How to remove this light fitting

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › How to remove this light fitting

networkn

Networkn
32862 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 15453

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#240927 3-Oct-2018 09:13

I have about 25 of these fittings in my house. I want to fit some LED's for testing, but for the life of me I can't figure out the trick to get the entire fitting from the hole. Is anyone familar with this. I need to be careful not to damage the surrounding gib.

1 | 2

4999 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 462

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2100467 3-Oct-2018 09:18

Does it have two spring loaded arms behind it, that push down onto the gib holding it in place?
You'll need to try and push them vertical to get the fitting out.

Coil

6614 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2153
Inactive user

#2100471 3-Oct-2018 09:20

Have you taken the bulb out just to be sure haha?
Chances are these will have spring loaded wings that push against the gib from above. Either that or you take out the reflector and you will see pins that you can push up and fling out then the downlight will drop down.

If I were you i'd just rip them out and redo with larger downlights to cover the damage.. Was common practice.

Cheers

wellygary

8810 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 5287

#2100472 3-Oct-2018 09:21

They will likely have some form of spring clip that flips out on the top side of the gib,

If you take out the bulb and apply downward pressure you should get some movement, you then have to hold back the clips while you pull the fitting down,

If you don't get much joy you could always have a go at ripping out the tinfoil can that surrounds the bulb so you can get a view of what is actually holding the thing up

networkn

Networkn
32862 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 15453

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2100474 3-Oct-2018 09:23

Hi. Yes I imagine they are spring loaded, I am just not sure how I get access to the springs? I doubt I could get around the rim, and there is a the silver, metal part which after twisting, comes out, but not far, and that leaves a VERY small amount of gap to push anything up to.

itxtme

2102 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 557

#2100533 3-Oct-2018 09:55

Take out the bulb and pull the fixture firmly down, you will see the spring clips start to open as the fixture comes down and out. (see my crude drawing the clips are on the side, the spring up as you pull it down.

MikeAqua

8024 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3817

#2100536 3-Oct-2018 10:02

If you follow the advice of others - as you pull down the fitting the spring arms will fold a little. You can then grab them both in a six pack hold and squeeze together to clear the gib as you pull the fitting out. The springs are quite firm.

Mike

Geekzone

Want to support Geekzone and browse the site without the ads? Subscribe to Geekzone now (monthly, annual and lifetime options).

dolsen

1483 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 319

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2100539 3-Oct-2018 10:18

My ones that were similar (but not the same), I had to remove the bulb, then the reflector (just pull down). This includes the white surround part. After that, there was a "cage" which had the two spring loaded clips holding it in place.

30% of the ones in my house have a nice little slot in the cage where you can push the spring into to so that the tension is removed and you can remove them easily. 70% did not unfortunately. The light fittings were identical apart from the slot to make removal easy.

FineWine

3112 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2441

Trusted

Nurse (R)

Lifetime subscriber

#2100555 3-Oct-2018 10:45

networkn:I have about 25 of these fittings in my house. I want to fit some LED's for testing, but for the life of me I can't figure out the trick to get the entire fitting from the hole. Is anyone familar with this. I need to be careful not to damage the surrounding gib.

dolsen:My ones that were similar (but not the same), I had to remove the bulb, then the reflector (just pull down). This includes the white surround part. After that, there was a "cage" which had the two spring loaded clips holding it in place.

Have just done this exercise of replacing my entire house with LEDs. Your fittings in the above photo are the exact same as mine. We replaced ours using Robus Taylor LED Downlight Taylor 10W CCT The problem I had was: (quote from previous post)

My problem was with the existing hole size - 127mm - though the new fittings stated 125mm hole size it was just way too loose and slipped out slightly. So we cut off the old internal dome from the old ceiling flange which left the old fittings flange in place and sat the new flange on top, all sweat. This added another 5 min's to a 10 min job per fitting. We also had 4 x 90mm which we had to enlarge those holes for the new larger fittings. My brother in-law had just done the same exercise and all of his previous fittings were 90mm. Learning the hard-way with the first fitting of 125mm cut out, which was too loose, he made all the other cut outs 122mm. So beware of retro fitting any flush ceilings lights - measure, measure and then measure.

