Looking for older light force bulbs

[Northernl]

I have two 6" light force lights that have the older style bulb with two prongs that plug into the fixture. I am trying to find some replacement bulbs for these. They have old halogen bulbs in them that are dimmer than my headlights. Any suggestions would be helpful.

[ozgrinch]

Are you sure it's not a 24V globe?.

[Alaric Darconville]

This may be your chance to just ditch those Lightfarce products and get something good.

I went to their "bulbs" page, and immediately was met by:

THE TRUTH ABOUT CANDLEPOWER! DON’T’ (sic) BE MISLED BY THE HYPE!

They suggest changing the filament orientation between transverse and axial (which they call "horizontal and vertical") to change the beam type, which is not the right way to do things.

Then there's

[Bulb selection] is done by measuring and qualifying the efficiency in converting WATTS into *CANDLEPOWER.

That doesn't even make any sense. Besides, "qualifying" and "quantifying" are very different things.

I think it's time for new lamps, not just new bulbs.

[Scheinwerfermann]

That doesn't even make any sense. Besides, "qualifying" and "quantifying" are very different things.

Don't you mean "That DOESN'T even MAKE ANY sense"?

Seriously: the Lightfarce people give every appearance of being full of malarkey, and yes, I think it's best not to reward companies who seem to have difficulty keeping a healthy separation between reality and make-believe, but the OP already has the lamps and wants some replacement bulbs for them. That's a reasonable request. Lightfarce lamps mostly use medical/scientific bulbs not designed or intended for vehicular usage. What the original poster needs to do is figure out what kind of bulb he needs. Is the filament axial (runs parallel to the length of the bulb) or transverse (runs perpendicular to the length of the bulb)? What is the voltage and wattage? Once that information is supplied, the correct bulb can be named.

[Alaric Darconville]

Don't you mean "That DOESN'T even MAKE ANY sense"?

Actually, I meant: "That DOESN'T' even MAKE any *SENSE"

Seriously: the Lightfarce people give every appearance of being full of malarkey, and yes, I think it's best not to reward companies who seem to have difficulty keeping a healthy separation between reality and make-believe, but the OP already has the lamps and wants some replacement bulbs for them. That's a reasonable request. Lightfarce lamps mostly use medical/scientific bulbs not designed or intended for vehicular usage. What the original poster needs to do is figure out what kind of bulb he needs. Is the filament axial (runs parallel to the length of the bulb) or transverse (runs perpendicular to the length of the bulb)? What is the voltage and wattage? Once that information is supplied, the correct bulb can be named.

True. I see what *might* be likely candidates at Don's Bulbs. Perhaps the original bulbs have markings that can still be read.

The lamps may also have gotten dimmer due to losses in the wiring and connections. Depending on how they are mounted or how the grounds are run (for example, if sheetmetal grounds are used) there could be some real losses.

[Hamilton Felix]

This outfit seems to have the bulbs you describe. I did a Google search, got lots of hits, then changed the search to "images," and looked for bulbs with pins

http://www.highperformancelighting.c...roducts_id=245

I seem to recall having a bulb of this type some years ago in a "Nite Owl" hand held spotlight, which was made by U.S. Stoveworks at the time. Nite Owl is still out there. They might still use those bulbs.

[Lightdoctor]

This outfit seems to have the bulbs you describe. I did a Google search, got lots of hits, then changed the search to "images," and looked for bulbs with pins

http://www.highperformancelighting.c...roducts_id=245

I seem to recall having a bulb of this type some years ago in a "Nite Owl" hand held spotlight, which was made by U.S. Stoveworks at the time. Nite Owl is still out there. They might still use those bulbs.

You can get these bulbs at Home Depot...these were never intended for automotive use! Lightfarce...now you know the rest of the story.

[Hamilton Felix]

Aha! Now that you mention it, I have a little three bulb light over a kitchen sink that uses this style of bulb. I think they come on several wattages.

[Scheinwerfermann]

The ones at Home Depot aren't even close to being similar, except for the 2-pin base.

[Hamilton Felix]

OK. Oh well, maybe that bulb they used to have in the Nite Owl spotlight is the same. I do recall the two pins and the fact it was a lot more scarce than H1 or H3 bulbs. The bulbs must be out there. Even Light Farce should support their own products. For the life of me, I can't quite figure Light Force out. There are a couple of good things about their lights - but they're pretty much not driving lights. I don't think the concept of useful beam pattern for road use enters into their design. Light, tough, cutesy filters to change color and even allegedly change beam pattern, but actually telling customers to swap between bulbs with different filament orientation... They do cool dramatic tests like shooting them with bird shot (probably got the idea from a certain maker of safety glasses), and the like. But they won't get serious about making a product truly good for road use. One is MUCH better off with a 30 year old Cibie product.

[Scheinwerfermann]

Totally agree. They are a textbook example of the greater power of marketing and promotion and hype vs. engineering and science and facts.

[irsa76]

Lightforce started out, and still concentrate on, making spotlights for hunting hence the lightweight, bullet resistance and variable beam.
As we know a spot light for hunting does not make a good driving light, it's like sticking a Maglight on your pushbike. It sort of works but mostly doesn't.

[iroc409]

I think they are a projector bulb, aren't they? I've seen bulbs for projectors that have similar specs (lumens/power) to what Lightf*rce uses, with same style glass and housing.

[NFT5]

I believe the ones you're looking for are Osram 64625 HLX 100W 12V GY6.35 Xenophot. These use xenon as the filler, rather than krypton. Various wattages are available. These bulbs suit the 170mm and 240mm size lamps. The 140mm size uses a 75 watt bulb.

There are other bulbs available that have lower outputs (for same wattage) in the same form factor but without the xenon and some other manufacturers also make the same size. My experience is that the Osrams are by far the best.

The bulbs with the transverse filaments work much better and last much longer, although the beam is a bit flattened compared to the bulbs with a longitudinal filament which have very short life spans, sometimes milliseconds.

I understand that the higher output comes from two factors. Firstly use of xenon gas and secondly the fact that they're designed as a 12 volt bulb so running at 13.8 volts or so in an automotive application is actually overdriving them.

[Scheinwerfermann]

These use xenon as the filler, rather than krypton.

Most all halogen bulbs contain both krypton and xenon as constituents of the fill gas mix -- including these.

The bulbs with the transverse filaments work much better and last much longer, although the beam is a bit flattened compared to the bulbs with a longitudinal filament which have very short life spans, sometimes milliseconds.

This doesn't make sense. If your bulbs are lasting "milliseconds", there's something wrong (like, for example, running the bulbs on double or triple their rated voltage).

I understand that the higher output comes from two factors. Firstly use of xenon gas

No.

and secondly the fact that they're designed as a 12 volt bulb

Yeah, with a rated lifespan of 50 hours. Running them at 13.8v drops that figure down to a few minutes more than 8 hours.