Has any one tried the Sylvania SilverStar replacement headlight bulbs?
I own a '02 Forester and I am considering replacing both my headlight and fog light bulbs. Each set has an MSRP of $44.98. If you buy direct there are no shipping charges. There is also a $5.00 manufactures rebate available.
The Sylvania website is at
What light from their web site one would need to get to get the HID light effect (like on the high end cars)? thanks
Apparently junk. Not horrible per se, but awfully expensive with a short average lifespan. There's a lighting expert who would never recommend (under any circumstances) any bulb with a blue filtering tint for the simple reason that they would produces more light if there were no tint. I've seen one at an auto part store, and there's definitely a blue tint. Up close the H1 version looked somewhat like art deco "art glass". It had some sort of oxidation on the surface of the glass to give it a shimmery appearance. I've heard their claims about total light output are marketing BS.
What I've used are Osram Silverstars in the H1 type for my 2004 WRX. Osram is Sylvania's German parent company. These are designed for the European market, and are made of clear glass. There are several importers for them, and overall they should cost less than Syvania Silverstar. There should be a version for you car.
Definitely do not go with sylvaning silverstars. Installed them on my
2K OBW.Lasted 4 months.
Ordered Osram Silverstars from
My dad commented on how much better they worked.
Joe
Many people have -- some of them buy into the optical delusion (if you will) that their headlamp performance is better with them. Most of them get tired of replacing these expensive bulbs every few months.
Blue bulb glass does not improve bulb performance, it worsens it. Bluer ("whiter") light is not correlated with better seeing -- more light is correlated with better seeing. And bluer light is absolutely the wrong direction to go for fog lamps, which work better with yellow light.
See my other post in this thread -- short life, low output and high cost...what's not to like?
Conspicuously, they don't make claims for total light output. If they did, nobody would buy blue bulbs. They claim Sylvania Silverstars are the "Brightest and whitest", relying on most people's thinking that this means something. It doesn't; "brightness" is just as subjective as "loudness" (is Metallica "louder" than Mozart? Sure seems that way, even at the exact same Sound Pressure Level. Same principle applies with "brightness" of light). And "Whiteness" doesn't mean anything either, though there are numerous companies working very hard to convince the public that bluer light is "whiter".
There y'go -- those are the ones to get. Those or GE's new Night Hawks, though NH's are only just hitting the market now.
Yeah, and they play confusing name games. North American "Sylvania Silverstar" is "Osram Cool Blue" in the rest of the world. Rest-of-world "Osram Silverstar" has no North American equivalent in the Sylvania line.
Osram Silverstar costs less and does produce more light over a longer life than Sylvania Silverstar, and is currently available in H1, H4 and H7.
DS snipped-for-privacy@danielsternlighting.com
I took a peek at your site...do you carry these?
My understanding is the the filament is "overdriven" to produce more lumens to overcome the tint while altering the color of the light. You wind up with a whiter light appearance with around the same output as standard but shorter life and higher cost. They do look nice in use though.
That's more or less correct, though in practice this "overdriving" mostly takes the form of higher-wattage filaments. Remember, though, the degree to which such compensation works is limited by the legal regulations on bulbs. For every bulb type, there's a maximum allowable power consumption as well as a minimum and maximum allowable light output. So, the filament wattage can be increased to produce extra light (which is then stolen by the blue glass), but it's practically impossible to meet or exceed the output of an colorless-glass bulb because either you run up against the legal max wattage, or you reduce the lifespan to grossly unaceptable, short values. So, virtually all of these blue bulbs produce less light than their untinted counterparts, because the allowable range of light output is typically 30% while the allowable max wattage is frequently as tight as 7%.
No, it's not "whiter". It's bluer.
No, see above.
Some people seem to think so. I'm not too sure why; they don't fool anyone into thinking your car has HID headlights.
DS
Yep, I do. Listed as "Osram ultra high efficiency plus 50" to sidestep the Osram/Sylvania/blue/clear Silverstar name game.
-DS
A real HID kit, including new wiring to handle the early power surge when turned on, transformers to convert to the higher voltage, and reflectors designed specifically for HID. This should produce maybe 2 to 3 times the light output of any incandescent bulb.
