H1 Headlight Bulb – You Must Know Before Getting Replacement Bulb

If you’ve got a car and you regularly have to drive around in the dark, you may want the brightest headlights that you can get for your vehicle.

After all, you’re going to want to see your way through the darkness, so that you can drive safely and surely home.

H1 headlight bulbs are some of the brightest bulbs available, but what are their properties and which are the best brands to buy?

Well, we’ve got the answers for you! In the guide below, you’ll find out all about H1 bulbs and their properties, along with the positives and negatives of owning some.

If you ever need a replacement bulb, our list of the best available H1 bulbs will help give you a good idea of which brand is going to be best for you. Read on!

What Is An H1 Bulb?

Firstly, let’s have a look at just what an H1 bulb is. The most striking thing about these bulbs is how powerful they are, giving you a crisp and bright illumination of the road ahead and its surroundings.

They’re a long-range bulb, meaning that their light will stretch a good distance, and be especially useful if you’re going to be out on dark freeways and rural midnight paths.

Their strength has been the cause of their popularity, besides the fact that it was the first type of halogen lamp that was made for use in vehicle headlights. These days, the H1 is used in lots of cars, and regularly available.

However, when they were first developed, they were actually banned outright in the US.

For over thirty years, since their invention in 1962, the adaptive bulb was unavailable in America, in favor of sealed-beam headlights instead.

It was only in 1997 that the US would allow H1 bulbs, and even then there are certain things you’ll have to check about them.

For one, the H1 bulbs need to have an ECE R37 rating, meaning that it can be legal for road use.

This rating requires certain dimensions, as well as certain electrical power consumption.

So, let’s talk about those dimensions and specifications! H1 bulbs can give out as many as 1410 lumens, and usually has a rating of 55 watts – whether it’s a 6v or 12v.

They use a P14.5 flanged base to install in the car, meaning that this base measured 14.5mm by diameter.

At the center of that base is a male spade terminal measuring 6.35mm, which connects to the headlight socket, bridging the bulb to the power supply that heats the bulb’s filament and creates light.

That bulb itself has a bowl shaped reflector, with mirrors that help to direct the light to a single point, rather than a spread.

Since this is a single beam, made of one filament, you will need to buy four bulbs for your car.

These will give you a high beam and a low beam on either side, allowing different levels and directions.

The headlights themselves will have a protective film, vinyl or plastic, to help stop tinting and keep it from damage.

The Brightest And Best H1 Headlight Bulbs

In the list below, we’re going to pick the best H1 bulbs that you can buy for your car headlights.

Alongside each, we’ll have information on why they’re so great, as well as technical details on top of that.

Before you pick one, though, you’ll want to read the rest of this article. We’ll discuss the benefits and flaws of having an H1 headlight, so you’ll need to give that a look to make sure that they’re going to be the best choice for you. Additionally, make sure that you know your car’s headlamp model before you pick a brand and make.

This is because certain models take certain bulbs, so you don’t want to buy a bulb that’s going to be wrong for your vehicle!

Many vehicles will take the H1 bulbs, though, so don’t worry. A few of the most popular car makes to take H1 bulbs would be: the 9th generation Honda Accord, the Volkswagen New Beetle, the 8th generation Honda Civic, and the 2nd generation Toyota CR-V, among many others.

Make sure to check that your car takes them!

Let’s continue…

Newbrown H1 Halogen Headlight P14.5S Bulb

This H1 bulb from the Newbrown company will be a great choice for your car if you’re looking to get a powerful but more than affordable bulb.

Thankfully, it’s also very easy to install, based on the headlight model P14.5S.

This means that it has a 14.5mm diameter and just easily slots into place.

However, remember to be careful! When you install a new headlight bulb, make sure to never touch the glass of it.

This is because it could be very hot and dangerous, and give you a nasty shock or worse.

Instead, use gloves to handle the bulb, or wrap a paper towel around it to protect yourself.

Once it’s in, though, you’ll see the great results and the quality will speak for itself.

The bulb has 55W power, with around 1550 lumens, which is a measure of the amount of light that’s going to be visible to our human eyes.

On top of that, the bulb also has a 5000K color temperature, which is how we describe the appearance of light.

This amount will give you an appearance that’s somewhere between blue and white, a soft color that will illuminate your surroundings well without being too harsh on the eyes.

Additionally, the bulb uses Anti-UV quartz glass for its case, which will give you a far more comfortable shade of light.

That isn’t all it does, though, because that glass is also Mercury free and prevents the mirror from getting cracked, helping keep the single beam.

It’s also built to last. The manufacturers reckon that you’ll be able to get around 600 hours of use out of a single one of these bulbs, and the good thing is that you get two in every inexpensive packet! Two packets will give you enough for your car.

