turborich said:
What is a HIR bulb? I haven't heard of that term before. Thanks.
THE BEST ALTERNATIVE TO HID
Want to get great illumination without extra heat, wiring upgrades, relays, transformers, and blue tint? Want to SEE better at night instead of HEARING a bunch of dubious chatter about xenon-filled, over-wattage, blue-tinted bling-bling bulbs that are supposedly "just like HIDs"? Want a bulb where you could create a simple swap into a 9005 or 9006 socket and maintain the correct filament placement for a perfect light pattern, instead of causing glare and scattered, diffused light? Want to save hundreds of dollars over the cost of retrofitting an illegal, bootleg HID system? Then you want these Halogen Infrared Reflecting bulbs. tting bulbs.
These Toshiba bulbs are a unique product, the only bulbs available that use the research technology that General Electric patented in 2000 (patent number 6,087,775). It was GE's goal to create a bulb that produced 75% of the light output of HID headlights at 25% of the cost. GE sells HIR bulbs for residential lighting and specialized projectors, but decided to stay out of the automotive market and licensed this technology to a division of Toshiba. In fact, Toshiba and GE are among the few companies in the world with the expertise to engineer and build this product. These bulbs attain light levels 75% to 110% brighter than stock as a result of an engineering process that deposits multiple, yet almost invisible, layers of semi-reflective coating on the surface of a specially shaped quartz bulb. This coating ( a titania/silica, zinc oxide/silica, zirconia/silica, silicon nitride/silica, and titania/magnesium fluoride tantalam/silica multi-layer dielectric, according to the patent) reflects a portion of the infrared energy emitted by the filament back onto the filament, causing it to glow brighter and emit more light from the uncoated forward portion of the bulb. Although the filament gets hotter, the glass does not. IT GENERATES NO MORE HEAT THAN A REGULAR HALOGEN BULB, AND IT DRAWS THE SAME WATTAGE AND AMPERAGE AS THE STOCK 9006 BULB IT REPLACES
Go to
http://HIRheadlights.com/uspto hir bulbs.pdf to examine the original patent. You can find the original GE spec sheet info for the prototype bulbs that were discontinued at
http://hirheadlights.com/hir techsheet.htm,
My own informal testing showed the GE spec figures to be conservative. I hooked up an Osram 9006 bulb to a fully charged battery on my bench. On my ancient light meter (a GE model from the 1950s -- it's marked in foot-candles but useful for showing relative light levels), I registered a light level of 20 at a distance of 18" from the bulb. The HIR 9012 bulb recorded a light intensity of 35! That's 75% brighter than stock at the same power draw of 55 watts. The comparison between a 9005 high beam and an HIR 9011 high beam was even more impressive, 30 versus 65 on the meter, for a 116% improvement over stock and again with the same wattage (65) as stock. To view some great comparison information, go online to the website listed at the bottom of this page.
Recent tests with several aftermarket bulbs had similar results. Two 9005 blue bulbs, one from a major manufacturer and one a no-name 100 watt unit, both registered 332 on the light meter, less than half the light of the 9011. In fact, the 9012 low beam bulbs were brighter than the aftermarket 9005 high beams! Those bulbs, by the way, came out of a neighbor's Lincoln Mark VIII. Even though his car is unique in that it comes stock with four 9005 hi-beams, he realized when he watched me do the bulb test that he had wasted his money on the other bulbs. The good news is that he now has the light he needs to allow safer driving.
These bulbs produce white light, rated at 3600 Kelvin color temp, slightly whiter than the 3250K stock halogen bulbs. They do not attempt to imitate the bluish appearance of HID (High Intensity Discharge, or Xenon) bulbs. The blue halo of original equipment HIDs comes from the high voltage arc of energy between electrodes, which emits a minor amount of long-wave UV light. Putting blue coating on a regular bulb actually reduces light output.
The Toshiba bulbs are completely DOT compliant as stated, along with the wattage (55W or 65W) on the base. Since they match OEM stock wattage, there is never a problem in cars that have computer monitors for the lighting circuits. You won't get false "headlight failure" messages, which can happen with other over-wattage bulbs or with HIDs. Again, these bulbs attain their phenomenal luminance through breakthroughs in research, not from using more energy. If you have any question about legality of use in your state, I encourage you to call your Motor Vehicle Department and make sure of the law where you live. You can always keep your old bulbs on hand if you need to change back for any reason, but it's best to know the law ahead of time. To the best of my knowledge, they're street legal everywhere. These bulbs have been sold to BMW owners in many states over the last year, and no problems have been reported (and there's been 100% positive feedback).
If your headlights are maintained and aligned properly, there should be no glare issues with these lights. You get a lot more light, but it's still aimed where it should be. The position of the filament in the housing is identical to stock, so the reflectors or projectors work exactly as they were designed --JUST MUCH BETTER AND BRIGHTER.
Personally, I had never thought of great lighting as a performance upgrade like a turbo or better shocks, until I started using these headlights. The farther you can see, the faster you can safely go. All the horsepower in the world won't do you any good if you can't see a deer in the road 100 yards ahead. Now imagine you can see the deer 250 yards ahead. Likewise, there's no glory in slamming those new shocks and wheels into the gaping pothole you couldn't see until it was too late to avoid. You do get spoiled, though. If you use them in one car, you'll miss them in a car that doesn't have them. Soon, you take superior night vision for granted, and you really miss the lumens when the road goes dark. I recently drove cross country using these bulbs, and they just kept looking better and better. There's nothing like a moonless night in Montana to make you appreciate the comfort level you get from high-powered headlights.
The HIR 90012 can replace a stock 9006/HB$ bulb.The HIR 9011 can replace a stock 9005/HB3 bulb.
Cost is $29.95 per bulb. Shipping is $4 in the US , USPS priority insured. See "What do HIR bulbs cost?" in chart on the Frequently Asked Questions page for more details. Ordering instructions are available under "How do I order?" on the same page.
All bulbs are brand new from the factory. The are very rugged Paypal is preferred, using
Paypal@FineMotoring.com as the address. Credit cards via Paypal are accepted. Money orders, cashier's checks, and personal checks are also welcome.
These bulbs can fit many models and years of the following cars:
Acura Audi BMW Buick Cadillac Chevrolet Chrysler Dodge Ferrari Ford GMC Honda Hyundai Jaguar Jeep Lexus Lincoln Mazda Mercury Mitsubishi Nissan Oldsmobile Plymouth Pontiac Saab Saturn Subaru Toyota Volkswagen Volvo
A few cars have these bulbs as original equipment, often in tandem with Xenon lights. These cars include Dodge Viper, BMW Z8, Infiniti I30, Chevy Avalance and new Nissan Maximas.
The bulbs also can fit many other makes and models worldwide; if your car takes 9005/9006 bulbs, they will almost certainly fit with ease.ve Lighting/LampReplacement Guide
