Best LED Lights for Garage Workshop – Ideas, Reviews & Buying Guide by Professional Installers

Whenever you are working on a project in your garage, doing some kind of maintenance, or simply need to find something stuffed in there months ago, it always helps to have a lot of illumination (be sure to check our outdoor motion sensor lights review). This is especially important in a space like a garage where traditionally few windows can make it difficult to illuminate it with natural light.

This is a situation when you would be well served with the best LED garage lighting ideas keeping in mind that while incandescent lighting may work, it is ultimately an inferior choice. Still, LED garage lights are seemingly fairly similar to outward appearances with a few important qualities and a dozen or so additional features to separate one from another.

Best Garage Workshop LED Lighting on the Market

As such, figuring out which LED garage light is the best one for you can be a difficult and confusing task. That is why we have put together a list of the 5 best LED garage lights, highlighting what each one does best. Then we provide a helpful buyer’s guide, so you can find the best LED garage light to suit your needs.

Model	Product
Editor’s Choice Read Our Review	Hykolity Vapor Energy Saving Saving 75% electric bill instantly. Waterproof tight light fixture was designed for both wet and damp locations IP66 High Quality Vapor proof led was DLC Complied and thus eligible for state and nationwide rebate programs. IK08 impact rating. Check on Amazon	Check PriceRead Our Review
The Hottest One Read Our Review	Barrina Very Bright More than 2200 lumens output, 20w low power consumption to save up to 65% on electricity bill Linkable. Extendable design that could connect up to 8 tube lights together with seamless connectors. Temp 6500 K Check on Amazon	Check Price Read Our Review
For a Large Garage Read Our Review	Sunco Lighting Certifications: ETL, Energy Star. Specifications: Length 4 FT / 48 IN, Frosted Cover, Kelvin 5000, Wattage 40, CRI 80+, Lumens 4100, Voltage 120, Linkable 4. 7-Year Warranty Check on Amazon	Check PriceRead Our Review
Well Priced Read Our Review	Leonlite Design. The PVC backing plate and PC lampshade is durable and the pull chain selectivity switch makes it considerably easy to operate. This ENERGY STAR qualified light gives you the save performance as a traditional fluorescent light, but with 60% less power used. The 4000lm ultra-bright light instantly turns on without it annoyingly flickering or buzzing and it has an amazingly long service life of 50,000hrs. Check on Amazon	Check PriceRead Our Review
All-Around Value Read Our Review	Hykolity Utility Shop Super Bright 3700 Lumens at 5000K Daylight White, LED Efficiency of 88 lm/w. Durable Made up of composite aluminum for a long lasting LED Light fixture. 5 Year Warranty Check on Amazon	Check Price Read Our Review

NAVIGATE OUR LIST

• Brightest LED Garage Light
• Best All-Around Value
• Best Lights for Large Garage
• Best LED Garage Lights – Buyer’s Guide

1. Hykolity 4FT Vapor and Water Tight Proof – Brightest LED Garage Workshop Light

As a brand, Hykolity is definitely a bit unusual in that it is not actually a company at all but is instead a smaller subsidiary of a larger company. That said, Hykolity is at least owned by a company that specializes in electronics with a particular focus on LED light fixtures as well as cordless power tools and other battery pack operated products.

For Hykolity itself, this means that they can put aside any other distractions to produce the best LED garage lights that they can even if the company has only been around for a couple of years. That is why we are a bit surprised to report that the Hykolity Vapor/Water Tight LED garage light is the brightest LED garage light that we reviewed.

Exceptional Light Power

One thing to keep in mind when judging the quality of an LED garage light’s illumination is that there are a couple of different qualities which will ultimately determine how well a given LED garage light will be at illuminating your space. Thankfully, the Hykolity Vapor/Water Tight LED garage light comes in at the top of the list for all of the most relevant categories.

