Episode 22 - Lights, (dash)camera, action with Henry from Ring - Sponsored by BM Catalysts

Let's start with headlights, though.

So why should drivers care about the type and quality of bulbs they're using?

Very good question.

Most people probably don't think about headlights, to be honest, so why would they care? For me, it is about safety.

You know, lighting is a safety-critical component.

It helps you see, but it also helps other road users see you.

And if you fit a poor-quality bulb that... burns through very quickly your expectations of how long that bulb would last means you could be driving around without a headlamp working or actually just having a dull headlamp and therefore you're not seeing things or being able to react to obstacles early the worst case scenario is it's going to cost you money as a consumer because you're constantly replacing stuff um and the time just the fatigue of having to do that all the time the other the other aspect is If you have a poor quality bulb and it blows in your headlamp because it's not made with the right materials or it's made with cheap materials, suddenly a bulb that could have cost you £5 or £10 at a retailer is now costing you a headlamp unit worth £100.

Now we have had a question in from a listener, Vicky's mum.

Pressure on.

Yes, pressure's on.

But she says that headlights have never felt, from a driver's approach in another set of headlights, never felt so much glare, never felt brighter.

So we'll go for the brightness first.

Are they brighter than they ever were? And what's actually changed? So there's two things with brightness.

Yes, I think they are getting brighter, but brightness doesn't mean glare.

So brightness is about the amount of light you can measure on a certain point.

So when we've ever sold upgrade bulbs, it's not 220% more light everywhere.

It's 220% at a particular point that the driver needs to see, and it's about the 75 meter point.

So It's helping the driver see better because there's more light in that particular spot.

Where it goes off to the left and you're trying to illuminate the hedgerow and the pavement, you don't want 220% more light lighting up a hedgerow.

Brilliant, I can see a fox closer.

That's not what it's about.

It's about putting it where it's needed.

The topic of glare is people see brighter bulbs coming into the market and think, oh, there's glare.

I think there's brighter bulbs that we know that we manufacture.

They have to conform to ECE regulations.