Hiding in the Cupboard

We’ve all experienced a mysterious “disappearance” of a needed item in a storage cabinet or pantry. You know it’s there, but the lack of light makes it difficult to find — especially if you pack these areas with too many foodstuffs. Fumbling through dark shelves usually results in a few choice words before reaching for a flashlight. Well, tamp down the expletives: The motion-activated Vyanlight LED Closet/Under Cabinet Light (https://amzn.to/3E443mm) makes a cool addition to any cabinet/pantry interior. While the name suggests that it’s primarily designed for mounting under a cabinet to illuminate a countertop, it’s equally at home inside any storage cabinet, inside or outside.

The key is the motion activation, eliminating the need for a switch — and it’s USB-rechargeable, so replacing batteries is not necessary. The mostly metal body is a svelt 1 ¼ by 7 inches and it’s mounted via an adhesive magnetic strip that is attracted to the metal in the light housing. While the mounting system makes it very convenient to install, we found that hanging the light from a top shelf or under a cabinet presents a little too much weight for the magnetic strip. Instead, we elected to use a couple of small, round neodymium magnets (purchased at a local hardware store) in lieu of the strip to hold the fixture in place more securely. (We also found the magnetic strip worked better when the light was mounted on a sidewall that is less susceptible to movement.)

Attaching the light using magnets allows the housing to be pulled off the wall or shelf and plugged into a nearby USB cable for charging. It takes an hour or so to complete the charging — and because the light is used intermittently, the charge lasts for a very long time.

The 30 LEDs are dimmable and there are four modes for adjusting the amount of light projected inside a cabinet or on a countertop. These modes can be switched to provide light from 10, 20 or 30 LEDs, or be set to stay on for any desired length of time. Once motion is sensed, the light automatically turns on and stays on for 20 seconds after motion ceases; sensitivity reaches out to 10 feet.

These lights, mounted in a fifth wheel, have been in full-time RV service for three years with no hiccups — which is pretty amazing for something that can be purchased for only $23.99 (two units).