35w Hids or 55w Hid ballast

[H22A91CB7]

Is there really much of a difference???? cause if so im upgrading to the 55w ballast

[trubluryder]

From what I've heard/researched, a 55w ballast will make your hid's brighter. Not much brighter, but enough to notice. I would definately upgrade mine in the future when it becomes affordable. As of right now, I don't think its worth it.

[kouzie]

Do it.....

[90blackcoupe]

you'll have more light output obviously, look at a regualr bulb it shines way brighter at 55w then 35w, and hid bulb will shine way brighter. Make sure you run 55w bulbs as well with the 55w ballast. or You'll melt the 35w bulbs with the 55w ballast.

[usc]

Hm... I may have missed something here. But I'm pretty sure the brightness comes from the bulb, and not the ballasts. The allure of HID for me in the past was always that it used less energy/electricity (after the initial fire up stage), so you get more lighting more efficiently. But if you go and get a 55W ballast, then you've negated the advantage.

Just make sure you get the HID bulbs that are rated for the ballasts, or you quite possibly will damage and burn out the HID bulbs prematurely. But it's your money.

[accordztech]

Hm... I may have missed something here. But I'm pretty sure the brightness comes from the bulb, and not the ballasts. The allure of HID for me in the past was always that it used less energy/electricity (after the initial fire up stage), so you get more lighting more efficiently. But if you go and get a 55W ballast, then you've negated the advantage.

Just make sure you get the HID bulbs that are rated for the ballasts, or you quite possibly will damage and burn out the HID bulbs prematurely. But it's your money.

your kinda half right, and the bulb does determine the brightness. But only to an extent cause alot of KITS that says 55 watts just are normal 35 watt crappy bulbs.

I run 55watt ballasts from www.retro-solutions.com that have a lifetime warrenty, but I push oem d2s 35watt 85122+ bulbs. Alot of members have done it without damage, and the difference between these bulbs and buying kit bulbs is that They wont melt the projector. There is quite a few reports that boosting kit bulbs or even using KIT 55watt bulbs runs too hot and melts projector bowls.

So id do some homework, and some aftermarket projectors found on ebay cant even take the heat of a hid bulb haha yet alone a boosted one.

[accordztech]

oh and when i went from oem 35 watt to 55watt HIDs there was a HUGE difference!

[usc]

Well, only time will tell I suppose.

Prior to selling my accord, my ballasts were almost 9 years old. I retrofitted in December of '98 if memory serves me right and sold the car in March '07. I did switch bulbs around late 2000/early 2001 when I switched over to ECE headlamps.

Don't know, the appeal for me was more light at less energy consumption. There came a point where I realized too much foreground lighting ended up compromising distance visibility.

Most people drive in the cities anyway so the effect won't be as dramatic but if you ever find yourself on a poorly lit highway in the dead of night, then you will fully understand what I'm talking about.

Just swung by the HID retrofit site. Man, retrofitting is dirt cheap these days.