steam shower lights and retrofit recessed LED recommendations

[TrojanHorse]

Hi everyone,

 

I know this topic has been discussed before but I was hoping to get the latest recommendations for lights in a steam shower as well as 6-inch retrofit recessed LED trims that play well with Insteon and have a good dimming response.  

 

I tried one of these Halo kits (link below), and it's okay but I was hoping for more "even" dimming.  Since there are new products coming out all the time I'm looking for the latest thoughts from the forum here.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OH08OC0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

On a side note, I've been using the CREEs from Home Depot for several years now.  I've been happy with the BR30s in recessed cans (no flicker or buzz for me) but the A19s are (were?) a joke.  I probably had half of them fail.  So, I called the company and asked if I really needed to ship the original receipt, packaging and bulb to get replacements (as the policy stated).  They said no, they would just ship new bulbs.  So far so good, but then they shipped 100W equivalent bulbs that couldn't go in an enclosure (really?).  Called back, they said keep those bulbs, sorry for the hassle, and they will send new ones.  Next, they sent "connected" bulbs that can only be dimmed using a ZigBee controller.  Called again, and they finally sent the proper simple replacements.  Long story short here - I now have 8 ZigBee CREE bulbs that I can't use.  They'll go on ebay if no one here can use them.  And, if anyone else had CREE bulbs fail and didn't seek a warranty claim - give them a call - you might just end up with a lifetime supply of bulbs like I did...

 

Anyway, thanks in advance for any thoughts and suggestions.  

[mwester]

FYI, the Cree Connected bulbs work fine with the Philips Hue Hub as a controller...  If you're interested in selling them here, I'd recommend a post on the "coffee shop" forum here; that seems to be where excess/unnecessary hardware gets bartered and sold.

 

BTW, I too have had disappointing results with the newer Cree A19 bulbs, although the first generation of those were great (and are still in service here), all of the more recent ones have ended up swapped for Philips LED "Warm Glo" bulbs.  I'm not stuck on the "warm glow" technology itself, but these seem to dim well and don't contribute a lot of noise.  So far they've held up well (no failures yet), but it'll need another year or so to see how reliable they really are.