Electrical - under cabinet lighting help

[B.Spilner]

So our under cabinet lighting in our new build has been a joke since we bought 3 years ago. They replaced the 12v converter in the basement once and here we are again with dim lighting snf no warranty.

So the low voltage wires run from the basement to a swicth outside the kitchen and then to 3 points under the cabinets.

What are my options? Do I have to run that low voltage converter or can I buy a plug in setup and just splice the wires into that?

[prae]

I think we need more detail to be of much meaningful help. Do I understand correctly that your lighting used to be bright, but has ended up very dim, presumptively because of power supply failure? i.e. replacing the converter worked, for a while, until it failed again?

It could just be a shitty or underrated converter.

Can you post photos of the LED strips themselves, measurements of the total distance linearly they cover, and photos of the converter itself??

Shot in the dark, I'd say, try buying the largest rated power supply you can, eg. the 100W from lee valley, which should be somewhat-reputably-sourced, and somewhat reliable.

Where is your power supply housed? does it get sufficient cooling?

Is the power supply itself switched? eg. the wall switch controls the supply of 110v to the PSU, and then the PSU is wired... in parallel, to three runs of LEDs?

Honestly the dudes at LV seemed relatively knowledgeable, they were a little offended I Ron Swanson'd them when I was there to source a PSU for my own U/C lighting.

[ExtraSlow]

You don't want a long run of thin 12v wires from the PSU to the strip. Underpoweribg the strip is bad mkay?
Options.
1, bigger PSU.
2 - bring PSU closer
3: make wires bigger
[4] inject power at the far end of the strip.

Or all of that.

For cheap LED shit I like Ikea. I have done several projects with ledberg stuff and it's been very handy.
I personally used an amazon PSU for my cabinet lighting and it was everything I hoped for.

[prae]

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You don't want a long run of thin 12v wires from the PSU to the strip. Underpoweribg the strip is bad mkay?
Options.
1, bigger PSU.
2 - bring PSU closer
3: make wires bigger
[4] inject power at the far end of the strip.

Or all of that.

For cheap LED shit I like Ikea. I have done several projects with ledberg stuff and it's been very handy.
I personally used an amazon PSU for my cabinet lighting and it was everything I hoped for.

Yes; great points on all fronts; I'm kinda shocked they'd house the PSU in the basement, but I guess if they could tuck it up in the floor joists, perhaps the wiring run isn't that long?

Last kitchen we cut a little access panel into the kickplate space below some base drawers and that worked awesome. This kitchen, we have no upper cabinetry and thus no undercab lighting, and tbh, I kinda miss it (not the upper cabinetry; just the lights).

[ExtraSlow]

The power supply is supposed to be accessible by an access plate or something. They often aren't though. I had one that was behind tile. I just bypassed it and wired in my own.

[B.Spilner]

It's beside the panel, kitchen is one level up and across the house. Maybe that's why they keep failing. And yes I meant dimming.

There's no way I to gain access to the wiring, finished basement. There is a plug in for the hood fan, I could plug into that and then just fish the wires through the uppers...

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I'll grab pics shortly

[B.Spilner]

[ExtraSlow]

With the light strip off can you get a pic of any words or numbers printed on the strip?

[B.Spilner]

Only markings on the strip are "dc12v"

- - - Updated - - -

I'm also hoping to get rid of the 3500k and go to 5000k.

[ExtraSlow]

If I ended up buying a new power supply, I'd aim for one with higher amperage and adjustable voltage and crank it up a little.
You will be having voltage loss in the long wiring
https://a.co/d/g0NIDzO

[B.Spilner]

Awesome. I'll give 2 of those a whirl, at least get these bright again.

[ExtraSlow]

If I could find a 5A 14V supply I'd run that. But I didn't see one in the little searching I did.