[Bluehighways]

By any chance does anyone have any experience with the use of a 100 Watt Headlight Bulb? At 100W it'll certainly be brighter, but my concern is with the amount of heat that it'll generate. Can the stock plastic Headlight Housing handle this amount of heat, over a sustained period of time, without destruction or any distortion? For what it's worth the Original H7 Bulb is a 55 Watt H7. Good or Bad, High Beam or Low Beam, if you have any personal experience I'd certainly appreciate it.

 

[PastoT]

I wouldn't use 100w filiment or halogen. LED type would not damage the reflectors, they don't produce the heat. Still if they don't focus properly everyone will see you and you'll be riding blind. Tightly focused projector add-on lamps work better if your trying to reach out down there road. There are only a few LED headlight replacement bulbs that work well on gen 1 or 2 1800s.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

 

[Joflewbyu2]

If using a high wattage bulb, you will most likely need a ceramic plug adapter to avoid melting. They are ~ 6” long plug with heavier gauge wire to absorb the heat. I would and personally have the Pathfinder LED lights that make a huge difference at night illumination as well as daytime visibility.

 

[Bluehighways]

Please, please:

1.) "personal experience"

2.) I'm well aware of Ohm's Law and the increased current that this would generate on the stock wiring. I can deal with that. What I can't work around would be the heat that these bulbs would subject the housings to. Hence my question.

3.) I am well aware of other lighting options: HID, LED, etc. My question has to do with the potential for heat damage from an incandescent 100W bulb.

Thank you in advance!

 

[Bluehighways]

FWIW I thought I'd do a bit of a test between 55W and a 100W H7 bulbs to compare current draw and heat/temperatures generated. A scientific/non-scientific controlled environment.

Voltage Supply:
Both Bulbs were supplied by the same 12 Volt Power Supply (Battery) supplemented with a Battery Charger to maintain 14.3 Volts.

Circuits:
Bulbs were switched after ~1 Minutes to check if any differences between the two (jumper wire) circuits might be contributing to any differences. This was not the case, or if it was it was, it was to small of a difference to note with the equipment I was using.

Currents:
The 100W Bulb drew a 4.64 Amperes. Initial current at bulb start hit 4.72 Amperes
The 55W Bulb drew 3.19 Amperes and the initial current draw was 3.26
(A Cold Filament = Less Resistance = Higher Amperage)

Temperatures:
The Temperate of the plastic housing was read using a Fluke 561 Infrared non contact Thermometer. Temperatures fluctuated. A breeze was periodically present in my garage and I would attribute the fluctuation to this.
55W Bulb 150-170*F
100W Bulb 160-200*F

 

[cycledude]

Years ago I bought a pair of 80 watt H7 bulbs cheap, used them for a couple hundred miles and didn’t notice any difference in light output so I took them out because I was worried about possible long term effects on the wiring .

 

[techdude2000]

FWIW I thought I'd do a bit of a test between 55W and a 100W H7 bulbs to compare current draw and heat/temperatures generated. A scientific/non-scientific controlled environment.

Voltage Supply:
Both Bulbs were supplied by the same 12 Volt Power Supply (Battery) supplemented with a Battery Charger to maintain 14.3 Volts.

Circuits:
Bulbs were switched after ~1 Minutes to check if any differences between the two (jumper wire) circuits might be contributing to any differences. This was not the case, or if it was it was, it was to small of a difference to note with the equipment I was using.

Currents:
The 100W Bulb drew a 4.64 Amperes. Initial current at bulb start hit 4.72 Amperes
The 55W Bulb drew 3.19 Amperes and the initial current draw was 3.26
(A Cold Filament = Less Resistance = Higher Amperage)

Temperatures:
The Temperate of the plastic housing was read using a Fluke 561 Infrared non contact Thermometer. Temperatures fluctuated. A breeze was periodically present in my garage and I would attribute the fluctuation to this.
55W Bulb 150-170*F
100W Bulb 160-200*F

So, basically neither bulb actually used what it’s rated. 44.7W and 66.5W is a long way from 55W and 100W. I wonder how they were tested to give the advertised output.

 

[cycledude]

The 80 watt pair I bought through eBay had no brand name so I sort of suspected they might not be what the seller claimed they were.

 

[ROUGH RIDER]

200 degrees will produce a lot of heat build up within the housing and over time will make the plastic very brittle and also make the mirrored reflector surface start to fail.

