Philips Ultinon vs. Enlight SolarFlex LED Fog Lights - Which one is best?

[@aygwm]

Ultinon H7s are crazy expensive but I’m hoping that going with a trusted name like Philips will pay off. Your video was really well done and has good information in it for someone who is trying to figure this out. Weirdly there is so little information out there for someone looking to upgrade their vehicle lighting.

[@emilio8202]

Transparent advice and great in-depth review!

[@KeithBickford]

Great review. I appreciate the educated approach focused on performance.

[@quacktony]

Well said my dude.

[@GearheadGarden]

junk science on the heatsink discussion. Same mistake was made in the enthusiast PC market back in the late 90's. Everyone thought the bigger chunk of aluminum or copper you got next to the heat source the better the cooling. What ended up happening instead is the heat just radiated back onto the component with the increased surface area. You need to get the heat AWAY from the component then dissipate it hence the move to heatpipe and water cooling in modern PC engineering. I see the same fallacy here and see EXACTLY why Phillips is trying to transfer the heat AWAY from the LED to be dissipated elsewhere. That's why there's so much insulation and limited heatsink area on the phillips. That and just look at it. Sorry but the SolarFlex design just screams boy racer ricer mod.

[@Enlightautomotive]

Car Stuff with El Camino Guy Part of the heat transfer equation factors in thr cross sectional area for conduction. The larger the area for conduction, the more capacity for heat to move through. Now of course therr are other factors involved, but even in modern computer heat sinks you will always find a relatively thick chunk of copper or aluminum right at the CPU interface. Even if its a vapor chamber or heat pipe setup. Also, the "insulation" you are referring to that philips uses is a thermally conductive pad used to eliminste air spaces and IMPROVE transfer from the PCB to the external shell. Air spaces are terrible for transfer and that is why they use a thermal pad. There are many many studies on LED heat transfer. Please do some basic research on FR4 vs Aluminum and copper Metal core circuit boards and LED thermal performance. The difference is drastic. Thanks for your input though. You are correct its not always about getting the biggest chunk of metal, its about designing something that works.

[@therealevo77]

I have a competitor H11 led kit that is very similar to yours (chips, casing and straps). It does extremely well in a reflector headlamp and produces a near identical beam pattern as halogen. Actually there were improvements in the entire beam. Greater hot spot and wider illumination on the shoulders. Lux measured nearly twice as bright over halogen. It did have one fault and that was heat soak. The straps just couldn't keep the emitters cool enough. Over a duration of 60 minutes there was a 14% reduction in lux before the thermistor kicked in and dropped the current. The lux output then leveled out. How do your versions perform in this regard? Do they maintain full luminosity from initial start? What features are included in the driver circuit assembly? This was a great informative video. Better than most others I've seen.

[@Enlightautomotive]

Due to the optics of a reflector housings (headlight and fog lights) these 2-sided bulbs tend to work quite well. The beam pattern will be very close to a halogen bulb. Projectors optics are very different. As for the heat problem, we have custom made LED drivers for the SolarFlex bulbs that are lower current than most other bulbs we have tested. Many similar bulbs do not use a metal core circuit board like ours does. If they do, the driver current can be 2 Amps or higher which is simply too much for this type of bulb. The lower current draw combined with the copper circuit board keeps the emitter temperatures under 150C which is the critical level. If you are in say, Las Vegas on a 120deg summer day, there is likely to be some current reduction but for conditions your going to get 1.3-1.5amps of current.

[@EsotericArctos]

I know this is a few years old, but given Philips Ultinon are still available, I feel this may be relevant still. Was this actually a comparison or an advertisement for SolarFlex? Where was the actual operating temperature comparisons in operation? Talking all the theory is great, but where are the real world comparisons? Where is the comparison between the Philips and SolarFlex beam pattern? Lumens and theory mean nothing unless you show the real results. You did not even bother to show the beam pattern of the Philips bulb. The beam patterns were Halogen HID and SolarFlex only.

[@Superlewis805]

If i also had a Led Fog light on Will it help out with the dark spot from the Led head light ?

[@rangeend5773]

Are you going to have a tear-down and a review of the JW speakers LEDs light bulbs?

[@SAT1337]

HIDs are illegal in Halogen projectors. So your only option is to get a retrofit which can cost upwards of $500-600 and more with installation. Hence LED is a good compromise for projector lenses (halogen). Also, I'd like to see temperature ratings and lux output over a period of time with your heat dissipation method and Philips'. Like it or not, but Philips have far more experience in the lighting business than any other major player, let alone some small time company for lack of a better description regardless of your own personal experience. Anyway, only unbiased way would be to present the factual measurements over a period of time.

[@cncaliguy09]

So why don't you have a real life comparison of Phillips vs Solarflex? All this talk why not just show the results?

[@user-su1xk3mv2b]

cncaliguy09 200 iq comment

[@KingSev]

Very informative ! Thanks for the video. I think I'm going with Leds in fog and hi beam, but HID xenon Phillips in the low beam, since I have a 4Runner 2016 and they come work loop lens ... what do you say?

[@alaind831]

Very interesting review and tear down, obviously biased since you only sell your own re-brand here - note that your 2 links above to buy them are broken. Guessing you are no longer using the same NSSC 5s light ?

