I have been installing LED bulbs in my headlights ever since they started making the retrofit bulbs. The first "affordable" ones from China were often horrible. The light patterns were very bad and had bright and dark spots in the light pattern. One particularly bad unit had the cooling fan interior to the bulb to save space and it filled the inside of the light with a whitish gray coating (those were taken off the market soon after I tried them).
The claims about 50,000 hours of life are not accurate in most cases. The claim is based on the life of the LED chip in a lab environment - when the LED chip is attached to the holder and then trapped inside a sealed light housing the life is often shortened. On my Pontiac Vibe the back of the bulb was inside the engine compartment and got a lot of heat in the summer. Similarly there are some motorcycles with sealed up housings that don't provide any outside air flow for the cooling fan to use. The LED bulbs do however last far longer than the short lived Silverstar filament bulbs that would only last about a year in my car.
Most LED aftermarket bulbs reduce the ability of your FM radio to pick up distant radio stations. I first learned of this when I was in my garage and I installed an LED headlight in my motorcycle. I was in my garage and the radio was playing 88.7 FM. When I turned the headlight on the radio lost clear reception.....and it turns out this is common. After my Pontiac Vibe had the LED headlights installed it did not pick up many radio stations when I traveled and scanned for channels to listen to - if I unplugged the headlights they radio reception improved dramatically (headlight also worked as daytime running lamps). My brother in law bought a new lawn mower that has LED lights and his headphone radio would not receive channels when he used them on the new mower.
Buying random Chinese made bulbs is a gamble, and you generally get what you paid for......a $30 set of bulbs is not likely going to be well made and you may not get any good service if you need help of they fail prematurely.
Lasfit is the best affordable bulb I have found and they have great customer service. If you buy something from them and it isn't right - their customer service is outstanding. Most often their LED's can be adjusted by rotating the bulb inside the holder to get the best focus and light pattern, and they work well with the dust seals. They also provide a few options for price/performance and prices. The light pattern of their products is very good. Before buying any LED I always look to see what Lasfit has to offer.
https://www.lasfit.com/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA1eO7BhATEiwAm0Ee-FTfm3xR-c... One of the things that I have found with the brighter LED lights is that they emit a lot of light - but sometimes it appears the lights don't shine as far down the road. I believe they do - but the light pattern is so much brighter right in front of the car that your eyes have adjusted to the brighter light........and it looks like the distant light is not as bright as it was before (I believe this is misleading and they are shining farther down the road).
Another things I have noticed is the new reflective road signs are far brighter with LED headlamps. There have been a few times when I have been on roads with a lot of warning signs for sharp curves or other obstacles....and the light reflecting back from the reflective signs is so bright it is almost blinding!
I like my LED headlights and am going to keep them - they are a great improvement. I buy ones with good light patterns that have a defined upper cut-off to limit the light shining in the eyes of other drivers. My last rant is about the rude people that install extremely bright lights and blind other drivers. A lot of the LED lights (especially light bars and other off-road lights) are not DOT compliant and are blinding.....I often have blue spots in my vision after those cars have passed. This is especially noticeable when a Ford truck owner has installed bright LED's in all 4 headlights and the 2 foglights! Last week I was coming back from north Georgia and an approaching truck had a 5 foot wide LED light bar on top of his truck turned on and it was blinding!
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