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Xenon filled halogen type lights (not HID)


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Has anyone here had experience with the xenon filled bulbs?

What I would like to know is, are they much better then normal halogen bulbs?

 

Are you talking about the fake blue bulbs? They wash out in the rain.

 

 

Or the silverstars. I have the silverstars, i dont care if they do blow out once a year. the extra light they throw makes all the difference.

 

nipper

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sylvania silverstars are crap.

 

Osram silverstars are good.

 

Sylvania xtravision is the best bulb commonly available in the US.

 

anything that claims to be "as bright as xenon," or "xenon," or anything like that, and any bulb that is tinted, is crap.

 

danielsternlighting.com has two very good articles on the subject.

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sylvania silverstars are crap.

 

Osram silverstars are good.

 

Sylvania xtravision is the best bulb commonly available in the US.

 

anything that claims to be "as bright as xenon," or "xenon," or anything like that, and any bulb that is tinted, is crap.

 

danielsternlighting.com has two very good articles on the subject.

 

Agreed!

 

www.rallylights.com has good info and products too.

 

Jack

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Are you talking about the fake blue bulbs? They wash out in the rain.

 

 

Or the silverstars. I have the silverstars, i dont care if they do blow out once a year. the extra light they throw makes all the difference.

 

nipper

Well I'm not really sure. Some ofthe ones I am looking at are colored blue.

I mean the ones that use the xenon gas not the halogen gas. I guess they maybe called HID look alike lights. But I know them as xenon gas filled. As far as I know the xenon gas is better then halogen, but I would like some feedback on peoples experience.

 

I looked at the silverstar ones, but they don't say what gas they use..

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Agreed!

 

www.rallylights.com has good info and products too.

 

Jack

Thanks Jack. From there data it looks like the xenon gas with no coating has the same light output as normal halogens. I wonder what those "hyper" ones are..?

 

When you say the blue coated bulbs suck, what K ones are you taling about. There are some that only emulate 4000K which should still be very close to being on the yellow scale. 6000K is suppose to be the only a little blue with the HID's

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any light that says xenon on it and is not an actual xenon arc HID is not actually filled with xenon. It just says "color of xenon" or "look of HID" or whatever. They are all halogen with tinted bulbs, and are crap.

 

Actually they do add like 5% xenon to some halogen bulbs and they might be better.

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any light that says xenon on it and is not an actual xenon arc HID is not actually filled with xenon. It just says "color of xenon" or "look of HID" or whatever. They are all halogen with tinted bulbs, and are crap.
Ok.. interesting. I got the impression from several places on the net (not just cheap ebay sellers) and from packaging that they were xenon filled. Maybe just some 90w/100w halogen H4's will do..

 

Where I live I get no snow, and not much fog. Does the blue help in any situation?

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no. Blue/purple/hyperwhite is bad in EVERY situation. Any HID conversion that fits in a standard headlight housing is bad. 100w bulbs are probably not legal and might melt your wiring/headlights.

 

I would suggest a set of aux driving lights if you really need more lighting. Hella FF1000s are very bright and a great value (I have some).

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no. Blue/purple/hyperwhite is bad in EVERY situation. Any HID conversion that fits in a standard headlight housing is bad. 100w bulbs are probably not legal and might melt your wiring/headlights.

 

I would suggest a set of aux driving lights if you really need more lighting. Hella FF1000s are very bright and a great value (I have some).

I see where your coming from, but I have experience in both HID's in standard lenses and higher wattage in standard lenses. If you don't go too hot it works. And the HID's look great in my brothers 81 Fiat X1/9, although they are only used as low beams at the moment.

I have made the mistake of putting 130w halogens in small rectangle Hella spotties, but the 100watters woke fine.

Obviously high wattage in small plastic car headlights isn't going to go down well. But glass is fine.

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i put in a set of KYO superbeam xenon white 4500k 100/80W, i put on heavy pigtails so i wouldn't melt the stock one. i liked them, plenty of light. but one quit after about a year, i put a stock one back in and it quit in a day. i started worrying about drawing the extra wattage. so, i just put in a pair of PIAA Xtreme White Plus 65/55 = 120/110. drove back last nite and i'm really happy with them.

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PIAA Xtreme White Plus 65/55 = 120/110.

 

And there's what I was talking about.

 

"=120/110"

 

Due to the tint they have the color temperature a 120/110w bulb might have. They're not actually brighter and don't put out more light than a good non-tinted bulb.

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Or the silverstars. I have the silverstars, i dont care if they do blow out once a year. the extra light they throw makes all the difference.

nipper

mine lasted about 6 months...that's normal for them to last about a year? i do like the extra light as well.
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I wonder how many times I'm going to have to say this:

 

Sylvania Silverstars are crappy bulbs

 

so thats your opinion. You can say it as many times as you want.

 

For living in the suburbs of NYC they throw enouugh extra light without being blinding, and show up well on wet raods (which to me is where it counts).

 

i like them. i will use them.

 

:-p

 

nipper

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http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/blue/bad/bad.html

 

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/blue/good/good.html

 

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/superwhite/superwhite.html

 

http://www.rallylights.com/hella/bulb_help.htm

 

If you really want a good bulb, order some Narva Rangepower +50s from Daniel Stern.

 

If you want to plug your ears and close your eyes and scream "la la la la la I can't hear you," you can go ahead and do that too.

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order some Narva Rangepower +50s

Now theres a manufacturer I have heard of in Australia..

 

You've said it enough, and for those who wish to listen will. And for those who don't, they won't. That's just how it is. And I don't see why you should care so much, I mean you tried, why go any further.

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mine lasted about 6 months...that's normal for them to last about a year? i do like the extra light as well.

 

I put the Silverstars in my Honda Odyssey. I really liked the extra light output, but they both burned out within 9 months. I wasn't expecting this and it was a real disappointment. I put back in the stock bulbs and they still work fine 2 years later, but with lower output, of course.

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FYI - I installed a set of +50% Hella low beams (from rallylights) in the Subie and am very happy with them. No funny colors, no higher wattages, no police attention, just lots of extra light.

 

Durability - Don't know yet, it's only been 7-8 months.

 

Jack

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've been looking at Hella and Narva since those brands are readily available in Australia.

On the Hella website I found the bulbs I was talking about before, xenon gas filled incandescent lights. I thought I wasn't wrong.

But the ones that interest me are the +30 and +50 halogen. Narva also sell these. Is there a much shorter life with the +50's over the +30's?

 

I did find my lighting problem, it's just bad wires and a drop of 2 to 4 volts at the lights. So I'm going to fix that up, but still interested in some new better globes.

 

http://www.hella.com.au/cgi-bin/catalogue.pl?flcmd=prodver&flrecid=20

http://www.hella.com.au/cgi-bin/catalogue.pl?flcmd=prodver&flrecid=37

 

Also read this page http://www.narva.com.au/Globes_21.html

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Wow!!! I never saw sooo many bad experiences with the Silverstars. I have them in my 99 F150 in the H/L's and fogs for 1.5 years now, the wifes Volvo S70 for 1 year, and all the Subys and they only get turned off with the ign. switch. I have always been happy with the performance on back roads and they really throw a nice clean light. I recommend them to friends and they run them and love them except for one recently in a GMC Envoy that blew in 6 months. From experience they seem to work better in a clear lense style headlight verses the grid style lense.

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I've got silverstars and I don't enjoy them either. They're not the "brightest legal lights on the market" like the guy at autozone told me. Plus it seems I saw better with the stock lights that put out a yellow light rather than white.

 

I think I may order some Rarva +50 lights and see how those work.

 

Also, I have had my silverstars for a little over a year and they're still working.

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