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COB LED headlamp? Should I upgrade?

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Jacobson

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When I was shopping for a headlamp, I just got one with 50 LEDs like this.
It's heavy and sort of gets in the way, slides off.

2r421w2.jpg


I didn't realize how bright the COB LED design is.
Now, I realize that COB LED is bright as hell, I want to streamline.
Seems I can get the same brightness in a small package?
Do you have one you like?

2094zsh.jpg



I ordered this for $20, this thing has been amazing, and it blows away the huge AAA battery 50 bulb thing I replaced. No comparison.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NIOCZIK/?tag=atomicindus08-20
 
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kctyphoon

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I have a coast HL8 headlight I use to work at night.. I have it fixed onto my hardhat with clips and use it at night on emergency calls, usually cause someone drove into (or through) a telephone pole. Coast also makes (or did make) the headlamps for Leatherman's company, LED Lenser. The model I have has a max of 390 lumens, 3 brightness settings, and a focusing beam.. With the beam set to a wide pattern the light is very bright and even with no "hot spots". This model isn't small - but the light itself is amazing. They offer a model with rechargeable batteries too, but I couldn't wait for them to charge, so I got the regular battery option. You can also wear the battery pack on your belt, and detach the light and pack to create a cordless flood light you can set on the ground.. EVERYONE that sees the one I have is amazed how bight it is.. I paid close to $90 when it first came out, but now you can get it for half that.. You can get models with a smaller light, but understand the batteries will only last like 2 or 3 hours on high.. Mine can do like 80 hours on low, but the medium setting is a good option for close work..

http://www.harryepstein.com/index.p...-lumens.html?gclid=CIu4ivjEhsoCFU4WHwod7cYPZA

If you need something smaller, there are other options, but this is what I use and I've never had an issue or wanted anything more (and that's working outside in complete darkness - it can light up a big area) but for working on cars I can see it being a bit big.. Check out the FL models coast has.. Pretty amazing ...

https://coastportland.com/headlamps/
 
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FigureItOut

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For small and low weight, i.e. comfort, I can recommend the streamlight USB double clutch https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N2GY2UI/?tag=atomicindus08-200aa9a8c17640da06d14509202385afef.jpg What I like about it is the battery is USB rechargeable, I bought a second battery for use while charging, but it also accepts 3 standard AAA batteries, so I know I'll never have down time. It's plenty bright, spot mode is wider than some and flood mode is a very nice full beam with a color quality that works well for me.
What I don't like is run-time. I haven't actually clocked it but it's certainly not a work day on high. I guess that's a sacrifice for it's size and weight. I also don't care for Lipo batteries, and I don't think it has overcharge circuitry so once the light's green you really need to unplug it promptly.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337Z using Tapatalk
 
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Jeeper

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I have a zebralight H502w L2. Love the light. Best tool I have bought in the past couple of years. It's bright light, flood beam and has a neutral color temp. All perfect for working on a car or heck, I even used it when I was painting a wall.

I know those have 50 leds and are suppose to be bright, but the zebralight has a very usable light pattern. Highly recommend.

Some reading for you from toolguyd:http://toolguyd.com/zebralight-h502w-led-headlamp-review/

Someone else on this board recommended along with toolguyd to use eneloop batteries. It's really a must cause it will eat through them but easy when you can recharge them over and over.
 
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Backpack Hunter

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Zebra light makes a single led headlamp that is compact and very bright. I use the H600, somewhere around 1k lumens on high for when you really need to brighten an area, adjusts down to 1 lumen and pretty much anywhere in between.
 
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kctyphoon

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Jacobson said:
I ordered this, I will report back
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NIOCZIK/?tag=atomicindus08-20
Click to expand...

Gonna go out on a limb and say the "1800 lumens" is drastically overstated.. It's about the same size as the coast hl8 that I posted, so if you decide to try another - maybe give that a shot.. Good luck though.


