Hella headlights break when they hit cold water??

[alaskajosh]

I've got the Hella headlights that I bought from RN. Did a trail run today that involved a few creek crossings.. now both the globes of my headlights are cracked! These were expensive lights that I expected to last for many, many years... That doesn't seem right...

[SafeAirOne]

Funny you should mention...

The only other set of Hella headlamps I've seen had a cracked lens.

I imagine the glass gets hot when they're on and probably doesn't handle being plunged into cold water very well from an expansion/contraction point of view. You'd think the instructions would warn you of this possibility when used in 4x4s...

[o2batsea]

By "globes" I guess you mean the lenses? If you mean the bulbs that's different. Those are a different type of glass and yes if they get wet they'll pop (but they shouldn't be getting wet). I'm assuming that you are referring to the Vision Plus lamps. The glass lens in those lamps is supposed to be able to take that kind of thermal shock. It's tempered, not just plain old whatever. I would be on the phone complaining, whether it does any good or not.

[SafeAirOne]

I've had cookware shatter by dumping a pan of hot spaghetti into a room-temperature tempered glass bowl before. I imagine everything has its limits.

[ThePhotographer]

Just for reference, which lights did you buy? You mentioned "expensive", did you buy a Xenon set?

[mongoswede]

Depends on your opinion of expensive. A set of the 7" hella round headlights cost about $80 for a pair. While these units are a vast improvement over the stock units they are by no mean the best out there and at $80 are actually quite cheap. i have had much better service out of the IPF lighting product line. The IPF's seem to be built tougher than the Hellas.

[ThePhotographer]

Yeah I wasn't sure if he was referring to the vision plus's. The visions are not submersible lights, where as there are submersibles on the market.

[TeriAnn]

I've got the Hella headlights that I bought from RN. Did a trail run today that involved a few creek crossings.. now both the globes of my headlights are cracked! These were expensive lights that I expected to last for many, many years... That doesn't seem right...

Sounds like simple physics to me. Headlamp lenses can get very hot in use. immersion in cold water cases rapid thermal contraction and golly gee hot glass can crack with rapid contraction.

If you are going to go wading it is always a good practice to turn your lights off, preferably with enough time for them to cool down a little. I try to stay out of creeks and shallow rivers at night.

Go wading with you headlamps on and you are taking your chances. I'd save my complaints for headlamps breaking during a rain storm.

[alaskajosh]

We're in some different leagues here because $80 for headlights, when the alternative can be had for a fraction of that, is a lot of money for me. It was a hard decision for me to splash out for these.

I got quite a sales pitch from RN promising I'd be really impressed or they'd take them back... well, as for their lighting performance I'd describe them as "yeah, they're alright". In terms of durability/longevity.. for lights that I expected I might own for a lifetime (part of the pitch, the replaceable bulbs) I'd rate my satisfaction at "poor".

I called RN this morning on it, letting them know right off that I'm not out to get something for nothing but at the least they owe it to their customers, somewhere in the middle of the aggressive sales pitch, to warn them of this weakness. Eric had never heard of this problem before. That made two of us... and left me feeling maybe slightly more frustrated than before.


Now you say I can play the game of "Money-Down-The-Toilet Roulette" at even higher stakes by spending more for better(?) lights?? Nah.

So the beauty of the internet.. free flow of information.. caveat emptor, friends.

[mongoswede]

We're in some different leagues here because $80 for headlights, when the alternative can be had for a fraction of that, is a lot of money for me. It was a hard decision for me to splash out for these.

I got quite a sales pitch from RN promising I'd be really impressed or they'd take them back... well, as for their lighting performance I'd describe them as "yeah, they're alright". In terms of durability/longevity.. for lights that I expected I might own for a lifetime (part of the pitch, the replaceable bulbs) I'd rate my satisfaction at "poor".

I called RN this morning on it, letting them know right off that I'm not out to get something for nothing but at the least they owe it to their customers, somewhere in the middle of the aggressive sales pitch, to warn them of this weakness. Eric had never heard of this problem before. That made two of us... and left me feeling maybe slightly more frustrated than before.


Now you say I can play the game of "Money-Down-The-Toilet Roulette" at even higher stakes by spending more for better(?) lights?? Nah.

So the beauty of the internet.. free flow of information.. caveat emptor, friends.

As I said before the Hella's are ok. They are much better than the stock lights and if you upgrade your wiring so that you are running good quality wire with proper relays you can get a lot out of these units. If you are running the stock rover harness then your increase in performance will be limited by the less than ideal rover wiring. So...did you ever explain whether it was the glass lens that cracked or if it was the replaceable bulb?

I run a set of IPF lights in my Saab...$80 for the housings and I often run the IPF superclear bulbs...another $80. work great. But if you are comparing these lights to the $10 Napa replacements then they will seem pricy.

Now if you really want to start bumping up the performance and you want to eliminate any cracking possibility go get yourself some LED headlights. Pricey but will likely outlive the truck.


and on a side note...here is my race bike with a 7" hella car headlight...has not broken in 8000 miles of racing and trail riding:



and for the record it has been submerged...several times:

[alaskajosh]

...if you upgrade your wiring so that you are running good quality wire with proper relays...
...did you ever explain whether it was the glass lens that cracked or if it was the replaceable bulb?
...here is my race bike with a 7" hella car headlight...has not broken in 8000 miles of racing and trail riding:
and for the record it has been submerged...several times:

My wiring is re-done from scratch far exceeding specs, relays too.

It was the lenses, not the bulbs. They're garbage as soon as water seeps in there, clouds the reflectors, and grows some organic goo.

So what was wrong with (both of) mine!!??

Thanks for your response--

[SafeAirOne]

So what was wrong with (both of) mine!!??

The water's 25 degrees colder in Alaska??

[I Leak Oil]

I don't think it's reasonable for the lenses to crack. It's an automotive product, inherent in it's design to get hot and at the same time encounter water. Cracking would not be acceptable to me.

[ThePhotographer]

However encountering water and being submerged in it are two different things. I understand your frustration because I also believed Hellas wouldn't do this. Do you have an idea of the temp of the water?

[ThePhotographer]

Here a thread I found about some stock headlights cracking, but the Hellas making it through fine.

http://www.discoweb.org/41704archive/discusarchive/messages/17/23494.html

I think it's important to note that hot glass and cold water just don't mix. I know a lot of people have gone to LightForce because of their composite lenses that are less likely to crack.