Overwattage H2 Bulb in a Halogen Fog Light

Hartland

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Dec 31, 2012
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I am about to mount a pair of Cibie 175 Fog lights on my pickup and need to buy the H2 bulbs. Narva has both 55 watt and 100 watt bulbs. I'm sure there would be shorter life on the 100 watt bulbs but I would rarely have the fogs on so that wouldn't concern me. Are there other down sides to the 100 watt bulbs? (I have heavy gauge wires and relays.)
 

alpg88

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Apr 19, 2005
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i think installing 100w lamp you'll defeat the purpose of the fog lights.
 

Alaric Darconville

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Sep 2, 2001
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Stillwater, America
I am about to mount a pair of Cibie 175 Fog lights on my pickup and need to buy the H2 bulbs. Narva has both 55 watt and 100 watt bulbs. I'm sure there would be shorter life on the 100 watt bulbs but I would rarely have the fogs on so that wouldn't concern me. Are there other down sides to the 100 watt bulbs? (I have heavy gauge wires and relays.)
The beam focus will be incredibly poor with those 100W bulbs. Fog lamps don't need to be particularly bright, they need to have excellent beam focus. A less-well-focused beam, combined with all the extra light, means you may be making your fog driving experience considerably worse.
 

-Virgil-

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Mar 26, 2004
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It's not worth it. The 55w H2 already puts out over 1800 lumens, which is close to the amount of light produced by a 100w version of other bulb types like H3 and H1. The 55w H2 also has a short life as it is, and the 100w version is really short. Also the amount of heat produced by the 100w H2 will dramatically shorten the useful life of the lamp's reflectors. And that's all before we even get around to 100w bulbs being contraindicated in fog lamps in general.
 

Hamilton Felix

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Jan 2, 2010
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Marblemount, WA, USA
Having owned a number of Cibie H2 lamps in the past and used quite a few 100 watt H2 bulbs, allow me to add that the 100 watt H2s will cook the delicate bulb holders more quickly.
 

irsa76

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Feb 20, 2008
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Australia
Not just Cibie H2 bulb holders, I cooked the reflectors and bulb holders on my Oscar SCs running 100w bulbs. I've gone well away from over wattage globes these days, didn't even bother upgrading the Hella rallye 1000s from 55 w.
 
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