Utilitech Lighting Parts can be Hard to Find

 

Utilitech lighting units and fixtures are some of the best available on the market. Utilitech is actually a spin off in house brand of Lowes Lighting. The reason Utilitech Lighting is such good value for money is that the units are designed in the USA, but all the Utilitech Lighting Parts are manufactured in China. The fact that the lighting fixtures are produced in China means that Lowes can sell them for a much lower price. However, because the price is kept low, it is not cost effective to make spare parts.

Getting Utilitech Lighting Parts from Breakages

I get emails everyday from people asking me where they can get parts for their Utilitech Lights. I always feel a little sorry for them when I reply, “It’s not exactly straight forward”.

You see, even though Utilitech Lighting parts are hard to come by, you can often substitute parts from other manufacturers, or if you are lucky, find some defective or discarded utilitech fixtures that you can use for parts.

Call Suppliers – I have gotten lucky a couple of times with this in the past. Write down the names and telephone numbers of all the companies in your area that supply Utilitech products. Call them one by one and ask if they have any breakages or defective returns of the lighting fixture you need.

Similarly, if you live near a store or have a good relationship with a store owner, go in and ask if you can look through the breakages.

You’ll be surprised how many times a retailer will say yes they have a broken or defective item in stock. You see, items get broken in the shipping process all the time. The store will have insurance for these items. Ask the store very nicely if they would like to work out a price for you to purchase the part you need from the broken unit. Just make sure the part you want isn’t the part that’s broken!

I have had really nice store owners give me the part I want for free, sometimes I’ve paid for the part but never more than $10. You see store owners will have to send the defective unit back in order to claim insurance, but as the unit will be junked anyway, one small part missing often won’t make much of a difference.

If places you call and visit don’t have the parts you need, make sure you ask them to call you if anything becomes available.

Get Your Utilitech Lighting Parts Used

Scour Craigs List, Ebay and backyard sales to find some used Utilitech Lighting parts. People often renovate and re-decorate their homes, many of the fittings and fixtures are no longer any use to them. Many throw the away, but a few decide to sell them. These are the people we want to find, they often go for very little money, they were just going to tossed in the trash, so most people are happy if they get a few dollars for what they see as garbage.

Use Your Imagination – Some homes in my neighbourhood were due to be torn down to make way for a new shopping mall. I asked the guys preparing the building for demolition is it would be ok to go inside and take a look to see if there were any parts that could be of use to me. I bought the site manger a cup of coffee and walked away 20 minutes later with some parts that I really needed.

Use Another Brand’s Parts

Not all lighting parts are created equal, but they are all quite similar. Spares from another manufacturer will often fit Utilitech products and if not a perfect fit can often be easily modified using simple tools like a file or hacksaw.

For example, I recently installed ceiling insulation on the top floor of my home. The Utilitech Recessed Lighting I had installed did not have a thermal casing. Because heat escaped from the units, they could not be used with insulation being present because of a risk of fire.

A few minutes spent on google brought me to a product amazon were selling, a thermal housing for recessed lighting by Halo. I bought 8 of them, they came the next day and my Utilitech lights fitted them perfectly.

Some Closing Safety Advice

I hope that the above advice on how to find and obtain Utilitech Lighting parts has been useful to you. However there are some very important health and safety points that should not be overlooked.

If you do acquire Utilitech Lighting parts through any of the methods detailed here, please make sure that they are safe to use. If you are in any doubt, please consult a qualified electrician or do not use the parts at all. Safety must come first.