Which Philips bulb to buy?

Hey guys, ive decided I want to try some LED headlights. Ive done a bit of digging and found the following.
I really liked the Opt7 Fluxbeam kit and have read many good reviews but I have discovered they have a problem for scattering light in reflector housings ( which is what my car has).

Now, I've found a 'glare gaurd mod' which seems to help but im unsure if this is the route I want to take.

I've also found two sets of Philips bulbs with a proper 'glare sheild?' built in.

This is the first set.
$98 and they claim 80w per bulb and 8000lm per bulb.
They use 5w Philips Lumileds so im assuming there is a combined 20w per low/high section.
WAY oversize pic

This is the second set
As you can see they're a lot more expensive at $180
They use Philips ETI 15w led's and claim 30w and 4-5000lm per side. They also appear to have an external driver/controller.
WAY oversize pic

Can somebody break this down for me? I have a feeling the cheaper ones are over-quoting the output. But are they expensive pair really worth the extra cash? Will I still be happy with the first set?

Moderator Edit
Please reread the CPF Rules and FAQs, including #3

kunausbradyn said:

Hey guys, ive decided I want to try some LED headlights. Ive done a bit of digging and found the following.
I really liked the Opt7 Fluxbeam kit and have read many good reviews but I have discovered they have a problem for scattering light in reflector housings ( which is what my car has).

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Unsafe and illegal junk. They get good reviews because people don't know any better.

Now, I've found a 'glare gaurd mod' which seems to help but im unsure if this is the route I want to take.

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The route you want to take is to return that Opt7 junk for a refund, or just pound it with a hammer for the enjoyment of it.

$98 and they claim 80w per bulb and 8000lm per bulb.

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Unsafe junk. The 8000lm claim is dubious, and failure to produce a safe beam will result anyway.

They use Philips ETI 15w led's and claim 30w and 4-5000lm per side.

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More "Nope". Unsafe, illegal; ineffective. They look *almost* like a genuine Philips product at first glance, but they're not.

Can somebody break this down for me?

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Junk, junk, all junk.

You particularly won't be happy when your car is impounded, or when you get sued after causing a wreck with those things.

You'll have much more luck buying a GENUINE Philips bulb, not products that might be using their LEDs (probably their factory seconds) and are using their logos but not any of their other engineering.

Alaric is right. "LED bulbs" that purport to convert halogen headlamps are a loser at the concept level. They are not safe, not effective, and not legal. The sellers make all kinds of claims for them, none of which are valid. Avoid all of this rubbish and stick to the correct kind of bulb for the lamp: halogen bulbs in halogen lamps, HID bulbs in HID lamps.

Spend what you wanted to spend on the dubious conversions instead, on a decent set of Philips or Osram halogen bulbs, and a professional headlight alignment. You may be surprised at the results. Speaking from experience, Philips Extreme Vision 100's have always been good for me, but there are plenty of quality makers and standards of bulbs to choose from. Oh, and you wont need those ' Glare guards '.
Cheers.

Wow thats not the response I was hoping for, but I do appreciate the honesty!

Ive seen a lot of photos and videos and they seemed alright?
Not to completely disregard everyones advice but has anyone on here actually used them?
Some first hand knowledge would be great.

So assuming I steer off led's, what would be the best halogens available? A nice 5000k would be nice.

Cheers guys

Not sure if my last post went through but I've decided on some decent halogens. Im too worried about the led's being crap.

So, Philips Xtreme vision +130 or Osram nightbreaker unlimited?
Both are getting excellent reviews.
All I've noticed is the Osrams are a bit more white which is definitely what I wanted, they say the Philips are still pretty yellow.

That being said I've had the old nightbreakers in 2 cars before, one was pretty good and the other threw stupid patterns from one side of the car and couldn't be fixed, maybe it was defective?

I wanna try the Philips but I do want clear white light. Any other suggestions?

Cheers

kunausbradyn said:

Wow thats not the response I was hoping for, but I do appreciate the honesty!

Ive seen a lot of photos and videos and they seemed alright?
Not to completely disregard everyones advice but has anyone on here actually used them?
Some first hand knowledge would be great.

So assuming I steer off led's, what would be the best halogens available? A nice 5000k would be nice.

Cheers guys

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I dont think you'll get 5,000kct out of any halogen bulbs, no matter how high a pressure, and fancy inert gas fill, they are. However, i dont think that 4,000 kct is out of the realms of possibility. There are others Waaaaaaay more qualified than me here, that would know about that. I'm sure they will advise you to the best of their knowledge.

