To HID or Not To HID... that is the ???

[Divegurl20]

HID's are not good for looking in holes, or under ledges, BECAUSE you turn it on to look, and then you turn it off, when you go to swim to another hole. That was one cycle. HID's only have about 1000 cycles per bulb. Get my point?

 

[Divegurl20]

lal7176 once bubbled...


My 10w HID gets 4 hrs of burn time so its not a problem and why cant i use it to look under ledges or in holes?

I'm not talking about it's burn time. HID's get great brun time. I'm talking about the bulb life!

 

[dsgobie]

Divegurl20 once bubbled...
HID's are not good for looking in holes, or under ledges, BECAUSE you turn it on to look, and then you turn it off, when you go to swim to another hole. That was one cycle. HID's only have about 1000 cycles per bulb. Get my point?

HID's are GREAT at looking into holes, or under ledges. And I was taught in my AOW course, that with any dive light once on, it's on 'till the end of the dive. And why not leave a HID on during a daytime dive. You can 1, signal your buddy 2, look into holes, 3 easier to locate missing buddies... and the list could go on. Light have proven to be very useful on ALL dives.

And with all that, try doing 3 OW dives on a Halogen on the same battery. (note* well you might if you had O-rings canister)

 

[dsgobie]

Divegurl20 once bubbled...


I'm not talking about it's burn time. HID's get great brun time. I'm talking about the bulb life!

They have great bulb life........ if you use them the way they are meant to be.

 

[Dryglove]

Divegurl20 once bubbled...
HID's are not good for looking in holes, or under ledges, BECAUSE you turn it on to look, and then you turn it off, when you go to swim to another hole. That was one cycle. HID's only have about 1000 cycles per bulb. Get my point?

Nope i dont get your point as we usually leave the lights on anyways for most of the dive as a way to communicate.Besides i dont think i have ever dove clear enough water to have the need to turn it on and off.Gotta love CA diving.

 

[pwfletcher]

Divegurl20 once bubbled...
HID's are not good for looking in holes, or under ledges, BECAUSE you turn it on to look, and then you turn it off, when you go to swim to another hole. That was one cycle. HID's only have about 1000 cycles per bulb. Get my point?

You are just plain wrong about the 1000 cycle burn out. HID bulb burn out is based upon usage time, not on/off cycles.

 

[GearHead]

Well, I get your point, but I think we're talking about primary lights here, not little double C-cell jobs for peeking under ledges in the Caribbean. I understand that for those, you don't use them throughout a dive and certainly an HID doesn't make sense in that scenario. But for use as a "Primary Light", HID is the way to go IMHO, and with proper usage, it sounds like you would agree, Divegurl.

Divegurl20 once bubbled...
HID's are not good for looking in holes, or under ledges, BECAUSE you turn it on to look, and then you turn it off, when you go to swim to another hole. That was one cycle. HID's only have about 1000 cycles per bulb. Get my point?

 

[Dryglove]

pwfletcher once bubbled...

You are just plain wrong about the 1000 cycle burn out. HID bulb burn out is based upon usage time, not on/off cycles.

Uhm...well.....read this and let you decide.1000 times is still a lot of usage

http://www.diverite.com/resource/deadly/02.htm

 

[GearHead]

OK, that's freaky, I was just about to paste the same link! Must be the Stealth thing, huh?

lal7176 once bubbled...


Uhm...well.....read this and let you decide.1000 times is still a lot of usage

http://www.diverite.com/resource/deadly/02.htm

 

[JeffAustin]

Can you have a dive light that is too bright??
I dive with my light on for the whole dive, I don't turn it on and off.

It is true that there have been problems with HIDs, but the reputable companies stand behind their products.

The NiteRider is a little "gimicky" IMO.( I checked out their website)The soft "goodman" handle is questionable. the power cable looks really wimpy. The dual beam doesn't make sense underwater. Cars have dual beam(hi-lo) so you don't blind oncoming traffic, so naturally NiteRider bike lights have them, it is a cool feature on a bike light, and yes, you can save battery power that way, but with the run time of most HIDs, that argument kind of fades away.

Unless the NiteRider HID is inexpensive, I would look elsewhere.