[@lessthan8]

The issue that i have been seeing lately through my FLIR camera is that the heat is not being displaced quick enough through the AL body to the CU heatsink. Has anyone thought of using heatpipes to pull the heat away from the base of the emitters to the heatsink?

The manufacturer of Enlight is NSSC, it is from 5S Plus series? I have an H4 version from that in my car, but looking also another trades for these (NSSC?)lightbulbs. I collect informations for H1/H7 version (for other car) - especially with projector headlamps, I saw very mixed results, but still dont know exactly why...

[@joseramonintriago1992]

Péter Móni what you think about your 5s H4?

[@trevormangus7832]

So these are not adjustable like most led bulbs on the market now?

[@Enlightautomotive]

LED bulbs do not need to be adjustable if designed properly. There is a very precise distance between the socket base and the start of the light souce / filament. LED bulbs should be designed with the light sources placed exactly where it needs to be, there is no guess-work in placing the light source, its exactly where it needs to be in order to match the halogen equivalent. Moving it to any other location will screw up the OEM beam pattern and focus.

[@1234588001]

hi i have 06 mercedes vito with the standard philips halogen bulbs H7s one head keeps blowing would the load resistor fix this and what resistor would i need thanks.

[@3mariusx]

Omg nive vid man! That ring from solar is made of plastic or aluminium? I managed to damage my new car fog projector beacuse of a bad design of those 3 pins of some china leds. :(( philips does not ship in my country. I am curious if solar flex ships in romania ? And if that ring is made of plastic. The aluminium bad leds damaged my plastic socket of my h8 projector

[@rootstriker1618]

honestly the Philips has a better looking light were u compare the two lighted areas of each but I guese the other one gets points for filling in that tiny area the Philips seems to leave dim but id still rather go with the Philips for the overall better light and trusted name

[@aebm]

I hace tried yo buy those Enlight H11 led bulbs but not either Amazon or EBay has them, Also in their web page these bulb won't show up. any suggestions? thanks for the help.

[@Enlightautomotive]

Alfredo Brito We are in the process of updating to a new bulb type with improved drivers and a slightly different design. We had supply issue's with these SolarFlex bulbs and are having new bulbs made. We recently released a SolarFlare LED bulb available here: www.enlightauto.com/collections/enlight-your-2015-toyota-camry/products/solarflare-toyota-camry-led-headlight-kit-h11-h8-bulb-type

[@onassislegaspi2547]

nice review...I have the philips led fog light on my 2015 4runner and it's bright but your product is more rigid...can I use your product on my H11 low beam projector light and how bright will produce? Can you make a video comparing led lights while they are working side by side

[@Enlightautomotive]

The 2015 4Runners will need a canbus module added to the LED bulbs if you wanted to use them as headlights. The beam pattern produced by the Philips bulb and the SolarFlex bulb are basically identical, the only difference being that the solarflex bulb will be significantly brighter. We also have HID systems for the 4Runner as well. If you go to the very end of the video around 18min, we show the exact beam pattern from the solarflex bulb in a toyota projector housing.

[@paulied75]

I like the review, very informative. I have H16 5202 fog lights in my 2007 New style Chevy Silverado 2500HD LTZ and H11 for Low beams. I'm looking for both sets in Led that will give me the best output and beam pattern to light the way and separate myself from the competition by a long shot! Have any recommendations? I bought some high output Led H11 that came with external drivers/ballast that claim to be just over 6000 lumens each and do pretty well but I think there could be better and that's what I'm looking for. I did the fog lights in Led a while back and they seem to match the H11 low beams but I don't think they are more than 800-1000 lumens. I'm pretty sure they both are around 6000 witch I like. Any info would be greatly appreciated! Paulie D

[@Camilo19832001]

Wait i thought piaa had the best bulb..?

[@linternasmx]

Which one is better?

[@HAWKONER]

Phillips by far.

[@matthewweninger5435]

HAWKONER re watch the video!!

[@cassinovashalo]

Solid review, one suggestion though, trim your nails.

[@cetGT3]

Osram H11 Night breaker laser is absolute dog shite....i used them in my headlights (Toyota prius gen3), 1 bulb lasted 24 days the second bulb failed in 30 days!!!!

[@J0HNWICK]

Enlight, to much expensive!

[@jensharbers6702]

Jep. A Million Dollar engineered Product is worse then a cheap arse Chinese Product? Come on, give both lamps to a Lab, they will come to the Same conclusion as i do: Enlight is short-duration crap, the Philips will last For Ages. They at Philips know what they do. And if the heatbelt system is that good, why does every manufacturer use die-cast heatsinks? Because they are Better.

[@Enlightautomotive]

Jens Harbers First of all, Philips LED bulbs are made in China buddy. Do your research. 2nd, we seen sets of Philips bulbs go bad before, we rarely have failures with our solarflex bulbs. No more than we have seen with Philips bulbs. They both use the same ZES LED chips which is the running hardware. The heat belt is simply a different mechanism that offers flexibility. . We did not claim it is superior. Why don't you try it before you knock it. We have sold 100's of solarflex bulbs and likely have more hands on experience than you.

[@sukhmaidickoff]

+Enlight Automotive - Do you sell the Philips LED´s too? Otherwise one could have a suspicion that you are biased :-)