation sheet said 'label "L" for live, "N" for neutral, "GRD" for ground wire'. Well, my ground wire was label "E", but we get the gist. Also, the circuit board clearly shows where the live (or hot), neutral and ground wires connect to the board. The three wires are co-mingled in more insulation creating a stiff cord. I split off the cord insulation freeing each wire so that they easily connected to the house wiring inside my existing junction box.
Conceptually, one mounts the unit by passing the screws and the screw driver through holes in the circuit board, the screws through the unit's base, and into anchors in the ceiling. This cannot possibly work. Firstly, aligning the unit with the anchors in ceiling is not possible (at least for me). Secondly, the length of a screw is shorter than the depth of the unit, so one would have to balance the screw on the driver as he passes it through the circuit board and the base on it way the anchor! A magnetized screw driver won't help because the screws are aluminum.
This is what I did: I pre-drilled the anchor holes in the ceiling using my template. Back on terra firma, I stuck some museum (aka earthquake) wax on the tip of my screw driver to hold the screws as I fed them through the unit. I gave each screw about two turns to mate it to its anchor. Then, I returned to the ceiling, connected the wiring, then pushed each anchor into its hole, then tightened each screw. Done.
And yes, I order another unit to replace the other fixture once those bulbs burn out!
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The light was great, though a little too white for my kitchen. I was happy with this light until a few days ago, when it started to flicker. Now it doesn't work at all. I was about to order a bunch more for other spots in my apartment, at least it happened before I did.UPDATE 20 December 2012
Fortunately, Lighting EVER offers a 2 year warranty on this product. I contacted the company three days ago, and they responded by email, asking me for the order number. I gave it to them, and got no further response. Today I called them to follow up and they told me that I had to request a return through Amazon. When I found out from Amazon that this was not true, I called Lighting EVER back and read them my order number again. Their rep said he'd contact the order fulfillment team and send me a replacement. Hopefully I will receive a replacement promptly, but so far I am not impressed.
UPDATE 15 January 2013
Having heard nothing since my last phone call, I called again and their rep again said they'd get in touch with the order fulfillment team to send me a replacement. He promised I'd hear back from him tomorrow.
UPDATE 25 May 2013
I gave up on getting a refund, bought a new light from elsewhere, and contacted the better business bureau a few months ago. They closed out the review with no response from Lighting EVER. Now the bbb called me back, saying Lighting EVER has finally responded, but that they claimed there was no record of having interacted with me at all.
I would never buy a product from Lighting EVER again.
Best Deals for Lighting EVER 26 Watt Flush Mount LED Ceiling Light Fixture, 50W
This is one bright light! If you need more light, you will not be disappointed. I assure you.The light spectrum is still a little whitish, but this is for a walk in closet, so it is acceptable.
Initially, I did not figure out how to remove the cover to see the mounting points. I cannot find the information online or on it's manual. I forced it open, then found that it is supposed to be turned to open (the outer cover).
The mounting is the most tricky. It does not mount to my existing mounting strip from the old Halogen lamp. There are 3 mounting holes for bolting into the ceiling. Marking the holes are close to impossible and there is no template. I ended up drilling one hole and fixing the fixture before drilling the other 2 holes. The whole thing is very light so one screw is enough to hold it in place temporarily.
Overall, I am happy with it. The closet is a closed space and while the old Halogen gave plenty of light, it got very hot and dangerous if left on. I am more at ease with this light. It brighten up the whole space with a quarter of the wattage. Highly recommended.
Honest reviews on Lighting EVER 26 Watt Flush Mount LED Ceiling Light Fixture, 50W
I was concerned about the brighness of the fixtures as compared to the previous 52w double circuline fixtures they were replacing. I have had experience in the past where the claim of "xx watt equivallent" was greatly exagerated. The application I had was a room with two ceiling fixtures. I replaced one of the existing flourescent fixtures with this led and compared the two. As expected the LED was much brigher upon initially turning on the lights (while the flourescent warmed up), but even after several minutes the LED fixture was still noticeably brighter.Another concern I had was the "spotlight effect" you sometimes get from LEDs. I wanted the light to be spread across the room, not just directed to the floor below the light. The fixture broadcasts the light to the sides very well.
Lastly, there were some written comments by others concerning the difficulty mounting. They have a small point here, but the challenges are easily overcome by not using the mounting hardware provided. It only took me about 10 minutes to remove the one fixture and mount the new one. Some tips are:
1) use a sharp pencil and mark the 3 holes' positions on the ceiling directly wile someone else helps hold the fixture against the ceiling where you want it
2) use a good wall/ceiling anchor. I like the type that actually screw into the drywall/plaster. If you make a small pilot hole for these anchors you can be very accurate on their placement.
3) use longer screws than that provided. Use screws that are 1.5" or longer and you won't have any problem holding and driving the screw through the circuit/led board into the anchor. In addition, a magnetic tip screw driver or drill driver also helps.
Last note that may be of interest to some. The location the wire passes through the fixture back for connection in the electrical junction box is not centered on the fixture. Therefore, the light fixture will have to be off center of the box by a couple inches to avoid pinching the wire between the fixture and the ceiling. This was a minor issue in my case, but a small amount of the ceiling where the old fixture had covered I will have to touch up with ceiling paint.
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I found it quite difficult to install. I tried this three times. The following is a description of the last, and most successful, installation.Some comments. The screw anchors provided are not good. Indeed they complicate the matter; they are too flimsy and so wind up going right into the sheetrock, which is not what you want.
So I used some standard anchors instead. I used anchors size #6-8 (length 7/8", drill size 3/16"). These seem to work pretty well.
Your one friend here is that the fitting is very light; without the diffuser it is a little over one lb.
1. CREATE A TEMPLATE TO INSTALL THE ANCHORS. I used tracing paper. Any paper probably will do. Place the paper on a table. Put the fitting LED side up on the paper. Carefully mark the paper with the holes in the fitting.
2. TRANSFER THE TEMPLATE TO THE CEILING WHEREVER YOU WANT TO PUT IT. I just taped it to the ceiling.
3. TRANSFER AND INSTALL THE ANCHORS FROM THE TEMPLATE TO THE CEILING. I simply drilled through the template. You want to make sure that this is accurately done (you can check by holding the fitting to the ceiling and checking, of course).
4. CONNECT THE FITTING TO THE CEILING POWER. I severely cut back the wiring from the fitting, since, out of the box, there is a lot of this, which may not be helpful.
5. Holding the fitting against the ceiling, screw the screws through the fitting into the pre-placed anchors. This step is quite hard because the screws provided are very short.
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