LED Headlight Review

I just watched this video and I'm impressed with some of the results. But something he said at the end got my attention - do you like the "reflector style" or "projector style". And of the 16 he tested he came down to these:

Reflector Style: Grote, Trucklite, and Phillips

Projector Style: Morimoto and JW Speaker 8900

Personally I like the reflector style and might consider one of those, especially the Trucklite, given the look and the review.

And, speaking of the review, I particularly like the indicator bar at the bottom of the screen that let's you pic the review of the headlight you want to watch. I've gone back and re-watched a number of them and the bar is wonderful for that.

That's a great video. Suspect it kept you, Gary, from buying all those headlights too..... While I know form follows function, I can't get past the aesthetics of them, especially the top two. The Bullnose front is beautiful and in my own humble opinion, they take away from that look.    

I watched that too, found it intresting and it reinforced what I have been telling people about the way the beams are not focused and that means you cant adjust them so they wont blind people

I’m not sure I could say the Bullnose front end is “pretty”,  but I bought the rectangular fog lights based on looks. So I’m not sure I want to put the  JD Speaker lights on as I don’t think they really go with the truck.

Having said that, Janey said “I’d go with the ones that let you see best the bug-eyed ones if they are best.”  

I’m still leaning to the Trucklites. They don’t have as good of a pattern as the JW’s, but they are still far better than the stock halogens.  And I’m guessing that they are better than the upgraded halogens, at about the same price, although I’ll ask the pro about that.

Gary Lewis wrote

I just watched this video and I'm impressed with some of the results.  But something he said at the end got my attention - do you like the "reflector style" or "projector style".  And of the 16 he tested he came down to these:
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Reflector Style: Grote, Trucklite, and Phillips

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Projector Style: Morimoto and JW Speaker 8900

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Personally I like the reflector style and might consider one of those, especially the Trucklite, given the look and the review.
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And, speaking of the review, I particularly like the indicator bar at the bottom of the screen that let's you pic the review of the headlight you want to watch.  I've gone back and re-watched a number of them and the bar is wonderful for that.
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<iframe width="1120" height="630" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xWT5h-WWHTU" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Interesting, only thing is its a shame that they cant go with a cut glass lens to create the pattern I dont like the clear look but I have to do something on my truck, I just looked yesterday, my Hella composite glass housings have to be replaced for a 2nd time now in 5 years due to hazing on the inside of the glass.  You cant clean it, you cant disassemble the housing to apply some kind of coating on the glass to prevent that.

My only option is to buy another set at $80 then defect these out in a month claiming the ones I just bought hazed up on the inside.  Then if I do that I have to decide do I want to go back with the ECE approved lights or go with the DOT approved so I can have sign illumination again which you dont have with ECE, but ECE does put a lot of light on the road for me.

For me I dont really need to go LED I just am growing tired of replacing my composite housings due to hazing up on the back side of the glass when the whole point of changing to the composite housings was to make it easier to change headlight bulbs over taking the whole front trim doors off every time.  But with how many times ive taken it off in 5 years compared to the last 10 years with a sealed beam bulb I think I may just go back sealed beam.

I'm surprised that you are seeing fogging in your housings.  I ran them for years in my motorcycles and didn't have fogging.  But obviously you are, and I'd want to change to something sealed - either LEDs or back to the sealed halogens.

But I can't recommend that you "buy another set at $80 then defect these out in a month".  That wouldn't be appropriate.  And, it just kicks the can down the road.  I recommend you decide to go back, to sealed beams, or forward to LEDs.

That was an interesting watch. Thanks!

Gary Lewis wrote

I'm surprised that you are seeing fogging in your housings.  I ran them for years in my motorcycles and didn't have fogging.  But obviously you are, and I'd want to change to something sealed - either LEDs or back to the sealed halogens.

But I can't recommend that you "buy another set at $80 then defect these out in a month".  That wouldn't be appropriate.  And, it just kicks the can down the road.  I recommend you decide to go back, to sealed beams, or forward to LEDs.

