My Review. Cheap eBay Headlamp 1600 Lumen XM-L T6 Cree Zoomable 2x18650 vs ?

[Travissand]

I own 11 different headlamps over the past 8 years and this one is the best cheap one. Its about $20 on eBay.
For the price you cant beat this headlamp. Is is bright as hell. So bright you can feel the heat in the beam even though its LED. This thing will light up an entire buss bright as day If your eyes are adjusted to dark from 400 feet away. It last 4 to 9 hours on a single charge. Comes with a slow 15hour wall charger that plugs directly into the light.
Search eBay for "T6 LED Zoomable focus Headlamp" and look for the one that looks like this headlamp. Be careful you don't get the one that takes 4 AA Because alkaline sucks and so does rechargeable AA. You want the one that uses two 18650.
It has a great Wide Flood that gradually zooms to a Bright Blinding square spot. During the zooming phase there in no bright blinding spot in the center, just even nicely spread light.
It has a strong hinge. And its very comfortable. It can also clip onto a thick belt.

One bad thing is you better not take the batteries in and out all the time because the clips that hold the battery cover on will end up breaking. I just bought 2 so the slow charger can keep up.
They say its 1600 lumen but its a Cree T6 so that makes it 1,000 lumen right? Or is it overclocked? LOL
Here is my YouTube review.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDwQz2Zta4w

Does any one else have this light? And how do you like it?

 

[Mooreshire]

I got one of these recently as well, but was pretty disappointed by everything but the price. The plastic parts of the housing are very fragile, the cord looks like it will break if I breath on it wrong, the zooming mechanism might as well be a pump designed to fill the head with water, and I'd estimate that the tiny little button switch might be good for less than 200 clicks before it dies. The price sure was right, but I won't be using this headlamp for anything where a failure would leave me in a sticky situation.

It's a knockoff of the LEDLenser H14, manufactured by both the Shenzhen Okadu Technology Company and the Shenzhen Gold Runhui Technology Company both somewhere in Guangdong on the mainland of China. They call it either the HT02 or the B04 but absolutely nobody sells it under those model names (always as a generic). They do not certify the binning of the diode (likely whatever was available that week). If you're really clever you can get the price all the way down to almost $10. The Gold Runhui version comes packaged with a bike mount and an extension cord, which turns the headlamp into a belt pack or when used on a bike moves the battery down to the frame.

Since it is not properly marked for U.S. import all of their so called "ANSI" ratings are suspect. Of course it's not a 1200 lumen headlamp but that phrase is still the best way to find it on the english language market. They state an 800 lumen output based on average manufacturer specs of the bare diodes (the most common approved way). Resellers made up (are lying about) the 1200 (or 1400 or whatever) lumens, and they made up the part about it having a T6 bin in it.

EDIT: Here's a photo of the one I received. Spell-check anyone? :-D

 

[Travissand]

Yes I can see how it could take in water when you do the zoom.
Its like a piston with rubber piston ring it blows air out the hole where the wire comes out of the back when I compress it.
I use my light 6 hours every night for the past 3 months for work in a rain forest.
I have been careful to only expose it to light rain and I have not had any water problems yet.
The hinge part is definitely brittle but a heck of a lot stronger then any of my other cheap lights. My lights came in the mail with cracks in the outer most part of the ring that houses the spring and ball for the hinge. I have been ruff with it bouncing around on the car floor hanging from my shifter and I use the tilt a lot. So far so good. The cracks have not been a bother.

Id like to find out how to be clever enough to get it for only $10. PM me. I gave away 2 of my lights as Christmas presents and I'd like to buy a few for backups and for my kids for camping. I bet the head unit is the same on both our lights.
Does your unit have the 4AA pack like in the photos? I assume thats your photo. I bet your light would have more voltage available to it making it brighter then my light. Or maybe because of a large voltage drop.
Did you take out the 3 screws and shave the plastic by the hinge on both sides to enable full with zooming?

 

[Travissand]

I took a look at the real thing. The LEDLenser H14. NICE Thats the real deal for sure. Looks much better built.

Did I see a dark hole in the center during the zooming at 0:47? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pAU9PwiXdg

Does any one have this light? I love to see a side by side comparison. In the video it does not look very bright. All the ones I found for sale show 220 Lumen.