Have you ever noticed one car with sleek headlights that are a very different color than the average halogen headlights that you are now so used to? Chances are that what you were looking at were HID headlights that are becoming more popular as each day passes. It is true that these tend to be more on the expensive side, but there are good reasons for it.
First of all they last longer, a lot longer than halogen bulbs which means a heck of a lot longer than the average household light bulb. Second of all they work better. People who get good quality HID conversion kits experience an average of about three times more light than what they got from the previous halogen headlights. In some cases up to five times more light is produced.
If you compare halogen and HID headlights one huge key difference will stick out at you immediately. Halogen headlights have filaments encased in quartz that is of course filled with halogen gases while HID headlights have tubes filled with different gases that react to create an arc that produces the light without the use of filaments.
As said before HID conversion kits use headlights that work by having an electric current course through gases that respond by creating an arc that gives you more light than you could ever get from the halogen headlights that you probably have in your car right now. Because it doesn’t use filaments, the way household light bulbs and halogen headlights do HID conversion kits last a lot longer than anything you use now. They can last as long as our car.
The reason other light bulbs burn out is because the filaments that allow electricity to flow through eventually wear down and snap ending the flow of the current. This happens rather quickly with household light bulbs because as the filaments begin to break down they deposit on the bulb. Halogen headlights last a lot longer than household light bulbs because the filaments are somewhat protected by a quartz tube that is filled with halogen gases the halogen gases allow the bits of the filament that are broken down to undergo a reaction allowing them to be deposited back onto the filament significantly improving the life of each filament. The HID lights last the longest because they don’t have filaments that break down over time.
Despite all of these wonderful improvements that come with the HID lights it would take a long time for them to heat enough for there to be visible light. However, thanks to xenon and their break through we are past this problem. Now there is xenon added to the gas mixture to help produce the light faster than you would have it otherwise.
Two decent HID conversion kits are the HID xenon conversion kit and the McCulloch conversion kit. The McCulloch conversion kit claims that it is easy enough for anybody at home to put in their car, but it is always better to find a mechanic willing to and get their opinions on the best HID conversion kits available.