{"id":1655,"date":"2022-02-26T06:04:27","date_gmt":"2022-02-26T11:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/?p=1655"},"modified":"2023-02-08T12:17:32","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T17:17:32","slug":"i-bought-every-led-diffuser-channel-on-amazon-to-find-the-best-one-mission-accomplished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/i-bought-every-led-diffuser-channel-on-amazon-to-find-the-best-one-mission-accomplished\/","title":{"rendered":"I bought every LED Diffuser channel on Amazon to find the best one. Mission Accomplished."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DKOWeuV1FWE\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>When it comes to LED strip lighting there are two very different styles. On TikTok you\u2019ve got highly exposed, bare, flashing, um\u2026 LED strips, and pretty much everyone else wants soft diffuse light with no hot spots and no visible individual LED dots.<\/p>\n<p>The best way to get that second look is with LED diffuser channels but with those you\u2019ve so many choices to make. Is black or silver better? What about deep or shallow? Does the shape of the plastic cover matter? And what LED strip density should you use? Does all that sound overwhelming to you?&nbsp;Well don\u2019t worry, answers to all those questions and a lot more are coming up today on the hook up.<\/p>\n<p>As I said If you\u2019ve ever looked on Amazon for LED diffuser channels you know there are a ton of different vendors, styles and colors, but are those things really important? To answer that question once and for all I spent a few hundred dollars to buy basically every variation of LED channel, and every LED strip density to figure out which combinations give you the most diffuse light with the smallest amount of brightness reduction for the least amount of money.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/d1.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/d1-300x77.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"77\"><\/a><br \/>\nFor channel types we\u2019ve got <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Iqg9Jc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">shallow unfinished aluminum<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ioxu5f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">deep unfinished aluminum<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3siRoZM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">deep black aluminum<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3sn1aKp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">45 degree deep unfinished aluminum<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3M0TKV1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">45 degree shallow unfinished aluminum.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For the diffusers on our flat channels we\u2019ve got flat milky white, curved milky white, flat smoky black and this unique tall milky white diffuser, while on the 45 degree channels we\u2019ve got milky white flat and milky white curved.<\/p>\n<p>The general rule that I\u2019ve always heard is that to avoid individual bright spots your LEDs should be farther away from the diffuser than they are from each other, and most LED strips come in 3 different densities: 30 LEDs per meter,<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3LxR1CH\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> 60 LEDs<\/a> per meter and 144 LEDs per meter so right away it seems like it might be close to impossible to get a completely diffused look from the 30 LEDs per meter density since using that general rule our diffuser would need to be over 32.5mm tall, but there\u2019s only one way to find out, so lets get testing.<\/p>\n<p>First, let\u2019s look at deep vs shallow channels.<\/p>\n<p>Starting out with 30 LEDs per meter you can see the shallow channel on the left and the deep channel on the right and as we would expect, the deep channel does a significantly better job diffusing light at each brightness level, but the dots are still visible. At <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3LxR1CH\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">60LEDs<\/a> per meter the deep channel is really close to achieving the perfectly diffuse look, and at 144 LEDs per meter all the hotspots are gone. So for the most diffuse look there\u2019s no question that deep channels are significantly better than shallow channels but there is a drawback. I also measured the drop in brightness compared to no diffuser at all, and on average the deep channel led to a 36% drop in brightness vs only 22% for the shallow channel, so if you\u2019re just looking for a channel to conceal or mount your LEDs and they won\u2019t be directly visible than shallow channels are the way to go.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/d6.png\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/d6-300x205.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"205\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Next, lets look at channel color.