Edit: forgot to say that the width of the new flange was slightly smaller than the old flange so when we took the first old fitting out entirely and was trying to fit the new fitting in, noticed that there was a ring of old ceiling paint around the outside of the new flange, so leaving the old flange in place solved that problem as well, did not have to repaint ceilings throughout house. So just be aware of that.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

neb

11294 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 10018

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2100880 3-Oct-2018 16:14

Had similar lights in here, 400W of ceiling lighting with an accompanying chimney effect to let all the heat in the room out. Easiest way to deal with it, if you have any kind of crawl space in the ceiling, is to go up there, pull back the two spring-loaded flaps, and let them drop down into the room below. To replace them, I got LED downlights with a flange wide enough to cover the hole, so no extra surgery on the ceiling was required.

networkn

Networkn
32862 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 15453

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2100884 3-Oct-2018 16:18

FineWine:

networkn:I have about 25 of these fittings in my house. I want to fit some LED's for testing, but for the life of me I can't figure out the trick to get the entire fitting from the hole. Is anyone familar with this. I need to be careful not to damage the surrounding gib.

dolsen:My ones that were similar (but not the same), I had to remove the bulb, then the reflector (just pull down). This includes the white surround part. After that, there was a "cage" which had the two spring loaded clips holding it in place.

Have just done this exercise of replacing my entire house with LEDs. Your fittings in the above photo are the exact same as mine. We replaced ours using Robus Taylor LED Downlight Taylor 10W CCT The problem I had was: (quote from previous post)

My problem was with the existing hole size - 127mm - though the new fittings stated 125mm hole size it was just way too loose and slipped out slightly. So we cut off the old internal dome from the old ceiling flange which left the old fittings flange in place and sat the new flange on top, all sweat. This added another 5 min's to a 10 min job per fitting. We also had 4 x 90mm which we had to enlarge those holes for the new larger fittings. My brother in-law had just done the same exercise and all of his previous fittings were 90mm. Learning the hard-way with the first fitting of 125mm cut out, which was too loose, he made all the other cut outs 122mm. So beware of retro fitting any flush ceilings lights - measure, measure and then measure.

Edit: forgot to say that the width of the new flange was slightly smaller than the old flange so when we took the first old fitting out entirely and was trying to fit the new fitting in, noticed that there was a ring of old ceiling paint around the outside of the new flange, so leaving the old flange in place solved that problem as well, did not have to repaint ceilings throughout house. So just be aware of that.

Damn, are you saying the cutouts are likely to be 127mm? That's going to be a huge problem as the lights we ordered from visionarytechnologies are 100-122mm cutout.

smcc

206 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 49

ID Verified

#2100886 3-Oct-2018 16:26

You should be able to get adapter rings at your local lighting shop to allow them to fit in the bigger hole (these are ring with an internal hole the size of the led lights and an external diameter slightly bigger than your cutout that teh LEDs will fit into and not drop out of the larger hole.) I brought a few at lighting Plus when I did my lights last Xmas (about $7 each through "ouch").

Lenovo

Shop now for Lenovo laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

wellygary

8810 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 5287

#2100888 3-Oct-2018 16:28

networkn:

Damn, are you saying the cutouts are likely to be 127mm? That's going to be a huge problem as the lights we ordered from visionarytechnologies are 100-122mm cutout.

Until you get the old fitting out and can actually see the hole you have you wont know for sure,

5mm is only 2.5mm on each side, so depending on the design of the fitting it may not be visible and may be stable enough in the hole

But, you wont know until you try it....

networkn

Networkn
32862 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 15453

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2100899 3-Oct-2018 17:25

Phew! Got a fitting out, looks ok, the cutouts are 110mm which is within spec!

I am a little tempted to try a couple of replacements myself.

Dumb question but do the LED lights have an earth connector? I presume if it does, it matters greatly which port you plug into, however the other two as I am led to believe, it doesn't matter, phase or neural as they auto switch?

FineWine

3112 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2441

Trusted

Nurse (R)

Lifetime subscriber

#2100900 3-Oct-2018 17:29

networkn:

Damn, are you saying the cutouts are likely to be 127mm? That's going to be a huge problem as the lights we ordered from visionarytechnologies are 100-122mm cutout.

Yea sorry that was my experience.

smcc:

You should be able to get adapter rings at your local lighting shop to allow them to fit in the bigger hole (these are ring with an internal hole the size of the led lights and an external diameter slightly bigger than your cutout that teh LEDs will fit into and not drop out of the larger hole.) I brought a few at lighting Plus when I did my lights last Xmas (about $7 each through "ouch").

Did not know about that. Oh well ours still look ago.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

gregmcc

2173 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 836

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2100904 3-Oct-2018 17:53

networkn:

Dumb question but do the LED lights have an earth connector? I presume if it does, it matters greatly which port you plug into, however the other two as I am led to believe, it doesn't matter, phase or neural as they auto switch?

Oh no... another amateur electrician, If you don't know what you are doing you really shouldn't be doing it.

Some lights have an earth, some don't, it varies between makes and models. as for which port to plug in to - really haven't got a clue exactly what a "port" is on a light fitting is, (you may mean the wiring terminals), and "auto switching phase and neutral" that just does not happen.

It would be a good idea to get your electrician involved at this point.....

1 | 2