Changing Puck Lights to LED

Topic: Changing Puck Lights to LED (Read 1915 times) previous topic - next topic

Changing Puck Lights to LED

December 24, 2012, 12:19:23 pm

I have searched for this content and perhaps missed it, sorry if this is a repeat. I decided to change the puck light bulbs from halogen to LED. This is what I learned.

1. To remove the puck light bulb, remove the round bezel ring (gold) by turning counterclockwise. There is a photo below of this ring including a close-up of the locking mechanism. You can do this by putting your hand flat on the entire cover and turning or try holding just the outer edge of the gold bezel. However,

2. To remove mine that are against the "fabric" ceiling I had a hard time. I had to push pretty hard upward on the ceiling via the bezel and worried about tearing that fabric. So, to practice, I found a puck light mounted on wood and that was easy to remove, so try that first to see how this works. Photos show the bezel removed, the locking mechanism up close and a black ring that is screwed into the ceiling and the exposed halogen bulb and then the LED bulb.

3. Beneath the halogen bulb is a silver reflector (for light and heat). The bulb will simply pull out. IF you get the right LED bulb, you can simply plug in the new bulb and it is not as fragile as I thought and it may take some pushing and touching the lights. The LED lights are the little orange squares.

4. With some new LED "bulbs" though you will need to remove the reflector. I avoided that by getting bulbs that fit without removing the reflector. To remove the reflector should you need to do that, take the three phillips screws out of the black mounting bracket, and on the back of the bracket are either two silver tabs that you can with significant effort push to the center and that allows you to pull out the reflector, or there may be a single center mount of the reflector to the black mounting bracket and you will need to drill out that attachment to remove the reflector. After the reflector is removed you should still have the receptacle in the bracket for plugging in the LED bulb. Again, I found an LED light pad that I could plug in without removing the reflector.

5. Then just reassemble.

6. A note of caution. Light bulbs have a "temperature" rating. If you like a bright white light, as perhaps for reading, then you would get a temperature rating of something on the order of 6000 - 6500K. If you want a more common "warm light", then you will want a bulb with a temperature on the order of 3,000 - 3500 K. Incandescent bulbs are usually on the order of 2,700 - 3,200 K and give a softer, hospitable, atmosphere. I tried the 6,000 first and Jackie quickly said no so I put that one only in the map light. The other overhead puck lights need to be a warmer (3000 K) light for us.

I hope this helps. I paid $10 per bulb, a sencart B007G2LV40. These have the G4 base, smd 5050 Led Warm White but it seems too cool (bright white) to us. They have a diameter of 0.9 inches and overall length of 1.38 inches. Any longer would not, I think, fit without removing the reflector. You will find several web sites for G4 bulbs.

I hope others can reply with some better ways, information, on how to go about this process.

Cheers, Mike

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #1 – December 24, 2012, 12:36:37 pm

Quote from: Michael & Jackie – December 24, 2012, 12:19:23 pm

1. To remove the puck light bulb, remove the round bezel ring (gold) by turning counterclockwise. There is a photo below of this ring including a close-up of the locking mechanism. You can do this by putting your hand flat on the entire cover and turning or try holding just the outer edge of the gold bezel. However,

2. To remove mine that are against the "fabric" ceiling I had a hard time. I had to push pretty hard upward on the ceiling via the bezel and worried about tearing that fabric. So, to practice, I found a puck light mounted on wood and that was easy to remove, so try that first to see how this works. Photos show the bezel removed, the locking mechanism up close and a black ring that is screwed into the ceiling and the exposed halogen bulb and then the LED bulb.
Cheers, Mike

I found a rubber jar opener over the bezel and twisting gave me the extra grip to allow it to turn easily.

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #2 – December 24, 2012, 12:39:20 pm

It also helps to separate the ring from the ceiling first... with a credit card or a dull table knife.

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #3 – December 24, 2012, 01:10:44 pm

I bought some G4 LED bulbs from DHGate.com: Wholesale G4 LED Lamp 5050 SMD 9 LED Marine Camper Car Bulb Lamp 12V 1.8W Warm

10 warm white @ $2.28 each....

Free Shipping from Hong Kong took about 2 weeks....

