xenondepot review with pics
11-27-09, 12:43 AM
#1
xenondepot review with pics
This is my first review of a product. I am reviewing the 6500k xtreme hid kit from xenondepot.
Why HIDs? Since I got my car in the summer, I’ve been going back and forth decided on whether to get HIDs or not. During the summer there wasn’t much need for me to have HIDs cause even when it was late at night, it wasn’t that dark out. But with the winter creeping up slowly and even driving around at 5pm was pretty dark. With my halogen bulbs, they were alright but I wanted the roads to be lit up when I drive in not well lit areas.
Why Xenondepot? There are a lot of options out there for HIDs, but why did I choose xenondepot? The of kits are pretty good quality(Japan made HIDs for my japan made car!!!), a lot of forum members posting about how awesome steve’s customer service is and the safe feeling that this wasn’t a fly-by-night company like those on ebay. Also because I like to support forum sponsors whenever I can cause it keeps the site free for us. Another reason is because they’re a Canadian company. I’ll support domestic companies(even though they’re in the Toronto maple leafs territory, booo!![refer to avatar])
The install: Install was pretty straightforward and easy. The hard part was deciding where to mount everything to look as stealthy as possible. I’ve included some pictures highlighting where exactly I mounted the components. I later found out it doesn’t matter, since the plastic covers cover everything. Just make sure you ziptie everything down. But if you wanted to hide everything, I’ll include some pictures later.
The colour: I chose the 6500k bulbs, I was worried the bulbs would be deep blue/purple like you see on ricey cars. But it turned out to be a light crystal blue. Looks exactly like a german car’s HIDs before it colour shifts. Mostly white with a bit of blue.
How well it lit up compared to halogens: compared to HIDS, halogens are like small laterns while HIDs are stadium lights. My god they’re brigggght. I have some pictures showing how the HIDs look in an almost pitch black alley. Now when I’m driving down side streets, stop signs light up so I’m sure not to miss them. With halogens, the reflective paint on signs doesn’t work so well. I can see cyclists with reflective tape far away now. When it’s raining, that extra time that I’m given to brake could make the difference.
The quality: I know some of those ebay kits are way cheaper, but there’s no quality control over these things. I rather have peace of mind if anything happens to my HIDS. If you look at my pictures below, you can see the cut offs are actually pretty good. Some people have really weird looking shapes in their cutoffs after they install. I was afraid of this, but it turns out that this isn’t a problem with the xtreme kit. Must be that “laser aligned bulbs”. The ballasts look like they’re pretty high quality. They’re heavier than I expected. Which to me is a good thing(don’t want ballasts that are made of tin cans). The entire kit is waterproof which is perfect for the rainy city of Vancouver. The relay harnesses included are waterproof which is always a plus since it would be useless to have a waterproof ballast but non-waterproof relays.
Also it comes with a relay which is a huge plus. I studied electronics for a few years and from what I’ve learned about how sensitive your electrical components are to fluctuations in voltage/amperes… I rather be safe than sorry by having a relay. It’s waterproof too so that’s always good. The EMI filter that the kit has is important because who would want their HID kit to interfere with their car electronics? I think there’s some kits that don’t have the filter. I wouldn’t want my radio to be jammed, or my cell phone signal. Or even cause some electrical component of my car to not work…
Customer service: Steve’s customer service is top notch. He responds to every one of my PMs pretty quickly considering he isn’t solely on clublexus. I know there were some problems with bulbs for those with OEM HIDs, but steve replaced those bulbs for people. This was one of the main reasons why I went with Xenondepot. A company that’s willing to replace their bulbs instead of saying “too bad”.
Price: There are much cheaper HID kits out on the market, but I believe you get what you pay for with HIDs. Sure your ebay kits work fine…but they were probably made in some guy’s living room in china. There’s no quality control there. For those who think the xtreme kit is still too expensive…there’s the volt kit…I would’ve went with the volt kit but I wanted the relay harness and I think the xtreme kit uses Philips glass for their bulbs.
What I would change in the kits: I would use bigger grommets. I got a hole from Rona(it’s like home depot). The smallest they had was ¾” of an inch. Using that one the grommet does fit and there isn’t any gap, but it isn’t super snug fit like I want. If you get this kit, look for ½” or so. Also on the grommet, I would add another hole that I could put the relay harness wires through. Instead, I just drilled a hole in the dust cover and silicones the hell out of it (You could drill a hole in the grommet yourself but it’s tough to drill in soft rubber cause you need a big drill bit). After a week, there hasn’t been any condensation*knock on wood* and it’s been raining hard in Vancouver pretty much every day for a week since I installed the kit.
Sorry this was a long winded but the summary is
-kits and customer service were top notch quality. Would definitely recommend to others.
Don't mind the "colour" in the pictures, with cameras it's hard to make them 100% accurate. the colour is actually pretty white.
cut offs are actually pretty good. I'll try to get more pics when I can.
Here's how the HIDs look in a really dark alley with minimal lighting.
Non-lit alley
only low beams(for sure you would miss that big pothole/puddle without the HIDs)
lowbeams and yellow fogs.
Why HIDs? Since I got my car in the summer, I’ve been going back and forth decided on whether to get HIDs or not. During the summer there wasn’t much need for me to have HIDs cause even when it was late at night, it wasn’t that dark out. But with the winter creeping up slowly and even driving around at 5pm was pretty dark. With my halogen bulbs, they were alright but I wanted the roads to be lit up when I drive in not well lit areas.
