Our Favorite Professional Landscape Lighting Fixtures and Why

Some quality professional grade landscape lighting fixtures

Unlike many outdoor lighting companies, we actually use several different professional landscape lighting fixtures manufacturers in our designs. The primary reason is that there is not one lighting manufacturer that makes everything that I need in most of our projects. One manufacturer may have a huge selection of fixtures, but doesn’t make a pathway fixture that I feel good about when used in turf areas. Another may not produce a small enough wash fixture to tuck into a niche area, and yet another manufacturer may just be too expensive for most residential budgets, but is great for commercial use. There are also plenty of great fixtures designed to accommodate a particular climate, or whose style might not be a good fit with the design.

For the 12 years we have been in business, I have used plenty of different products and established positive relationships with many manufacturing companies. All of that said, these are my favorite outdoor lighting manufacturers and the reasons why I use them.

• My go-to fixture line when it comes to pathway lighting in turf areas is Attraction Lights. These fixtures are

  

  made out of solid steel and are as tough as a tank! The greatest enemy of almost any single stem path light in a grass or turf area is lawn maintenance equipment. It doesn’t take long to inflict damage and we’ve all seen the casualties: fixtures leaning in all directions, broken or tilted caps, some even laying on the ground snapped at the stake. Since the Attraction Lights are made from 4X4 or even 6X6 square steel tubing, they are virtually indestructible. I’ve seen lawn tractors get bent hitting these warriors! They also produce some super tall bollard fixtures that look fantastic in sub divisions and commercial properties. These fixtures come in a variety of interesting designs, and could actually become works of art in the landscape of any property.

• For a commercial project, I like to use Auroralight or CAST. Both of these fine manufacturers produce fixtures that are very sturdy and can handle the punishment of landscape personnel, as well as public traffic. CAST has a small selection of fixtures, so I sometimes need to add some Auroralight products to round out a design. I tend to use fewer Auroralight products, however, because the price of these excellent fixtures tends to be cost prohibitive. Either of these products will last a lifetime, and I feel very comfortable installing them just about anywhere.
• My primary manufacturer is Kichler. There are many reasons I prefer them for most of my projects, but let

  

  me start out with a little story. When I decided back in 2004 to make the career jump from electrical contractor to outdoor lighting designer, I contacted several lighting manufacturers to see about getting some help. Kichler was the ONLY ONE who even bothered to respond to my inquiries. The friendly and professional lady from Kichler sent a response email within a few hours asking how they could be of help to me. I explained what I wanted, and that I was building a website needing some photos, product pictures and such. New to the industry, I also needed some help with best practices. The Kichler folks were incredibly helpful, and got me up and going. I have been using their outstanding products ever since.

Kichler has a very wide selection of outdoor lighting products from path lights to flood lights. They set the standard for LED landscape lighting about 8 years ago when they introduced the integrated LED fixture, which is still being copied by several other manufacturers today. Their warranty is one of the best in the industry with what we call a “bench warranty” meaning I can return a defective fixture, and get a brand new replacement right away. On the few occasions there have been bumps with some of their products (I’ve never seen a perfect product line!), they have always stood behind their products and made everything right. They have never once turned me down on a warranty item, and I’ve never tried to take advantage of them either.  Kichler’s price is also very competitive with other professional grade outdoor lighting products which allows us to install the product with confidence without pricing ourselves out of the market.

I’m also using more products from SPJ Lighting. This is the company that created and builds the fixtures for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios in Orlando. They make a very good product, and are willing to modify existing fixtures for me when I need something “special” or unusual.

B-K Lighting is another company I’m starting to look to more often as well. They are a high end spec grade company, usually specified by landscape architects. They’ve been around a long time and make a quality product.

I would not feel comfortable about this blog unless I mentioned HK Lighting Group. These are also spec grade

products, but more budget friendly. These fixtures also are available with their “Thermo Buster” heat-sink technology that allows us to use the higher wattage Soraa LED lamps in them. We actually used this product combination recently for church altar lighting in our area and the results were beautiful!

As you can see here, we are open to using many different product lines in our designs, and we lean on some more than others. We are also constantly evaluating different products from companies who send us samples for our review. Those sample products are put to work at our test facility (my yard) to see how they perform in our central Texas climate before we consider installing them in our projects. Our goal is always to be able to design and install the best possible lighting system for the client’s budget, using products that we know we can count on for superior performance. Please contact us here if you would like more information or would like us to begin an outdoor lighting design for your home.