Also - buying off of amazon isn't what it use to be. Sellers have gotten wise to the fact that many people just go by the overall "star" ratings, and never actually read reviews - so people being given free products in exchange for (cough) "fair and honest reviews" has become a big issue. I was shopping for LED headlight bulbs for my car and had 3 different models narrowed down, with one having the highest overall ratings (a lot of led headlight bulbs come with a cooling fan BUILT into the bulb housings if you can believe that) - but when I started reading all the reviews, almost all were posted on the same 3 days for one of the products.. Sure enough at the end of almost every review it said "I was given the product for free in exchange for my fair and honest review" - and all were given a 5 star rating.. Needless to say I went with something else..

Point is - READ the reviews..

Light you bought doest seem to have many of those (I just scanned though quick)- but I make it a habit to read as many as possible b4 I buy ANYTHING I'm not familiar with from Amazon these days..

Coast HL8 on Amazon - Coast HL8 Focusing 390 Lumen LED Headlamp https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A7RM1JE/?tag=atomicindus08-20

LED Lenser model (h14) - LED Lenser 880044 H14 LED Headlamp, Blue/Black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0053GV2T4/?tag=atomicindus08-20

LED lenser's rechargeable model (h14r) - LED Lenser H14R Rechargable LED Headlamp https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0095JF71Y/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Fenix is another great brand of headlamps..
 
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kctyphoon

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rice rocket said:
Who cares.

1800 lumens is way overkill for any headlamp usage anyways. It's like bringing a bazooka into a bathroom.
Click to expand...

Because if you buy one over another since it SAYS it's two or three times as bright - that's what you expect it to do... And maybe not his model, but some are detachable and made to clip onto the battery pack so you can use them as cordless work lights, and attach them to handlebars on bicycles..
 
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djb2

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Keep in mind that LED technology is still rapidly changing. Advice from last year may no longer apply.

A few years ago the best way to get higher efficiency was using many LEDs. Intense devices were available, but they dropped efficiency significantly as the power through them increased.

Several years ago researchers started getting a theoretical handle on why LED efficiency was dropping with increased current density. Pretty much like cavemen figuring out why two story outhouses don't work very well. (This is a way closer analogy than you might expect.) As practical fixed were developed, they were applied to production.. pretty much the same day.

Expect to see more single-device lamps at the high end, and to have an increasingly difficult time to figure out if that $5 light is actually brighter and more efficient than last year's $100 light. Or if the specs are bogus claims on a $1 light.
 
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SantaAna12

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Yes.

The choices are many. If I were you, I would go spend some hours on the candlepower forum.

Good luck.
 
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pedrodagr8

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djb2 said:
Keep in mind that LED technology is still rapidly changing. Advice from last year may no longer apply.

A few years ago the best way to get higher efficiency was using many LEDs. Intense devices were available, but they dropped efficiency significantly as the power through them increased.

Several years ago researchers started getting a theoretical handle on why LED efficiency was dropping with increased current density. Pretty much like cavemen figuring out why two story outhouses don't work very well. (This is a way closer analogy than you might expect.) As practical fixed were developed, they were applied to production.. pretty much the same day.

Expect to see more single-device lamps at the high end, and to have an increasingly difficult time to figure out if that $5 light is actually brighter and more efficient than last year's $100 light. Or if the specs are bogus claims on a $1 light.
Click to expand...

Even more troublesome is the rapid appearance of CREE knock-offs. As I have said in a few (if not many) other flashlight threads, in the under $10 range MANY MANY of the flashlights that used to use genuine Cree are now using LatticeBrights. LatticeBright has copied the design and model numbers of CREE (though not the performance). Unfortunatly, they didn't copy their performance. Lumens/watt are much lower, robustness is MUCH less (the phosphors suffer from burn through in about a year), reliability is much less (some people have had LEDs with some of the chips on the die burnt out), etc.

Both of these are XM-L (one a genuine CREE XM-L and the other a LatticeBright XM-L CREE knock-off):
LatticeBright%20vs.%20XML%20RMM_zpsprjrockb.jpg
 
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bczygan

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Backpack Hunter

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^^^^those 18650 batteries you linked are rather small, you may be disappointed with how long they actually last.
 