More Versatile Settings

Beyond the fact that the Hykolity Vapor/Water Tight LED garage light produces a brighter light with equivalent volume than any other LED garage light that we reviewed, this is also by far one of the most durable and resistant LED garage lights that we saw. In fact, the Hykolity Vapor/Water Tight LED garage light is the only vapor and waterproof LED garage light on our list.

This is perfect if you have an open-air garage or some other setting where the elements are liable to be a bigger concern. On top of that, this also means that if you are using chemicals that could otherwise impact the bulb or the connectors even modestly over a long period of time the Hykolity Vapor/Water Tight LED garage light’s body makes that a problem of the past.

2. Barrina LED T5 – Hottest LED Garage Light

Barrina is a bit similar to some of the companies that we reviewed in that it relies primarily on an only online business model which allows them to cut overhead costs and potentially pass those savings on to their customers.

Another notable quality about Barrina is that despite only having been founded a couple years ago, the brand is its own company and it specializes in manufacturing a wide variety of different types of LED lights not just those for the garage.

When we discuss the temperature of a light, we are not actually speaking about the thermal temperature. Instead, the temperature of a light, regardless of the kind, refers to the color of light that the bulb produces.

Some Concerning Issues

It is worth noting that this is the only LED garage light that made it onto our list with a couple of glaring flaws. Specifically, the circuitry of the Barrina LED T5 LED garage light is not the best and this will have certain effects on the illumination and the experience of using the Barrina LED T5 LED garage lights.

For one, the Barrina LED T5 LED garage light does not process the powering electricity cleanly and leaves radio frequency feedback running throughout the lines. This will cause some of the electronics in the area to not work properly or could affect how they work to the point that they get damaged. On a lesser note, the Barrina LED T5 LED garage light also produces the classic hum that fluorescent lights are known for.

3. Sunco Lighting 16 PACK – Best LED Garage Lights for Large Garage

Out of all the different companies on our list, Sunco Lighting is by far the oldest though that should be taken with a bit of a grain of salt considering the company was founded a little over 20 years ago. That said, Sunco Lighting does at least specialize in lighting products though they do not necessarily specialize in LED lights or lights intended to be used for a garage though they do make them.

Regardless, with the amount of time that Sunco Lighting has been manufacturing high-end LED garage lights allows them to branch out into other markets, like making the best LED garage light for a large garage.

A Solid Volume

Easily one of the most important qualities of the Sunco Lighting 16 PACK LED garage light is the fact that you are not simply purchasing a single LED garage light. Instead, you are purchasing 16 different LED garage lights which, unless you have a fairly large space to light, will likely go to waste. It is the sheer volume of LED garage lights that actually drives up the cost of the Sunco Lighting 16 PACK LED garage light as well. In fact, when you consider the number of lights that you are purchasing, this is actually the least expensive LED garage light set on our list though that does not hold true if you purchase a smaller set of the Sunco Lighting LED garage lights.

Great Energy Efficiency

One of the best reasons to opt for an LED garage light as opposed to a different type of illumination is that LED lights are inherently fairly energy efficient when compared to other types of illuminating bulbs. That said, even within the LED light market, there are still a number of ways that you can further increase the LED bulb’s efficiency further. Considering that the Sunco Lighting 16 PACK LED garage light is the best value per light, it only makes sense that Sunco Lighting would also make a concerted effort to make their LED garage lights more efficient too, and they accomplish this with the inclusion of an LED Chip that controls the power usage more strictly.

4. LeonLite 40W 4ft – Best Price Budget LED Garage Light

Sometimes, you do not need anything special or even noteworthy in too terribly many ways and instead require only the least expensive LED garage light that you can find. Perhaps you have a project and a small space but are unlikely to really put the LED garage light to test any further.

In this instance, the least expensive LED garage light that can still produce a solid amount of illumination is likely the best option. Considering LeonLite is an upstart with little more than a year of experience, it makes sense they would try to enter the LED garage light market with the best price budget LED garage light.

