questions and observations about armytek for interior home renovation.

See later post, "My experience with Armytek headlamps": http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?427514-My-experience-with-Armytek-headlamps


I recently received the armytek wizard pro v2 XM-L2 (warm). Wow, that's a mouthful. Anyway, I've been really happy with it so far except for the battery life at brightest settings. I dropped it in a pool on purpose, dropped it on concrete several times by accident, and have been generally impressed with the performance. I have used it mainly in a house I'm remodeling and it is great at finding imperfections in the drywall and paint. Maybe a little too good because you just can't see those issues under normal interior lighting conditions. Anyway, I'm getting a little off topic so here come the questions/observations:

I see a lot of folks with some serious issues and it's making me a little nervous about my recent orders.

I just ordered the armytek Tiara A1 pro v2 XP-L (warm). I also just ordered the armytek wizard pro V3 HXP-50 (warm). Both were ordered directly from the source in China because I had trouble finding them elsewhere and I had not read the bad reviews yet. I only based this decision to order on my experience with the current armytek headlamp I own.

Has anyone completely disassembled these armytek lights or any armytek lights to check quality? I think that would most likely happen when someone has a defective one and didn't want to waste time sending it back. I enjoy taking things apart with my son so I can show him how they work and gleen some quality knowledge.

I will add to this thread when I get the new lights…..If I ever get the new lights. My order went through PayPal to a Yang Lishi or something strange but I got confirmation from armytek that my order was placed correctly. Also I read,

"Armytek ships your package DDU ("Delivered Duty Unpaid") and does not collect the VAT, duties and/or taxes and cannot predict what your particular charges may be."

I'm a little concerned with that statement. Is customs going to hold my headlamps in some NY port until I pay some fee?

Any experience you folks could provide will be much appreciated. I want you all to know that I am a registered professional engineer and I will be completely honest about this entire experience from the purchase all the way through use and possible failure of these lights. Please don't let the fact that I'm an engineer keep you from posting because I don't know everything as is evident from this post. I'm sure there are other engineers in this comunity whether or not they choose to admit it. The only reason I even mentioned it is because I wanted to introduce myself and let you know that I am bound by ethics. I will be completely honest about this entire experience.

If anyone has any good headlamp suggestions regarding models that would be good for interior renovation please let me know. I like lights that are pretty warm, floody and not heavy.

I'm sorry if I have asked questions that have been answered before and I apologise for the long winded first post.

Oh, the wizard v3 XHP50 was ordered 4/5/2016 and the Tiara was ordered on 4/72016.

I'm just putting this stuff on record so we all know. I ordered them separately and paid $10 for shipping on each headlamp.

I guess we'll see how it goes and until then if you guys could offer up any experience I would appreciate that.

The body and hardware are great, if you can disassemble the potted driver capsule then you're on another level from me an I can't contribute.
I've heard of failed clicky switches, I've got one that is smooth and one that has a little bit of arthritic creak to it, but I haven't seen anything that's mechanically wrong with either of the two V3 Predators that I now have.

The first one I've got is a next to last generation model v3, the strobe failed almost immediately, the second one is seemingly the latest generation and everything seems perfect.

I haven't returned my first light because I didn't want the strobe anyways and I'm down with doing long term product testing, so long as the light keeps reliably doing what I actually need it to do... got ten years on the warranty,
and I'm hoping to eventually provide enough constructive feedback to help ensure that the 10 year warranty is usable.

My impression is that it's a great company with some unfortunate, awkward growing pains, mostly noticed and agonized over on specialist sites like here.

How can you tell what generation they are? Is there some way to distinguish between production runs other than the version number?

In my case, I know I've got a previous version V3 and a current version V3 because the XB-H led one switches between line 1 and line 2 with 3 head loosen/tighten cycles, while the more recent ("current") HI version V3 takes 5 loosen/tighten cycles to switch between Line 1 and line 2.
I only know a bit about the Predator models, I've got no experience with Wizards or anything else.

It stands to reason that most of the offerings from Baracudda to Prime are all variations of the original Predator model, except the Wizard, that one seems to be a separate, divergent branch, no doubt based on the same buck driver for standard and buck/boost driver for Pro models as the others, but the Wizard and Tiara headlamps seem to be a significant branch off from the others.

I'm a ZL fanatic for the angle head lights myself, H600w Mk II is hard to beat... I'm seriously eyeing the ZL H600Fc MkIII.
Five ZL in the last 3 years, 2 as gifts, one used and then given as a hand me down, 3 were AA, two are 18650, zero problems.

Does ZL not have any warm options for headlamps? I see neutral nothing with a CCT 4000 or lower.

The reason I ask is because I frequently have pure white walls and ceilings during construction and it can blind you. It's just more relaxing with a warm light. I can see how something more neutral would be better for the woods though. I'm going to buy a ZL to compare. Just need to decide on a model. I'm sure they make great headlamps judging by the reading I've done.

http://www.zebralight.com/H600Fc-III-High-CRI-Floody-Neutral-White-18650-Headlamp_p_172.html This might be a good option for you at CCT 4000k. I have been eyeballing it too for a while too. 85 cri, very light weight, and a nice beam, with a great UI.

Yeah ZL H600Fc Mk III is the one I'm excited about too, it's the warmest and highest CRI Zebralight that I've heard of.

