Replacing the Light Over the Kitchen Sink
Replacing the Light Over the Kitchen Sink

Replacing the Light Over the Kitchen Sink

This item is #7 on my 2015 Projects list.  The LED light over our kitchen sink has been acting up for a while.  The 3 LED bulbs would flicker, go out, come back on, etc. – very annoying.  We removed the plastic cover so we could fiddle with the misbehaving bulbs easier, but the whole thing was definitely in need of replacing:

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I wasn’t sure how it connected to power.  Most replacement over-the-sink lights seem to plug into an outlet.  Which confused me, since ours appeared to be hard-wired, just like the example in my AWESOME electrical book from Santa hubby.  Last week I removed the light to see exactly what I was dealing with, and make sure there wasn’t some hidden outlet I wasn’t aware of.

First I turned off the power to the light at the basement breaker box.  Always the most important step!

Then I unscrewed the 4 visible screws:

replacing the under-cabinet light bar over the kitchen sink        133d

Allowing me to then pull the two pieces of the light fixture apart.  Once they were separated I could see 2 more screws connecting the top piece to the wall:

replacing the under-cabinet light bar over the kitchen sink

I unscrewed those and pulled the whole fixture away from the wall.  I could then [finally] see that the light was powered by an electrical cable coming in from behind the wall, with 3 wires inside it: a ground [copper], hot [black] and neutral [white]:

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I loosened the screw holding the copper ground wire in place on the light fixture:

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Then was faced with a type of wire-nut I’ve never seen before:

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I couldn’t figure out how to unclip the wires from the little black boxes, so I just snipped them with wire cutters instead.  Then put wire nuts on the white and black wires, tucked them and the copper ground up near the ceiling, and called it a night:

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Over the weekend hubby and I went to Home Depot and bought this LED replacement:

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I like that there’s 7 LEDs that don’t ever need replacing [they’re embedded in the light vs. being removable bulbs].   Hubby liked that the light bar is dimmable.  And I have to say, now that it’s installed, so do I!  Despite being advertised for $99.97 online, it was $86 in the store.

It was VERY easy to install!  Just pop the back compartment off:

installing home depot 24 inch under cabinet dimmable LED light in kitchen        136c

Connect the black, white & ground [green] wire to the electrical cable coming out of the wall:

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Pop the back back on, secure the light to the underside of the cupboard above the sink with the included screws, and done!

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Here’s the dimmer dial:

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This morning I came downstairs and hubby had turned the dimmer dial way down.  It gave a nice, low, ambient glow to the otherwise dark kitchen.  Much better than being greeted by bright lights!  I wish I’d thought to take a picture… maybe I’ll get one tomorrow morning and update this post.

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7 Comments

    1. Nine Dark Moons

      There’s a lot of nice plug-in under cabinet lighting, too – and they connect to each other in a long string (up to like 7 lights) so you only need to plug the first one into an outlet.

  1. Hugh

    It must be ESP. I am changing my shop overhead fixture. When I hit the light switch it would crackle, pop and sputter. Not a good sign. I discovered the aluminum terminal screws had oxidized and caused a real bad situation. New, proper fixture works great. Luv, Dad

    1. Nine Dark Moons

      Me too! It goes way down to almost nothing, and way up to super bright! It’s way brighter than the old one – we were worried it wouldn’t be bright enough but it’s awesome!

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