The Best Linking

A Great Value

On top of the fact that the LeonLite LED garage light is the least expensive that we reviewed and has an unusual linking feature that allows it to grow as desired, this LED garage light is also noted for providing an all-around good light power.

For instance, it uses a 40 W bulb which is tied for the best on our list and means there will be no shortage of light volume. On top of that, the 4000 lumens may not be anywhere near the top of our list, but it is still more than bright enough for most purposes.

5. Hykolity 4FT Linkable LED – Best All-Around Value LED Garage Light

While it is ideal to always use the best of anything whenever you can, sometimes you simply do not have either the means of the need for the very best. For instance, if you are simply looking for an LED garage light to provide general illumination without the consideration that that space will also eventually be used for working on personal projects, then chances are that spending significantly more money for the very best LED garage light will simply leave you with far more illumination than your situation demands.

As such, it is nice that not only does Hykolity produce the brightest LED garage light that we saw, but it also manufactures the best all-around value LED garage light that we reviewed too.

Second-Best Light Power

While its bulb is tied for first producing 40 W of light, its brightness is also the second best on our list with 4800 lumens which is 20 percent brighter than the remaining LED garage lights on our list.

All-Around Value

Of course, the “all-around value” aspect of our designation is not simply determined by price and light power alone. Instead, we consider that a garage is liable to need more than one of two LED garage lights to properly illuminate it. In fact, there are plenty of garages that could require a dozen LED garage lights of more something that can get tricky from more than a financial perspective.

That is why it is so nice that the Hykolity Utility Shop LED garage light can link up to 20 Hykolity Utility Shop LED garage light units together which is actually the most on our list.

Best LED Garage Lights and Garage Lighting Ideas – Buyer’s Guide

While there is no officially defined rating to judge the power of an LED garage light, there are a number of different qualities that, when considered in conjunction with one another, can give a reasonably good estimate of how powerful an LED garage light will be.

Light Power

Some of the qualities are a bit more relevant to determining how well the LED garage light illuminates your space, but it is best to remember that none of the qualities are ultimately more important than the others. Regardless, it is worth noting that watts and lumens will generally determine how well the LED garage light illuminates the space more generally whereas the LED garage light’s temperature will be more or less relevant depending on the objects being illuminated.

Watts

While this is not inherently a gauge for how well an LED garage light will illuminate your space, it does still provide some valuable information. For instance, light bulbs that require a higher wattage have a tendency to produce more light.

Keep in mind, this is a very different quality than how bright the light is, which is determined by the lumens. Instead, the wattage of the bulb provides you a rough idea of how much volume of light is being put out. Remember that very little bright light will be far less effective than a great deal of dimmer light, though as stressed earlier, the two are inextricable when judging how well an LED garage light will illuminate your space.

Lumens

This is the quality that will often catch everyone’s eye as being the most indicative of how well an LED garage light will illuminate your space, but it truly is not the best indicator. As just expressed, the wattage is a better gauge of how much volume of light the bulb will put out, and that will be more important for general seeing purposes than the lumens. That said, if you need an LED garage light for anything other than general illumination especially if you use that space for any kind of projects then the brightness of the light in lumens is incredibly important.

Essentially, the brighter the light the better it will illuminate individual given details which is incredibly important if you have to take readings, make measurements, or keep track of lines, guides, and cuts. In this instance, you will definitely want to make it a point to get an LED garage light that not only produces a high volume of light but does so at a bright intensity.

Temperature

In truth, the color temperature of the light is not truly a great gauge of how well an LED garage light will illuminate your space, but it will subtly influence how easily you can see different objects. Specifically, the color temperature of the LED garage light will affect how well certain colors stand out against the light.

