I bought a house three months ago and I'm slowly getting around to different projects. We have beautiful halogen in-cabinet lights above our kitchen sink but the light fixtures seem to fall out every three weeks. I haven't gotten around to pushing the last batch in just yet.
There are many that have fallen out and are dangling:
And a couple that are burnt out. I'll swap the bulbs out tonight.
What can I do to keep these from falling out? I don't see a way to secure them more effectively. Should I buy pieces of cork to wedge in there? I want to be able to get them down when it's time to change the bulb however.
Edit A few more pictures:
Light from the side – there are small plastic "tension" clips that don't seem to be doing their job anymore:
From the rear:
Light from the front (a bit dark)
There is a significant gap between the top of the hole that the lights are mounted in and the bottom of the cabinet above. I can't directly attach the bulb to the cabinet above.
I am also concerned about using any form of adhesive as these are halogen lights and they get quite hot…
Best Answer
I have similar looking lights in my cabinets. The tabs on the side are meant to engage a plastic retaining collar mounted to the cabinet. The previous owners did not install the collars, but they did leave them behind in the back of one of the cabinets. Unfortunately, there were 3 missing.
For those three, I used a staple gun to make a little lip just inside the edge of the hole. Here's a picture of where I would put the staple(s) in your cabinet.
My lights had 4 tabs, so I used 4 staples in the proper position. I also used a screwdriver to back the staples out a bit for a better fit. The first one I did I just pried the staple out a bit. But for the subsequent ones I held the screwdriver against the edge of the hole and just stapled over the top.
Then to install the lights, make sure the tabs and the staples are NOT aligned, insert the light, and give it a little twist to slide the tabs over the staples.