Best LED Garage Lights: Best Picks for Better Illumination

I guess you could say this guide started several years ago with the initial purchase of one of the products. I have been wanting to upgrade from that for quite some time, and knowing that this guide was on my schedule, I did. Having worked in both machine shops and factories in the automotive world, as well as working in dead tree media, a well-lit workspace is something I've always valued. I know what I'm looking for in lights. Besides personal experience, I also researched online to see what actual customers and users are saying about individual products. They want ease of installation, the ability to remove or relocate lighting, and they don't want to spend a ton of money. With that in mind, these products for lighting your garage all hit those marks, all of them leaning harder into some areas more than others.

I've wanted to add real lighting to my garage since we moved into this house four years ago. We don't own the house, so we couldn't add permanent lighting. After hours of research, I decided on this kit, which was far less expensive than I thought. The kit includes 4 twin tube LED lights, drywall anchors, screws, screw-in hooks, and chains.

The installation process was easy, I mounted two lights on chains so they would hang below the tracks for the garage door, and the other two are mounted directly to the ceiling. The most time consuming thing is tacking the cords to the ceiling. Pro tip: don't assume your local hardware store will have whatever length and color of extension cord you could want; because they don't. I ran the power cords to a light socket plug adapter that was already installed and run to a light switch by the door into the house. All in, it took a little over an hour, but that included moving things around for access.

Switching them on the first time, even with the roll-up door open in daylight, it was amazing how much more light was in the garage. The second thing you will definitely notice is how dirty your garage walls are. The kit is easy to install, the tubes feel a bit cheap, but if they were made with thicker plastic or even metal, they'd be heavier and would require more than drywall anchors to hang. The color is very white and clean, without looking fake, some daylight colors come off too cool/blue in my opinion. The power cords are 59 inches, which isn't as long as you think and wasn't enough for the spans I wanted to cover in my two car garage. Overall, I don't think I could be happier for the money and time I committed to this.

I've had this light in my garage for several years, so I am confident in not only talking about how well it works, but also its longevity. This and lights of this type, are certainly the easiest and quickest upgrade you can make to your garage lighting. The ANYPOWK LED Light simply screws into an existing lightbulb socket and you flip the switch. The unit has three separate LED panels the pivot up and down allowing them to be aimed straight at an area, or tilt them up to get indirect light reflected off the walls. The only downside to this light is that it would work better in garages with more than one socket and you could have several of them. If the garage is empty, it fills the area with light very well, but once you get a car or two in the garage, it really only shines on the horizontal surfaces.

I am currently using this in conjunction with tube lights, with this mounted towards the front of the garage and shining down from above the engine bay. There are several lights like this one offered with twice or even three times as many light panels. They cost considerably more and don't provide much more utility since the light is still from the same place. This seems to be the value sweet spot in terms price and utility.

If you walk into a shop that does ceramic paint coatings, there's a 7 in ten chance it has lights just like this over the work bays. This particular kit puts out 60,720 lumens, that's bright. The kit includes sixty, 17-inch light tubes for the hexagonal grid and another twelve, 47-inch light tubes to build the frame. The whole unit can be mounted directly to the ceiling or suspended using wire or chains. A kit like this will look good in your garage or inside your house. It isn't cheap, compared to tube lights, but the price doesn't seem that bad for the results.

The Lightdot 2 Pack LED Garage Lights are 60 watts, have three adjustable LED panels, and are designed to give fluorescent fixture levels of light while using a standard light socket. They can be folded up to 90 degrees with a maximum coverage of 360 degrees. These lights are rated an output of 6000 lumens, might be generous.

The lights are easy to install and don't require special tools or wiring. All you have to do is screw them into a standard lamp receptacle. They have a 50,000-hour lifespan with a 3 year warranty, which several users have reported needing to use, some well before that time. Users do like the plug-and-play installation as well as the ability to adjust them to focus the light where you need it most. These lights aren't going to be a long lasting product, but at the price, you can afford to replace them. Maybe not ideal for a supposedly environmentally friendly product, but that's up to you. 

The GHUSTAR 2-Pack Garage Lights are 60 watts with three adjustable LED panels. They are 6000 lumens with a color temperature of 6500K, and the wide-angle design and 90-degree adjustable panels easily provide enough light for large areas. They do not consume a lot of power and reduce your electricity bill if you put them in place of traditional light bulbs. 

Yes, they look just like our best value pick as do two dozen other lights available online. The ANYPOWK lights use an aluminum body for the light panels, while these are plastic. Users also complain of short lifespan and dimming with age. These types of lights are commodity products that are mass produced, many of them coming out of the same factories, just slapped into different boxes. It can be hard to recommend one more than another because quality may swing wildly between production runs.

The choice for best overall was pretty easy on this one. The Hykolity Linkable Shop Lights are the best compromise between tube lights which require wiring and something that screws into an existing socket. You get all the performance, with a little extra visual clutter, but at a good price. If you want the ultimate quick and easy solution then the ANYPOWK LED Garage Light is so simple, it could almost be called a hack.

You've got questions, The Drive has answers.

This depends on the size of the space. We recommend around 140 lumens per square foot.

These lights are more energy efficient and don't run as hot as typical fluorescent lights. 

These tend to be underpowered for the light you need while working on projects inside of a garage.