For instance, the color temperature for neutral, white daylight is about 5000 degrees Kelvin whereas increasing the temperature makes it bluer and decreasing the temperature makes it redder. It is important to remember that if you get an LED garage light whose color temperature is too far from neutral, your space will be illuminated in that color which will wash that color out of the setting. This means a bluer light will make it more difficult to see blue things like pens marks or blueprints for projects. That said, a slightly warmer color temperature, meaning closer to blue than red, has been shown to promote alertness and focused energy.

Materials

The materials that an LED garage light is made out of refer more to the body and the frame of the LED garage light as opposed to the actual bulb. That said, there are a couple different materials used, each with their own benefits and disadvantages. Still, there are a number of different qualities that all of the materials share which should give you some idea of how manufacturers expect their LED garage lights to be used. For instance, all of the materials used in the manufacturing of LED garage light housings are waterproof which suggests that manufacturers expect LED garage lights to regularly come into contact with water or be installed in damp, humid areas.

Polyvinyl Chloride

Polyvinyl Chloride, or PVC, is a plastic that is used for a wide variety of applications that put it in contact with environmental stresses. This is because not only does PVC not interact with water, it does not interact with too terribly many other chemicals that are commonly used for projects in garages. That said, you should always make sure that PVC never comes into contact with solvents, like paint thinner or acetone, as this can cause the PVC to swell or even dissolve. Regardless, PVC is also by far the least expensive material on our list though polycarbonate is not too terribly more expensive. On top of that, PVC is incredibly lightweight, though it does happen to be the least durable material commonly used in the manufacture of LED garage lights.

Polycarbonate

Polycarbonate, or PC, is another plastic like PVC, but it is a far different type of plastic with different properties many of which are superior to PVC. In fact, if you have the option to choose between an LED garage light housing made of PVC and one made of polycarbonate, you should almost without question always select the polycarbonate one. This is because polycarbonate is far more durable than PVC, at least in regards to impact resistance and it is fairly unlikely that you would be unduly concerned with minor scratches on the exterior of your LED garage light housing.

On top of that, polycarbonate is every bit as light as PVC and, due to some unusual thermoplastic properties, it is actually much easier to simply mold or shape the LED garage light’s body, providing further structural integrity. That said, one of the unfortunate things that polycarbonate has in common with PVC is that both of them are fairly susceptible to strong solvents the likes of which are liable to be found in a garage.

Aluminum

Out of all the materials used for the housing of an LED garage light, aluminum is likely the all-around best though it should also be noted that aluminum is generally a bit more expensive than plastics as well. However, if you are willing to pay a little bit more up front, an aluminum body for your LED garage light is a far superior option than any type of plastic. For one, aluminum may be a bit heavier than the commonly used plastics, but it is still actually an incredibly lightweight material. On top of that, aluminum does not suffer from the same susceptibility to strong solvents that the plastic materials do.

Finally, aluminum is a waterproof material, despite being a metal, so you do not have to worry about rust or corrosion. The only potential issue with aluminum as a material for an LED garage light’s housing is that it could potentially conduct electricity should the LED garage light’s connections improperly ground.

Conclusion

As we can see, there is not a single LED garage light that is going to be the best product for every person due to a wide variety of needs and circumstances. That said, there are still a number of ways that we can differentiate these LED garage lights from one another to find the one that best suits your needs. Whether you simply need the brightest bulb available or just something that can get you through, there is an LED light out there right for you.

If you are looking for the brightest LED garage light we reviewed, then we recommend the Hykolity 4FT Vapor and Water Tight Proof LED garage light. Aside from the fact that it puts out a list best 5200 lumens, it also provides a solid IP66 waterproof rating. Though it is a bit more expensive, it puts out a great deal of neutral light and can be linked together.

Of course, not everyone requires the absolute brightest or one of the more expensive LED garage lights that we reviewed. If this describes you, then we would like to recommend the LeonLite. Though it may not put out the most or brightest light, the LeonLite is still able to produce more than enough illumination for most needs. On top of that, this is the only LED garage light that we reviewed which can also be linked together flush. Give it a try in your garage.