10 Best

Led Headlights

of June 2023

Although there are significantly more drivers during the day, studies have shown that 49% of car accidents occur after dark. There are also poorly-lit areas, as well as areas that are totally unlit. Not only do you have to be aware of other drivers. You have to pay attention to signs and lane markings. So, it’s important that your headlights work properly. And LED headlights can provide a greater field of vision, by illuminating a wider path, as well as letting you see further down the road.

LED headlights offer other benefits as well. We’ll see that there are LED lights that offer a brighter, whiter light than the yellow halogen lights. This provides you with greater contrast, to better see details, even in foggy conditions. LED headlights also last considerably longer and use less battery power. Those alone are valid reasons to switch to LED headlights!

We’ll examine some of the choice LED headlights in the Best Reviews Guide list. You’ll see that they’re a worthy investment!

What advantages are there to switching to an LED headlight?

There is a number of advantages to switching to LED headlights:

• Brighter: LED headlights can be anywhere from 3 to 6 times more bright than the halogen equivalent. Halogen lamps produce 900-1000 lumens, while typical LED headlights like the Fahren 9005 LED Headlights produce 7000 lumens each!

• Last longer: We’ll see that it’s not uncommon for LED lights to last for 15 times longer than a halogen lightbulb. A halogen bulb will hold out for 2000 hours of use, while LED lights can survive 30,000 hours or more without dimming!

• Uses less power: Each LED headlight uses up to around 30 Watts of power, as opposed to a halogen lamp which uses 55-60 Watts. This can be reflected in less use of your car’s battery, increasing fuel efficiency as well.

What does the “K” stand for when it says that an LED light is 6500K Cool White?

The “K” stands for “Kelvin”, which is the temperature scale where the zero point is absolute zero at -273.16 C. You’re probably familiar with the fact that when you heat a piece of iron, it will first glow red, then orange-red, reaching white hot and finally a bluish hot. When we say that a light bulb is rated at 6500K, it means that if a body were heated to 6,500 degrees Kelvin, it would give off the same type of light that the light bulb emits (even though the light bulb is only at around 400 K). The typical types of light bulbs that you’ll see are

• Soft white, at 2700K-3000K

• Bright white/Cool white, at 3500K-4100K

• Daylight, at 5000K-6500K

Most of the LED headlights that you’ll see are rated at 6000 or 6500K, producing the equivalent of daylight white light.

The older halogen light bulbs use the technique of the familiar incandescent light bulb that has been in use since the time of Thomas Edison: A high-resistance filament starts to generate light as current goes through it. But this filament also creates heat. A halogen bulb will usually reach around 750 ℉.

On the other hand, LED headlights will usually not get hotter than 400 ℉. But, they still have to get rid of that heat, so that the bulb doesn’t burn out. There are two ways of dissipating that heat in LEDs. You’ll see that some use active cooling, and some use passive cooling:

• Actively-cooled LED headlights: These use a fan to dissipate the heat generated by the light bulb. The fan will be covered by a dust cap, to keep dust from interfering with its performance. An example is the Fahren 9005 LED Headlight Bulb.

Fahren 9005 LED Headlight Bulb

• Passively-cooled LED headlights: These will use an aluminum heat sink to get rid of the heat produced by the light bulb. (The heat sink will look much like the fins on a desktop computer’s CPU cooling unit.) This has less of a risk of failure since you don’t have to worry about a fan getting clogged with debris. An example is the Sealight 9005 LED Bulb.

Sealight 9005 LED Bulb

• Both active and passive cooling: There are also LED headlights that use both a fan and a heat sink. The Fahren H7 LED Headlight Bulbs use a carved heat sink as well as a 12,000 RPM fan to dissipate the heat.

Fahren H7 LED Headlight Bulbs

Based on all the consumer reviews we've scanned, these are the top things they mentioned about their new LED headlights:

• Ease of installation depends on your vehicle: You’ll notice that some customers said that they had no trouble replacing their headlights, while others had to remove the grill and bolts in order to change the headlights, and needed tools as well. The best idea is to find the appropriate YouTube video for your particular vehicle.

• Surprised at the difference: People who are used to the yellow halogen lights were very surprised by the increased brightness and whiteness of the LED light. Some in fact use their LED headlights as high beams while leaving the original halogen bulbs as low beams.

Here are some useful tips from the manufacturers and customers who purchased LED headlights:

• Brighter on the passenger side: Take note that some LED headlights will come in pairs, but the two bulbs won’t be the same brightness. This is because you want to illuminate the road, but not blind the drivers in the opposite lane. So, the brighter lamp will be inserted on the passenger side. The Marsauto 9006 LED Bulbs come in this arrangement.

• Easy installation: All of these lightbulbs are easy to install–just about as difficult as changing a lightbulb in your house! It should be as simple as inserting the bulb and rotating it into position. You have to lift up your car’s hood and locate your previous headlights. The whole process should take between 5-10 minutes. You may need double-sided tape or plastic zip ties to secure the wiring of the LED lights, so as to keep it away from getting heated by the bulb.

• Type of socket: If your car can accept the typical halogen lights, it should be compatible with these LED headlights as well. But you’ll have to match up the LED with the right type of socket. You’ll see LED models that say that they’re H1, H4, HB4, H11, and many more. If the LED is compatible with the present lamp’s socket, you’re good to go.

• Single and dual beam bulbs: You’ll notice that there are LED headlights that use separate bulbs for the high and low beams, and those that use a single bulb for both high and low beams.

Final Verdict

We went through some of the items in the Best Reviews Guide list of the best LED headlights. They all will give excellent results in terms of greater illumination and their superior life expectancy. Just make sure that the LED headlight that you order will fit your vehicle’s socket, and you should be able to install them yourself. Prepare for a better-lit driving experience, as well as a safer ride!