I know Lightolier are very reliable and sturdy, but also more expensive. There are other good brands, but I don't know them. I have Lightolier everywhere in my basement (they seem to have been there more than 10 years) and they still look good. However, be aware that your builder might charge you an extra for using higher quality products. Good luck with your new house!

lightolier is good fixture more expense of lighting,homedepot sells halo which is not bad,emerald,Commercial Electric,are cheaper,i have been installing recessed lighting for 38 years and i tell you i have seen failer about the same in all brands,freind of my bought low voltage lights from home depot went with him and look at the fixture halo was $77 each and Commercial Electric was $24.99 each the transformer on each fixture was made by the same manufacture both fixture was the same big different in price just for the name

Hello, I'm an electrical contractor and we've used a wide variety of cans over time. From what Home Depot sells, go with Halo, stay away from Commercial Electric. The CE looks very similar, but the bulb will lean in the can and always look crooked, also the trims will yellow. I haven't used the Emerald can(Lowe's), but the trims seem OK, they are metal, not plastic. Just remember there usually is a reason for diference in price.

Fry & Electric Eagle (or anyone else),
so if you guys were going to put recess lights in your house, what brand would you use?
Are there any online stores that carry your prefered lights for a fair price? Closest HD & L's is a 1 hour drive and much of the items I am buying for the house are online which saves me time on the road.

I have seen recessed lights that had crooked bulbs and that would bug me. I like the idea about the metal trim.

Thanks!
Drak

Hi! If I had to buy recessed cans today, I would probably go with Lightolier again. Mine, as I said, are 10 years old and the trim (all metal) has not changed color. Also, they have more choice of models and styles than the "retrofit special" that HD sells. And, like Electric Eagle said, usually when you compare two similar products and one is twice the price of the other one, the more expensive one will last longer. Also, use good quality bulbs. For halogen, there is Iwasaki (Eye) and the rest. (see Iwasaki as Rolls Royce and all the rest as Hyundai Accent). For incandescent bulbs, I use Haskel (I think it is sold in Canada only). These two brands are sold only at fixture stores, and you can expect to pay a little more, but they will last longer, up to 20 times for the Iwasaki bulbs. Good luck with your project! Thanks FRY, I will take a look at Halo if I ever need some recessed cans.

I like the Juno recessed lights. They are good quality and carried by alot of lighting stores and supply houses.

Have any of you guys tried out WAC Recessed Lighting? It apparently has a two year warranty - I'm interested in the low voltage MR16 recessed and want to know how it compares to the other brands.

Thanks,
Mark

Hold onto your pocketbook, here are my recommendations:

For cheap, cheap, I like Nora lighting. A lot of trim options and a variety of aperture sizes.

For moderate pricing, I like Juno. The quality is very, very good. Lightolier makes nice fixtures as well. Halo has a number of product lines, you just have to hunt through them. Capri lighting has nice recessed that I have installed. For top-notch performance look into RSA lighting (their Quiet ceiling line allows the drywall plaster to flush with the edge of the pull-out trim - very interesting) or Iris (45 degree pinspot aperture!).

Visit www.elumit.com for an interesting search engine with a lot of powerful filters.

The latest in recessed light trends, are very slim LED modules used for recessed applications. I am not talking about the can lights that have LED's built in - i am talking about very slim and minimalistic LED recessed lights with good light output. Some of them are directional - The collection is called Nimbus from Germany - I have seen these lights when i as on vacation there and i was only able to find one online source for this type of lighting which is available here - However, this trend from Europe should be available from other U.S. manufacturers very soon.