Alzak is a proprietary process licensed and trademarked by Alcoa for the surface treatment of aluminum to make it reflective. Sometimes the term is used inappropriately. It is available in many finishes, clear, gold, black, brushed, etc. The primary purpose is to allow the use of an A lamp (non-reflector type) in a recessed housing but it can also accommodate fluorescent, PAR, BR and BT lamps.

Some of my clients object to the bright aluminum appearance of the housing in a residence which can be reduced somewhat with smaller apertures.

What fixture type, reflector finish and lamp are you using?

I saw that there are black, white, copper, etc. Alzak trims. How do the trim colors affect how the lighting functions (if it at all). In our current house the recessed lights have black trims which frankly I never even noticed. We are building though and are uncertain what to get. The Alzak trims do look intriguing.

Everything is Juno and the architect selected the autumn haze Alzak trim because it will give warmer color and more light - we have high ceilings and the area in which we are building has a night ordinance so it is dark outside. I will have to pull the lighting specs to tell you the exact lamp. But he was a lighting specialist before becoming an architect so hopefully he knows what he is doing!

Trubee, thanks so much for posting! We're at that decision point right now ourselves, so your info is very timely. I read chiefneil's post and saw his photos. Wow, what a difference! We have high (10') ceilings and are in an area that's completely dark at night too. Are you using 6" cans? Any particular model/part number for the cans and trims? If you've found a good source for the cans and the Alzak trims, I'd really appreciate knowing! Thanks!!

Good point about being dark outside. We are building in an area with an outdoor lighting ordinance. You are allowed some light outside but there are restrictions.

someone told me about laner.com - they looked great to me. Our electrician is getting our cans -- we have a mix of 6" economy Junos - some are downlights and some adjustables and also aculux. It is a pretty involved plan depending on whether we're doing general lighting or highlighting artwork. But the alzak is now on all of our recessed lighting - our architect was blown away by the difference...all thanks to chief neil!

Heh heh, glad I could help trubee. I hope you like the way it turns out.

are these recessed lights air tight?
the amount of air infiltration at insulation
contact (IC cans) really adds up when you have
a lot of recessed lights, contributing to additional
heating & cooling costs.
look for ICAT..insulation contact air tight recessed lights.
inserts that make IC cans air tight can cost as much
as $12 per light to retrofit. buy the right one now
for best savings & performance.
best of luck with your build.

yes - they are airtight. I read one of your earlier postings energy rater la and made sure. Chiefneil, we're so excited and you get the credit!

Chiefneil and trubee, can you please each share with us why you picked the color of Alzak that you did? (If I recall, chiefneil picked clear and trubee picked autumn haze.) What, in your minds, are the pros and cons of each? Thanks!

home_nw, I just took what my electrician had handy, which was the clear alzak. A yellowish trim probably would have matched my paint color a little better, but I wasn't in the mood to stress about it at the time.

Chiefneil, thanks for your response. Your kitchen is a real inspiration and is truly spectacular in every way!

I recently installed Halo airtight trim to seal some old recessed lights to reduce air infiltration. After reading this thread I thought I would try Alzak to reduce the reflections on the TV.

I picked up some Alzak trim at Progressive Lighting but it's not sealed.

Anyone know if an airtight trim with Alzak exists? If so, what is its part number? I have searched and have not found anything yet.

A synonym for the trademarked label of Alzak might be "specular".

Halo has a black airtight specular trim with part number 30SBAT. It's $28 at Lowes.

I have purchased both a Juno 6-inch black Alzak trim and the Halo 30SBAT to compare then. Unfortunately, when I installed the prior airtight Halo trim kits I discarded the bracket that hold the light socket which is not included with the Juno trim kit I bought. So, I cannot compare them yet.

http://www.cooperlighting.com/specfiles/productinfopdf/EADV0060.pdf

Using Alzak reflector trims is not the obviously superior solution everyone here is making it out to be. Alzak trims have advantages and disadvantages like any other type of recessed fixture. Slow down and pay attention to the ceiling height, fixture aperture, depth of recess, lamp light pattern as lumen output, etc. not just the apparent ceiling brightness. Lighting is never a "one size fits all" situation although I often wish it were.

good advice, mightyanvil. our lighting plan was carefully done by our architect who has a solid background in lighting design and we learned a lot along the way from reading "Residential Lighting" by Randall Whitehead. But for us the Alzac trims solved DH's absolute disdain for glowing "polka dot" ceilings as he calls them and cheifneil solved that problem for us thank goodness. It was the trade off for DH not getting his beloved square Junos!

I found a lighting reseller near me in the Atlanta area that identified what I was looking for in Juno's catalog. Juno calls their airtight trim "Air-Loc". The part number for a Juno Air-Loc trim with black Alzak is 247B-WH. I was charged about $33. The cone is more shallow than the Halo part, so a PAR30L bulb sticks out a bit too far. The Juno's white ceiling trim ring looks better to me than the self-flanging black ring of the Halo 30SBAT.

That's a 50w 50 degree PAR30L lamp in each fixture. Not optimal yet.

{{gwi:1457437}}

Here is a link that might be useful:

HELP!!! In the process of remodeling kitchen/great room, family room, and we are also installing recessed lighting. The cans my husband bought were 10-6" HALO H7ICT (New Construction)and 4-4". These were installed when I returned from work in only the kitchen working area and the staircase going to the basement. Also purchased were 18-6" HALO H7RICT (Remodler cans) to be installed in the "great room" area which is a continuation of the kitchen. These have not yet been installed. I knew I did not want white, black or chrome trim kits. After reading on this forum and of Chiefneil's postings (a bit too late), off I went to our local electrical supply store which had a display of JUNOS. There I also find out that you can't purchase JUNO trims for HALO cans. I can return the remodeler cans which have been purchased but I was also told that since the HALO cans are already installed, to install JUNO cans next to them would not work because I would see the difference in the trims. Meaning----HALO trims would not be the same color as JUNO trims. They said that the "HAZE" trims on both JUNO and HALO are a little different. I wanted the white trim with the haze or wheat reflector. Can someone P-L-E-A-S-E give me some suggestions as to what to do. I want the same look as Trubee had done in her kitchen or at least close to it. I'm also confused as to ALZAK non-ALZAK, etc. Thank you all!!!

Holy cow! How I ever made it to this forum from the kitchen forum and not even contemplating the recessed lighting, I'll never know! (lol) But I'm glad I did! I didn't know all this about recessed lights and now have some more research to do. Thanks!
Monica