I have stated this for years, there is no 1 single source of emergency lighting, we all know the flaws of emergency lights , some are design borne and some are just how they will be .
here are some pro's and cons to each:
Halogen:
pros: melts snow, great daytime visibility , good in fog , can be seen from long distances ( rear halogen amber flashers as an example ,many available flash rates and combos.
con's : heat, melts reflectors and discolors "chrome housings" moving parts (broken rotator gears) noisy like stated above when you hear thelights swooshing and humming away you know there up there and working, but we also have some people that claim a Whelen balast talon is too loud)
Strobe:
Pros: they make some heat, brilliant at night, decent sight range, lots of mounting and sync options , hideaways ect, NO moving parts good standardization and upgrade-ability between manufacturers, options to dim the light heads ( most power supplies have this, not so much with self contained heads)
Cons: poor daytime visibility ( some worse then others) some are poorly designed that allow for wash out , some times they can make too much heat when installed in small spaces the supplies do make some noise, some heads don't have re-lampable tubes that are expensive to replace, cheep chrome coating that often will fade/ blacken with use
Led:
Pro's: little to no heat (can be good when mounting in small spaces where a strobe would melt the lense,) no moving parts, many options for sync, either w/ steady burn or built in flashers, most have built in flashers cutting down on running extra wires and buying flashers, above average daytimg visability, sealed potted units, (can be good or bad)
Con's: no heat , so they don't melt snow, potted units , if one diode dies the whole light is out of service, and must be replaced, not the best in the fog or snow ,they can be blinding in fog and low light conditions, I would push that every led head has a low power feature (maybe not hideaways and anything a tir3 or smaller ) flasher units on the flying leads, (a vertex for example , I'm old school and I don't like stuff scattered all over the vehicle when something needs to be serviced) while the leds them self are rated for 100,000 hours im not too impressed with the manufacturers housings that they install them in , we have all heard the complaints about whelens, and others leaky designs
I run a total mix on my truck, recently I bought a pair of whelen 700 series super leds, to replace the tomar 7x3 strobes on my tool box, that didn't happen , the strobes out preformed the leds hands down. I run a loaded custom MX7000 that most of the lower level is LED , and hideaway strobes front and rear, leds are used on the push bumper and grille, i constantly get compliments from other responders about how effective the set up is , better than the new liberty thats on their patrol car ect.
Oregon State police is a good example , they used a liberty bar on the roof of their chargers , leds on the push bumper/ grille and a pair of amber signal master 1's in the rear window , and the stock alternating brake lights , you see the amber lights from a mile away.
recently my volunteer department wanted to buy a LED lights bar for our first out engine, ( 3 stations 4 engines, 2 tenders, 2 brush rigs, a rescue and a squad 40 square miles of rural area, with I-84 going through it) I convinced them to NOT buy the led bar we have a lot of low volume secondary roads , and most of the time were on the main highway that has decent visibility at the intersections, and our roads are steep mountainous and have many turns, (this keeps apparatus speeds down) what I suggested was a total over haul of the lighting on all or first out engines excluding the top zone lighting , our rigs have LP6000 halogen bars and 550 rear beacons, I left those and upgraded the front and side bumper lights (2 red 7000's to the front a M6 in the center in clear and a pair of 700 series red/clear to the sides,) and added a pair of 700 supper leds to the rear , we have since ordered the lights for the sides , in the end our engines will be NFPA compliant, and we have had the option to do all 3 first out engines for a cost that was less than a single led lightbar, the light bar would be nice , but 95% of the time were not really clearing traffic , and im mor concerned when we are on scene on the freeway .
another thing I believe in is that there is no single manufacturer that is the best, when building a vehicle I use the parts that are best suited for the install, or I try my best to do so, many times there are several manfacturers that are offering a product that is of equal quality and function as the other , my example would be the whelen CHMLS lights, sound offs predator series is a good comparison while federal signals that use the actual 3rd brakelight housings were poor, ( not the latest generation, im referancing the models that were released)
