Can you recommend a good headlamp.

Xinenerl

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Aug 3, 2020
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Getting tired of holding a flashlight with my teeth, so I'm looking for a good LED headlamp, maybe something that's rechargeable so I don't have to worry about swapping out batteries constantly. Do you guys have any suggestions? I was recently looking at one of the Milwaukee headlamps, anyone have an opinion on them? I appreciate any advice you guys can give me. Thanks!

And one more question. It's hot as hell outside! Yep it's that time of year. I need a fan for my shop. I've got some box fans circulating air through the windows, but I need air blowing direct on me and box fans lack the power to really be effective there without moving it all the time. I found this but it's for rooms https://coolingfanreview.com/best-ceiling-fans-for-large-rooms/. A large floor fan would be great, but then there's storage concerns with those large fans.

looking for input on using ceiling fans in their garage instead of floor fans or has any input on how to stay cool on these 100* days in a non-air conditioned space
 
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ChrisGarrett

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Getting tired of holding a flashlight with my teeth, so I'm looking for a good LED headlamp, maybe something that's rechargeable so I don't have to worry about swapping out batteries constantly. Do you guys have any suggestions? I was recently looking at one of the Milwaukee headlamps, anyone have an opinion on them? I appreciate any advice you guys can give me. Thanks!

Zebralight, Nitecore and Fenix.

Chris
 

peatytheamp

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I'll give you a little background for perspective. I'm an electrician and finally bought my first headlamp in 2005. It was an energizer AAA light. Super helpful on the job, and no more chipped teeth from holding a light in my mouth.

Next was a Princeton tech Apex, great light, I still have it.
Then I met surefire and HDS Systems I bought a niteize headband and used them instead of a headlamp.

Then zebralight. Now most of the guys I work with have the H604w. It runs off of rechargeable 18650s

I had a surefire minimus for a couple of weeks and was not impressed.

Now I use a Lupine neo x4. It's pretty expensive, but it's also utilitarian because of having the same batteries as my bicycle headlight.

A couple of guys I work with have Milwaukee headlamps. Every power tool I use daily is Milwaukee, but I haven't been impressed with their headlamps.

I recommend the zebralight 604w for any lighting purposes up to 40' away, beyond that the H600w would be better.

So in short personally I use the zebra or lupine everyday while carrying an HDS for things farther away.
 

Lynx_Arc

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Recommending a good headlamp requires your price range first as once you get above a certain price a lot of headlamps are available that are decent choices but below a certain price range there are a lot fewer choices. I have a budget headlamp Wowtac A2S and a Fenix HL60R The Wowtac is in the $35 range the Fenix the $75 range along with a bunch of other choices.
Forget the Milwaukee headlamps even though they are a step up from the 3AAA alkaleak powered options they are way overpriced and underperform for that price and I believe use proprietary and/or unreplaceable batteries on top of that. For the best performance get a lithium ion based headlamp that you can use replaceable available batteries in it like 18650 21700 18350 14500 even because non replaceable battery lights make for a lot shorter longevity.
 

Julian Holtz

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I can recommend the Boruit D10. It's really a budget lamp, but it works just fine out of the box if you are ok with cool white tints. It works with 18650, and has a nice USB charge port.
If you are a tint snob, you can swap the LED like I did:
https://www.fingers-welt.de/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=329704#p329704
Translation:
https://translate.google.com/transl...-welt.de/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=329704#p329704
eRyy3Pnl.jpg
 
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Bolster

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Now most of the guys I work with have the H604w. It runs off of rechargeable 18650s

I would have thought electricians would want the high CRI to better distinguish wire colors?

A couple of guys I work with have Milwaukee headlamps. Every power tool I use daily is Milwaukee, but I haven't been impressed with their headlamps.

Agreed. Milwaukee makes wonderful cordless tools, but headlamps are a repackaged afterthought for them.

I'm an owner, BTW, of the Milwaukee 2352-20, and while it's a nice stick light, I keep wondering why a 3Ah 18V light tops out at 300 lumens? When my little 3Ah 3.6V Zebralight tops out at 1600 lumens?
 

jrgold

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I would have thought electricians would want the high CRI to better distinguish colors

totally agree here, I'm
in the trades and high
cri really does help distinguish colors, or is useful to just
enjoy the beauty of nature. Zebras designated with "c" or "d" are high cri, or the wizard nichia pro from killzone is a good option, with internal charging


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

peatytheamp

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I would have thought electricians would want the high CRI to better distinguish wire colors?

As a young buck I didn't think high CRI much mattered in the normal day to day. It was all about brightness right? I always take CRI into account for commercial lighting, but only recently in my personal lights. As soon as the zebra quits working I'll replace it with a high CRI...but the silly thing just keeps going.

I'm an owner, BTW, of the Milwaukee 2352-20, and while it's a nice stick light, I keep wondering why a 3Ah 18V light tops out at 300 lumens? When my little 3Ah 3.6V Zebralight tops out at 1600 lumens?
I know right? It can power saws and everything else but that's all you can get out of it for lighting!
 

Bolster

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As soon as the zebra quits working I'll replace it with a high CRI...but the silly thing just keeps going.

Tell me about it. I have two ZL H50s from 2007 that show no sign of slowing...and I confess I *like* the vintage rotary battery cap control..."Look ma, no buttons!"
 
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GODSPEED

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Great feedback, but to your Milwaukee headlamp question: I have the first and second gen and they've been real beaters for the family and I really like them. We live on acreage and we're way out of town so the desert is pitch black here and they've worked great for small quick task to longer task like watering trees at night, etc. The second gen came out at HD for about 20ish and it's got a bunch of different settings so I use this one, I've used it for work taking water samples early/am hours and just about everything else, the strap slide adjustment they use is really quick and comfortable. The 2nd gen price is now 40+ish but next time I see the at 20 I'm grabbing a couple.

Not rechargeable but good run times so far. I haven't tried the "hard hat" specific model they offer yet but when I do I'll post up.
Eli
 

Hooked on Fenix

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Milwaukee headlights have decent warm white l.e.d.s but none of their lights are waterproof. They are also all plastic. Unless you are doing electrical work, get yourself a good aluminum waterproof (IPX8) headlight from Nitecore, Fenix, Olight, Klaurus, or Zebralight. Plastic lights limit durability, heat sinking, and brightness. A front mounted (no rear battery pack) light that takes 1 18650 and puts out around 1000+ lumens on high is the best overall headlight (brighter headlights only last seconds to minutes on high and cost more).
 
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