Best LED Headlights on the Market
We have done research on LED vs. Halogen headlights and reviewed customer feedback from some of the top LED headlights. We are able to break up the transition to LED headlights into three categories; Vehicle Compatibility, Installation and Temperature Management. The lights that work for one vehicle do not work for all. So all things considered what are the Best LED Headlights?
Before we get to that lets first consider why to consider switching to LED headlights…
Aftermarket Headlights
Why Switch From Halogen to LED?
- Halogen headlights are essentially incandescent filaments with halogen atmosphere which increases brightness and filament lifetime.
- Most LED’s headlight products are now brighter for a given power. This is mostly because LED technology converts more of its available electrical power into visible light. LEDs are semiconductor chips which emit light when a voltage is applied.
- Another way of saying this is that halogen headlights wastes a lot of electricity as heat. This heat over time can discolor the glass material on your car’s head lamps.
- Think luminous efficiency in lumens per watt (lm/W), a good number for LED headlights is 120 lm/W. Whereas incandescent (visible light) lumens per watt is in the 15-20 lm/W range.
- Less electrical demand on the engine to produce more and whiter light is a win-win-win.
- LED headlights are a higher color temperature meaning there are more blues and less red wavelengths within the white light that is produced. This is considered to be advantageous for night time driving.
- Another great article on this topic.
Vehicle Compatibility
Before considering switching your vehicle over to LED headlights, save yourself some time by considering vehicle compatibility. Not all vehicles are compatible with the new LED headlights.
Amazon has a great tool developed for users to determine vehicle compatibility. I’m sure there are other ways to do this but I found that Amazon’s Your Garage tool about as fast and simple as it gets Click here:
You May Need a Conversion Kit
My vehicle (a 2003 Corolla) was not compatible with the best LED headlights but I did find a conversion kit. This conversion kit did have the polarity issue for the electrical leads mentioned above. But a simple 180 degree rotation of the electrical leads resolves it.
LED Headlight Installation
Installation ease is a factor depending on your level of car-tinkering skills. But if you’ve ever swapped out head lights before its not much more difficult. Remember some LED conversion kits have wiring polarity requirements which can be a pain for some people. If possible purchase simple plug and play which has polarity management. If you get plug in play the only tools that you may need are a flashlight and some gloves.
The bulb plugs into your vehicles head lamp housing as do most headlight bulbs. Then there is a dongle that plugs into your cars power supply for that light. This dongle has a power supply that manages the polarity and adjusts the voltage to whatever the LED’s need (likely 12V DC).
This dongle and power supply you may want to attach to the hood or tie strap it down.
Plug it in and drive away, it is that simple.
Temperature Management
Most LED bulbs have heat sinks with fans as a part f the bulb housing itself. LEDs do generate heat and this heat needs to be removed from the semiconductor chips. This is done with heat sinks and fans.
Make sure that the bulbes that you are getting will have enough room for the heat managmetn fins and fan, this is a big consideration for which bulb to purchase but the product will tell you wheter it is compatible with your vehicle or not.
