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Truth About Xenon Blue Bulbs! Aka(ghetto Bulbs)

U

ultravorx

Full Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2002
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Location
New Britain, CT
I posted this same post in another thread, but i figured it needed full attention :cool:
No offense to anyone , but the xenon "Ghetto blue" lights dont put more light on the road. Lets look at how that is. If you take a clear bulb, and put blue tint on it, you decrease the light output. Any color tint over any bulb decreases light. :0:. If you want, get stock bulbs, and drive around at night with those light blue sunglasses, same effect, everyone will look like they have xenon bulbs ;) But then some companies increase the wattage to 80w or more. doing so may increase the light. But not more than stock, maybe on a good day, when it;s a full moon and lightning strickes, it may be brighter, but that could never happen. You will also melt your wiring harness over time or fry your switch (I did and learned the hard way) :C:. unless you add relays to compensate for the excess current draw. The only way to increase your light output is with the real xenon hid headlights. there only 35w, but produce much more light then any "ghetto" bulbs could. 280% more as tested on the following web site. There was a test done with the blue bulbs on a bmw, it was showing as much as 80% less light output than stock . When you drive with your blue bulbs, your just filtering out the lower end of the color spectrum, thats why they appear more white. If you guys go to www.overboost.com and search for the great headlight test, you should see what i mean. Hope this helps you guys out for future reference.
frank

Sorry if you guys read this already in the other post, but it is valuable info (y)
 
What you said make sense.

However, my lights are certainly brighter than the stock POS lights that came in the AV and do not have the yellow tint they had in the past.
 
I almost forgot, chief mentioned it to me :2: The silver star bulbs produce 30% more light. Which is most likely true! Its made by an automotive lighting company that produces oem bulbs, they have the funds, did the research and have the experiance to do this. Thats why car manufactureres use there regular bulbs, and soon may switch over! Its usually the japanese or korean buls( others as well) that give horrible performance and compromise safety.
Frank
 
ultravorx said:
I almost forgot, chief mentioned it to me ?:2: The silver star bulbs produce 30% more light. ?Which is most likely true! ?Its made by an automotive lighting company that produces oem bulbs, they have the funds, did the research and have the experiance to do this. ?Thats why car manufactureres use there regular bulbs, and soon may switch over! ?Its usually the japanese or korean buls( others as well) that give horrible performance and compromise safety.
Frank
Click to expand...

Let me explain where I got this data from. I lurk over at the Sport Trac site from time to time - actually have gotten some good info on common suppliers/vendors and in the last six months the level of Avalanche hatred has dropped 1000%. Anyway one of their members did a test using light reading equipment that they use professionally. Bottom line, on the Sport Trac they saw a 31% increase in candle power output with the Silverstars. That's a real improvement. This was at 20 feet (if I remember correctly) in the dark and yes they listed the equipment they used. I was actually shocked to find out just low the candle power output was - I know it was in the high 90's - I would have thought a headlamp would produce a lot more light than that.
 
I am totally amazed at the results of the PIAAs! I thought they were a quality replacement bulb. I wish they'd have tested SilverStars. Here is the information on SilverStars from Sylvania. That's why I got them. Not because of the tint, as there really isn't one, but because they are truly brighter and whiter. The chart on the link above clearly shows that. Of course that could be their own in-house propaganda, but as pointed out, they already make OEM bulbs so their SilverStars are their high performance lighting solution. Also, they (Sylvania) do make a blue tinted bulb for those craving the ricer look. They are called Cool Blues and will certainly cast the popular blue tint, but are also lower on the color temperature chart at around 3500?K as opposed to the 4000?K from the SilverStars.

I am certainly no expert in lighting, but I have first hand seen the difference as I installed the SilverStars over stock lighting in my two trucks. I have comparison photos of each and it is noticeable enough for me. It is obvious when looking toward the lights which are brighter and more luminous and similarly, on the road it is easier to tell which is stock and which is a SilverStar.

That's my opinion - Jamie
 
I,too, am impressed w/Silverstars. I received a pair of "HID like" xenon bulbs this past Christmas. I replaced the passenger side low beam bulb and did a comparison at night by shining the headlights at my garage door. There was absolutely no difference, so I pulled the bulb and became a skeptic.

Last week, I returned the knockoffs, but decided to give one more try using the Silverstars. I did the same comparison as above, and the difference was outstanding - the Silverstar was whiter and brighter. I finished the replacement and I am very impressed w/the Silverstars.

Replacing the high beams lamps and going all four lamps on in high beam mode will finish my headlamp mods. ;D
 
I just have to say the overboost.com site sucks! Like I'm joining to pay money to be able to read info on the web site!

Can some post the article so eveybody can read it?

Thanks
 
Without reading the article yet....

When you typed "Xenon "ghetto blue"" did you really mean "halagon "ghetto blue"?

I bought a inexpensive pair of the halagon blue bulbs and I did notice a decease in light. Basily, exatly what you mentioned about coating the glass. So I got a pair or partial filled xenon and halagon bulbs and switched 1 bulb. I could tell the difference in brightness on my garage door and by looking at them (that hurt, don't do it). The only thing I didn't do was put one of my oem bulbs back in. So I don't know if it was brighter. I'll have to check that out this Spring.