There really are no shortcuts. To get the light from an incandescent to look similar to the bluish color of a real HID, a filter has to be applied, which reduces the light output of the bulb. The trick for the Sylvania Silverstar is apparently that they start with a very high light output bulb with an extremely short life. Then after the blue filter reduces the light output by 20%, it still produces about as much light as a standard bulb, but with a bluish tinge. Personally - I think anyone who would pay this kind of money for Sylvania Silverstar is wasting money. You're paying 2 to 3 times as much for something that needs to be replaced at least twice as often with about the same light output.
The question is whether you want the best performance or just want to "look cool". The Osram Silverstar bulbs for sale in Europe are generally considered to be the highest performance bulbs available right now, but don't have the bluish tint that is for appearance only. The ones I have in my WRX seem to project more light at a distance - the manufacturer's claim is up to 50% more light projected at about 150 ft (or something to that effect).
WOW! What a great response to my original query.
C>Has any one tried the Sylvania SilverStar replacement headlight bulbs? >
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If you're paying $50 for a bulb that puts out the same quantity of light as a stock $20 one, it had better last at least twice as long. Most don't.
If you're paying $50 for a bulb that puts out more light, in a better pattern than a stock $20 one, then it's more of a subjective decision.
"Daniel J. Stern" sprach im news: snipped-for-privacy@alumni.engin.umich.edu:
I've wondered how safe these things are in headlamps with plastic reflectors. The reflectors in my '91 Integra are plastic. Do the Osrams or Night Hawks generate extra heat that may distort the reflector?
Ah so! Well your sidestep completely threw me off, looking for "Osram Silverstars", lol. :-P
BTW - what might one recommend for a '96 Buick Regal in 9006/HB4? My dad seems to be disappointed in their brightness. He saw a Sylvania Silverstar commercial on TV, and was under the impression that they could get him near HID performance. Yes - I set him straight that they were overpriced, short-lived, underperforming junk. I'm thinking maybe Sylvania XtraVision.
I looked at Sylvania's rated life for their 9006 bulbs. 150 hours for the Silverstars, 200 for the Cool Blues, 850 for the XtraVisions,
1000 for standard, and 1500 for long-life. Makes me wonder why anyone would buy the Silverstars.
However - my understanding is that Osram Silverstars don't last terribly long either, at least compared to standard or long-life bulbs. However - I bought my pair of Osram Silverstars from Daniel Stern for about the price (w/ shipping) of a single Sylvania Silverstar at a parts store.
A new car. Sorry to be flippant...those headlamp optics are godawful. Not quite as bad as the ones on the Century of the same year, but pretty damn bad. There is no such thing as a magic bulb that turns bad headlamps into good ones.
Intensity, but yeah, they're not good performers. GE Night Hawk or Philips Vision Plus would be a tough-to-find first choice. Narva Rangepower, GE SUV or HO, or Philips High Visibility would be a close second preference.
Actually, a set of 9012 bulbs would wipe up the floor with any 9006, but he'd have to pay *very* careful attention to lamp aim. If he's not willing or able to do that, he shouldn't pursue it. Someone put a good writeup on those bulbs here:
Sylvania paid a lot of money to marketeering [sic] psychologists so that people like your father would get that incorrect impression.
Because they're the "whitest, brightest, oh-so-rightest. White hot, super cool...the ghost in your machine!".
Pffft.
DS snipped-for-privacy@danielsternlighting.com
That is true. For any given bulb design parameters, you get to pick ONE point along the bulb life/light output continuum. This is why people who bought '80s and early '90s cars with 9004 bulbs (very low output, very long life) say "Wow, I love the performance of the H7 headlights in my new car, but GEEZE, I'm replacing bulbs every eight months! I never replaced a bulb in my car with 9004s!". The appearance on the market of Daylight Running Lamps has exacerbated the matter.
What I disapprove of is picking a bulb with shorter life *and* worse performance (any of these colored ones).
DS
Some people seem to think so. I'm not too sure why; they don't fool anyone into thinking your car has HID headlights.
------------ Just a sanity check: existing cars can not be EASILY retrofited with the HID lights, since it's not as easy as sticking a different type of the bulb (i.e. one would need balast, etc.). Correct?
He's got no problem with my mom's 2001 Toyota Camry, which also uses 9006 for the low beams.
I think that commercial was on Fox during the Major League playoffs. I didn't think they'd sell enough to justify that kind of advertising budget.
Spoken like Bill the Cat. ;-)
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