I know, if I could find a way to clean the haze out of the inside I wouldnt mind pulling the housings off once every 5 years to clean them but I dont know if there is a way to clean the inside.

I did ask on summit if they improved them since I bought mine so long ago.

I run the Morimoto Sealed 7s version 1 in my Samurai.  They work exceptionally well with they only downside being that they don't generate enough heat to melt snow accumulation.

I had a look before and there are some LED headlights i believe from Morimoto and JWSpeaker that have a heating element built into the lens to help with this problem, but I wasn't about to spend $400 per light.

Trucklite just announced a heated version as well.  But I haven't seen the price on them, and if they are like the JW Speaker heated ones at +$100/ea they'll be expensive.  We are already talking about $340 for a pair of the unheated ones.

No way I'd touch any of the high performing projector options, as they look absolutely awful.

I much prefer the Phillips and TruckLite reflectors, and will go with those when the time is right.

salans7 wrote

No way I'd touch any of the high performing projector options, as they look absolutely awful.

I much prefer the Phillips and TruckLite reflectors, and will go with those when the time is right.

That's where I am.  But others value the better lighting of the projector versions.  To each his own.

But, the main point in all of this is that there is junk and there are good options.  Out of 16 candidates only 5 made the cut, and they are all expensive.

Gary Lewis wrote

salans7 wrote

No way I'd touch any of the high performing projector options, as they look absolutely awful.

I much prefer the Phillips and TruckLite reflectors, and will go with those when the time is right.

That's where I am.  But others value the better lighting of the projector versions.  To each his own.

But, the main point in all of this is that there is junk and there are good options.  Out of 16 candidates only 5 made the cut, and they are all expensive.

Yep I got some cheap LED flood lights that ended up being basically useless, my KC Apollo 6" 100w driving lights put more light out than those flood lights even up close.  People dont understand just cause its LED doesnt mean it will be superior.

I buy those 5 SMD LED bulbs for my instrument illumination as they provide more uniform 360* illumination over what you typically buy at the local part store that is just one chip facing foward.

I do actually have a pair of 90W LED 1156 bulbs in my mercury for the cornering lights and those things are bright, put the headlights on and flip the right turnsignal on when the cornering light illuminates that 90W LED bulb lights up not just my front yard but part of the neighbors yard as well.  This one uses 4 SMD chips under a projector lens facing head on and around the barrel of the bulb has 2 SMD on each "corner" for a total of 12 SMDs.

But with headlights you need something designed for LEDs as throwing an LED bulb in doesnt mean it will have the right pattern.  Ive seen so many people do this and blind people if they have super bright LEDs or they are just dim to the point of being useless.

Gary Lewis wrote

That's where I am.  But others value the better lighting of the projector versions.  To each his own.

But, the main point in all of this is that there is junk and there are good options.  Out of 16 candidates only 5 made the cut, and they are all expensive.

I would much prefer a projector as their light pattern is usually top notch. But the projectors shown are just weird in appearance, and I'm confused on why there is a need for multiple lenses? Do the separate lenses serve separate functions (spot vs flood) to create the overall lighting pattern? Most vehicles I see with factory projector housings have one single lens and that works (and looks) fine.

salans7 wrote

Gary Lewis wrote

That's where I am.  But others value the better lighting of the projector versions.  To each his own.

But, the main point in all of this is that there is junk and there are good options.  Out of 16 candidates only 5 made the cut, and they are all expensive.

I would much prefer a projector as their light pattern is usually top notch. But the projectors shown are just weird in appearance, and I'm confused on why there is a need for multiple lenses? Do the separate lenses serve separate functions (spot vs flood) to create the overall lighting pattern? Most vehicles I see with factory projector housings have one single lens and that works (and looks) fine.

The multiple projectors is cause OE projectors dont use an LED bulb at least Ive yet to see one, they use a HID bulb.  When it comes to LEDs you are limited on the count of diodes you can place with in a projector like wise many use mulitple projectors to help create a pattern.  With a HID you still have a reflector you are just using the projector to help focus the light more but with a LED you dont have this reflector to create a pattern before the projector.