Halogen bulbs are known to last twice as long as normal bulbs, and this is proof.

However, if they do wear down for whatever reason, then it comes with a year long warranty too – meaning you can get a free replacement if it doesn’t meet your satisfaction.

Pros

• Easy to install, P14.5S
• Powerful, with 55W and 1550 lumens
• Protected, with Anti-UV quartz glass
• Long lasting, with 600 hours of use
• Affordable
• One year warranty

Wontolf H1 LED Headlight Bulbs

These LED H1 bulbs from Wontolf are more expensive than the Newbrown, but have a great deal of quality and power to justify their higher price tag.

Speaking of great power, the LED bulb is capable of 120W and a staggering 20,000 lumens.

That’s bright and powerful! This is 6 times brighter than a traditional halogen lamp, so you’re definitely getting a lot of strength for your money.

On top of this, it’s especially manufactured to deal with heat dissipation, keeping the bulb from overheating due to its immense power.

It uses aluminum housing and gas-liquid circulation, along with an extremely fast moving (yet thankfully silent) fan to help get maximum dissipation of heat.

For this reason, the bulb has an incredibly impressive predicted lifespan. If you thought the Newbrown was good with its impressive 600 hours of use, then this will blow you away: it has a stated 60,000 hours of use.

This will be more than enough for any driver, no matter how much they’re driving around in the dark.

Though if you are driving around a lot, the bulb has you covered in more ways than one.

Firstly, it has a waterproof aspect to it that will make sure that the bulb continues to work – and work well – even in bad weather.

So, if you’re stuck in the snow, or being hit by rain and wind, you’ll be able to drive your way out of it with the flawless, unfaltering beams coming from the Wontold LED H1 headlight bulbs.

On top of this, it also has built in anti-radio interference, making sure that the bulbs won’t interfere with your music or talk radio.

This can be a common problem with H1 bulbs, but it won’t be if you spend the money on getting this particular brand.

If you do buy them, you’ll get two in a packet, meaning that you’ll only have to buy two packets to get your full set of H1 bulbs – two for high beam use and two for low beam use.

As for installation, it should be simple. The bulbs can allegedly be installed within about 10 minutes, meaning that you’ll be able to use them on the road practically right away, without waiting around for too long.

They have a positive and negative polarity, but remember to make sure that you know the headlight model beforehand, in order to make sure that they will fit your car.

Pros

• Powerful, with 120W and 20,000 lumens
• Long lasting, with 60,000 hours of use
• Work in snow and rain
• Anti-radio interference
• Quick to install

Cons

• More expensive than others (but worth it!)

 

Innovited H1 Xenon HID Bulbs

This pair of bulbs from Innovited usually cost a little more than the Wontolf, and is also powerful and high-quality.

One of its biggest strengths is its durability. These H1 headlight bulbs will put up with a lot of different weather conditions.

They’re waterproof, meaning that they withstand heavy rain and big splashes.

On top of that, they’re dustproof and shockproof, the latter meaning that any unfortunate scrapes the car gets into shouldn’t damage the bulbs beyond working.

In terms of their power, they offer 55W and as much as 3,900 lumens. This is obviously less than the Wontolf, but more than the Newbrown, meaning that it’s a good in between in terms of how much brightness you’re going to get.

They are 3x brighter, on the whole, than regular halogen lights. You may think that this impressive power will mean that they’ll use up lots of energy, but these actually have a reported 35% less power consumption, meaning that they shouldn’t wear out too soon (they last 5x longer) and shouldn’t use up too much energy.

With that being said, make sure that you know how voltage can vary. These figures are for the US, where these products are made and designed for.

If you’re buying this outside America, then the voltage may differ. For the US, the Innovited H1 bulbs require a 12V input.

We mentioned that they last 5 times longer than usual halogen bulbs, and it has the figures to back this up.

These bulbs should give you about 5,500 hours of use, which is a lot of light time! You shouldn’t run out in any short amount of time.

On top of that, if the bulbs break for whatever reason, they’re covered by a 2 year warranty for free replacement.

As for installation, provided they’re the right fit for your car then it should only take about 20 minutes to plug them in and get the bulbs working.

Some vehicles may have resistors or extra wiring that makes it take longer, and in a few cases you may need to get a professional in to plug them in. Remember not to touch hot glass bulbs with bare hands! It’s dangerous.

Pros

• Durable – waterproof, shockproof, and dustproof
• Powerful, with 55W and 3,900 lumens
• 35% less power consumption than other halogen bulbs
• Long lasting, with 5,500 hours of use
• 2 year warranty

Cons

• More expensive than other H1 bulbs

 

The Advantages of Using H1 Headlight Bulbs

As you’ve seen from our list of the best H1 bulbs available on the market, there are a lot of benefits to using an H1 bulb in your vehicle.

