whats up with blue coated "ricer" bulbs in flashlights?

[snakebite]

a neighbor was going to toss a coleman widebeam combo with leaked batteries and gave it to me.
it cleaned up nice.
why waste light with the blue coated bulb?
i hear on car bulbs this blue stuff causes upwards of 20% loss!
odd they would take a phillips hpx bulb and coat it.
i stripped it with carb cleaner and its much brighter now.

 

[Probedude]

a neighbor was going to toss a coleman widebeam combo with leaked batteries and gave it to me.
it cleaned up nice.
why waste light with the blue coated bulb?
i hear on car bulbs this blue stuff causes upwards of 20% loss!
odd they would take a phillips hpx bulb and coat it.
i stripped it with carb cleaner and its much brighter now.

Same reason they ruby coat optics on cheap binoculars - "fluff" sells.

 

[mdocod]

By filtering out lower color temperatures, they can sort-of semi get-a-way with some bogus marketing. Big numbers followed by the letter "K" seems to have a positive effect on sales when the target consumer has no desire to put for the effort to become educated on the subject of light, or light producing devices. CPF resembles one of those small crowds of people who, in time, become remarkably well informed about these illuminatory matters.

 

[snakebite]

yes a neighbor who mods car lights saw me outside spraying carb cleaner on the blue bulb.
what are you doing?
improving its output!
got a strange look from him.
i have some blue ricer car headlight bulbs i wish i could strip.
carb cleaner wont touch them.

 

[pertinax]

Because they wish they had HID headlights, but don't. They rock if you do have them.

 

[Patriot]

yes a neighbor who mods car lights saw me outside spraying carb cleaner on the blue bulb.
what are you doing?
improving its output!
got a strange look from him.

Sounds like he needs to be referred to CPF.

 

[aussiebob]

Because they wish they had HID headlights, but don't. They rock if you do have them.

There wannabee HID's those blue 'ricer' bulbs, whats ricer mean anyways?

 

[Hallis]

I like a color temp of about 6000k for HID's. I know i lose output but i like the beam color personally. That being said I have NEVER ran those blue colored cheap bulbs in a car. The only change from OEM equipment I ever made was to swap out my incandescant housings for factory optional HID housings with bulbs/ballasts in my WRX. That was the most worthwhile upgrade i ever did to that car.

 

[Stereodude]

whats ricer mean anyways?

It's a derogatory term applied to the stereotypical modified import car (like a Honda Civic) that's got a bunch of "for show" mods (like neon, coffee can exhaust, loud stereo with subs, LCD TV's carbon fiber body panels, park bench wing, improperly lowered with cut springs, big heavy rims, etc), but still had the stock 95HP motor and is dog slow. All show and no go.

PS: They like the blue bulb headlights so they can pretend they have HID headlights

 

[Flashlight Aficionado]

It's a derogatory term applied to the stereotypical modified import car (like a Honda Civic) ... but still had the stock 95HP motor and is dog slow. All show and no go.

So instead of racer (race car) and since it's from a country known for eating mostly rice, combine the two and you got "ricer" Correct?

 

[IcantC]

So instead of racer (race car) and since it's from a country known for eating mostly rice, combine the two and you got "ricer" Correct?

Not really, ricer has become very wide spread use.
1) Some will use if for any import car, as long as it is not American. Could be a Honda or a Subaru. Doesn't matter if it is nice, fast or tacky. To some modded import is a ricer.

2) Ricer is a badly modified car, examples are loud huge mufflers with a park bench on the trunk . Some still refer to ill modded American cars as ricers as well.

 

[Stereodude]

So instead of racer (race car) and since it's from a country known for eating mostly rice, combine the two and you got "ricer" Correct?

Something like that, but there are domestic ricers too. European cars can be riced too.

 

[Flashlight Aficionado]

IcantC - Thanks. Too bad. My definition made perfect sense. We all know what makes sense, isn't always the right answer. :thinking:

 

[ampdude]

You see those blue bulbs all over the auto lamps section, hilarious! The funniest thing is the kids who buy them.

 

[aussiebob]

You see those blue bulbs all over the auto lamps section, hilarious! The funniest thing is the kids who buy them.

Hey im one of those kids, in my first car i got some nasty blue vision H4 110/90 watts which were labled like crystal vision or some crap.
They had such nasty green tint and had pethetic output, the old 55/60 watt globes were streets better.

 

[stitch_paradox]

sorry off topic but I just have to add this:

Rice car! ... ere race car?

not all are aisans though:

dodge spirit

VW Jetta

Ford Probe

87 Volvo.

 

[Yoda4561]

LOL, I love the writing on the hood of that top car.

 

[redsfairlane]

I love the tach facing forward,

 

[ambientmind]

Hey im one of those kids, in my first car i got some nasty blue vision H4 110/90 watts which were labled like crystal vision or some crap.
They had such nasty green tint and had pethetic output, the old 55/60 watt globes were streets better.

I was one of them too, until I learned my lesson! I put many of those bulbs into my old car (a '95 altima) until I sold it. Now my new truck, an '05 Frontier has wonderful HIDs on it. Most of those blue bulbs are garbage except for the PIAAs. At least the high end ones. They were the only stock wattage bulbs that actually did anything for me. The higher wattage ones were brighter, but melted my stock harness. So thats no good. The PIAAs were "plasma spark" or something and actually had a nice color and output to them. Almost a neutral tint about 5000k. I think they are rated higher than that, but those were my favorites. Until that is, I put HIDs in my truck. I went with 6000k, but now wish I had gone with the 4300k or 5000k for better color rendering and more output. Wow, that was a lot of rambling sorry.

 

[ampdude]

Reminds me of the old BeaterZ.com website.