GE Nighthawk NHX Nighthawk Xenon +120, how are they?

-Virgil-

Flashaholic
Joined
Mar 26, 2004
Messages
7,802
I've been wondering when these would arrive in the US market. They're mostly developed in Hungary (the Tungsram company which GE bought about 20 years ago). this PDF dated early 2013 shows the European-market H1/H4/H7. These bulbs actually showed up last year in other markets under other names, such as from Ring in the UK (scroll down and go to "Performance Bulbs" then XenonUltima), and Narva Australia (not the same as the "Narva" brand belonging to Philips -- the Australian company licenses the Narva name from Philips for the Australian market, and sells a big mix of products that come from many sources).

They give very high output, but have a high price (nearly fifty bucks a pair on Amazon) and a very short life. For example, the 9007NHX is rated 90/150 hours! That is the tradeoff we have to pay for very high filament luminance and beam performance without something like HIR technology (which is not applicable for many bulb types).

Looks like Amazon is offering a rebate on the Night Hawk Platinum (a "Plus 90" bulb) making them about $9 (nine dollars!) a pair.
 

haha1234

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Oct 31, 2010
Messages
111
The Platinum rebate is awesome! For some reason though, 9004 and 9005 aren't on sale for some reason. I did pick up a pair of 9006 plats though.

Now the big question: do you think the NHX is THAT much better than the Platinum?

I didn't know Narav Australia was altogether different. I had seen a Narva +120 from Australia before, but I had just figured it was some kind of Asian knockoff thing.

I found the Megalight Ultra H4 on eBay for about $25 per pair shipped from Germany. eBay item #141135739316
The same seller has the H1 version for the same price, the H7 for a little more, and about $40 for the 9005 or 9006, but at that price you're better off with HIR1/9011 and 9006NHP, respectively. (remember, the 9005NHP isn't marked down on Amazon)
 

-Virgil-

Flashaholic
Joined
Mar 26, 2004
Messages
7,802
I don't have data, so it's an educated guess when I say the performance jump from standard to NHP is much larger than the performance jump from NHP to NHX. Speaking of data, it would be interesting to see some detailed data on the differences in headlamp performance with (for example) long life, standard, Night Hawk, Night Hawk Platinum, and Night Hawk Xenon, at a range of voltages. I would like to see what voltage you have to run the lower-output bulbs to get comparable performance to the higher-output bulbs. Then it would be possible to see which has the better cost/benefit profile: premium bulbs on standard wiring or standard bulbs on premium wiring.
 

Alaric Darconville

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Sep 2, 2001
Messages
5,377
Location
Stillwater, America
They give very high output, but have a high price (nearly fifty bucks a pair on Amazon) and a very short life. For example, the 9007NHX is rated 90/150 hours!
Yikes. $.33/hr. Then there's the more-frequent replacements (and the higher likelihood of the bulb failing at inopportune moments (as if there were really *opportune* moments)).

Looks like Amazon is offering a rebate on the Night Hawk Platinum (a "Plus 90" bulb) making them about $9 (nine dollars!) a pair.
WOW! That's pretty awesome! Half the price of the Sylvania XtraVision +30 (a bulb I could recommend getting off the rack at Wal-Mart for someone without time to mail-order a new set of bulbs, but never a bulb I would hotly anticipate getting). Sweet deal!

Speaking of data, it would be interesting to see some detailed data on the differences in headlamp performance with (for example) long life, standard, Night Hawk, Night Hawk Platinum, and Night Hawk Xenon, at a range of voltages. I would like to see what voltage you have to run the lower-output bulbs to get comparable performance to the higher-output bulbs. Then it would be possible to see which has the better cost/benefit profile: premium bulbs on standard wiring or standard bulbs on premium wiring.
That would be interesting. Whose cost/benefit profile? The OEM? The owner seeking to upgrade his night driving experience? (Definitely not the bulb-makers! They'll burn out your bulbs at exactly their "rated life +1hr" if they could.) From the gut, I would say that unless the vehicle already has the premium wiring, there's no sense fiddling with it, and so selection should be based on the bulb itself. Still, a well-fed +120 bulb will be shedding the mortal filament coil quite often!

If only there were a REAL and GOOD ballasting system that could be used to dial in a specific voltage with precision and with a ramping up from a lower starting voltage to the set voltage (so the starting shock is reduced), so that a "Long Life" bulb could be run at 14.1V and a +120 bulb could be run at 13.9V. I know of one "ballast" (the Catz Zeta) which is merely a toy. Such a thing does not belong even in a landfill-- it should be recycled properly.

Scheinwerfermann,

Your having pointed out the bulbs on Amazon has led me to something interesting: These are said to NOT fit my 1995 Toyota Previa (the vehicle is saved to my "Garage") yet other 9003/HB2/H4 bulbs *do* fit. Must be a database error on their part.
 

-Virgil-

Flashaholic
Joined
Mar 26, 2004
Messages
7,802
Whose cost/benefit profile? The OEM? The owner seeking to upgrade his night driving experience?

The owner seeking to upgrade. The OEMs, especially in NAFTA, tend to put a very high priority on bulb lifespan.

I would say that unless the vehicle already has the premium wiring, there's no sense fiddling with it

I'm not sure I follow you. What do you mean by this?

If only there were a REAL and GOOD ballasting system that could be used to dial in a specific voltage with precision and with a ramping up from a lower starting voltage to the set voltage (so the starting shock is reduced)

Truck-Lite used to offer just such an item about ten years ago, a headlamp life extender that provided soft-start and regulated voltage of 12.8v. See old pages here and here and here. The product is no longer offered; apparently demand wasn't sufficient at the (rather high, as I recall) price point.

