I was thinking it might be a good idea for people to post up reviews / experiences they have with certain products. If theres enough of them maybe we can get them to be stickys. Maybe start them all with “REVIEW ON:”
Here we go
Im currently in the middle of remodeling my garage(nothing fancy) and I wanted to give a review on shop/utility lighting I came across. I have included pictures for you to judge.
Here are lights I am comparing. Both are four foot in length and the same width depth.
Wrap Light is from Home Depot (around $21)
Utilitech is from Lowes (around $20)
From a price stand point Lowes has depot beat by about $1
BUT, when it comes to quality, Lowes lights are the way to go.
Here is the Depot light
Here is the Lowes light
As you can see the Utilitech has closed and painted edges where the Wrap Light does not.
In terms of feel, Utilitech has a better and smoother paint finish on it then Wrap Light.
The plastic diffuser is about the same for both. If anything Utilitech MIGHT be a touch thicker.
The metal housing on the Utilitech feels thicker/more solid. Wrap lighting is flimsy.
The Wrap light only has 2-3 mounting holes where the Utilitech has 4.
These can only be hard wired. They do not come with plugs.
Both lights DO NOT come with mounting hardware. Screws in joists or toggle bolts will do just fine
Both lights use (2) four foot T8 32 watt bulbs. IMO buy the “day light” color.
Before the lighting was present I only had light coming from my garage door opener. Right now I only have one light installed and WOW is it bright. I still have 3 more lights to install (on 2 separate switches) so im excited to see how bright it will be in there.
Conclusion:
Not only is the light from Lowes cheaper but its better quality. Even if it were more expensive, I would spend the few bucks for the much better product. All said and done I will be around $100 for great lighting
:tup: Looking at some of these for my garage and basement. Currently just have the garage door opener light and a spiral light which doesn’t help much at all. I grill a lot and need some more light out there.
Any pics of your garage lit with the one light? How much area does it throw “Good light;” 10’x10’, 20’x20’…etc? I realize it is all subjective and personal preference.
---------- Post added at 08:04 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:04 AM ----------
i would withhold judgement on the quality until you see how long the ballasts last…the extra aesthetic quality on the lowes units might be at the cost of decent ballasts
Yea i dont think you can use these with cains…im sure something could be rigged up nut they make them with chains already. so might as well get the proper ones
---------- Post added at 02:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:43 AM ----------
true but going off of the quality in comparison of how they are made im going to go ahead and say the ones from Lowes should be better. I have shopped at both stores for years now. IMO Lowes has better quality items, espically when it comes to lighting, and kitchen and bath.
I have two lights installed and will have the last two installed tomorrow night.
Pics to follow
Both lights are Chinese crap with cheap ballasts in them. From a standpoint of which is better, neither is better functionally but a Lithonia light will win often based on using components of their higher end products. As mentioned earlier the ballast is where it is at and if they are using knock off ballasts instead of Sylvania, GE, Advance, or the like then performance will be reduced. You never know what ballast is going to be in a fixture (at least lithonia) as they will order thousands of them from a MFG, then go to the next. It is always wise to look. This again is on their higher end products and I am going to guess that it is a knock off in the unit you showed. If you want a quality 2 lamp fixture look here: Google Shopping Results. This is a standard basket wrap fixture. If you can live with exposed bulbs and would benefit from a reflector then look here: Google Shopping results
That said I installed 8 of a similar utilitech fixture in my basement (This One) as changing a ballast down the road if necessary is easy and cheap/free if I need to. I couldn’t be happier as they are working and the light output even if reduced is exactly what I need it to be. For my garage however I ponied up and dropped in two 8’ fixtures which use 4 lamps each (This One). They are phenomenal for working under and distribute the light in my garage really evenly.
Thanks for the input. Yea I could have spent more money on lighting but I don’t want to put any more cash into this house. Maybe the next/final one. I need just some cheap bright lights. For $20 a unit I’m very pleased.
I actually had both the depot lights and the lowes lights installed next to each other. I decided to go with lowes light for a few reasons. Low cost, stronger unit, bigger plastic diffusor, and the bulb went in and twisted better.
