Any good HID companies out there?

[88BlackS-ETA]

I have ran DDM Tuning a few years ago and they where pieces of shit. So I was recommended Retro-Solutions and well they are becoming douche bags about warranties, and also pieces of shit....

Retro-Solutions HID kits cost around $160ish and I have them on my fogs and low beams. I keep having the low beams ballast go bad after ~6 months of use. Well the first 2 times it was actually bad, 3rd time it was a defect of some kind, 4th time it was a "false bad" and had to pay shipping to get it back. And the 5th time (currently) the FETs are damaged in the ballast and they wont warranty them and they are trying to get me to pay for the shipping of a bad ballast...O and they have a "lifetime warranty" but the last 2 times I sent a bad ballast in, it was a different "problem" each time...The first problem was not enough dielectric grease, and the second problem is the

ballast has damaged FET from high current operation rendering it incapable of sustaining operation through take-over into ramp-up phase

... I do NOT recommend Retro-solutions to anyone...

Well I have been doing research for a few hours now and I am still unsure of what a good company will be to go with.

Im running Depo euro smiley projectors that use H1 bulbs.

[blazinxpk]

DDM hids are a hit or miss. you will always gamble with the "cheaper" hid kits.

i have DDM hids and they work fine. 4300k and they dont have any blue at all.

if you do not want to take a gamble go with the morimoto kit, get the 4300k bulbs for maximum light output.

i think that this is most simple answer in terms of what hid kit to get.

[ME30W]

I had DDM's installed on my car when I bought it, shortly thereafter a ballast went out and I took the opportunity to upgrade to morimoto ballasts & bulbs and the difference is night and day.

DDM sure is cheap, but you get what you pay for. I don't remember the exact price, but I got the morimoto kit for less than $200 and it is well worth the price difference. Customer service is also superb!

[Thizzelle]

I have 8 DDM slim ballast 55W kits (2 per kit) and all have worked no problems ever. I have 1200k, 6000k & 5000k bulbs. H1, H3 and 9000 series bulbs. Just bought another kit last month and works perfect. First kit was 4 or more years ago and still works.

[iansane]

What exactly was your issue with DDM? I have 5 of their kits across three cars and haven't had an issue. On my trans am I'm still running their 5 year old big shiny ballasts.

If you're only requirement is quality then you always have one good option. Retrofit OEM D2S projectors from something and run a factory bulb/ballast combo.

[MPLFoster]

This is the H1 kit i got from theretrofitsource.com

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/product_info.php?products_id=3959

TRS customer service is top-notch and they sell authentic products. I've seen a lot of fake morimoto stuff popping up recently on eBay and the like..TRS stuff is good to go.

Using them in my Depo ellipsoids and they're great. No issues so far and the output is more than adequate.

[MPLFoster]

35w ballasts with morimoto 4.3k H1 bulbs. Nothing fancy.

[ky0u]

Did you use 35w or 50w?
Did you use 3five bulb or XB35 bulb?
Also what temp did you go with (3000k,5000k,6000k)?

Just wanted to chime in here, I'm running 35w 6k and it looks like this



I heard that when you use a higher wattage, the light output washes out a bit so the color ends up being the same as the lower temp on the lower wattage
(ex: 50w 6000k has the same color as a 35w 5000k) although I have no personal experience with that

[MPLFoster]

Just food for thought here but the more blue your lights are the less visibility you'll have since blue is less visible to the human eye than white or yellow light. Which is why I chose 4.3k

I used to think blue lights were cool when HIDs really became popular but now that I know better I prefer whiter light.

[ky0u]

Just food for thought here but the more blue your lights are the less visibility you'll have since blue is less visible to the human eye than white or yellow light. Which is why I chose 4.3k

I used to think blue lights were cool when HIDs really became popular but now that I know better I prefer whiter light.

^ This. I was actually aiming to get the white with a slight tinge of blue. They said that would be the 6000k ones but now I know it's the 5000k since 6 is clearly blue

[blazinxpk]

4300k is white with a slight yellow, this one has the maximum light output.
5000k is pure white, this should have no blue.
6000k is white mixed with blue.

anything more than 5000k is going to have some shade of blue in it. and anything less than 4300k is basically going to be some shade of yellow.

this is my basic understanding of the "colors" of different temperature bulbs.

[htown318is]

55w 4300k morimoto from TRS really blew away my old cheapo 35w light setup. I used the same bulbs that i ordered from TRS before, but the 35w xentec kit made them look blue and faded. i ponied up for a proper TRS ballast and man it was like the cheap ballast was half the output and color. Now they are nice and white.

[nando]

for those of you with DDM who think they are working fine - if you compared them side by side with something of actual quality, the difference is night and day. my 35w kit from TRS was about 2x brighter than the 55w DDM kit I had.

also, HIDs age. They lose brightness over time - your 5 year old lights may still work, but they aren't going to be as bright as a new set, even if they don't catastrophically fail.

[mrcheezle19]

I have a TRS kit that I am waiting to install, will probably do it this week and can't wait. I will finally be able to see on Ortega highway lol

[bmwguy325is]

This thread is full of fail......:popcorn: