HID Kit Reviews

Our customers have pretty demanding needs for lighting and our ballasts are built to withstand whatever the environment presents whether it's violent shaking due to rocky terrain or constant exposure to the elements, MobileHID ballasts perform.

"But how does it compare with other kits on the market?"

This question gets asked all the time so here are the results from extensive testing on HID conversion kits from various manufacturers.

Quick summary of the 10 ballasts list:

1) No name generic ballast. Didn't come with a harness and wasn't rubber injected so it didn't meet the waterproof/shockproof standard.

2) Xentec. Didn't come with a harness so they failed the requirements.

3) Bosch. Some knock off ballast trying to be sold under a reputable name. No harness but offered a soft start on the bulbs. Not rubber injected either.

4) Halo. No harness included and this was left behind after a customer purchased a replacement ballast + a harness for his car. This halo ballast died within 6 months of install and has now gone to ballast heaven.

5) Klight. No harness with hollow internals. Reliably flickered once approximately 50 seconds after each startup. Very odd.

6) Philips. Works great, soft start, not waterproof but comes with a plastic protective case. Came with a harness but price wise... very expensive and difficult to find.

7) Mod Express. No harness and the back of the ballast was a thin aluminum plate that provided no protection for the internals. Upon removal of the thin backing, a sandy grit was found on inside with all components sloppily covered with rubber to protect the electrical components. Too bad the back plate is as thin as a soda can.

8) PICC. No harness and the case developed rust spots after the 20 minute dunk in the water. Shoddy quality.

9) Generic slim style ballast. No harness included and was noticeably dimmer than every other ballast. Doesn't have any internal power regulation and 3 our of 4 test ballasts suddenly turned off by themselves during a 1 hour test. They fired back up when switched off and then back on. Failure rate was ridiculously high.

10) Mobile HID. Comes with a harness, case is rust proof, shock resistant, and waterproof. A video of this ballast powering an H4 bulb despite being repeatedly beaten with a hammer can be found on the homepage.

Stress test requirements:

1) A wire harness must provide power directly from the battery to the ballasts. For safety reasons, HID ballasts should never connect directly to your headlight plug for power. The IDEAL wiring schematic enables the headlight plug to trigger a relay and the relay then connects power from the battery to the ballasts. MobileHID kits offer have this ideal wiring schematic. All kits, including the popular McCulloch kit, failed this test except for the Philips kit.

2) The ballasts have to be rubber injected. This ensure the ballasts can withstand the elements. MobileHID ballasts have in a bucket of water for days and still fired up with no issues. Rubber injected ballasts ensure water will not harm the internals, but it also ensures electronic parts inside will not get jostled around during harsh driving conditions. The Philips kit failed this test, as did the Bosch kit. Other kits failed in other areas and did not make it to the water test.

3) Good quality wiring. Some kits that have really thin gauge wires and cheap looming that you would be ashamed to put on a go-kart. Don't waste your time with an inferior kit that has shoddy wires or even no wire harness at all.

4) One-piece ballasts. This means, no external ignitors. The McCulloch kit failed this test since it has external ignitors. All other kits had integrated ignitors in their ballasts.

5) Universal wire connections. This means no proprietary wiring so your ballasts will connect with the most common wire harness. McCulloch failed this test and the rest of the kits failed by not even having a wire harness included. Again, only Philips kits and MobileHID kits come with a full wiring harness to connect directly to the battery.

Consumer note: There are several brands that do not offer safe installation equipment. These inferior HID conversion kits connect directly to your factory wires and put you at risk of damaging your electrical system since HID systems require a single moment of 23,000 volts to ignite. If you purchased a HID kit that does not come with a wiring harness, click here to purchase a harness.

To ensure long term reliable and safe operation Mobile HID kits include a wiring harness with an inline relay and fuse.

Here is the wiring harness included with every kit.