Buying an LED Torch: Headlamp Design Considerations to Help Guide Your Purchasing Decisions

I bought a Princeton Tec Aurora last year and it is probably the worst piece of gear I’ve ever used. Mine was replaced under warranty but I threw the replacement into a corner and don’t use it.

Problems included:

– the pivot …] coming loose so that the headlamp hung down and shone into my forehead; the only way to fix this is to carry a micro-screwdriver (I wrapped a rubber band around it until I got home). Petzl’s ratchet is a much better design;
– the rubber cover on the switch coming off in the pocket of my day pack, I got the cover back on and then realised that there was a tiny spacer (less than a centimetre long) between the actual switch (buried in the body of the light) and the rubber cover – this took ages to find, even though I knew it was somewhere in the back pocket of my day pack; an appalling, cheap and stupid piece of design;
– the light is advertised as water-proof – not water resistant, water-proof: I stuck it under a running tap and it immediately stopped working. I then spent several minutes cleaning and drying this “water-proof” light;
– the brightness dropped off spectacularly quickly: I have a number of torches and head-lamps and this was the worst I’ve seen.

The local importer replaced the light quickly once I complained but the point is that this light was out there, on sale, with a number of very serious design flaws. Yes, they addressed the flaws eventually – but not before I spent my hard-earned cash on one. Given the above, and the rock-solid reliability of Petzl torches you can imagine my surprise that the Aurora won your award as the best headlight out there.

P.S. you need to reset your “profanity detector” so it doesn’t object to normal technical words

It seems no surprise that most people have overweight packs, because they can’t give up the kitchen sink!
I carry two Photon II white led’s that combined weigh 2/5 oz., and have never had a problem. Give up the straps, the tiny bit of convenience and save you back! If you do this, You will make it to your next destination before sun down and will not need to walk with a light. If you stick a piece of velcro to the light and then to your beany it becomes hands free!
Shoot, carry 5 Proton II’s and you will still be lighter than those 5,6,7 oz. head lamps!

I really like the Petzl TacTikka with 3 ‘AAA’ Eveready Lithium batteries (2.3 oz. total). It has a red lens, so night vision is not impacted, that can be flipped down to offer white light when needed.

I also carry the Princeton Tech Eclipse (.4 oz.) as a backup. This 5-position light comes with both a hat visor clip and small key ring clip which are interchangeable. I use the key ring clip to clip it to the drawstring on top of the backpack for ready use when looking for gear.

Now the Lithium triple ‘A’ batteries are readily available at Wal-Mart, Target, Walgreens, Best Buy, Circuit City and many others. I found Target or Wal-Mart offer a better buy than the specialty stores. They may be here, but I have not seen them here yet.