Headlamps. Do you guys use 'em?

[soloskip]

I have 8 headlamps hanging by the front door ( I just walked over and counted them) and one hanging on the mirror in my truck. I use them often around the house for fixit tasks and walking the dog before sunrise/after sunset. My favorite is a Black Diamond that I picked up at a Sierra Trading Post for around $20 or $30 a few years ago. It’s a rechargeable that I’ve been using for 3 or 4 years at least. I use it every evening walking the dog, around the house for chores and ‘fixit’ jobs and most enjoyably around camp. I always thought the rechargeable headlamps were a bit gimmicky-turns out I was wrong. This one has the option of using AAA batteries if the rechargeable battery is discharged. I’m not certain how many dollars I’ve saved over the years, but the number of Lithium ion batteries not used has more than paid for the headlamp. If the rechargeable battery does go “toes up” on a trip, I can always pull out the rechargeable battery and insert 3 AAA.

 

[Erica]

I have a Nitecore headlamp a half dozen years ago. It is rechargeable, which I like because the point for me was to be light weight. It only weighs about an ounce. I just looked at the Nitecore website and they don't seem to make this anymore, which is good. The brightest setting is just barely useful outside on a really dark night. Newer ones appear to have much more light.



I also carry a Luci Light and a small backup battery flashlight.

This assortment works well. I'm not up much after sundown anyway.

 

[PaddlingPika]

The original posting in this thread came at just the right time for me - thanks! Last weekend I was canoe camping and my primary headlamp, an older Black Diamond Spot, was slipping too much even after tightening the band. I decided that when I got home I'd need to make a point of finding some new elastic. I didn't even think about finding complete replacement headbands available and then the first thing I see when checking CT is a headband source - exactly what I need!

Speaking of headlamps, a lesson learned this weekend is that I need to check spare batteries and not just assume they are good because they came out of a package advertising a 10 year shelf life. Turned out that at least one of my spare AAA batteries was dead. After changing batteries my headlamp didn't turn on. I thought the lamp was broken until I got home and checked the battery voltage.

Oddly, a big box home improvement store carried cheap Ray-o-Vac headlamps for sometimes as low as $7.99, otherwise regularly priced at $9.99, and they work and seem to last as long as as much more expensive name brands.

Those cheap Ray-o-Vac headlamps work fine for around camp to fix a meal or dig for something in a gear bag but are nearly useless for picking a route through a field of snags on a dark night. I'd bought one and tossed it in my thwart bag as a spare. A few years ago a few of us were doing an exploratory paddle on a flooded creek/bayou. Even at normal levels there were probably some braided channels but at this time there was water flowing through trees everywhere so it was easy to lose the channel. It was a great paddle but progress was slow; we didn't make it to the take-out before dark. As daylight was fading the first headlamp I came to in my thwart bag was the Ray-o-Vac so I pulled it out just to make sure I had a light within reach before it became too dark. We hadn't quite made it to a clear channel when dusk turned to dark. We were paddling through a field of stumps and snags sticking up but they weren't visible in the dark. The non-focused Ray-o-Vac didn't shine enough light far enough ahead to see the obstacles before running into them so I soon dug out my BD Spot which worked well for navigating among the snags.