One thing is for sure, there is a lot less strain on my eyes during snow storms with the bulbs I have now. There is no way I'm switching back to regular bulbs. I drive to much at night during storms. (hmmmm, maybe I should stop doing that???)
 
heres the text from there site



Here you see the bulbs that would be subject to the Overboost Acid Test ? the stock Honda halogen bulbs (manufactured by Stanley) up against PIAA ?Super White? bulbs, Opti Blue ?Super White?, and a generic blue bulb of Taiwanese manufacture, called Astra. We?ve seen several offshoot bulbs like the Astra, so figured we?d give them a shot.

The fact that the Opti ?Blue? lights also said ?Super White? on the package should have served as an omen for the remainder of our test. The test-mule this time around was our 1991 Honda Civic LX, and all bulbs were tested with exactly 13.80 volts to the charging system. Note that autos sold in the US have headlight reflectors that put the most intense light to the center of the pattern, with the lighting getting dimmer to the left and right, respectively.



We used a calibrated light meter for the headlight output measurements. The photocell we used has a color sensitivity that matches that of the human eye; thus, the effects of a light that puts out a hotter or cooler light (degrees Kelvin) would be factored into our results. The hotter the light, the more it scatters into oncoming debris (fog, rain, snow, etc) and the less light is available to the driver?s eyes.



The test was performed on a pitch-black section of road in Malibu Canyon, where we shot some of the video footage that will soon debut on our streaming media server.



We placed markers in six locations; three across the 22-foot wide road at a 50-foot range from the front of the vehicle, and three more across the road at a 100-foot range from the front of the vehicle. Measurements were taken at each of these markers for every light bulb we tested.

First up were the stock headlights, as a benchmark. We?ll list our test measurements as a relative value of ?100%? for each of the 6 test points in front of the vehicle, and for the lights tested we?ll give you a + or ? percentage point according to how the bulb compared to stock:

Stanley

50 ft left 100%
50 ft center 100%
50 ft right 100%
100 ft left 100%
100 ft center 100%
100 ft right 100%





Here?s what the luminous glow cast by the stock headlights on pavement looks like from the driver seat vantagepoint. The center of the roadway is well lit, though the edges are a little dark. Note that in the test, the right (passenger) side of the lighting pattern is much dimmer than the left.





...and if you were a deer in headlights, this is what a Honda Civic with stock headlights would look like 50 feet and 100 feet (respectively) before you?d be making the journey toward ?THE light?.






Next up were the PIAA Superwhite bulbs. One look at the chart will immediately tell you that these bulbs lost performance over stock! The only place where they even approached the performance of stock Stanley brand headlamps were at the 50-foot center position. Of all the bulbs, we expected a reputable company such as PIAA to be putting a product on the shelves that does what is claimed. Instead, we found out that there really is no such thing as a free lunch, and as their packaging claims, 55 watts of input power does not equal 85 watts of lighting power.



PIAA

50 ft left -15.0%
50 ft center +0.0%
50 ft right -21.5%
100 ft left -28.7%
100 ft center -16.6%
100 ft right -17.2%
Average performance: 16.5% loss over stock

With our curiosity fully piqued, we proceed on to the Astra bulbs.




These least-expensive bulbs of the group ($25) appeared to be of very similar construction to all the other bulbs in our test; silver-tipped with blue-tinted glass. Unlike the PIAA Superwhite bulbs, the bluish tint on the remainder of our bulbs is not dichroic, but simply a cobalt blue glass. Our suspicions were raised up another notch once we noticed this; because the tint in the bulb glass does the same thing tint on your passenger compartment glass does ? lets less light through.

Astra

50 ft left -57.9%
50 ft center -44.4%
50 ft right -44.7%
100 ft left -61.0%
100 ft center -76.5%
100 ft right -50.2%
Average performance: 55.78% loss over stock

Doggedly earning the dubious ?Worst Performer of the Test? award, we move on to the Opti Blue headlights. At this point, poor performance was becoming routine, so to be honest, we weren?t expecting much more from the last lights of our test.





Now we?re not so sure about you, but we think it quite ridiculous that these lamps are producing half the usable light output than the stock bulbs! Especially considering that they cost twice what stockers do. We thought we?d never hear ourselves say this, but we had to bite the bullet in this case: stock is best.



Opti Blue

50 ft left -45.5%
50 ft center -30.8%
50 ft right -38.7%
100 ft left -61.0%
100 ft center -63.0%
100 ft right -57.5%
Average performance: 49.42% loss over stock




While we had all the ?heavy equipment? out, we also tested the stock 1998 BMW M3 headlights against the Civic, and here?s what we found:






BMW M3 Stock

50 ft left +20.0%
50 ft center -19.7%
50 ft right +86.1%
100 ft left +14.5%
100 ft center -22.7%
100 ft right + 5.8%
Average performance: 14.00% gain over stock Honda



We actually thought our $4,000 Civic's headlights performed quite admirably when compared next to the $50,000 example of German E-code engineering. Or perhaps our sensibilities are dulled, because a 14% gain in lighting power is quite significant. The ?shadow? cast (or, not cast) on us by the tested headlights may lead one to believe that a 16% loss over stock lighting makes one happy about spending $80 on a set of PIAA headlamps!


 
Yeah, thanks Ultra. That's good stuff.

One thing I found odd was that visually - by the pictures - the other bulbs (well, at least the PIAA's I'm trying to defend) look brighter than stock.... so this is kinda throwing me for a loop...

The ones I bought a few years back, ran me $60, not $25. I think they're an older model, like Hyperwhites or something. Mine look A LOT brighter than stock...
 
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