Neon Flex, Bare or COB? How to Choose

These products get specified interchangeably far more often than they should. They are not competing versions of the same thing. They solve different problems, and picking the wrong one usually shows up late — after the channel is installed, or after the first wet season.

The short version

Use bare or COB strip when the light source will be hidden — inside a cove, behind a pelmet, under a cabinet, inside a channel with a diffuser. You are lighting a surface and nobody should see where the light comes from.

Use neon flex when the light source is the thing being looked at — signage, a line running along a wall, a profile traced around a form, anything where the lit line itself is part of the design.

When COB is worth the extra

COB stands for chip-on-board. Instead of individual LEDs spaced along a strip, the diodes sit under a continuous phosphor layer, so the lit strip reads as one unbroken line rather than a row of points. That single difference is what the extra per metre buys.

COB makes sense when:

• The strip will be seen indirectly in a glossy or reflective surface — polished stone, glass, a lacquered joinery front. A dotted strip reflected in a shiny surface is very obvious; a continuous one is not.
• The cove is shallow, so there is not enough depth for a diffuser to blend the dots before the light reaches the surface.
• The detail is tight or curved and there is no room for a channel with a diffuser.

Bare strip is the better choice when:

• The run is long and fully concealed inside a channel with a diffuser — the diffuser already solves the dot problem, so you would be paying twice.
• The run is longer than 5 metres in one piece. COB is supplied in reels of up to 5 metres, so a 12 metre cove is three lengths joined. Bare strip is cut to your length.
• Budget is the deciding factor and the strip will never be seen directly.

IP rating is not optional detail

Bare LED Strip and COB LED Strip are both IP20. No ingress protection worth relying on. Indoors, dry, concealed. Not for a bathroom ceiling detail, not for a covered balcony, and not for anywhere a cleaner might take a wet cloth to it.

Neon Flex 1010 is IP67 — protected against temporary immersion. That covers external signage, wet areas, and anywhere condensation is plausible.

One caveat that gets missed: an IP67 rating applies to the extrusion, not to the cut end. A neon flex run is only IP67 once the end is properly capped and the cable entry sealed. An IP67 product with an open cut end is an IP20 installation.

Where each one goes wrong

Bare strip used exposed. Without a diffuser you see a line of dots rather than a line of light. It reads as cheap and no amount of dimming fixes it.

Bare or COB without a channel. LEDs lose output and lifespan when they run hot, and the channel is the heatsink. We do not supply channel for either product — source it locally and specify it at design stage.

COB specified for a long continuous run. Five metres per reel is the limit. Check the drawing before committing.

Neon flex bent the wrong way. Neon flex bends along one axis. Forcing it against the axis stresses the extrusion and the board inside it. Check the minimum bend radius on the spec sheet before committing to a tight curve.

Neon flex in a concealed cove. It works, but you have paid for diffusion and IP67 that nobody will ever see.

All three are 24 V

All three run at 24 V DC. This matters for run length — 24 V holds voltage over meaningfully longer runs than 12 V before brightness drops at the far end. There is a separate guide on voltage drop if you are planning a long continuous run.

Full technical data is on the individual product pages, with PDF spec sheets for submittal binders.