Black & Decker 3-Bar LED Under-Cabinet Lighting Kit, Cool White, 9"

I didn’t expect three slim bars and a motion puck to change my evening routine, but this Black & Decker under-cabinet kit has quietly become the lighting I reach for most. It doesn’t try to be architectural or flashy; it just delivers clean, bright task light with the kind of controls that make sense in a kitchen.

Setup and installation

Out of the box, you get three 9-inch light bars, a control box, a motion sensor module, an AC adapter, and a generous assortment of jumpers and clips. The bars are remarkably slim—about 3/8-inch thick and 3/4-inch wide—so they disappear under most cabinet lips once mounted. The system is low-voltage (24 V), so you’re routing small, safe cables rather than hardwiring anything.

The “tool-free” promise is realistic if you’re willing to mount with adhesive. I mapped my runs, cleaned the cabinet undersides, used the snap-in bar clips with double-sided tape, and then tucked wires into the included cable clips. For a more permanent install, the kit includes screws; I added a few to key points after a week of use. The assortment of jumper lengths—short 4-inch connectors to bridge gaps between adjacent bars, and longer 12- and 30-inch cables to hop over sinks or appliances—made routing straightforward without creating cable spaghetti.

A few practical tips from my install:
- Dry-fit everything and power it up before committing to clip placement.
- Keep the motion sensor out from under deep cabinet lips; it needs a clear line of sight to your hand.
- Plan where the control box lands; it’s the brain for brightness and timer functions, and you’ll want it reachable.

The only caveat is cable management. Because the kit is modular and linkable, you will have wires to corral. If your cabinet undersides are textured or dusty, clean thoroughly, and consider supplemental cable tape if you want a completely invisible look.

Light quality and output

On full blast, the three-bar set is rated around 1800 lumens, which reads as “bright enough to cook by” rather than “accent only.” The 4000 K color temperature hits a neutral-cool tone: crisper than warm white, but not the bluish cast of daylight lamps. It’s a solid middle ground that keeps countertops and cutting boards looking clean without making the room feel clinical.

Color rendition is fine for everyday tasks. With a CRI of 81, produce and wood tones look natural enough, though you don’t get the saturated pop you’d see from 90+ CRI strips. If you’re sensitive about color accuracy for food styling or you have premium stone you want to showcase, you might wish for a higher-CRI option. For normal kitchen prep and cleanup, the balance of output and efficiency is excellent.

Beam quality surprised me in a good way. The bars cast smooth, even light with minimal scalloping, and I didn’t notice hot spots unless I placed a bar far forward on a shallow cabinet. Moving the bars 1–2 inches back from the front edge yielded uniform splash across the counter. There’s no visible flicker to the eye, even at lower brightness settings.

Controls and everyday use

Control is split among a physical button on one bar, the motion sensor, and the control box. In practice:
- The motion module is the star. A wave under the sensor reliably toggles power without hunting for a switch with wet or sticky hands. It’s sensitive enough to trigger on a deliberate pass but not so twitchy that it goes off every time you reach for a mug.
- The system gives you ten brightness levels. The steps are well spaced, with a meaningful difference between each click. The lowest setting is a little brighter than a “nightlight,” which I like for evening ambient light, but those seeking a barely-there glow might want one notch dimmer than the minimum.
- There’s an optional three-hour auto-off timer. I’ve come to rely on it during late-night cleanups; if I forget to turn the lights off, they take care of themselves. It’s unobtrusive and easy to enable on the control box.

The kit powers up to the last-used state, so you can dial in your preferred brightness once and then ignore the controls. After a few days, the system became muscle memory: wave to turn on, cook, wave to turn off.

Build, power, and efficiency

Each bar feels lightweight and rigid, without the creakiness you sometimes find in budget strips. The low profile helps them disappear visually; even at seated height across the room, they don’t call attention to themselves. Heat is a non-issue—after an hour on high, the housings are only mildly warm to the touch.

Power-wise, the kit draws up to about 15 W for all three bars. That’s a fraction of the power my ceiling cans use for similar perceived brightness on the work surface. Black & Decker claims roughly 85% lower energy use versus incandescent, which lines up with the output and wattage. With LEDs rated up to 50,000 hours and a 24 V system that’s easy on components, this feels like a set-and-forget upgrade.

One practical note: the AC adapter is a typical small brick. It’s not oversized, but think ahead about outlet placement so it doesn’t block a neighboring plug.

Modularity and expandability

The bars are linkable, and the kit includes more connectors than most people will need for a standard galley or L-shaped kitchen run. Swapping bar positions is simple—slide them out of the clips, move a jumper, done. While the kit is defined around 9-inch bars, the modular approach lends itself to customizing your layout and adjusting after living with the light for a few days. If you’re ambitious, you can route around range hoods or open shelf sections using the longer jumpers.

What could be better

No product is perfect, and a few things stood out:
- Cable invisibility takes effort. The system is tidy but not “no-wire.” Plan to use adhesive clips, raceways, or a few screws to keep lines tight to the underside.
- The motion sensor’s placement matters. Tuck it too far back and it misses your wave; mount it near shiny tile and you may get the occasional false trigger from reflections.
- CRI is adequate, not premium. If color fidelity is a top priority, you might want higher-CRI bars.
- The color temperature is fixed at 4000 K. It’s a versatile neutral-cool, but kitchens with warm pendants (2700–3000 K) may show a mismatch unless you’re okay with layered color temperatures.

None of these are deal-breakers; they’re just considerations to address during install.

Use cases beyond the kitchen

I tested the kit under cabinets, but it’s equally at home in a pantry, laundry room, or workshop bench. The combination of low-voltage wiring, motion control, and ten-step dimming makes it a good pick anywhere hands-free operation and targeted light are welcome. The slim form factor also works inside deeper cabinets or display cases, provided you route cables neatly.

The bottom line

This kit strikes an appealing balance: bright, neutral light where you need it; sensible controls that fade into the background; and a form factor that doesn’t complicate your cabinetry. The hardware feels thought through, the included connectors cover most layouts, and the day-to-day experience—wave on, get to work, forget about it—is exactly what under-cabinet lighting should be.

Recommendation: I recommend the Black & Decker under-cabinet kit for anyone who wants fast, clean task lighting without hardwiring. It’s especially good if you value hands-free control, need multiple brightness levels, and want a neutral 4000 K tone. If you’re chasing gallery-grade color rendering or absolute wire invisibility without any planning, you may want a higher-CRI system or a custom hardwired install. For most kitchens and workspaces, though, this kit delivers more than enough light, straightforward installation, and a daily-use experience that just works.