Well, a small water line froze and broke in the far end of my attic, 3 nights ago, over the garage. I have a 5 year old Black Diamond headlight with 4 small 5mm LEDs, that puts out maybe 15 lumens on high. I had been waiting to buy a better headlight until I needed one. With no lightbulb at that end of the attic, I finally needed a brighter headlight. I would probably have ordered a new Fenix headlight because I have been so happy with my several Fenix lights, but I needed one the next day, so I could not wait. I checked the sticky at the top of this page and I wrote down the names of 3 lights that should be available locally. I then checked the web pages of several local stores to see if any of them carried any of the 3 lights. I saw that Target carried the Energizer E2 Lithium LED Headlight.
I went to Target and bought one at their discounted price of $40.
The light housing is aluminum. The battery housing is plastic and is at the back of the head with an over the head strap to help secure it. The packaging advertises the light will survive an 8 foot drop and it is waterproof. I washed it after the first use in the dirty attic and no water got into the light or the battery case.
This is a great headlight! Three AA lithium batteries come with it. I guess they are pushing their lithium batteries with this light. I am sure regular batteries will work in it. It has 3 levels of light and also a turbo level avilable for 15 seconds for a claimed 130 lumens. The turbo is not a whole lot brighter and I don't think I will ever use it. High is said to be 100 lumens. I would guess high to actually be about 65 SureFire lumens. The beam is a HUGE circle with some spill and you also get alot of general light bounce from any light colored object in a room. The circle of light is HUGE and covers most of your vision. The light bezel will rotate down 90 degrees so you can set it exactly like you want the beam, at a book in your lap or straight ahead or anywhere in between.
The beam is not a great thrower, it is just okay in that role. It is great for inside, but outside, carry a flashlight with you for throw. You would be able to see everything in a room or in your camp site, but always carry a flashlight outside.
The switch is okay but a little small. You MAY have trouble with it if you are wearing gloves, but no trouble at all if your fingers are bare. It has a small switch on the side for 15 seconds of turbo mode which activates that mode no matter what other mode you are in at the time.
The battery box is a bit bulky because the 3 batteries sit on each other in a triangular posistion, not side by side. There is also a very bright green LED on top of the battery box that blinks every 5 seconds when the batteries are loaded, that is meant to be a "find me" mode. When the light is turned on, the green LED comes on and stays on so anyone behind you will see the green light there. I like this feature, but I wish the green LED had it's own switch for off, beacon, or constant on.
The main light also has two very bright 5mm RED LEDs that come on first. They say this is to save your night adapted vision if you so choose. I like this feature even though I am not sure I will use it much.
The switch sequence is: Red LEDs, Bright, Mediun, Low, White slow strobe. The strobe is okay and I do occasionally use strobe on some other lights I own to get attention from others. Again, you can hit the turbo switch on the side anytime, for a 15 second blast of white light.
The head straps are comfortable with enough adjustment for my big head. It may not fit over a helmet.
Advertised run time is 11 hours on high, 38 hours on medium , 53 hours on low and 75 hours on the red LEDs. Alkaline batteries would of course be less runtime. I have used mine for about 7 hours on high over 2 days, and the batteries still measure well into the green on my battery checker.
I like this light a lot. It is feature rich and I think a bargain for the money. It should be available at any Target. If I wanted a thrower for outside use, I would try another light. This would be a great light to keep in a bail out bag or a car, since it uses long shelf life, non leakable, lithium batteries. It can also be run off more common alkaline batteries. For in the attic or inside or under the house or in a tent or around the camp or for under the car hood or as a general usage power outage headlight, it is a great light. I highly recomend it. Oh yeah, I got my water line fixed, so it no longer rains in the garage. this headlight made that job a lot easier.
I went to Target and bought one at their discounted price of $40.
The light housing is aluminum. The battery housing is plastic and is at the back of the head with an over the head strap to help secure it. The packaging advertises the light will survive an 8 foot drop and it is waterproof. I washed it after the first use in the dirty attic and no water got into the light or the battery case.
This is a great headlight! Three AA lithium batteries come with it. I guess they are pushing their lithium batteries with this light. I am sure regular batteries will work in it. It has 3 levels of light and also a turbo level avilable for 15 seconds for a claimed 130 lumens. The turbo is not a whole lot brighter and I don't think I will ever use it. High is said to be 100 lumens. I would guess high to actually be about 65 SureFire lumens. The beam is a HUGE circle with some spill and you also get alot of general light bounce from any light colored object in a room. The circle of light is HUGE and covers most of your vision. The light bezel will rotate down 90 degrees so you can set it exactly like you want the beam, at a book in your lap or straight ahead or anywhere in between.
The beam is not a great thrower, it is just okay in that role. It is great for inside, but outside, carry a flashlight with you for throw. You would be able to see everything in a room or in your camp site, but always carry a flashlight outside.
The switch is okay but a little small. You MAY have trouble with it if you are wearing gloves, but no trouble at all if your fingers are bare. It has a small switch on the side for 15 seconds of turbo mode which activates that mode no matter what other mode you are in at the time.
The battery box is a bit bulky because the 3 batteries sit on each other in a triangular posistion, not side by side. There is also a very bright green LED on top of the battery box that blinks every 5 seconds when the batteries are loaded, that is meant to be a "find me" mode. When the light is turned on, the green LED comes on and stays on so anyone behind you will see the green light there. I like this feature, but I wish the green LED had it's own switch for off, beacon, or constant on.
The main light also has two very bright 5mm RED LEDs that come on first. They say this is to save your night adapted vision if you so choose. I like this feature even though I am not sure I will use it much.
The switch sequence is: Red LEDs, Bright, Mediun, Low, White slow strobe. The strobe is okay and I do occasionally use strobe on some other lights I own to get attention from others. Again, you can hit the turbo switch on the side anytime, for a 15 second blast of white light.
The head straps are comfortable with enough adjustment for my big head. It may not fit over a helmet.
Advertised run time is 11 hours on high, 38 hours on medium , 53 hours on low and 75 hours on the red LEDs. Alkaline batteries would of course be less runtime. I have used mine for about 7 hours on high over 2 days, and the batteries still measure well into the green on my battery checker.
I like this light a lot. It is feature rich and I think a bargain for the money. It should be available at any Target. If I wanted a thrower for outside use, I would try another light. This would be a great light to keep in a bail out bag or a car, since it uses long shelf life, non leakable, lithium batteries. It can also be run off more common alkaline batteries. For in the attic or inside or under the house or in a tent or around the camp or for under the car hood or as a general usage power outage headlight, it is a great light. I highly recomend it. Oh yeah, I got my water line fixed, so it no longer rains in the garage. this headlight made that job a lot easier.
