Good quality under-cabinet downlighters anyone?

[Pidgeonpost]

About a year ago I bought some surface-mounted 12-volt halogen downlighters from a well known mail order company. There are 7 lights, and at any given time 3 or 4 of the darned things aren't working. The problem appears to be that the connector that the two-pronged bulb plugs into just isn't up to the job of holding the bulb securely enough. If I remove and reseat the bulb (no mean feat given that I wear variable focus glasses and have to stand on my head to see what I'm doing!), they will work again for maybe an hour or a day, or even a week, but eventually they die again. The supplier replaced them with some of a different but equally crappy design. So, the question is "Does anyone know of a supplier of good quality surface mounted cabinet downlighters" please?? The thing that narks me about this is that I found some lights that looked good quality but were a bit pricey. Sparky spoke to wifey saying "Nah! Don't waste yer money - get these El Cheapo ones, they're just as good". So muggins is living with the legacy!

[Andrew Gabriel]

My parents have had the IKEA ones for over 5 years now, without any problems. These are the ones with two 10W lamps at either end of the long thin fitting, and the transformer in the middle.

Personally, I prefer slim fluorescent fittings under cupboards.

[chris French]

In message , Andrew Gabriel writes

I had exactly the OP's problem with such fittings from Screwfix (I assume that was his supplier) - I gave up trying to make them stay working and moved house....

Indeed, though in my case these were visible fittings

[Christian McArdle]

downlighters

Use slimline fluorescent tubes. They give a much wider pool of light, which is good for preparing food. You can also get a lot more total light output without needing to construct another belching power station to power them all.

I have 4 18W tubes under cupboards and a 30W tube up the chimney for the cooker. That's 102W. Using halogen, due to reduced efficiency and their inappropriate lighting pattern requiring many extra fittings, similar light coverage would be getting on for a kilowatt, probably making the kitchen unbearably hot in summer, too.

Christian.