1 X AA headlamp

[mickb]

Hi gents, can anyone suggest a 1Xaa headlamp with decent throw for walking , moderate output/good runlife, excellent durability/waterproofing and minimal user interface options? I am looking to retire my old 3xAAA energiser and also wondered if 1xAA is a decent powersource?

I am not a fan of the fancy chinese brand lights with multiple options/LEDS, superhigh lumens etc as they fault too often. If anyone can suggest a simple one color workhorse brand would be great.

[GPSGuided]

Zebralight? Thought about that? Simon of Tier Gear here now imports them and provides any necessary support. It's a favourite on this forum.

[Strider]

+1 for Zebralight. They are absolutely fantastic. But you said no Chinese...

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[kitty]

+1 Zebralight. I wouldnt call them "fancy" but they are highly functional, simple and easy to use.

[mickb]

Sorry gents not interested in chinese no. I won't go knocking brands particularly if there is a house favorite here. I'll google myself some options, cheers.

[GPSGuided]

Good luck!

[Strider]

You'll need it. If you can find something better than a ZL I want to know about it.

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[norts]

I use a Petzel E-lite.
Uses two small batteries,
Takes up minimal room and very light. Good battery life and it is easy to carry spares, 2 batteries plus a set of spares probably weighs less than one AA.
Okay for walking on a decent track at night, you wouldnt want to have to do any navigating though.
It has two levels of power plus red light.
If the one I have died tomorrow I wouldnt hesitate in getting another. All my other head torches hang up at home or sit in my glove box.

Roger

[mickb]

I use a Petzel E-lite.
Uses two small batteries,
Takes up minimal room and very light. Good battery life and it is easy to carry spares, 2 batteries plus a set of spares probably weighs less than one AA.
Okay for walking on a decent track at night, you wouldnt want to have to do any navigating though.
It has two levels of power plus red light.
If the one I have died tomorrow I wouldnt hesitate in getting another. All my other head torches hang up at home or sit in my glove box.

Roger

Thanks I forgot about Petzl. They are a good safety brand.

[RonK]

I'm currently using a Black Diamond Ion. It's light, compact and very bright.

[mickb]

You'll need it. If you can find something better than a ZL I want to know about it.

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For durability the US top brands with potted electronics and lifetime warranties will naturally beat chinese stuff, they also have 2-3 times the money into their design though. For fancy light modes/outputs chinese stuff wins since they are aiming more for civilian market than the duty sector. I'm not looking to drop much money on this though and the top tier american stuff is also less represented in headlamps. So anything like a decent worker brand Petzl, BD or pelican etc with 2 modes will do.

[GPSGuided]

For durability the US top brands with potted electronics and lifetime warranties will naturally beat chinese stuff...

How wrong and out of date. iPhone whilst significantly designed in the US, the manufacturing and the rest of the design are all in China. ZL falls in the same category in terms of quality. I think what you are thinking are those cheapo dollar shop items.

[mickb]

For durability the US top brands with potted electronics and lifetime warranties will naturally beat chinese stuff...

How wrong and out of date. iPhone whilst significantly designed in the US, the manufacturing and the rest of the design are all in China. ZL falls in the same category in terms of quality. I think what you are thinking are those cheapo dollar shop items.

Sorry this gets off track but your post needs a few things addressed

No I was talking about top tier chinese lights-Fenix, ZL, Armytek( Canadian owned, Chinese made, have owned one), Olight(have owned one), ZL, Thrunite, nitecore, jetbeam etc that satsify many suburban and hunting customers...but don't get signficant military contracts.

Being they are the kings of lightshows but not the best durability for the harshest environments, compared to the toughest lights anyway. (If you go over to the largest torch site on the net candlepower forums, this is generally not in debate. We all own several of each type , many of the manufacturers even post there)

Btw when I say Top US brands I am not referring to pelican, led lenser(bought out by leatherman USA) princeton etc I am talking about those you have probably not heard of like Malkoff, HDS, McGizmo, Elzetta.

These are American made , several times more expensive to make then all the other brands, potted or ultradurable electonics ( which you appear to have skimmed over the first time, but means encased in a block of resin to prevent damage, shock, water ingress) Chinese lights usually skip this to keep manufacturing costs down.
And Lifetime warranties, which no chinese light has.

In fact the owner of Malkoff has said if one of his torches fails for any reason- even if some operator accidentally sticks C4 to it, he will replace it for them no questions asked.

[GPSGuided]

Ah, so you are seeking military spec items. Surprised with all that knowledge you have that you still need advice here.

[mickb]

Hi Sorry looks like we got our wires crossed. You thought I didn't know about decent chinese lights and I thought you didn't know about milspec levels(hence my longwinded and unecessary post it appears) but now we know what we know.

