USAI is constantly bringing new products to market in response to the industry's needs. Their new pancake housing for the BeveLED mini brings us a 3-inch aperture downlight that is also a wall washer and adjustable in a very shallow housing.

“The Better You Get, The Better You’d Better Get.”

— -David Allen

When USAI developed their shallow housings, they raised the game for spec grade recessed downlighting. The FT housing brought total spec grade performance to housing that only occupies 2" of plenum height. This innovation spurred the use of the FT housing all over projects, even in areas where shallow housings aren't strictly required. The shallow housing meant never worrying about coordinating "hits" in the ceiling from HVAC or other systems. The challenge, of course, became the issue of price. It's simply not in every project's budget to utilize shallow housings, even if the design requires them ... that is until now.

The response is the BeveLED Mini Basic - Pancake

Here are the key features:
2.3" Plenum depth
Available in Trimmed, Trimless, and Millwork (Field Convertible!)
Universal Housing for downlight, wall wash, and adjustable (40-degree tilt!)
9W and 15W engines
Dim to Warm (shipping Q3 2022)
80+ or 90+ CRI
20, 27, 35, 50 Degree Beams (Separate Wall Wash Optics)
UGR < 5.5
Wet Location
IC Rated (Specifiable option, does not increase size)

Patented heat sinking and LED module assembly allows for an impossibly shallow adjustable.

Your New Go-To 3" Downlight

The BeveLED Mini Basic Pancake is designed to be your "most of the time" 3" downlight. Which is to say, it will cover 90% of your use cases. When you're working on a residence, an office space, or a healthcare facility and you need a general-purpose downlight that is also a stunning performer at an affordable price (more on price in a second), this can be your go-to. That said, there are some compromises.

Field inter-changeable to go from trimmed to trimless to millwork.

Lumen Output - The shallow housing means there's only so much heat dissipation possible. If you have high ceilings and need more punch, you'll need to move up the ladder in terms of housing.

Dim to Warm versus Warm Glow - this is worth explaining. You will start seeing Dim-To-Warm on USAI cut sheets. This is different than Warm Glow. Warm glow is a patented warm dimming technology, the absolute best in terms of warm color dimming in both rendition and tone. Dim-To-Warm is a solid option but not quite the same level of quality as Warm Glow, which does carry a higher price. Also, no tunable white.

Driver Options - Higher-end driver options such as eldoLED and Lutron are not available to keep this cost competitive. That said, the 0-10v and phase dimming options are both 1% dimming drivers.

Let's Talk About Pricing

When you download a cut sheet for the BeveLED Mini Pancake, you might notice a band at the top of the PDF.

USAI is slowly rolling out a new tiering system for their products. The idea is to create a shorthand way for specifiers to understand if they are choosing a premium product with a higher price tag or something more affordable. I don't publish pricing online (message me), but the new pancake housing is very competitively priced for its feature set. When USAI completely rolls out the tiering system, I'll talk about it some more.

Ready to see more?

Shoot me an email to book an appointment to check out the USAI BeveLED Mini Pancake at your office or in the USAI showroom. A lot of patented engineering has gone into this little guy, and I think you'll be impressed when you see it in person.

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