Rite Lite Set of Three Puck Lights

When we remodeled our kitchen two years ago this summer, we installed under counter lighting along two walls in our kitchen. These lights were those hockey puck style lights with the halogen bulbs, and we loved the brightness and the appeal of this lighting.

Our cabinets were all custom made, and on another wall of our kitchen was a wall unit that we designed with our contractor. It has large deep drawers for pots and pans, doors on the sides, and a curio cabinet with glass above. Below this curio cabinet is a small empty area, about 2 feet wide, and we didn’t think of it at the time, but we should have installed those halogen puck lights there as well, but didn’t.

I could not find any battery operated puck lights in any of our stores. I checked Home Depot, Lowe’s, and all the other building supply stores, but could not find any. Then I searched on eBay, you can usually find anything you want on eBay, even hard to find items. Sure enough, I found these Rite Lite Puck Lights available for purchase! I ordered them and couldn’t wait for them to arrive.

Description

Although these are a little bigger than my electrically wired under counter puck lights, they were still hidden by our crown molding. They measure 3″ in diameter, and are 1 1/2″ high.

There is no electricity required, as they run off of three double A size batteries, which fit easily under the case on the bottom of the light. I thought these would help light up the area since they claimed to have 5 super bright white LED lightbulbs.

Installation was fast and easy. They have an adhesive back that you simply peel off and stick the light where ever it is needed. The tape is double stick, one side goes onto the top of the cabinet, the other on the back of the puck light.

Features

The LED lights will never burn out
Easy one touch on/off switch on the cover
Two brightness levels
No wires and easy installation
Light swivels

My Experience

While these sounded perfect in theory, they were not at all what I was looking for. Yes, there are five tiny bulbs around the perimeter of the light, but they do not give out a lot of light. I placed two of these Rite Lite Puck Lights in this small area, and even on the brightest setting, they didn’t even begin to compare to the brightness of the halogen bulbs.

My recipe file is kept in this area, and I even found it difficult to read by these lights, they were just too dim. The thick plastic cover might be part of the problem, I’m not sure, but it looks opaque instead of clear, which hides much of the light, in my opinion.

The swivel action of the light will help shine more light in a certain direction, but again it really doesn’t do much to spot light a certain area if that’s what you are attempting to do. Using these is very easy. One push will give you the brightest light, a second push dims the light, and a third push turns them off completely.

I suppose these could be used any place in the home, but I didn’t find they provided enough light to really see by, they just give you that romantic ambiance. I believe they are more of a mood light, and were not very practical for what we desired. We wanted to lighten up a dark corner of our kitchen, and compared to the brightness of the halogens, these looked like the cheap substitution that they were.

When I saw another brand of puck light at Gottschalks, I bought them and hoped they would be better. At least they don’t have the domed shape lens, and look more like our halogen puck lights in size and shape, but unfortunately they didn’t fare much better.

We are planning on moving the Rite Lite Puck Lights out to our motorhome, they will give a nice glow to the living room area, and at least we’ll get some use out of these.

I recommend these as a night light most of all. If you have an area of your home that is harder to navigate at night, these might be a solution to your problem, since they can go anywhere without electricity. For under counter accent lighting they were not what I expected.

These sell for as high as $9 individually, but I purchased the set of three on eBay for much less, around $15 I believe.