Getting back to the subject, not after milspec as they don't do many headlamps. Have only been into lights 6-7 months and headlamps are grey area for me still. Hence thought would ask bushwalkers/ backpackers beking the most sensible crowd for equipement. If you guys are using ZL that much I will take another look at them.

[stry]

Princeton Tech ??

A little heavier and bulkier than the small Petzls, but waterproof, which many Petzl models are not.

Dunno where they are made nowadays, and they are not milspec.

[GPSGuided]

Got ya now Mikeb and let's start again. ZL really has a very solid following here and has now picked up local support through Simon's Tier Gear, who is also a well respected member on this forum. Unless you have a personal thing again 'Made in China', otherwise objectively they are very well made and functional, along with a wide range of colour temp and beam styles/power to choose from, all in a solid O-ring sealed tough aluminium enclosure. Many of us have 1 or more of their units and are very happy with the decision, you can't go wrong. Do they fail, yes, of course there have been cases of unit failure. But it's so low, just as those mil spec units also have failure rates.

[benjabimon]

+1 for ZL. The only problem that I've had with them is that I lost my first one

[keithy]

Princeton Tech and Surefire I think are part of the small number of manufacturers that still make LED torches in the USA. I dont' think Surefire's make a 1xAA torch or headlamps though.

Personally, I wouldn't get hung up on brands though. I've had three Petzl headlamps, two which are quite underpowered - fine for looking for things in a tent or a night time toilet run, but not quite good enough for walking in the dark. The most powerful and most expensive one I had failed in a caving trip in Borneo. On return to Aust, I checked it out, and it was a failure in the wire at the battery cage end. And Black Diamond have issues with their headlamps - search previous threads here about them.

I too am a fan of the 1xAA torch configuration with a minimum IPX7 rating. But I have moved from carrying headlamps to 1xAA torches, and have a headband torch strap in the pack if necessary. I find walking with torches on my head for extended periods to be uncomfortable, and have rigged up a simple pack shoulder strap mounting system which I use while walking in the dark, or use the headband on my bicep as an arm mounted lighting system while walking without a pack.

Late last year I did a group buy for a few friends for a number of single AA O-lights that can run both AAs and 14500 Li-ion batteries. And I also tried out an Xtar single AA/14500 torch. Great little torches, and both these brands also release headlamps in 1xAA format. The Xtar I took away with me recently, and it was subjected to being wet for 12 hours in rain, dust, being dropped a few times, and it still works a treat.

Alternatively, you could go over to one of the torch forums like http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/for ... -Headlamps who have a "recommend me" forum http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/for ... -Light-For

One of these guys I have saved on my favourites does great reviews on a lot of torches and some headlamps http://www.flashlightreviews.ca/recommend.html

[keithy]

The headbands for 1xAA torches I mentioned are like these:

http://www.fenixtactical.com/fenix-headband.html
http://www.nitecorelights.com/products/headband-hb02
http://www.myfenix.co.uk/ortec-industri ... orch-mount

This way if one of the brands you mentioned has a 1xAA torch, you could use that as a headmounted torch with a similar band.

I have both the fenix and nitecore headbands - the fenix version has the locking swivel mounts, but usually carry a simple site mounted non swivel headband it is the lightest I have.

[South_Aussie_Hiker]

I agree with heading over to CPF. That's the place you need to be for detailed information on LED lights.

I have two ZL 1xAA lights. The H51 I use in an aviation environment - subject to cold just below 0C , to well over 50C.

It rolls around in the bottom of my bag and cops a smashing. Through X Ray machines, roughe handling, and wrestling my bag in and out of its storage location. My bag also rolls around in the boot of my car with the torch loose.

The quality of the anodising is second to none. I believe the PCBs are all resin protected, but that's a guess and not confirmed fact.

Probably the electronics, because they are so leading edge, may not have military grade reliability - but then that's an assumption.

I haven't dropped it from spec height or submerged it, but it has been quite wet in the rain - and dropped onto concrete from 2' or so - without any damage.

If you want a military spec light - buy one, but you won't find single AA. If you want a bushwalking, general purpose, high quality light at the forefront of single AA technology - buy a ZL.

[Strider]

I dropped my H51F. Off my bedside table. It stopped working.

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[GPSGuided]

I dropped my H51F. Off my bedside table. It stopped working.

Did you investigate as to why it stopped working?

[Strider]

I dropped my H51F. Off my bedside table. It stopped working.

Did you investigate as to why it stopped working?

It was inspected and replaced under warranty.

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[mickb]

Thanks for the suggestions folks. I have posted on Candlepower forums before but also wanted to check with Aussie bushwalkers for the common sense factor. Candlepower has the most info but because of the sheer volume of traffic you might ask about a really garbage torch and still get twenty positive replies from users out there. Also a major chunk are chasing the most power/modes at all costs.Aussie outdoor types putting things through the paces is a good window into reliability. I will do some research on the above options.