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve got two identical channels, one black and one bare aluminum and for control I\u2019ll use the flat diffuser on both. On the left is the black channel, and on the right is the bare aluminum channel and you can see at 30 LEDs per meter neither of them can completely diffuse the LED strips, but the black channel is significantly dimmer than the bare aluminum. At <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3LxR1CH\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">60 LEDs<\/a> per meter the unfinished aluminum does a slightly better job at diffusing while maintaining better brightness and the same is true with 144 LEDs per meter. According to my measurements the average brightness reduction for the black deep channel with a flat diffuser was 58% vs just 36% brightness reduction for the bare aluminum channel with flat diffuser. Moral of the story, unless you really need it for your aesthetic, avoid the black channels in favor of bare aluminum.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/d11.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/d11-300x210.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"210\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Next let\u2019s look at diffuser shapes.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve got 3 different shapes to test: a flat diffuser that sits flush with the top of the channel, a curved diffuser that the manufacturer calls their spotless diffuser which sits above the channel and also has a thicker area near the middle of the curve, and then what I call a tented diffuser that stands up above the channel to give additional height and some side profile light as well. Unfortunately the tented diffuser only fits on the shallow channel that it came with, so I can\u2019t test the deep channel with the tented diffuser.<\/p>\n<p>Starting out with 30 LEDs per meter, we\u2019ve got the bare aluminum deep channel with flat diffuser on the left and the same bare aluminum deep channel with the spotless diffuser on the right. At 50% and 100% brightness the spotless diffuser doesn\u2019t disappoint and gives as close to a spotless look as you can get with a 30 LED per meter strip. Switching it out for <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3LxR1CH\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">60LEDs<\/a> per meter the spotless diffuser lives up to its name again giving us the first time we\u2019ve seen a completely spotless look through all the colors and brightness levels. Unfortunately, the spotless diffuser isn\u2019t available to purchase with a shallow aluminum channel, but for comparison\u2019s sake here\u2019s what that combination looks like at 30 and 60 LEDs per meter, which although not perfect is a huge improvement over the flat diffuser.<\/p>\n<p>Next, lets see how the deep channel with the spotless diffuser compares to the tented diffuser. At 30 LEDs per meter the advantage definitely goes to the spotless diffuser, but at <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3LxR1CH\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">60 LEDs<\/a> per meter it\u2019s a bit of a toss up, because even though the spotless diffuser on the right does a slightly better job giving that completely spotless look it does cause a brightness reduction of 56% vs just 35% brightness reduction with the tented diffuser, plus the tented diffuser also gives some side profile light which I think looks pretty neat. At 144 LEDs per meter they are both completely spotless but as expected the tented diffuser is significantly brighter.<\/p>\n<p>Last for completeness, let\u2019s quickly look at diffuser colors.<\/p>\n<p>On some listings you may see the option of milky white or smoky grey diffusers, but in my testing I wouldn\u2019t even call the smoky grey version a diffuser. It does hide the LED strip when the power isn\u2019t on, but you can see that once they do turn on the entire strip and every LED is visible. On left is <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3LxR1CH\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">60 LEDs<\/a> per meter with deep black channel and a smoky gray diffuser, and on the right is deep black channel with a milky white diffuser. The craziest part about this is that they both result in about the same amount of&nbsp;brightness reduction which is around 58%.<\/p>\n<p>So conclusion and recommendation time.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/d12.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/d12-300x64.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"64\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The sweet spot for LED density in terms of price, power consumption and aesthetic is definitely <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3LxR1CH\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">60 LEDs<\/a> per meter and my two favorite diffusers to use with those strips are the <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3C7p2VP\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">shallow aluminum channel with the tented diffuser<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3hhhJRB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the deep aluminum channel with the spotless diffuser<\/a>. Between the two the spotless diffuser is slightly more spotless, but the tented diffuser looks better when it\u2019s off, has a better mounting system, less brightness reduction and also gives that side profile light that I think looks pretty cool.