# HIR Bulbs



## larryk (Nov 8, 2004)

Anyone have any experience with the new HIR bulbs ?
They look promising if they start making them with more 
bulb types. Larry.

http://www.hirheadlights.com./


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## iddibhai (Nov 8, 2004)

wonderful idea in 9006/5 headlamps so long as they have good glare control, very popular mod among the US-Spec older BMWs that had projector headlamps.


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## cheesehead (Nov 8, 2004)

I think they also have them for aircraft landing lights (100 watts or so, but as a whole lamp and reflector), it's a great idea, but still, it's no HID for efficiency.

Glare control? This is CPF forum, I want glare. Eh, I know what you're saying, they wouldn't necessarily be good for cars. But for a spotlight, they would be useful.


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## iddibhai (Nov 8, 2004)

i dunno if "glare" would be useful in a spotlight, since anything that isn't going where it needs to go is glare, right? it's all about control.


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## cheesehead (Nov 8, 2004)

Hmm, good point, I was thinking of car lights and they ruin output in order to reduce glare.


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## iddibhai (Nov 9, 2004)

they dont ruin output in anyway, just control stray light. check out any late model audi w/ projector headlamps, HID or incandescent. they have world class lighting, and little glare. ditto 05 LS430. then check out, say, the newest nissan maxima, HID, projectors, but horrible. they all put put about the same 3200lms, but vastly diffferent in how they do it. it costs money to do it well, or you can do it cheap and ruin output. cost, glare and output, pick any two.


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## Draco_Americanus (Nov 9, 2004)

I belive that "Silver Star" bulbs operate about the same way and are 10 bucks each cheaper. The gain with silver stars does not seem to be as much as what is clamed for the HIR bulbs but they are noticeable.


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## iddibhai (Nov 9, 2004)

DA, can you clarify what you mean by SS? Osram SS or Sylvania SS. two very different beasts.

a moot point however, given that either SS are nowhere near the output or life of the HIR lamps, which in 9006 application produce 1700 lumens for 1000hrs (vs 900lm/<200hr for SylSS and 1150/~500hrs for OsrSS)


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## cheesehead (Nov 9, 2004)

All car lights are regulated by law not to have "too much" output. They have to diffuse the light and also have a tight cut-off. You put that same bulb in a simple Thor reflector and throw and overall output is much better, much better than an Audi's reflector. An off-road light has no legal restrictions and they are all much brighter than any street legal HID set-up. HID's advantage to car manufactures is that they can use a smaller reflector and that gives them better design options. But they are limited in how much "output" they can have. So, I would disagree, car headlight assemblies will never have the smooth clean focused beam (i.e. throw) of a parabolic reflector (they just are not allowed to). Glare is greater in these set-ups and thus they are not street legal.


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## PeLu (Nov 10, 2004)

Edit Nov. 22nd: ´Data on webpage is corrected now.

I'm quoting their webpage:

[ QUOTE ]
These HIR bulbs give you 49 percent more light from your high beam units and 88 percent more from your low beams. 

If your high beams are wired to stay on with your low beams .... you can realize a grand total of 137 percent more light. 

[/ QUOTE ]

I usually rate companies/websites how accurate their technical data is and if they use the correct units (and have been quite successful with it the last decades). 

Therefore I think, all the other might be as believeable as the statement above. 
It is as wrong as mixing a 43% and a 61% Whisky and getting a 104% one. 

Just my opinion.


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## mweiss (Nov 10, 2004)

Anyone know if they are releasing a 9007 bulb in HIR technology? My 98 Ford Explorer has the worst lights in existence. Even with Phillips XtraVision bulbs, it's still painfully-dim and downright dangerous on rainy nights.


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## iddibhai (Nov 10, 2004)

HIR are only availble for single-filament lamps (9005/6) since they'd need the IR coating to reflect back over a specific region, the 9007 is a single lamp w/ both high and lows /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif if they have the same car in EU markets, you could browse, say ebay uk or de and find ece-spec headlamps and fit them in yourself.


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## Ginseng (Nov 10, 2004)

Hmm,

Sounds an awful lot like Osram's IRC technology. The bulbs even have the same roughly spherical capsule shape. Osram tout the same benefit, the same light output at a lower power consumption. Thus, the same power should result in more llight.

I imagine the same thing could be achieved by mounting an Osram 64447IRC in a 9004/9007/9003...adapter.

