Hella Xenon Blue 9007 headlights

[Jimmy9190]

I don't want to get into a "why are you trying to blind other drivers" discussion here. I have been researching the Hella Blue Xenon for my truck, it takes a 9007 bulb. I am just wondering if anyone here has tried these bulbs and if so how was it? Was it any better or brighter, were you able to see further with it than your other bulbs?

I am not interested in shining my headlights ten miles down the road, and I do not want to use any bulb that might blind oncoming drivers. However I do need a bulb that will be either brighter and/or whiter up front in my field of vision. Around where I live, even in town it is really dark at night and it seems to be even darker in winter. The town does not have nearly enough street lights and in some areas it is literally pitch black dark.

I have had a set of Sylvania Xtravison 9007 on my truck for the last 6 months now. The light is a bit on the yellow side but has been adequate I guess, a little better than OEM. What made me look into the Hella's is I added a set of driving lights to my truck yesterday, they are the cheapie Baja Tough lights from AAP. The lenses on them are blue, and the light they put out is very bright, a nice white tint to it. They work great at lighting up the sides of the road and in front of my truck but now I have blue-tint driving light beams mixed with a yellow tint headlight beam. And no, that doesn't mix to form a green light beam either... I just wonder if I added a blue tint headlight like the Hella's would I be able to see better at night?

Not looking to start a war here, just kind of looking for opinions on the Hella's or if anyone knows of another bulb that might go better with the new blue-tint driving lights. I read the reviews on Amazon.com, they were all mixed, about half said they were good and half said they were bad. With the latest discount code from AAP (EMDFM for $20.00 off $50.00 purchase) I can get a set of these Hella's (and a roll of $1.69 electrical tape to bring my order total over $50.00) for 32 bucks and pick them up in the store.

Any info is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[bepperb]

Those are just blue tinted halogen bulbs. You're not going to blind anyone with them, and really they will have less light output (because of the tint) than a regular bulb. But, some people seem to prefer the blue.

 

[SubyRoo]

Have you looked at the cool blue light thats sylvania has? According to their chart they are about the same as the xtravision just blue in color. I have used the silverstars before and they worked very well and have a slightly blue tint to them. The only problem is they dont last nearly as long as a standard bulb.

 

[Smokescreen]

A stock OEM 9007 will have greater usable lumen output than a 9007 blue tinted bulb.

 

[Jimmy9190]

Thanks for all the info here. I bought a set of the Hella Xenon Blue lights at AAP today after work. I used the discount code and paid for them online before I left the office and picked them up on my way home. AAP lists the Sylvania Cool Blue lights on their website but the store did not have any in the shelf. Autozone does not list them on their site at all. I had to stop at Walmart tonight too, no Cool Blues there either. If I could have found a set I might have bought them, they look about the same as the Hella's. With the discount code the price difference was only about 6 bucks anyway.

I think these Hella's may be what I need. If not, I can return them to AAP and keep looking. I will post back here after I install the lights tomorrow and see how they perform tomorrow night.

Thanks for all the help here.

 

[97prizm]

I purchased a set online years ago when it was the "in thing" for high school kids to have. I opted for the 80 watt bulbs, and even then hella unfortunately added more blue, which didn't make any improvement. Philips makes a really high output bulb that is whiter than normal but much brighter. Osram also makes the "Nightbreaker" bulb that is slightly more blue but has far higher luminous output than the Hella blue bulb.

 

[lyle]

Quote:
However I do need a bulb that will be either brighter and/or whiter up front in my field of vision.


Since you already bought the Hella's, this recommendation is moot. For a 9007 application, the Philips Extreme Power +80's cannot be beat. They are not "whiter", but they are brighter and they are 100% legal.

 

[Jimmy9190]

I did a lot of research on the Hella bulbs before buying them. There are a lot of bulbs out there and with each one, some people get great results and love them and some get bad results and hate them.

I think at least in my situation I am going to have to buy and try bulbs until I find one I like that does the best job. I have Sylvania Xtravison right now. Before I bought them I read some good reviews on them, some bad, most were good so I bought a set at Walmart for $19.00. They are only slightly better than OEM bulbs, and they have a bad yellow tint to them.

I have used Silverstar Ultra's before and they were pretty good and worked well with the Pilot factory-replacement type driving lights I had. I was in a wreck back in March and the body shop lied to me and said the at-fault driver's Allstate insurance would not pay to replace my aftermarket driving lights. So they put on a bumper cover that did not have driving light holes in it. Around here, you need driving lights, it's very dark at night.

Before the wreck in March, I had a set of Night Hawks that were very good. I had bought those about 4 years ago, they were good but then I read and heard about Silverstar Ultra's and I bought a set of those which were better and somewhat brighter than the Night Hawks. The Silverstar Ultra's lasted about 2 1/2 years, and when one finally burned out I just installed the old Night Hawks I had saved instead of returning them to the store. I had the Night Hawks in my headlights when the wreck happened. The body shop replaced one light assembly and it came with a pretty bad OEM bulb. The lights didn't look good then either so that was when I researched and bought the Xtravision bulbs.

Before I bought my $29.95 el cheapo Baja Tough driving lights from AAP, I researched those too, and it was the same as headlight bulbs-some loved them, and a lot of people said they hated them. I installed them last weekend and they are great, they are a lot brighter and put out about 5 times more useable light as the $120.00 Pilot OEM replacement driving lights that I had before. They also shine further to the side of the road, which helps me a lot.

I bought these Hella's because the Xtravisons' yellow-tinted light does not mix well or look good with the blue tint light from the driving lights. If the Hella's don't do well I will return them to AAP and keep looking for better bulbs.

I really think this is going to be a buy-and-try situation.

 

[Seguino]

"White" light is a mix of all the colors of the spectrum. Halogen bulbs do not have a lot of blue in the mix but a lot of yellow which is why they look yellowish. If you put a blue coating (which blocks the yellow) on the bulb, they will look "whiter" but they will NOT be brighter. The manufacturers have to boost the output of the filament just to meet the minimum legal light output of the bulb, sacrificing longevity in the process. Whiteness and brightness are not the same. Blue coated bulbs will never, ever, help you see better than uncoated bulbs.
I second lyle's recommendation of the X-treme power. I think Candlepowerinc even has them on sale right now.
Happy motoring.

 

[Jimmy9190]

I just got back from my test drive. The Hella's are definitely a whiter light, they seem to be a bit brighter than the Xtravisions were and they shine a little further down the road. They seem to be right about the same as the old Silverstar Ultra's I had a couple of years ago.

The Hella's did very well with the driving lights on too. With the driving lights and headlights on it's nice and bright and I can see in front of my truck a lot better and I can see a bit further than I did with the yellowish Xtravisions without any driving lights.

With this setup I can also see off to the sides of the road a lot better, which is very important here where it is just plain pitch black dark on some streets at night. No one flashed their lights at me so I don't think my lights are bright enough to blind anyone, and that's a good thing.

For the $60.00 total I spent on these lights, this light combination is plenty good enough for me, and to my eyes it's much better than what I had before.