<\/p>\n<p>30 led per meter strips on the other hand are really hard to completely diffuse. If you\u2019re using them as indirect light then no diffuser is best since that will give you the most brightness, but if you want to conceal them then a<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Iqg9Jc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> shallow channel<\/a> and flat diffuser results in the smallest amount of brightness reduction. If you absolutely need to use the 30 LEDs per meter density in a visible location then the bare aluminum deep channel with the curved spotless diffuser did the best job reducing hotspots, but still with less than perfect results and a 56% decrease in brightness.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps unsurprisingly black channels lower brightness and lower diffusion due to their lower overall reflectivity and should be avoided unless you absolutely need them.<\/p>\n<p>All these same principles apply to the 45 degree channels, except the curved diffuser version doesn\u2019t have the thicker part near the center like the spotless diffuser does and as a result doesn\u2019t work quite as well. Still the curved diffuser does a significantly better job than the flat diffuser, but neither of them are able to achieve a completely spotless look with 30 or <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3LxR1CH\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">60 LEDs<\/a> per meter and the flat diffuser can\u2019t even do it at 144 LEDs per meter.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re wondering I did pay full price for all these diffusers and as always there are no sponsored reviews on my channel. However, the links in the description are affiliate links so if you appreciate the time and effort that it takes me to make these videos and you want to show some thanks, then go ahead and use those links because I do get a small portion of the sale at no cost to you.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve also reached out to Muzata, the company that sells most of these diffusers and asked them to produce a spotless version of the 45 degree channel, as well see if they would sell the spotless diffusers on their own for those of us who already have aluminum channels and want to upgrade our diffusers. If that ends up happening I\u2019ll update the links in the description and pin a comment with the updated info.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you so much to all of my patrons over at patreon for your continued support of my channel, and if you\u2019re interested in supporting my channel please check out the links in the description. If you enjoyed<br \/>\nthis video please hit that thumbs up button and consider subscribing, and as always, thanks for watching <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the hookup.<\/a><\/p>\n<h6>Best LED Density (60 LEDs\/m): <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3hpPKz3\">https:\/\/amzn.to\/3hpPKz3<\/a><br \/>\nBest Overall Diffuser (Shallow Aluminum + Tented Diffuser): <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3C7p2VP\">https:\/\/amzn.to\/3C7p2VP<\/a><br \/>\nMost &#8220;Spotless&#8221; Diffuser (Deep Aluminum + Spotless Cover): <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3hhhJRB\">https:\/\/amzn.to\/3hhhJRB<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6>Other LED Diffuser Channels Tested:<br \/>\nDeep Black\/Gray:<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3tdHSGD\"> https:\/\/amzn.to\/3tdHSGD<\/a><br \/>\nDeep Black\/Spotless: <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3vjoQkJ\">https:\/\/amzn.to\/3vjoQkJ<\/a><br \/>\nDeep Black\/Flat:<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3siRoZM\"> https:\/\/amzn.to\/3siRoZM<\/a><br \/>\nShallow Aluminum\/Flat: <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Iqg9Jc\">https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Iqg9Jc<\/a><br \/>\nDeep Aluminum\/Flat: <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ioxu5f\">https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ioxu5f<\/a><br \/>\n45 Degree Aluminum\/Curved: <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3M0TKV1\">https:\/\/amzn.to\/3M0TKV1<\/a><br \/>\n45 Degree Aluminum\/Flat: <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3sn1aKp\">https:\/\/amzn.to\/3sn1aKp<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6>*As an Amazon Affiliate I earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you*<\/h6>\n<h6>Visit my website: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\">http:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install<\/a><br \/>\nFollow me on Twitter: @TheHookUp1<br \/>\nJoin me on Facebook: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/47381...\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/47381&#8230;<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6>Support my channel:<br \/>\nPatreon:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/thehookup\"> https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/thehookup<\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to LED strip lighting there are two very different styles. On TikTok you\u2019ve got highly exposed, bare, flashing, um\u2026 LED strips, and pretty much everyone else wants soft diffuse light with no hot spots and no visible individual LED dots. The best way to get that second look is with LED diffuser [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2471,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1655"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2203,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655\/revisions\/2203"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}