We’re going to go through a few of them in greater detail now, before looking at what some of the downsides may be too.

Powerful

A clear positive is that H1 bulbs are very powerful, with high wattage and a great number of lumens.

They provide a very bright light, which gives you a great amount of illumination when driving in the dark.

Long Life Time

Many halogen bulbs have a lot of lumens within them, and these have a long lasting lifespan already.

However, on top of that, the bulb can last 1000s of hours. An LED H1 bulb, on the other hand, lasts even longer – which is why the Wolfton we mentioned earlier lasted so long.

LED bulbs have up to 10,000 lumens in them and can last as long as 50,000 hours – which is almost more than anybody could need! They last this long because of an in-built cooling system.

HID bulbs is another type of bulb, which is the type that the Innovited bulbs we looked at were.

These can have over 3000 lumens of light coming from them, and can last anywhere from 2000 to 10,000 hours. It may not be as much as an LED H1, but it is more than regular halogen.

Quality

We’ve mentioned the cooling system, which is either managed by a fan or a heat sink. Both help to reduce heat building up, regulate the temperature and improve the bulb’s durability.

On top of that, modern H1 bulbs have reduced glare, so that they don’t harm the driver or passers by.

Additionally, many are made to be waterproof, shockproof, and dustproof – meaning that they should withstand harsh weather.

Bulbs often use copper over aluminum now.

Saturated Light

Speaking of reduced glare, they also use saturated light so that they don’t blind other drivers.

It has a more yellow hue to it and doesn’t scatter around the road.

Popular

There are lots of H1 bulbs being produced, becaused new and old generations of cars alike use H1 bulbs.

This means you’ve got a wide variety of brands to choose from, and they should usually fit your car easily.

Versatile

H1 bulbs can, and should, be used for high beam and low beam. The high bulb is aimed at the road ahead, while the low ones are angled down towards the road.

Some US states require that you use high beams when it’s too dark, though you must dim them if vehicles approach 500 feet.

The combination of beams give an illumination in every area, far and close, meaning you can see better and avoid road accidents.

Make sure to find the best bulb for your vehicle, though.

They can also be used as the bulbs for your fog lights, or even your turn signal lights.

The Disadvantages Of Using H1 Headlight Bulbs

There are a few disadvantages to using H1 bulbs that we must mention, naturally.

Fragility

This can depend on the age and quality of the bulb. Older bulbs are more likely to overheat than new models, because time and science has gone into improving the bulbs over the years.

Some bulbs won’t have a cooling system, which would normally prevent them from overheating, or at least keep the overheating down.

This can especially be a pain if you’re driving in the cold, because the heat of the filament bulb will make the whole thing very brittle, and liable to break.

Other bulbs can also be broken through shock and force, getting damaged and breaking.

More modern H1 bulbs, especially high quality ones, will be shockproof and should be better protected from getting any shock damage.

As is often the case, the more you spend should mean the longer your H1 bulb will last.

Better quality bulbs will have features to reduce overheating and make sure that they aren’t battered by harsh weather conditions, so make sure that you buy a good quality and well-reviewed H1 bulb.

Make sure to regularly have your bulbs inspected by a professional, to ensure that they keep working and won’t get you into an accident.

Light Pollution

The strength of H1 light can overstimulate your eyes as you drive, or the eyes of people walking or driving past.

On top of that, they can cause vision loss. They’re powerful beams of light, and will sometimes have unpleasant glare to them.

On top of this, they can affect animals too. If you’re driving through the country at night, the light could disorientate sleeping animals.

Color Temperature

You can get a variety of color temperatures, but only some are legal. The permitted temperatures are 4200K and below, so make sure that yours falls within that. On top of that, they need an ECE R37 certificate of legality.

However, color temperatures between 3400K and 3900K can look yellow, which some drivers find unstylish.

Whiter shades are available, as long as they fit below 4200K.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can You Change Bulbs While The Power Is Running?

Do not! Changing bulbs is already dangerous when the power is off, because the glass can still be hot. When the power is on, though, it’s even more dangerous. You could get an electric shock, or the glass could shatter.

LED VS Incandescent Wattage

LEDs are more powerful than incandescent bulbs. An LED with 5 watts will give the same amount as a 40 watts incandescent! LEDs have shorter watts, but their light is brighter, while incandescent (and halogen too) have higher watts because their filament needs to be heated to produce light. LEDs are clearly more energy efficient!

Final Thoughts

And there you have it! H1 bulbs can be a great choice for your headlights, because they are very powerful and last a good while.

If you plan to buy some, make sure that you consider the few downsides, and get one that fits your car!