Not sure whats going on with my posts, I cant see them...

Anyway I think im going to go Philips.
Do I choose the 3700k Xtreme Vision +130% or the 4300k WhiteVision?

If anyone has used either please let me know!

kunausbradyn said:

Wow thats not the response I was hoping for, but I do appreciate the honesty!

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There are many places on the internet where people who don't know what they're talking about will happily encourage you to spend your money on junk. This is not one of those places.

Ive seen a lot of photos and videos and they seemed alright?

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Photos and videos are useless for assessing the performance of a headlamp or bulb. Cameras do not work the same way as the human eye, so even if the photographer tries their best and doesn't intend to create a misleading image, it's basically impossible. There's a detailed explanation here. And even if we go "live" and have a ride-and-drive with cars equipped with "LED bulbs" in the headlamps, using our human eyes, we still can't get a real sense of how well (poorly) they work. There's no merit to declaring headlamps good or bad based on how well we feel we can see with them when we drive at night. That might seem like a no-BS, common-sense, real-world metric, but it's actually the furthest thing from that. Our human visual system is a very unreliable judge of its own performance. Human beings are not equipped to assess how well we can/can't see. Our subjective impressions on the matter are usually far out of line with the objective, measurable reality of how well we can (or can't) see. It's not that we're deluded or fooling ourselves or telling ourselves lies or anything like that, it's that how well we feel we can see just doesn't match up with how well we really can see.

Not to completely disregard everyones advice but has anyone on here actually used them?
Some first hand knowledge would be great.

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This is like asking "OK, yeah, thanks for the advice...not really what I wanted to hear, because I really wanted to use square wheels...I've seen a lot of people on the internet talking about how well their square wheels, so has anyone here actually used them? First hand knowledge would be great." It is not necessary to try square wheels or "LED bulbs" to know the results are severely, unsafely bad.

So assuming I steer off led's, what would be the best halogens available?

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What kind of vehicle are you driving? It makes a difference. In general, the Philps Xtreme Vision or Osram Night Breaker are the top picks, though there are some applications for which there's an even better option.

A nice 5000k would be nice.

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No, it would not. "Kelvin ratings" are not a measure of a bulb's performance. They (sorta) describe the color of the light. A halogen bulb claiming to produce 5000K light is made with blue glass. The blue glass blocks an enormous amount of the light that would reach the road if the glass weren't blue. There is nothing about the tinted light from such a bulb that improves your ability to see -- in fact, it worsens it. So-called "whiter light" bulbs are a misleading scam, even the name-brand ones (that's a link). Halogen headlamps don't look like HID or LED headlamps when they're operating -- they're not supposed to. That means skipping the "WhiteVision" bulbs, too.

-Virgil- said:

There are many places on the internet where people who don't know what they're talking about will happily encourage you to spend your money on junk. This is not one of those places.

Photos and videos are useless for assessing the performance of a headlamp or bulb.

This is like asking "OK, yeah, thanks for the advice...not really what I wanted to hear, because I really wanted to use square wheels...I've seen a lot of people on the internet talking about how well their square wheels, so has anyone here actually used them? First hand knowledge would be great." It is not necessary to try square wheels or "LED bulbs" to know the results are severely, unsafely bad.

What kind of vehicle are you driving? It makes a difference. In general, the Philps Xtreme Vision or Osram Night Breaker are the top picks, though there are some applications for which there's an even better option.

"Kelvin ratings" are not a measure of a bulb's performance. They (sorta) describe the color of the light. A halogen bulb claiming to produce 5000K light is made with blue glass.

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You take no prisoners do you.
Like I said, I appreciate the advice and IF my previous posts worked you'd see I've dropped the Led idea.

I've also stated I've had blue 5k bulbs and they sucked.

So, bearing in mind i would like white-ish light but without sacrificing performance do I go for the 3700K XtremeVision +130%s or 4300k WhiteVision?

Once again thank you for the help. I must admit I was disappointed to know how bad led bulbs are, but not as much as I would have been if I bought them and they really sucked.

These bulbs are for a friends car I should mention, I've got h.i.ds with retrofitted projector housings in my Bf Xr6. The car these bulbs are for is a Hyundai ix35. Im fairly sure it only has a h4 in each light, no separate high beam.

