Have i been ripped off

lard44

Watching C beams...
Apr 30, 2007
474
0
Braintree, Essex
Depends what you were expecting mate - you're not going to get HID intensity for £5.99.

They might be a bit brighter than standard and will cast a blue-ish tint but you won't being seeing around corners, behind trees and down girl's blouses with them.
 

andycupra

status subject to change
not in my opinion.
you either have a lack of understanding what xenons are.
or have been silly expecting something for nothing :(

this bit is fairly clear:
"they also cast a blue tinted light giving the appearence of an expensive HID system"
 

lc_allan

Northern Monkey
Sep 15, 2006
3,389
4
I was also gonna say for £9 all in, I wouldn't have thought you'd get a good output. If they worked at all I'd be happy :)
 

tomp

Guest
Sorry I thyought there were 3 typers of bulbs that you could get: 1. Halogen, 2. HID xenon and 3. Xenon bulbs that replace oridinary bulbs without any changes to the wiring.

I thought I was buying the third type.

I am I wrong, or is the third type just advertised as xenon and is actually another type of Halogen?
 

Craig Senior

I've been Tango'd
May 24, 2004
1,099
0
Yorkshire
Sorry I thyought there were 3 typers of bulbs that you could get: 1. Halogen, 2. HID xenon and 3. Xenon bulbs that replace oridinary bulbs without any changes to the wiring.

I thought I was buying the third type.

I am I wrong, or is the third type just advertised as xenon and is actually another type of Halogen?

Third type is what you usually see discribed as "Xenon look" or "Xenon style", just Halogen bulbs with a blue tint so they look like Xenon.
 

tomp

Guest
So there is no such thing as a Xenon bulb that you can just plug in and use (as on the adverts on ebay), xenon only works with a HID system.
 

Fl@pper

Back older greyer and less oilier but always hope
Jun 19, 2001
12,368
25
Gloucester
you got a pair of bulbs for the £9 ?

you didnt get an anything up to £150 hid kit for the £9

so i guess not - no you weren't
 

andycupra

status subject to change
So there is no such thing as a Xenon bulb that you can just plug in and use (as on the adverts on ebay), xenon only works with a HID system.

i believe there are:

1 standard type bulbs, (mostly halogen) K rating of around 1800 so a slightly yellow light.

2 HIDs (high intensity discharge) can be refered to as xenons and these tend to have a trademark or having a blue tint to the light to oncoming fraffic. 4-8000 k so white to slightly blue in colour. should be 4-5000k

3 Xenon effect bulbs which are ordinary bulbs but with a blue tint to the glass the give the impression of xenon technology

4 Xenon gas bulbs. These are standard bulbs, IE not HIDs, but have Xenon gas within the bulb which allow them to burn brighter and whiter?
 
Last edited:

ChrisG

Full Member
Apr 22, 2002
426
1
Hants
So there is no such thing as a Xenon bulb that you can just plug in and use (as on the adverts on ebay), xenon only works with a HID system.

You need to remember that Xenon is just a gas, its not a headlight design.

You can have Xenon gas in "normal" bulbs that are direct replacements for existing (halogen - another gas) bulbs, and you can have Xenon gas in HID type bulbs. Xenon gas in normal bulbs sometimes gives you a bit better performance than Halogen equivalents, but its not comparable to HID even though that also uses Xenon gas.

I can't view the Ebay link here at work but in general, the problem is "Xenon's" is/was a popularly used name for HIDs, so by mentioning Xenon in the advert the sellers are perhaps playing on that misconception and hoping that people think they're HIDs or going to be as good as HIDs, but in reality as long as what they're selling actually use Xenon gas, or they're only saying "Xenon-like" they're not mis-selling anything, its simply down to the buyer's lack of knowledge Im afraid.
 
Last edited:

Fl@pper

Back older greyer and less oilier but always hope
Jun 19, 2001
12,368
25
Gloucester
xenon is the gas in the bulb and produces a whiter light than halogen which uses a glowing heated filament to produce light

as Andy says refferred to usually as Xenon look/style and 9/10 just a blue glass to filter yellow light out and appear whiter and from experience ends up dimmer than standard lights to be honest

HID - High Intensity Discharge - is different as it uses a different stronger style bulb containing gas still but works off an arcing to ignite the metal inside and the power for the arc coems from a seperate ballast unit to build up the ooomph to light em up so to speak

halogen is quick easy to produce and cheap

HID is expensive due to its configuration but is effectively 3 times brighter, uses less power and due to it's operation inherently more reliable
 

Fl@pper

Back older greyer and less oilier but always hope
Jun 19, 2001
12,368
25
Gloucester
worth noting also before getting a HID kit

the rating 4000k,6000k is actually a measurement for degress kelvin and is related to the COLOUR not the POWER output

needless to say the higher the number the more colour and less white you are using and therefore the less brightness 5000k is when it starts to turn to blue daylight

personally 4000k is sweet in my eyes 6000k for a bit of blue and 8000k to stand out from the crowd
 

tomp

Guest
Just done some reasearch and I think I'm clear now...
There are Halogen lights.
There are Xenon HID lights.
And there are Halogen lights that have some Xenon gas in them. These are brighter than the standard Halogen lights but no where near as bright as the HID lights.

Is this right?
 

Fl@pper

Back older greyer and less oilier but always hope
Jun 19, 2001
12,368
25
Gloucester
Just done some reasearch and I think I'm clear now...
There are Halogen lights.
There are Xenon HID lights.
And there are Halogen lights that have some Xenon gas in them. These are brighter than the standard Halogen lights but no where near as bright as the HID lights.

Is this right?

couldnt put it simpler - yes
 
Chris Knott Insurance - Competitive quotes for forum members