(Amazon's parts catalog database does seem to be full of errors and omissions.)
 

Alaric Darconville

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Sep 2, 2001
Messages
5,377
Location
Stillwater, America
I'm not sure I follow you. What do you mean by this?
I meant to say that unless the vehicle DOESN'T have premium wiring. Or that if it did, then don't fiddle with the wiring. Oops.



Truck-Lite used to offer just such an item about ten years ago, a headlamp life extender that provided soft-start and regulated voltage of 12.8v. See old pages here and here and here. The product is no longer offered; apparently demand wasn't sufficient at the (rather high, as I recall) price point.

If they could improve it to raise that regulated voltage to, say, 13.2V, and to perhaps add a speed sensor interconnect to raise to 13.5V (still below the 14V rated lifespan voltage I've seen given before), it could be made more popular. Maybe they need to call it the VisionXTenderPlus and sell it to the "tuner" crowd.

(Amazon's parts catalog database does seem to be full of errors and omissions.)

Yep.
 

picard

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 31, 2004
Messages
1,298
where can I buy H11 version of night breaker bulb? I have the new Kia Sorento 2014 EX
 

Lightdoctor

Enlightened
Joined
Feb 21, 2010
Messages
389
I don't think Osram makes those. Osram mainly sticks to making the Night Breaker in European market sizes like H1,H3,H4,H7. They're also made in 9005 (HB3) and 9006(HB4) which were originally a North American bulb only.
 

-Virgil-

Flashaholic
Joined
Mar 26, 2004
Messages
7,802
H1, H3, H7, H9, H10, H11, H12, H13, HB3, and HB4, among others, are all worldwide-approved bulbs. So is H4/HB2 (with a few "ifs" and "buts").

There is an Osram Night Breaker H11, but it's not the one I'd go to for a premium H11 bulb. Instead I'd pick the Philips Xtreme.
 

jaycee88

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 13, 2015
Messages
175
Apologies for the thread resurrect, but I wanted to point out that the H4 Nighthawk Xenons are currently just under $12/pair on Amazon. So if anybody wants to stock up, now's as good a time as any. They were going for 4-5x that a couple of weeks ago and then the price dropped steadily.

Interestingly they separate H4 from 9003. The 9003 version is $55+ (and not actually sold by Amazon).

How likely is it that the 9003 version is actually manufactured differently (tighter tolerances) to the H4, rather than simply being a packaging/labelling difference?
 

-Virgil-

Flashaholic
Joined
Mar 26, 2004
Messages
7,802
Holy crud, that's a great price! (link is here). Either a mistake or a super-duper sale. Whoever uses H4 or 9003/HB2 should grab up a bunch of spares before the price goes up again.

I will bet you (or anyone else) two six-packs of your choice that there is literally no actual difference between the H4 and 9003 in this case, except packaging and marking. One of the things that differentiates a higher-performing bulb from a standard bulb is super-precise filament positioning, so whether it's the US regulation or the design spec for this line of bulbs requiring tight tolerances, you wind up in the same place.
 

CeeBee

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Mar 16, 2017
Messages
29
I'm surprised you guys have to pay so much for the Tungsram/GE plus 120 bulbs. Here in Central Europe you can go into any Tesco supermarket (British) and pick up a pack of two (H4, H7, or H1) for 12.99 Euros. and have been able to for quite a while. The best part is that once a year they go on sale for 8.99 Euros so a good time to stock up.

They are a good bulb. I run them in my van. Not quite as bright on low beam as the Osram or Phillips higher wattage equivalents, but it's made up for by a brighter high beam with no blueish degradation.

One thing is that the bulbs are physically larger in globe size (in H4 at least) than the Osram equivalents, being closer to the original stock H4 bulb. The Osrams have a noticeably smaller globe. I wonder why that is?
 

eggsalad

Enlightened
Joined
Mar 30, 2013
Messages
268
Holy crud, that's a great price! (link is here). Either a mistake or a super-duper sale. Whoever uses H4 or 9003/HB2 should grab up a bunch of spares before the price goes up again.

Bought some. Thanks for the hot tip. I love CPF.
 

-Virgil-

Flashaholic
Joined
Mar 26, 2004
Messages
7,802
Looks like there's an 8-per-customer limit (8 two-packs, that's 16 bulbs per customer).
 

-Virgil-

Flashaholic
Joined
Mar 26, 2004
Messages
7,802
...and now it looks like the super deal is over (or the mistake got fixed). At least when I look at it now, it's over $60 for the two pack, in line with the other sizes. Anyone still seeing the super low $11+ price?
 

1990CrownVic

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Dec 29, 2016
Messages
29
Last night (10 or 11 pm) they were still at $11. Now I checked and the price is $60 :-(

Bought a pair for spares. $19 shipping included to my courier P.O. Box in Miami, FL. $20 shipping directly to my house in Santiago, Chile. Obviously I took this last option. Big Score! :)
 

eggsalad

Enlightened
Joined
Mar 30, 2013
Messages
268
...and they arrived today. I was half expecting my order to be cancelled, but it wasn't.
 

1990CrownVic

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Dec 29, 2016
Messages
29
Mine also arrived today. Bought them thursday and shipped to Chile on sunday. Amazing fast shipping!
 

Alaric Darconville

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Sep 2, 2001
Messages
5,377
Location
Stillwater, America
I'm sorry I missed out-- I was waiting for verification from a friend on what kind of car she drives (she's in another state) and missed out. She still hasn't replied-- perhaps I'll learn her car didn't use those bulbs after all.

I should have just ordered a few just to have them around.
 
Top