PS. What are these other applications which there are even better options?
EDIT: Just saw your part about WhiteVision being a scam, looks like they're out.

Basically now im asking for the best 55w halogen bulb available. Apologies in advance!

For what vehicle?

Refer to last post. Hyundai ix35. I'm pretty sure it only has h4s, no separate high beam.

Try to steer clear of bulbs with a heap of blue ' daylight ' filter on them. Even the Xtreme visions have bands of blue, but not actually where it matters. Any sort of filtering is only going to reduce light that the fillament produces, so ideally, to me, a clear glass in a high performance version would be best, if you can find one.The BF would probably benefit from a pro align, as they could be pretty haphazard from the factory ( although not as bad as some AU's were ). I think your White/Crystal/Diamond vision all have full blue coats, and compared to the same bulb without blue, would put less light where it matters. Ask your auto sparkie about the benefits of fitting relays to your low and high beams also, with heavy power wire to the globes. This will ensure the globes are getting their full compliment of volts. Now while this all sounds sweet and light, the performance has to be paid for somewhere, and in the case of high performance bulbs, generally comes in the guise of reduced lifespan of the globes. Solution?, keep a spare pair of globes in the shed, and replace as a pair when the time comes.

kunausbradyn said:

Wow thats not the response I was hoping for, but I do appreciate the honesty!

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It's what we do.

Ive seen a lot of photos and videos and they seemed alright?

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I suppose you have, and I suppose they did. But photos and videos just don't/can't/won't tell us everything we need to know about these things.

Not to completely disregard everyones advice but has anyone on here actually used them?

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Those of us with knowledge of optics (beyond the simple "angle of incidence=angle of reflection" which strangely still eludes some people) don't *need* to use them to know they are bogus. Those of us with knowledge of vehicle lighting design and regulations don't *need* to use them to know they are bogus. (For example, a bulb designed to replace an H4 legally would have to match the H4 in output, not be three or four times the H4's output!)

Does a medical doctor actually have to have used a particular medicine to be qualified to prescribe it? Would a medical doctor have to have purposefully inhaled mercury vapor to be qualified to proscribe it? Why would we need to have used a particular light ourselves in order to prescribe or proscribe it?

So assuming I steer off led's, what would be the best halogens available? A nice 5000k would be nice.

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The Philips X-Treme Vision +100 is my pick-- the +130 has better low beam performance but poorer high beam performance.

5000K in a halogen bulb is an impossibility without deeply tinting the glass, which costs you substantial light output.

You have six posts in this thread; they're not disappearing. Here are samples from the five replies you've made (obviously you know we saw your very first post):

kunausbradyn said:

Wow thats not the response I was hoping for, but I do appreciate the honesty!

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Your first reply (second post in this thread).

kunausbradyn said:

Not sure if my last post went through

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Your third post in this thread.

kunausbradyn said:

Not sure whats going on with my posts, I cant see them...

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This is your fourth post. We can see them.

kunausbradyn said:

You take no prisoners do you.

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From your fifth post in the thread.

kunausbradyn said:

Refer to last post. Hyundai ix35.

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From your sixth post in the thread.

May be a browser or browser plug-in issue.

kunausbradyn said:

Refer to last post. Hyundai ix35. I'm pretty sure it only has h4s, no separate high beam.

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Then I would get the phillips +130 extreme visions here
Make sure you have OEM headlamps in good condition
Make sure they are aimed correctly as described here, or by a professional with an optical headlamp aligner
Make sure you have full voltage using the process described here.

Thanks guys, I think I'm going to go with the Philips +130s.
And I apologize for the many extra posts!
Im on tapatalk on my phone and normally its pretty good but it must have had a hiccup.

kunausbradyn said:

Thanks guys, I think I'm going to go with the Philips +130s.
And I apologize for the many extra posts!
Im on tapatalk on my phone and normally its pretty good but it must have had a hiccup.

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EDIT: I cant buy off amazon as im in Australia, but we do have said bulbs locally. I appreciate all the help

I noticed these H4s on Amazon, so I thought I'd try to link them here. Seem to be legitimate LEDs?

"Legitimate" is a slippery word here. Those Philips "LED4" bulbs work somewhat acceptably in some H4 headlamps. Not all, not most, and not a predictable class or type or group. They're not legal in any headlamp, and even in headlamps they work OK in, you can get better performance out of a well-chosen halogen bulb. Please see this thread and the other threads linked within it.