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skipnay

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What do you guys consider a good one with long battery life. I would assume a LED is best. I don't need a bright light to be a stream. I'm looking at the blacktop as we are laying it and have to read what a gauge says. I don't need the stream light. I would prefer more of a flood light.
 
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Backpack Hunter

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I'm sorry I was trying to say those particular batteries you linked are rather small.
You can get larger capacity 18650 batteries. Even the 3400mah provide a noticeably longer run time.
 
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Jeeper

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skipnay said:
What do you guys consider a good one with long battery life. I would assume a LED is best. I don't need a bright light to be a stream. I'm looking at the blacktop as we are laying it and have to read what a gauge says. I don't need the stream light. I would prefer more of a flood light.
Click to expand...

My zebra light will get an hour on it's highest setting which is very bright and usable. I usually use that setting and have some rechargeable batteries ready.

On the second highest setting it's 2 hours if i remember correctly.
 
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Jacobson

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18650 is the size the headlamp came with, so that's what I stuck with.
I will update with run time after my next project.
 
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Macrosloth

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18650's are everywhere. If you need replacements, break open an old tool pack, or a laptop battery.
 
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CJM8515

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Im not sure what the intended purpose of the OP was for the headlamp, but I can say the larger ones with the external battery pack can get quite annoying as they are relatively heavy after awhile. If you are wearing a hardhat it negates that fact imho however.

I still use my petzl tac-tikka. Nothing more than 4 little bright *** LED's and it has a red flip down filter. Suckers plenty bright, uses 3 AAA's and lasts for something like 200 hours in low mode and 24hrs in high mode. Best of all, before better models came out soldiers used it a lot because it didnt bust easy and the red filter.
 
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Jacobson

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I love the lamp I got. I prefer rechargeable batteries. The lamp is massive bright, yet tiny. Huge thumbs up.
 
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kctyphoon

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What matters most is how long you actually use the thing, vs the size, and number of battereis it uses.

You are not gonna find a tiny lamp with small battereis that is gonna outperform a bigger model with more lumens and more batteries when it comes to brightenss and runtimes. If you need to use the thing for an hour or two that may not be a big deal. If you need to use it for the entire time it's dark outside like I do sometimes - that's someting to consider. For me, I didn't like the idea of having to rely on rechargable batteries. My lamp uses 4 AA battereis, and on medium they will last all night long. On the highest setting maybe not, but I just carry spares in the truck with me. Recarhabales always seems to not be ready or charged when you need them with intermittent use, and you NEED to stay on top of constantly having them ready. If it was something I used every single day, I would probably have gone rechargable. It makes more sense and would need to become part of a routine which wouldn't be so bad. It's the long stretch of not using them, and then having to respond and need them when a phone call comes it at 11pm or 2am.

3 other people I work with have since bought the headlight I use and posted. They are all impressed with it. The removable battery back is nice, but I leave mine all contained on my hardhat.
 
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Jacobson

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I use mine a few hours at a time, and also bought 2 spares which I've never needed yet
 
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bczygan

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bczygan said:
This thread reminded me we need a better headlamp to work outside at night and in the dim basement recesses. I have an old Coast that worked good. Coast HL7 was highly rated in a survey here:
http://www.outdoorgearlab.com/Headlamp-Reviews/Coast-HL7

So I ordered the HL27 which has higher lumens (309) and uses AA batteries. $38.93 and free shipping. I had a $30 gift card balance to use.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BHVNKNA?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

81zoqH2UtdL._SX522_.jpg
Click to expand...

Reporting back on this.

It's my go to light. Works great. Light is adjustable for strength and spread.

Bill
 
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SantaAna12

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60$ at the Fenix store.....no tax.....delivered.

I have the HP12 which I got when they ran one of their 20 percent off deals. Solid build materials. Amazing run times with upper end 18650s.

I have heard good things about the Zebra line too.

These newer Cree headlamps with 18650 batts are a blast.....good tools.
 
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