 

[techdude2000]

200 degrees will produce a lot of heat build up within the housing and over time will make the plastic very brittle and also make the mirrored reflector surface start to fail.

:agree: a few years ago, someone posted pics of damaged reflectors from some high wattage bulb they had used. Wished I could remember who it was.

 

[GoldWingrGreg]

Dali ... the artist known for melting clocks.

Where is Salvado Dali when he's needed most. This limited edition is priced at $25,000. I wonder how much an original melted 5th gen cowl is worth with dripping headlamp assemblies ???

Sorry for the sarcasm, but unless you have some used headlamp assemblies laying around, I would not suggest 100w H7s. However, I would suggest seeing the new Dali museum in St. Petersburg, FL. I believe it's the 2nd largest collection of his work in the world.

https://thedali.org

 

[Fun2Sum]

I believe that someone was Larry Price. A discussion started by cycledude in aug of 2011 about heat damage to reflectors. At that time DDM tuning was hot with their hid kits. Larry posted pics of discolored reflectors and I also began noticing scorching above my bulbs on my reflectors. Some thought it was heat and some thought the bulbs did not have any uv coating on the bulbs. You can still access the thread for a read. Bluehighways, put one bulb in for a little while and keep us posted. If your bike burns up you have a spare.

 

[Bluehighways]

Bluehighways, put one bulb in for a little while and keep us posted. If your bike burns up you have a spare.

I wish I had a spare. Remember that bulb I gave you a while back when one of yours burned out?
:surprise:

 

[98valk]

FWIW I thought I'd do a bit of a test between 55W and a 100W H7 bulbs to compare current draw and heat/temperatures generated. A scientific/non-scientific controlled environment.

Voltage Supply:
Both Bulbs were supplied by the same 12 Volt Power Supply (Battery) supplemented with a Battery Charger to maintain 14.3 Volts.

Circuits:
Bulbs were switched after ~1 Minutes to check if any differences between the two (jumper wire) circuits might be contributing to any differences. This was not the case, or if it was it was, it was to small of a difference to note with the equipment I was using.

Currents:
The 100W Bulb drew a 4.64 Amperes. Initial current at bulb start hit 4.72 Amperes
The 55W Bulb drew 3.19 Amperes and the initial current draw was 3.26
(A Cold Filament = Less Resistance = Higher Amperage)

Temperatures:
The Temperate of the plastic housing was read using a Fluke 561 Infrared non contact Thermometer. Temperatures fluctuated. A breeze was periodically present in my garage and I would attribute the fluctuation to this.
55W Bulb 150-170*F
100W Bulb 160-200*F

It would have been interesting to know precisely what the voltage was at each lamp during the test.

The wiring you are using and even the meters have enough resistance to drop several volts under high current.

Nice setup and nice job, but I'm not buying that the 100w lamp draws less than 5 amps with 14.3 volts applied.

I just tried a 100w lamp that I have. It drew 7 amps and the couple feet of 16 gauge wiring (and connections) I was using dropped over a volt between the supply and the lamp. Even at 13v (measured at the lamp) and drawing 7 amps, the lamp was using 91 watts.

Oh, and the bulb immediately starting burning the piece of 2x4 that I had it on. 4:

 

[techdude2000]

It would have been interesting to know precisely what the voltage was at each lamp during the test.

The wiring you are using and even the meters have enough resistance to drop several volts under high current.

Nice setup and nice job, but I'm not buying that the 100w lamp draws less than 5 amps with 14.3 volts applied.

I just tried a 100w lamp that I have. It drew 7 amps and the couple feet of 16 gauge wiring (and connections) I was using dropped over a volt between the supply and the lamp. Even at 13v (measured at the lamp) and drawing 7 amps, the lamp was using 91 watts.

Oh, and the bulb immediately starting burning the piece of 2x4 that I had it on. 4:

I think there’s a lot of fluff to some of these high wattage bulb’s advertising. Yours sounds more like what a 100W bulb should be drawing and dissipating in heat.

 

[GoldWingrGreg]

To the OP ... he also might want to know that some of those bulbs have short lives. I had some higher wattage bulbs in my Corrola, and I was replacing 1 at least every 6mths.

For me, with my riding style, which include sometimes taking a vacation on my Wing, reliability is paramount.