Personally I dont like the projector design I have always felt it looked weird on upgraded composite housings.  The angel eyes/halos I thought were cool but they can look questionable on some older vehicles.

Great video. I am happy with my halogen upgrade though.

Gsmblue wrote

Great video. I am happy with my halogen upgrade though.

Curious, what route did you go in the halogens?

Rusty_S85 wrote

The multiple projectors is cause OE projectors dont use an LED bulb at least Ive yet to see one, they use a HID bulb.  When it comes to LEDs you are limited on the count of diodes you can place with in a projector like wise many use mulitple projectors to help create a pattern.  With a HID you still have a reflector you are just using the projector to help focus the light more but with a LED you dont have this reflector to create a pattern before the projector.

Personally I dont like the projector design I have always felt it looked weird on upgraded composite housings.  The angel eyes/halos I thought were cool but they can look questionable on some older vehicles.

Thanks, I guess I forgot about HIDs for a second while writing the post. Haha.

salans7 wrote

Rusty_S85 wrote

The multiple projectors is cause OE projectors dont use an LED bulb at least Ive yet to see one, they use a HID bulb.  When it comes to LEDs you are limited on the count of diodes you can place with in a projector like wise many use mulitple projectors to help create a pattern.  With a HID you still have a reflector you are just using the projector to help focus the light more but with a LED you dont have this reflector to create a pattern before the projector.

Personally I dont like the projector design I have always felt it looked weird on upgraded composite housings.  The angel eyes/halos I thought were cool but they can look questionable on some older vehicles.

Thanks, I guess I forgot about HIDs for a second while writing the post. Haha.

Sure thing, most people forget about HIDs cause they are expensive to own.  I dont know how many at work we convert back to regular Halogen bulbs cause the ballast goes bad so often and half the time you cant buy that specific ballast cause people buy the cheapest ebay units offered.  I personally thought of going with HID on my truck but I have this haze that keeps forming on my composite Hella housings and I dont know if the problem has since been corrected since I got mine some 8 years ago or not.

For example this is the first set of Hella ECE composite housings I got they looked like this out of the box with this haze on the inside of the glass.


This is the set I got a few months later to replace them and you can see there is no haze out of the box but these lights today some 5 years later (this photo was taken  April 12, 2016) the haze is just like on the ones above.  I dont see how it can be getting this haze on the inside its a film of some kind I know but it has a rubber dust boot that fits tight enough that should prevent any kind of moisture and if it was moisture it should evaporate with the heat of the bulb but it doesnt which tells me its not moisture based but some kind of film.


I love these headlights they put out amazing light and look great with the cut glass, the haze how ever I found out cuts down on light output, when i switched from the first set I had with the haze to the second set without the haze out of the box it was like day and night.  I just dont know if I want to have to spend $80 every 5 years to swap these housings out if they are going to haze up like this.  Hopefully Hella has fixed what ever is causing this issue by now.  I saw some people leaving reviews about this haze issue around the time I bought mine but no more since then but that doesnt tell me much though.

If they could make a LED headlight that has a cut class reflector like these have I would so switch to them, I just dont like the clear look it looks out of place on older vehicles in my book.

Machspeed wrote

Gsmblue wrote

Great video. I am happy with my halogen upgrade though.

Curious, what route did you go in the halogens?

I had to replace a head light bulb on my truck and being they should be replaced in pairs I did so.
I went from Wagner's halogen sealed bulbs to Sylvania halogen sealed bulbs.
The Wagner's were a whiter light and the beam was a little more centered and farther down the road than the Sylvania's.
I also ran relays with both sets of lights so apples to apples.

I have used a name brand high end light with the bulb in from the back side in my 86 Blazer and on low beam could not tell they were on most of the time. high beam they were better than the factory sealed beams, cant remember now if the factory were halogens or not?
I will not go with that type of bulb again if I can help it.
Dave ----