Main Beam Bulbs Upgrade

[LPGJOE]

Ok guys someone must have upgraded their Main Beam head light bulbs, my dipped beam lights are the Blue colour but main beam are white Would like to upgrade to the blue light , better for where i live, What is fitted are (H9 65w,) What wattage can i safely go to ? 06 W221 S class.

 

[flowrider]

I'm assuming you have halogen bulbs so you need Osram Nightbreaker Unlimited bulbs.

 

[Larkone]

+1 For the Osrams
65watts is the maximum you are allowed
White bulbs will give you the best light, not blue and anything over 4200K is illegal anyway.

 

[Gazwould]

Which makes this confusing .

Road legal E13 marked .

I wouldn't worry about a white / bluer light in the main as plenty of light output , dipped , yes .

 

[joderest]

be careful, some MOT testers fail cars if showing blue light to front.
It may be legal to sell them but not to use them.
The get out clause is " for off road use only"

 

[Larkone]

Which makes this confusing .

Road legal E13 marked .

I wouldn't worry about a white / bluer light in the main as plenty of light output , dipped , yes .

So not a Chinese brand illegally marking products as officially approved then?

 

[LostKiwi]

So not a Chinese brand illegally marking products as officially approved then?

Without knowing the colour temperature of the light it's impossible to say.
Often a blue filter is fitted to make the light appear more white as blue blocks yellow light, however the use of any filter also reduces light output.
The human eye is more sensitive to yellow light than blue. Blue also scatters more due to diffraction and is the primary wavelength responsible for glare. Colour temps of 3700 to 4200 are optimal for the human eye.

 

[Larkone]

Without knowing the colour temperature of the light it's impossible to say.
Often a blue filter is fitted to make the light appear more white as blue blocks yellow light, however the use of any filter also reduces light output.
The human eye is more sensitive to yellow light than blue. Blue also scatters more due to diffraction and is the primary wavelength responsible for glare. Colour temps of 3700 to 4200 are optimal for the human eye.

It says 5000K on the box

 

[Gazwould]

This is what they really look like .

 

[LostKiwi]

It says 5000K on the box

At 5000k they'd be legal but pretty dim I'd imagine. The amount of filtering required will be significant.
An incandescent bulb will naturally be between 3500 and 4000K.

 

[LPGJOE]

This is what they really look like .


View attachment 63400

Will send photo of my headlights later my dipped lights show a blueish colour, main beam is white,

 

[davemercedes]

Definitely +1 for Nightbreaker. I first heard of these through the MB Forum (I think it was Lost Kiwi told me) and they're very good. If you shop around via Amazon or FleaBay they don't need to cost the earth. I learnt about these from the Forum (I think it was Lost Kiwi who put me wise) and at the time I had some "ordinary" spares so I did a comparsion with odd bulbs and the difference is actually remarkable.

btw: I suspect that the blue tint in the blue bulbs actually reduces the amount of bright light you get - just like yellow bulbs for fog (where it's proven with most of them that the real benefit of the yellow tint is it makes the bulb give off less brightness so you get less dazzling reflection back).

Anyway - go for Nightbreaker, you really can't go wrong!

 

[Gazwould]

People are deviating away from the OP's brief !

He requires a MAIN beam H9 bulb and "Would like to upgrade to the blue light" that his dipped has whatever he has in there LED / HID ?


Nighbreakers are 3800K at best and won't even be white let alone a tinge of blue .


A road legal 5000K halogen with a totally blue glass has no light output issue when used as MAIN as it's a bright as... , dipped yes I agree .

 

[Craiglxviii]

Quite simple.

You won’t notice the colour temperature differential of high beam lamps vs dipped beam. You will between sidelight/ DRL and dipped but that’s not important right now- and don’t call me Shirley.

The consistently brightest lamps in any form factor are Osram Nightbreaker Unlimited.

Job jobbed.

 

[Gazwould]

He's not after the brightest bulbs , I hope no one has had difficulty seeing the road with stock halogen main beams .

Dipped is a different story .

 

[Gazwould]

I would also consider the aesthetics , a bulb with any portion of blue glass let alone full will look like a ginger in a playground in a reflector housing .

In a projector housing with it's thick lense you don't get to see anything so you can stick anything you like in there .

My other car's mains were reflector so I left them stock preferring the aesthetics of clear glass against mirror .

 

[LostKiwi]

I'm very much function over form.
Go bright or go home.

 

[Gazwould]

Brightness isn't a factor for main beam , stock is perfectly fine , if not it's a Specsavers voucher .

No argument about halogen dipped , go bright .

 

[LostKiwi]

I disagree. If I'm changing bulbs I want all of them bright. I've driven on high beam in places where the extra light is extremely useful.
That's one reason why my 210 has the same bulbs in all headlights. Ditto the Smart Roadster.

 

[Gazwould]

Specsavers it is..