I think I'm missing the spread numbers. Is this floody? Do they have hotspot and spill angles listed?

I just clicked on the thread because of your handle. Lazyspacetruck! that is great.

You should be happy with your purchases. All of my AT lights have been excellent. I would suggest you spend a few days learning the User Interface. Most of all the "complaints" and or "problems" I have read are directly related to User Error! Just a heads up there.

You will not have to pay any taxes or duties for a package coming to the States. They make that general statement/disclaimer because they ship world wide and they have no clue what strange laws or taxes a light might encounter at the Import location. So it is more of a "know your local laws", "don't point this directly in your eyes", "don't eat the packaging", "caution light gets hot on high" kinda statement. Ya dig?

Welcome to the Forum Lazyspacetruck. I so want to make it LazyspacetruckER!

Thanks Str8stoke, it's good to hear others that haven't had issues with AT. Lazyspacetruck started a while back when I got older. It was Slapdonkey for a long time until people started stealing it.

Just received email from AT that they shipped the Tiara.

Shipping method: Airmail
Shipment date: 04/12/2016, 07:24 AM

It's a little strange that Tiara shipped first even though I ordered the wizrd v3 first. They were both listed as "in stock" at the point of sale. I guess orders are not processed in the order they were received.

It may seem like I'm being overly critical but that is not my intention. I just want to record this experience for posterity. If you are a Chinese company claiming to be Canadian and don't even have a warehouse outside of China, you should expect to be put under a microscope. However, I guess there is a possibility that a Canadian engineer or designer provided specifications for these lights under contract with a Chinese manufacturing corporation. I guess I can try to look up how Armytek is incorporated and track that down. It's most likely public record if it was done in the United States or Canada.

It does seem to me that they would at least have a warehouse in the US or Canada. However, warehouses don't run themselves and I understand if the designer didn't want to deal with that. Just an observation. I'll let everybody know if I find out more. My time is limited but I'll see what I can do to satisfy my curiosity.

If you search here, this (AT Canada/China) thing has been covered pretty much so already. The only thing that bugs me about AT, is a minor thing. Their website notoriously has outdated/wrong specs. I think some of that is a lost in translation issue. Or they post a light as "coming soon/in production" or something like that and a year later, nothing new on it.
Otherwise, I have really liked my lights. I can't stress enough how important it is to learn the UI. Read it several times. Make sure you have the light set to the proper battery too. I had one act funky as all get out, until I reset the light and put it in the proper battery mode. That is 3.0 volt vs 3.7 volt cells. It could have also been partly the battery I was using.

Great information. I set mine for the correct voltage and I think I have the menu system down. I'm not sure what it does if it is expecting a different voltage from a different battery chemistry or configuration but I suspect it would throw a fault code or just act crazy. Mine was set for the correct voltage from the start but I set it again just to make sure. Thanks for the info. Very helpful.

So AT just told me that the wizard pro v3 HXP50 warm is a pre-order item and that was on their website. It was listed in stock and is still listed in stock. Wonderful.

OK, Sandra just said that if it was listed "out of stock" that it would be impossible to place an order.

So I guess the shopping cart web template they use does not have an option for "pre-order". If I were them I would not accept pre-orders until this is resolved.

Sandra also said, "we will ship this item within some days". I guess we will see what that means eventually.

I thought I would let everyone know that this is available because if you search directly on the site it is hit or miss.

http://goinggear.com/armytek-wizard-pro-v3-xhp50-warm-1x18650-2150-lumen-headlamp.html

I am in no way affiliated with this website or the manufacturer of this product.

The one I purchased from goinggear should be here tomorrow according to the tracking data.

Sandra said that Armytek will be opening a warehouse in Ontario "very soon". If they actually do that and allow USA customers to ship their defective lights to Canada, they would be in a much better position in my opinion. I would probably sooner throw a light in the trash before sending it to China for warranty repair or replacement unless I just wanted to know how that no hassle warranty system works. I sure it includes some hassle.

I received what was supposed to be an Armytek Wizard pro v3 XHP50 warm from Goinggear. They sent me an XP-L. I called to try and get the correct headlamp sent out immediately but I was informed that they could not do that until they receive the screwed up order they sent me. They did NOT offer to put a hold on my credit card to get one sent immediately. They did NOT offer any sort of discount to compensate me for my time. I normally get paid for my time just like they do. I'm not looking for a hand out. I just expect companies to act like they care when they make a mistake. Maybe offer the customer a $5 discount or offer other solutions like I just mentioned.

So now I will package this light back up, print out the label, and put it in the mail.

If I wanted the light I ordered from Goinggear I would have to send this one back which would probably take a few days, wait for them to put the correct light in the mail which would probably be another day or two, then wait for it to arrive which would probably take another few days. So from the time I ordered the light to the time I actually received it would be almost 2 weeks even though I paid extra for first class mail so that I could have it quickly.

People frequently ask me why I order so much from Amazon when I could support small business. Well, this is a good example. Amazon would already have the correct product on the way and I could wait to send out the wrong item or be charged for it if I just kept it.

I'm sorry to all the members here for the long winded rant but I promised to document this experience and this is part of it.

I'm leaning towards just waiting on the one I ordered from China. The other option would be to order another light from Goinggear. I haven't decided. Waiting on their replacement process is not going to happen though.