The custom installation industry has been awash in lighting talk for the last five years. Integrators have been told that their businesses depend on growing fixture upgrades, design, and other add-on services for their very survival. Is this the work of a sinister cabal or simply the beginning of another technological change wave?
Either way, the options are to lead, follow, or get out of the way. I’m never one to shy away from a challenge and have grown to enjoy the lighting category over the last few years. The only way to get passionate about any technology is to live with it. To that end, I’ve installed every lighting gadget I can get my hands on over the last few years, including reviews I’ve written for Residential Tech Today extolling the virtues of American Lighting tape light and DMF’s now ubiquitous warm dim in-ceiling fixtures.
This latter category of in-ceiling 6” can light upgrades seems to be the low hanging fruit coaxing all of us into the shallow end of the premium lighting pool. After all, who likes looking up at the ceiling only to be glared back at by a bunch of ugly $11 cans with oversized PAR30 LED bulbs in them?
The LED conversion wave that began a decade back hasn’t helped either. Light quality, which incandescent bulbs delivered effortlessly, has proved challenging to replicate for LED, never mind the difficulty of dimming. For many households that took the plunge into LED bulbs a few years back, the results have been lackluster — hallmarked with eerie, harsh lighting and stroboscopic effects when trying to dim bulbs below 10%. Throw in the complexity of having to understand the difference between adaptive phase and other dimming types, and it hasn’t been a great first wave. Thankfully all that’s changed in the last few years, and there are millions of homes who have yet to experience the power of quality lighting.
While DMF seems to be enjoying a huge share of the 6” fixture upgrade market, they have some competition on their hands with the WAC AiSPiRE ASTRO 6-Inch Adjustable Retrofit Recessed Downlight. This fixture promises to deliver not only warm dim technology but also the ability to aim and adjust the beam spread (all in one SKU). I caught wind of this and began harassing WAC’s Patrick Laidlaw for a demo kit. He quickly obliged and soon I had four of these little hockey pucks sitting in my office ready for installation. Would they give DMF a run for their money? I set off to find out.
Unboxing
The WAC AiSPiRE ASTRO 6-Inch Adjustable Retrofit Recessed Downlights arrive in contractor grade cardboard designed to be opened, broken down and recycled quickly. I quickly laid all the boxes out, removed the fixtures, and set about installing.
Installation
I first needed to remove the old bulbs and housings from the ceiling. I had a little experience from the DMF upgrade a couple of years ago, so this wasn’t too hard with no tools required. The next part I learned the hard way on the old installation, and I wanted to make sure to communicate with you, dear reader, that if you find yourself in a similar spot looking up at a hollow cylindrical housing, then staring down at your fixture with hooks splaying every which way, then wondering how in the hell it all goes together, let me save you hours of anger and frustration. Two words: C Clips. There, I’ve done my good deed for the day. No one tells you that you need C Clips to install new LED fixtures in your old 6” cans. Now I’ve broken the seal and let you in on the secret. You’ll have 99 problems from now on, but this won’t be one of them.
I got to work installing the C Clips into each can using a short screwdriver then folding the springs together on the fixtures, tensioning them into place. When done properly (rarely), the fixture will satisfyingly snug to the ceiling. When done improperly (often), one of the spring clips will fling itself free and you’ll be staring up at the ceiling trying like hell to put it all back together again while getting pelted by bits of Sheetrock and insulation.
With all the shenanigans of installation behind me, the moment had finally come to switch on the lighting. I have a Lutron dimmer in my office, so it offered the perfect opportunity to demo all that WAC bragged about with its new toy. I first turned on full bright. Immediately my office was bathed in a warm 3000K-ish light. So far, so good. I had planned on doing a little aiming to highlight a bookcase and some art, so I turned off the lights and got back on the stepladder. What a difference! Just slightly adjusting the aim of the lighting on the room completely changed the mood and character of the space.
I fiddled around with the dimming levels, aiming and beam focus, finally settling on a nice mix for office work. I then started my workday, immediately noticing how I could change the lighting for my Zoom calls easily, taking a few minutes between meetings to change it up, while quizzing my meeting mates how I looked. Most of the responses I received weren’t lighting related, but a few were mildly helpful.
Final Report
The WAC AiSPiRE ASTRO 6-Inch Adjustable Retrofit Recessed Downlight retails for less than $100. Is that a lot for quality lighting? In a world where fixtures can climb into the $500 per can realm, this is a bargain. This product does well in environments where the ceiling height isn’t incredibly high and there are opportunities to showcase parts of the room. WAC certainly aimed and succeeded in delivering a killer Swiss Army Knife product, which I’m sure many custom installers will keep on their vans for on-the-spot upgrades.
Related: AiSPIRE/WAC Lighting to Launch Colorscaping at Lightapalooza 2024