Why Xenondepot? There are a lot of options out there for HIDs, but why did I choose xenondepot? The of kits are pretty good quality(Japan made HIDs for my japan made car!!!), a lot of forum members posting about how awesome steve’s customer service is and the safe feeling that this wasn’t a fly-by-night company like those on ebay. Also because I like to support forum sponsors whenever I can cause it keeps the site free for us. Another reason is because they’re a Canadian company. I’ll support domestic companies(even though they’re in the Toronto maple leafs territory, booo!![refer to avatar])
The install: Install was pretty straightforward and easy. The hard part was deciding where to mount everything to look as stealthy as possible. I’ve included some pictures highlighting where exactly I mounted the components. I later found out it doesn’t matter, since the plastic covers cover everything. Just make sure you ziptie everything down. But if you wanted to hide everything, I’ll include some pictures later.
The colour: I chose the 6500k bulbs, I was worried the bulbs would be deep blue/purple like you see on ricey cars. But it turned out to be a light crystal blue. Looks exactly like a german car’s HIDs before it colour shifts. Mostly white with a bit of blue.
How well it lit up compared to halogens: compared to HIDS, halogens are like small laterns while HIDs are stadium lights. My god they’re brigggght. I have some pictures showing how the HIDs look in an almost pitch black alley. Now when I’m driving down side streets, stop signs light up so I’m sure not to miss them. With halogens, the reflective paint on signs doesn’t work so well. I can see cyclists with reflective tape far away now. When it’s raining, that extra time that I’m given to brake could make the difference.
The quality: I know some of those ebay kits are way cheaper, but there’s no quality control over these things. I rather have peace of mind if anything happens to my HIDS. If you look at my pictures below, you can see the cut offs are actually pretty good. Some people have really weird looking shapes in their cutoffs after they install. I was afraid of this, but it turns out that this isn’t a problem with the xtreme kit. Must be that “laser aligned bulbs”. The ballasts look like they’re pretty high quality. They’re heavier than I expected. Which to me is a good thing(don’t want ballasts that are made of tin cans). The entire kit is waterproof which is perfect for the rainy city of Vancouver. The relay harnesses included are waterproof which is always a plus since it would be useless to have a waterproof ballast but non-waterproof relays.
Also it comes with a relay which is a huge plus. I studied electronics for a few years and from what I’ve learned about how sensitive your electrical components are to fluctuations in voltage/amperes… I rather be safe than sorry by having a relay. It’s waterproof too so that’s always good. The EMI filter that the kit has is important because who would want their HID kit to interfere with their car electronics? I think there’s some kits that don’t have the filter. I wouldn’t want my radio to be jammed, or my cell phone signal. Or even cause some electrical component of my car to not work…
Customer service: Steve’s customer service is top notch. He responds to every one of my PMs pretty quickly considering he isn’t solely on clublexus. I know there were some problems with bulbs for those with OEM HIDs, but steve replaced those bulbs for people. This was one of the main reasons why I went with Xenondepot. A company that’s willing to replace their bulbs instead of saying “too bad”.
Price: There are much cheaper HID kits out on the market, but I believe you get what you pay for with HIDs. Sure your ebay kits work fine…but they were probably made in some guy’s living room in china. There’s no quality control there. For those who think the xtreme kit is still too expensive…there’s the volt kit…I would’ve went with the volt kit but I wanted the relay harness and I think the xtreme kit uses Philips glass for their bulbs.
What I would change in the kits: I would use bigger grommets. I got a hole from Rona(it’s like home depot). The smallest they had was ¾” of an inch. Using that one the grommet does fit and there isn’t any gap, but it isn’t super snug fit like I want. If you get this kit, look for ½” or so. Also on the grommet, I would add another hole that I could put the relay harness wires through. Instead, I just drilled a hole in the dust cover and silicones the hell out of it (You could drill a hole in the grommet yourself but it’s tough to drill in soft rubber cause you need a big drill bit). After a week, there hasn’t been any condensation*knock on wood* and it’s been raining hard in Vancouver pretty much every day for a week since I installed the kit.
Sorry this was a long winded but the summary is
-kits and customer service were top notch quality. Would definitely recommend to others.
Don't mind the "colour" in the pictures, with cameras it's hard to make them 100% accurate. the colour is actually pretty white.
cut offs are actually pretty good. I'll try to get more pics when I can.
Here's how the HIDs look in a really dark alley with minimal lighting.
Non-lit alley
only low beams(for sure you would miss that big pothole/puddle without the HIDs)
lowbeams and yellow fogs.
11-30-09, 02:32 AM
#6
They do have 4300k, but I went with 6500k cause I've seen the 4300k oem HIDs(unfortunately the projector and lesnses on the 2is aren't the best) and they don't look very appealing. i was thinking either 5000k or 6500k, but i'm pretty happy with 6500k since it's almost all white with a bit of blue. it looks like a german car's HIDS colour, if that makes sense. definitely not purple.
plus 6500k low beams and 2500k fog lights look great together.
plus 6500k low beams and 2500k fog lights look great together.
12-01-09, 07:15 AM
#7
Hi Jetfire,
Thank you so much for posting such a detailed review of the product. I am glad to hear that overall you are happy with the product and the service you have received. I appreciate that as a customer you have many choices these days in terms of whom to get your HID lighting products from. This is why we aim to differentiate ourselves from other companies by selling quality products backed by a higher level of service.
Enjoy!
Steve
Thank you so much for posting such a detailed review of the product. I am glad to hear that overall you are happy with the product and the service you have received. I appreciate that as a customer you have many choices these days in terms of whom to get your HID lighting products from. This is why we aim to differentiate ourselves from other companies by selling quality products backed by a higher level of service.
Enjoy!
Steve
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