*28 LED Head Flash Lamp Light Headlamp Flashlight 4 Mode*
I'm a total newbie to the Rubicon way, and I'm French-Canadian so my English is not perfect. being a newbie, I got to get everything, do everything, and no matter what I do there's always more to do, more lessons to learn and it's usually costly because of the size of my family. Most of the time, I got just no idea what I'm doing. Thank god for the articles in the Rubicon and for the help of my friendly Rubies.
Anyhow, for a while now I've wanted to get one of those strap-on headlights. I wanted one of those for a bunch of reason; Need to have free hand when working on the car late at night and the stupid light never hits where I'm looking at, need to have a third hand to hold the flashlight when I'm carrying stuff in the dark when camping, Need to have free hand when moving around finding geocache and sun is getting down, need practical way to read when camping out (I like to lay back when I read, it's just not practical with a flashlight) etc. I've wanted to get some of those LED one. I'm interested in those because of their low power consumption and the bright light they produce.
Why make a post about something as mundane as a head light? You can get those for $20-25 in Canada, probably less in the US. Well, you have to understand that anything that can save me some $$$ is important to me as I have to prep for 10 people and therefore anything I buy is usually a big deal. Even getting something as cheap as a head light for all the family will easily bounce me a few big ones. So if like me you are on a budget, are looking for some LED headlight and for a good deal then this article may be for you. If not, well, there's still some nice picture in this article. ;-)
Okay, long story short, recently I came across some LED headlight during a search on eBay, I'm always skeptical of super deals and even more so when it comes from eBay but there was 4 minute left to bid, the highest bidder was $0.01 cents and shipping was only a few dollars so I figured, what the heck, let's give it a shot. Anyway, I bid and won the auction. Whoopee-do, I got a new headlight coming my way for $0.01 cents (Okay, $10.00 with shipping).
Now, $10.00 for something that works well is cheap, but for something that doesn't work it's expensive. Which one is this?
Generic Taiwan SuperGlobalStore 28 LED Head Flash Lamp Light Headlamp Flashlight 4 Mode
THE SUPPLIER CLAIMS
THE FACTS ARE:
True. Then again so can a simple match on a dark night.
Really, anyone who has ever done some hiking or camping and would have seen the amount of light this headlight produce (you will see some actual measure later on) would say we didn't really need to test it but since the Rubicon FNV way is to REALLY go out there and test it we did it.
We tested this on a standard sub urban street. You can see the light one mile away (1.6 km). Guess it's good if you need to know where someone is (like those pesky kids of mine who like to play late on their bikes). You can easily be noticed that far away with either the 28 or 12 LED setting.
You can do this by the push of a button on the side. It's very easy to access. You just cycle through the option. The flashing 28 mode really grabs your attention from far way (I guess that's the whole idea).
I got a very large head and it fit comfortably. My 12 year daughter was also able to wear it. Straps are made from some type of elastic material and are easily adjustable. There's a plastic holder where it will sit on your head with a rubber covering for comfort. The inclination is a step by step increment. These increments could have been smaller as it is sometimes hard to get exactly the inclination you want (Too high or too low kind of thing). I wore it on for about 20-30 minutes just for a feel of it, you hardly notice-it, the weight is negligible. This is important for people like me who have young kids.
TRUE. I sat it in the shower for 30 minutes under full blast hot steamy water. No problemo. No water or steam got into the lens. I did not submerge the lamp as it's water RESISTANT and not water proof. My guess is that it would not have survived an immersion base on workmanship. Still, if it can sustain a direct steamy shower for 30 minutes I feel very confident it's more than resistant enough for regular outdoor usage.
Obviously performance will vary with the battery you will use. I did my test with 3 NiMH el cheapo green 1.2v Taiwanese rechargeable batteries. It doesn't get much cheaper than that. For comparisons I used some standard Duracell Copper top. I got nowhere NEAR the amount of time they claim. Check the table bellow. My guess is that they counted the light as on if any of the LED were still operating while I counted USABLE light. I mean hey, what's the use of a light that produced less lighting than the glow of my watch...know what I mean?
Here's what I got:
How bright is it?
| Maximum Lux measured | (>10 Lux at 3 feet) Battery type
| |
| 3 LED | 14 LED | 28 LED | 3 LED | 14 LED | 28 LED | |||
| 3 Feet | 61 | 148 | 351 | >24 | 7.5 | 2 | Cheap 1000mA 1.2v NiMH | |
| 10 Feet | 14 | 23 | 36 | Cheap 1000mA 1.2v NiMH | ||||
| 3 Feet | 65 | 161 | 444 | >50 | 14 | 3.75 | Duracell Copper Top | |
| 10 Feet | 18 | 32 | 43 | Duracell Copper Top |
F.Y.I. - For those of you who are not familiar with Lux unit of measure
| <1 lux | Moonlight |
| 10 lux | Candle at a distance of 20cm (1 ft) |
| 10 lux | Typical emergency stairway illumination |
| 50 lux | Typical familiy living room |
| 80 lux | Hallway/toilet |
| 400 lux | Brightly lit office |
| 400 lux | Sunrise or sunset on a clear day |
The 14 LED setting is more than enough light if you are bicycling or walking around. What I found is that I could use the 14 LED for regular use and just put on the 28 if I really needed a lot of light. For working under the car the 3 LED light is often enough to supplement the regular surrounding light.
Your guess is as good as mine but I ain't testing that part.
Durability
Obviously, in a SHTF scenario (or even your regular usage) you want something that can take a few hit. We all bang our heads, drop stuff and as for myself I'm generally hard on whatever I buy so I like to test for at least some basic durability. Therefore, I dropped-it several time from 6+ feet (my heads height). Nothing cracked and it still worked although it definitely didn't like it after the 10th time. I had a bit of a problem getting all the LED to light-up properly after that. The headlight kept on lighting or shutting itself on its own.
After verification it turns out that some water had gotten on the battery compartment. How did that happen? A closer look showed that under duress (i.e. when dropped from 6+ feet ;-)) there was some small play on the battery cap seal. Turns out when I had put back the seal and cap I had not paid attention to make sure it was properly aligned and that's where the water entered the unit from. Allrighty, gotta pay attention to that tricky cap.
Okay so after closing the cap (properly this time), dousing the unit in more water for a few minutes and dropping it again for good measure I am now confident it was just some code 13 on my part.
Conclusion
Ok, so it's not military grade by a long shot and I wouldn't fling it 30 feet in the air to see if it's really shock resistant but hey I'm not a military I just need products that are tough enough for rough usage for the rest of my family.
So, if like me you are on a budget and can get more auctions for that price then it's a good deal. As for me, I already managed to win 4 more for less than $12.- and they're on their way now.
With shipping it will cost me $25.- so $6.25 for each headlight. It's a pretty good item for that price.
F.Y.I. This eBay auction was won from SuperGlobalStore.
LeGrosMammouth
www.alpharubicon.com
All materials at this site not otherwise credited are Copyright © 1996 - 2007 Trip Williams. All rights reserved. May be reproduced for personal use only. Use of any material contained herein is subject to stated terms or written permission.