Headlamp Run Time King?

spudley112 · 2019-12-18T04:00:05.000Z

My quest for most of my handheld lights has been to find a light that has good output at the higher levels while providing good run time at lower lumens (moonlight mode for example). When it comes to high output, I am not a lumen hog really. For my purposes, a light capable of around 1000 lumens seems sufficient. I primarily want something that will have some throw, but enough flood to light up the area in front of me. I know I am not being very specific, but as I purchase and try out lights, I really look for one to “feel” right for my purposes. I am not super technically savvy enough to explain it with numbers.

At the other end of the spectrum, I also look for a light with a lot of low end run time. In an emergency situation, having days and days of light that I can navigate and read with is a big purchase factor for me. I just need enough light to accomplish these tasks and I seem to be happy with it. I have some lights that are .5 lumens and some that are 1 lumen. The beam profile makes the difference between what is usable for me and what is not.

With these factors in mind, I have been looking at headlamps lately. I purchased an Imalent HR20, but was a bit concerned after ordering it because I saw some scary reviews on the light. Despite this, it has been great and I have had no issues so far. I am still looking for an angle head light and was curious about which models offer the longest run time at their lowest setting? I am interested in ones with a usable amount of light, as I said before, that I can get around or read with.

My Imalent HR20 gives me 1 lumen for an advertised 15 days.

Lightbringer · 2019-12-18T04:28:15.000Z

While I don’t have any (yet), Zebralights are touted as having the most efficient drivers.

1000lm on a headlamp? Hope you got an asbestos bandanna, ’cause that’s gonna get smoking hot right quick.

how_crazy_is_this · 2019-12-18T04:29:42.000Z

Lots of options that people who know more than me will likely recommend. On the budget side the Wowtec A2s would be a good choice with a good firefly mode. I like Thrunite as well. Armytek wizard also has a very low moonlight mode.

Basically I think it comes down to two things. Low moonlight mode (few cheap lights have this) and a good quality cell. HJK battery reviews are probably your best source but hopefully more experienced people will chime in here and make a recommendation. Most of my 18650s put out 2000 mAh or less. It is easy today to get cells that legitimately put out 3500 mAh or so. That alone could nearly double your run time depending on what your current run time is based on.

zak.wilson · 2019-12-18T04:59:49.000Z

Zebralight is probably the best in the industry at running low modes efficiently. dotMJEG on reddit is in the process of performing a runtime test on the SC62w’s lowest mode. It has been running for nearly a year.

Lightbringer · 2019-12-18T05:12:05.000Z

Tumbleweed48 · 2019-12-18T05:36:24.000Z

I’ve taken a different approach.

I bought three Skilhunt H03’s for about a hundred bucks when they had a bit of a sale on. They’re so small and light, they’re scarcely bigger than the batteries inside them. I use one headband with an H03 in it, and two spare H03’s in my pocket or pack. The batteries are protected in the lights, I have triple redundancy should a light fail, and I’m guaranteed light all night.

spudley112 · 2019-12-18T06:30:07.000Z

Lightbringer:

While I don’t have any (yet), Zebralights are touted as having the most efficient drivers.

1000lm on a headlamp? Hope you got an asbestos bandanna, ’cause that’s gonna get smoking hot right quick.

No doubt about that LB! lol. But that would be using it as a hand held light and only for short periods obviously. I just like to have that available if I absolutely need it. My Imalent mostly stays at the lower end.

SKV89 · 2019-12-18T10:06:38.000Z

Zebralights have a lot of ultra low moonlight/firefly mode that last forever. For the highest efficiency mid level modes, Olight Perun is the best on the market. It can “sustain” 500 lumens for 4 hours. But their lowest mode is 5 lumens which is too high for many people. Also Olight ratings are much more conservative than Zebralight. So 100 Olight lumens is probably 120 Zebralight lumens. However, Olight only offers CW emitters and those are not good for headlamps IMO. ZL offers WW, NW, and HiCRI emitters. However, many of the emitters give a greenish tint on the ZL so do your research before you buy.

Scallywag · 2019-12-18T12:33:05.000Z

Just popping in to also say Zebralight. Some of them go 300+ days on moonlight, and it’s been verified at least twice in real world testing that I know of (both in reddit, one still ongoing and already mentioned above).

Turby3Pots · 2019-12-18T12:54:23.000Z

The armyteks were really great… were.

I had two, fortunately I got them on fire sale, but both $100+ lights died. Completely unacceptable.

Were very nice though, low lows and high turbo.

Go with the zebra

Jerommel · 2019-12-18T13:07:50.000Z

I can run my (modded) Xanes headlamp for some 16 hours on 1 Watt.
It has a USB rechargeable 2x 18650 battery pack on the back of my head.

spudley112 · 2019-12-18T14:23:29.000Z

Scallywag:

Just popping in to also say Zebralight. Some of them go 300+ days on moonlight, and it’s been verified at least twice in real world testing that I know of (both in reddit, one still ongoing and already mentioned above).

Holy smokes…300 days, that is amazing! I was looking at some of the specs, I see they have some great run time. Which model was getting the 300+ day run times? That is definitely worth looking at closely.

dekozn · 2019-12-18T16:23:24.000Z

Someone tested or calculated a few 14500 headlamps and turns out the skilhunt h15 came out most efficient of the bunch. I can’t find the thread though.
I don’t think it’s easy to know which one is the most efficient as they all have different modes/output levels.

SKV89 · 2019-12-18T18:09:20.000Z

Turby3Pots:

The armyteks were really great… were.

I had two, fortunately I got them on fire sale, but both $100+ lights died. Completely unacceptable.

Were very nice though, low lows and high turbo.

Go with the zebra

Which Armyteks are they? I have over a dozen Armytek lights and I use the Tiara C1 Pros modded by Clemence with E21A on a daily basis. One 18350 Tiara C1 Pro, I leave on moonlight 24hrs a day in the kids room and didn’t drain the batteries yet for almost 3 months already.

Fortunately none of the Armytek failed yet. Hopefully they will not.

Yokiamy · 2019-12-18T19:52:04.000Z

Tumbleweed48:

I’ve taken a different approach.

I bought three Skilhunt H03’s for about a hundred bucks when they had a bit of a sale on. They’re so small and light, they’re scarcely bigger than the batteries inside them. I use one headband with an H03 in it, and two spare H03’s in my pocket or pack. The batteries are protected in the lights, I have triple redundancy should a light fail, and I’m guaranteed light all night.

Yep, another happy H03 user here, it’s actually my most used light!
Small, versatile, good mode spacing, good runtimes, does exactly what it needs to do