Halogen lights vs hid full#

Here is a popular example of an HID bulb with the Phillips D2585122. Most vehicles with original factory HID lighting system come with either Philips or Osram due to its known safeness. Lastly, some aftermarket headlights may contain hazardous substances, such as metal mercury, but you shouldn’t be worried too much if you simply purchase your replacements from well-known brands, such as Philips or Osram. If your vehicle came with reflector type, you can either try ‘R’ type HID bulbs or retrofit your headlamp to have controlled & focused beam pattern. However, nowadays, most vehicles do come with headlamps with projectors, which controls your light beam pattern. Secondly, HID is also known to produce too much glare which can be very distracting, especially to oncoming traffic. Also, you need to have a controller called ‘ ballast’, which carefully controls the voltage. Therefore, some higher end vehicle’s with HID lighting system uses same unit/bulb, which works for both low & high beam (also called Bi-xenon). During that time, it actually uses more energy than halogen.

Halogen lights vs hid full#

It is still cheaper to go with halogen but you don’t have to replace (which can be real pain in the butt for some vehicles) your headlights for years!Īnd of course, HID has its downside as well.įirst, even with the aid of a HID ballast, these bulbs still take 5-10 seconds to reach full potential. Choose your unique color to stand out among the crowds!ĭid I mention that HID light bulb lasts up to 2500 hours? That is almost 3 times more lifetime than halogen. Furthermore, because they can control the color temperature (kelvin) as well, you can go anywhere from 3000K (yellow), 4300K (white w/ yellow hue), 5000K (white), 6000K (white w/ blue hue) to 8000K (blue/purple). A Xenon HID light bulb produces up to 3200 lumens while a halogen light bulb produces only up to 1400 lumens. Due to its higher production costs than halogen, the growth was slow in the beginning.īut, again, you get what you pay for, right?Įven though HID lights are a lot more expensive than a halogen lights, it became so popular over time because it is definitely brighter, but use less energy, than halogen lights. HID Headlights (stands for High Intensity Discharge), also known as Xenon (it uses xenon gas), became a new trend on the market soon after it was first introduced in Japan & Europe in the mid 90s. The Phillips 9005/HB3 Halogen Crystal 4000K Bulbs are a popular option for halogen headlight bulbs. I still believe that halogen is bang for your buck but when I first saw a car with bluish bright headlights back in mid 90s, I was dying to have one for myself.

Because halogen light bulb capsule (glass) is very sensitive, you will damage the bulb if you touch them with bare hands from the grease/salt when replacing them, which will shorten the lifetime in result.

Moreover, halogen light bulbs require extra care. You can tell how much energy it is wasting by the amount of heat it is creating when it’s on. It is consuming so much energy, probably the most, but, unfortunately, it is not the brightest. On top of that, it is relatively cheaper. Under normal condition, halogen headlight bulbs last up to 1000 hours. Most vehicles come with halogen headlights (or fog lights) because of its long life span.

Halogen headlights are the most popular technology in the automotive industry because of two factors, long lifespan and cost effectiveness. Let’s talk about the halogen first since it is the most commonly used technology. We are here to show you advantages and disadvantages of each ( Halogen, HID, & LED) technology to help you make a decision when your time comes to replace your old bulbs. In these days, more and more vehicles come with factory equipped HID Xenon or LED headlights.īut, is the newest technology always the best?