Wilkey


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## Draco_Americanus (Nov 10, 2004)

[ QUOTE ]
*iddibhai said:*
DA, can you clarify what you mean by SS? Osram SS or Sylvania SS. two very different beasts.

a moot point however, given that either SS are nowhere near the output or life of the HIR lamps, which in 9006 application produce 1700 lumens for 1000hrs (vs 900lm/<200hr for SylSS and 1150/~500hrs for OsrSS) 

[/ QUOTE ]

The Sylvania SS are the only ones I have experance with. I was not aware of any other brands of them. 
I ordered some of the HIR lamps mentioned here, If I don't like them I will be shure to post a Rant, if I like them I'll allso post a Rave as well. 
I have sylvania SS on My jeep and have been happy with them as it was better then stock but not by mutch. I will try these bulbs in My buick as a replacement upgrade to the high beams only. I am installing HID bi-xenon projectors to replace the stock low beam lights, these will also function as high beam as they have a shutter that drops out of the way for high beam operation. The stock lights on a buick regal just plain suck, the way I am modding them should make a better beam pattren, be brighter and have low glare.


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## larryk (Nov 10, 2004)

There is someone selling them on Ebay, both high and low beams.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7933053328&category=33710&sspagename=WDVW


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## Draco_Americanus (Nov 10, 2004)

Thats who I ordered them from. hopefully they will arive safely


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## MaxLumens (Nov 20, 2004)

Hi. Sorry about the inaccuracies on the web page; they've been corrected now. Anything you see on our web sites is the result of my wife's (and mine) slow process of learning Dreamweaver. When she posted that info, she clearly had some errors regarding the light output of the bulbs and the percentage improvement. We'll get it right eventually.

Here is the sum total of all my testing of the HIR bulbs compared to others. I pulled the Osram 9005 and 9006 bulbs out of my old BMW 735i. I hooked them up to a fully charged Interstate battery on my basement bench. There was a ruler there for distance consistency, and I measured naked bulbs, not in housings or reflectors, at 50cm/ 18". The light meter I have is an old GE that reads in "foot candles". Whether or not this is a system now in popular use I don't know; I was only interested in relative values for comparison, which I'm reasonably confident this meter can deliver. 

The Osrams measured 20 and 30 on the meter. The HIRs measured 35 and 65. By my logic, this represents a 75% increase for the 9012 lo beam and a 117% increase for the hi beam. The Osrams together put out 50 units; the HIRs together put out 100 units. Ergo, the HIRs are 100% brighter, or twice as bright. 

I put four 9011s in a neighbor's car last week. It's a '96 Lincoln Mark VIII, which has four 9005s stock. He had 2 different replacement upgrade bulbs in the car, US made Sylvania Silverstars and some unbranded bulbs marked only 12V 100W. They were both tinted blue to varying extents.
Just for grins, we tested them the same way as the Osrams. These hi-beam bulbs put out 33 and 35 units for the Sylvanias and 29 and 32 units for the no-names. He was the one who realized that his old hi-beams were not as bright as the HIR low beams. 

I would certainly welcome anyone else's input or test results. My decision to sell these things grew out of a group buy for owners of BMW 8 series cars, which have the sorriest lights in Christendom. The improvement in these cars is phenomenal. 

BTW, I was in Linz a few years ago, nice town. I was trying to drive up to Cesky Krumlov, but your police had closed the border in a dispute over the Czech nuclear plant. I'll try again sometime.


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## Draco_Americanus (Nov 22, 2004)

Well I got My HIR bulbs. I bought the highbeam version and found they did not quite fit into My housings to My buick regal but a slight amount of grinding fixed that. 
Now that I have been useing them for a week or so I find they are around 20% brighter in My housings and seem to be better focused then the stock beams where. I like the higher color temp as that seems to reflect off of sighns and reflective markings a lot better and they will match the HID lowbeam section once I get that mod installed. I did take pictures but I don't know how well they will show up. I will try to post them later.


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## PeLu (Nov 23, 2004)

[ QUOTE ]
*MaxLumens said:*
Hi. Sorry about the inaccuracies on the web page; they've been corrected now. 

[/ QUOTE ]
Thanks for doing that. Further, you could have made the test from more than one direction, trying all thre axis. Should not be much of a problem (and looks much more professional .-)

[ QUOTE ]
was trying to drive up to Cesky Krumlov, but your police had closed the border in a dispute over the Czech nuclear plant.

[/ QUOTE ]

As off topic as it could be (so please beat me moderators!) 
It was not the police closing the border (this is Austria!), the police helped you not getting stuck at the demonstartors. We could discuss this and others at a beer when you are around.


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