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #4 – December 24, 2012, 01:22:19 pm

For those looking into LED replacement interior bulbs, you'll want ones with constant current driver technology to ensure long life and consistent brightness when operated on the coach's 12V house system

LEDs Magazine - Controlling LED lighting systems: introducing the LED driver

Why Drive White LEDs with Constant Current? - Application Note - Maxim

Unless stated (and/or the specs show a voltage range, say 8-20 Vdc), assume LEDs don't have constant current circuitry.)

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #5 – December 24, 2012, 01:37:37 pm

Mike,
It requires a highly skilled, trained craftsman to remove the puck bezel. Well for me, I gave up on all the high tack words and using a hook over the bezel, just jerked it down with great finesse and off it came. No damage at all, installed the new LED units and all is well, reinstalling the bezels, all well.
Merry Christmas
Dave M

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #6 – December 24, 2012, 02:06:58 pm

The reflector and socket make for a tight fit for these replacements. In order to reach the recessed socket I found it easier to install the LED discs if their bi-pins are not soldered to the disc at the very perimeter, but inward about 1/4". Those with a large capacitor on the back may not fit well either.

Some discs have pins are a smaller wire gauge than the halogen pins. This can be resolved by bending the LED pins slightly toward between the mid-point and the end. Be careful that you don't break the solder joint(don't ask me how I know that).

Also, the disc diameter can be slightly too large to fit and be level just inside or at the edge of the reflector. I finally found some from China that were smaller... 26 to 29mm instead of 31 to 35 mm. You have to read the EBay offering specs carefully and hope it lists the dimensions.

Maybe I am biased, but I think the discs with larger (and fewer) LEDs are brighter than discs with smaller (and more) LEDs. Those with the newer, bigger LEDs may cost a little more.

Just my cents,

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #7 – December 24, 2012, 03:24:43 pm

I got mine from FOT and took the reflector out--not a problem__ and I have all of mine on Digital dimmers and they work great. Not had any problems in 10 months.
John H

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #8 – December 24, 2012, 06:45:24 pm

I found that even the "warm" LED's were too white. A simple solution was to buy some colored acetate and cut out circles the correct diameter and just lay them on the lens inside the bezel. The color I choose was "Golden Sunrise" .... but there are lots of different choices available. And the LED's produce so little heat that the acetate last for years. Mine have been installed for 3 years with no issues.

Dave VanAmburg
1999 U320 42ft

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #9 – December 24, 2012, 07:28:37 pm

Hi Dave, I like that idea. May try it. Wife does not like the really cool temp lights.

As for Dave M., he is one of the ones on this Forum that I so admire, I learned a lot from him. From how to set the high idle to working on the AH (hire Rudy), carry a cell phone rather than lots of tools and parts, etc. etc. So I gave his method a try. I think that I did not fully understand his method though? I got a coat hanger, put a little tip bend in the end, squeezed it up under the bezel and pulled. Wow. It worked except for the six in long piece of ceiling fabric I pulled loose. Not a huge issue problem, I just pasted it back with some aluminum foil tape. The tape gives a nice reflection when the lights are on! Ha. Merry Christmas Dave!

Mike

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #10 – December 24, 2012, 10:58:37 pm

This appears to be the one you used, from Sencart:
G4 1W 3500K 75-Lumen 6 x 5050 SMD LED Warm White Light Blub [211] - US.99 :

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #11 – December 25, 2012, 11:32:24 am

First off, Merry Christmas everyone.

I've been thinking about doing the LED's for a bit now, but I thought it would be much more expensive then it now appears. Following link provided by Ted above I found these: Wholesale DC 12V WhiteWarm White G4 LED Lamp 26 LED SMD 1210 Light Home Car RV, . Do these look like they would work? I haven't counted, but I'm thinking my coach has 30-40 lights, if you count all the inside lighting and including the lights in the bays. So the amount here would be much more than needed, but the price looks very good. So any feed back on whether these are yea or nea would be great.

Thanks David

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #12 – December 25, 2012, 12:50:58 pm

Ted, if you google G4 LED lights you will find many places to purchase them, I do not know if one is any better than another. Amazon has dropped one line they had. I paid $10 locally but you will find for around $3 on line.

As to the number of the puck lights, we have only 20. I did nothing to the bays as we use those so little. Jackie is not yet comfortable with the very white light of the one that I have done and even though they were 3500k or whatever David said, I am not sure she will do the rest of them with that white light. I may try for a warmer LED or that acetate trick.

Too, we use the puck lights seldom and we have begun to look at other options. I still want to change them. We are looking more into the tube lights under the valences and how we use the lamps mounted on the wall....reading only or other. We have found that the prior owner mixed up tube light temperatures, on one side of the coach is the soft warm lights, bright white on the other so I will be changing some of those. Some friends have FTs with the tube lights in the ceiling, we do not, so the puck lights could be more important.

Just a note. Removing the reflector was easy for one of our folks on the Forum. But I struggled with it and the service folks at FOT had a bit of a time with one that they tried. IF I can, I will keep the LED dimensions to fit within the reflector. Some cite it supports the LED better if you keep that. That seems unnecessary to me though.

Hope this posting and the ensuing dialogue has helped you. Send me a PM if want to chat and I will send you phone number.

Thank you for participating and wished for a Merry Christmas to you too,

MIke

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #13 – December 25, 2012, 04:29:16 pm

David, not sure that they would fit. The ones we and everyone else is using are flat with diodes on one side only. That price is for a 100 on website, cheap but not sure they will fit.
John

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #14 – December 25, 2012, 06:50:20 pm

David, I agree with John H. Pretty sure those lights won't fit. You need a wafer type light.
Check out Marine Beam lighting. They have a 6 led wafer light that I used that worked well.
I opted for cool white instead of warm white. Like the brighter light.
Merry Christmas.

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #15 – December 25, 2012, 06:52:39 pm

Plus, the way I read it you'll be buying 100 lights at a pop!

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #16 – January 03, 2013, 04:22:37 pm

Just started replacing mine. Found neat little trick for getting the reflector out without removing the fixture. Use a paint can key to pop one side out then the other side comes out with very little effort. Managed to replace 20 of the fixtures so far with this method in under 30 minutes.
Would have shown it with one side attached but the reflector flew across the cabin! LOL
Found my G4 Bulbs here, LEDTrailerLights.com - G4 LED replacement for 10 and 20 watt halogen bulbs
Color temp on these match perfectly with the halogens making it hard to tell the difference unless your looking directly up at the fixture.

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #17 – January 09, 2013, 05:25:11 pm

Ouick update since I'm still waiting on more LED's.
Took a quick picture comparing the halogen and LED light output and color. See if you can tell the which is which.

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #18 – January 09, 2013, 06:07:16 pm

Mark, due to reflection on the cabinets, I cannot tell. In our case the light was the map light and clearly very bright, white. That worried my wife that next row would be too bright, but I think will try one there. Yours looks very nice. I hope this thread was a help.

Mike

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #19 – January 09, 2013, 09:00:16 pm

Quote from: minibeast – January 09, 2013, 05:25:11 pm

Ouick update since I'm still waiting on more LED's.
Took a quick picture comparing the halogen and LED light output and color. See if you can tell the which is which.

The middle one looks brightest, the left one looks whitest. The one on the right looks to be the same color as the one in the middle, just not as bright.

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #20 – January 10, 2013, 04:26:34 am

hint ; Only one of them is a halogen

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #21 – January 10, 2013, 10:29:49 am

Quote from: minibeast – January 10, 2013, 04:26:34 am

hint ; Only one of them is a halogen

I would guess the center one. However, the heat is the key reason I would like to change over to LED'S. After reading all the posts I am now confused as to what ones to buy. Again, thanks to all that provide information to this forum. David

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #22 – January 10, 2013, 10:42:33 am

I think it is the one on the left.
I got mine from FT and changed over a yr ago. massive difference on power use and heat.
John H

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #23 – January 10, 2013, 12:02:17 pm

David, as a test, I bought one of each ( cool white and warm white), installed them then the wife and I decided on which one we liked best and bought those.
Regards, Richard B.

Re: Changing Puck Lights to LED

Reply #24 – January 10, 2013, 12:09:47 pm

So which did you guys choose for your coach? We are going with warm (3000k) for ours...
Don

Quote from: rbark – January 10, 2013, 12:02:17 pm

David, as a test, I bought one of each ( cool white and warm white), installed them then the wife and I decided on which one we liked best and bought those.
Regards, Richard B.

Affiliate Notice