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List Price: $70.96
Sale Price: $16.25
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Purchased from universewolf Corp, fulfilled by Amazon. Overall the light is solid and on par with your usual Chinese knockoffs, but does come with a few nice features plus it can be improved with a little solder work. It'll run off one battery or an external power source (such as the included charger). Just don't expect the obvious joke of 1600 lumens (more like 300-330 actual), and avoid charging the batteries in the lamp if you can help it.
UPDATE 4/17/2013: After piddling around with a constant level power source, I can pretty much say this is a genuine CREE XM-L LED, binned T6 as labeled in the description. Or at least an LED that matches the basic XM-L T6 specs. The 1600lm measurement is an outright lie no matter HOW you look at it. T6 binned XM-L's rate 280-300 lumens at 700mA (at a forward voltage of 3.1V I think), and XM-L specs max out at 1040lm@10W, a wattage which this lamp never approaches. I'm not sure on the voltage or chromatic binning, but it should accept quite a bit more juice if someone were so inclined.
LIGHT OUTPUT
When I purchased the light, it was listed as a 1600 lumen light. Obviously that's a complete lie. The box even indicated it was around 760 lumens, which is also a complete lie. But again, this is a cheap knockoff probably using a QA failed CREE LED, so you expect those things. But, for comparison, I paired it against my Fenix PD32 which uses a CREE XP-G R5 LED and the same 3.7V 18650 lithium ion batteries that this headlamp takes. The Fenix is regulated and rated at 315 lumens on turbo. This headlamp, by comparison, is ever so slightly brighter. Assuming the Fenix is actually 315 lumens, I'd seat-of-the-pants this headlamp at around 330 tops.
The light pattern is quite solid, however. There's no obvious evidence of the CREE LED outline, and the spill pattern is so close to most of Fenix's lineup it's scary. A bright, solid spotlight fills the center while a generous flood fills the surroundings, all very much to my preference. Comparing it again to the above PD32, the spots are almost identical with this lamp getting about a 25-30% larger flood spill. Good for a headlamp in my opinion.
CONSTRUCTION
Build quality is actually pretty solid for a budget lamp. The lamp holds its place well, it uses aluminum in critical spots for heat dissipation, and has a nice coiled cord for heads of various sizes. The weight between battery pack and lamp is good with a top strap to distribute the load, and the generous use of plastic keeps the package lightweight. I wouldn't trust the waterfastness in anything more than a rain storm, but it should provide enough weather protection for that. The lens is obvious plastic but you can't expect Gorilla glass at this price point. Internally, the soldering is a bit of a mix between good and a mess. The wires look to be sloppily hand-soldered onto the control board whereas the IC's, resistors, and capacitors are all surface mount and machine soldered. Competent enough, and everything is securely mounted internally (at least as far as screws into plastic go), so nothing should rub or work loose during rough times, even the shoddy hand-work.
BATTERIES AND CHARGER
The lamp includes a pair of 3.7V 18650 li-ion batteries. Said included batteries are even more of a joke than the 1600 lumen light output. They're knockoffs of UltraFire batteries (the included ones are branded "UltroFite"). Those of you using 18650s know that UltraFire batteries are largely low quality budget batteries, advertising 4000+mAh but delivering less than 2,000 on a good day. These included knockoffs of already poor batteries are even worse. You'll be lucky to get any duration at all, and despite being labeled as being protected cells, I wouldn't trust the included batteries NOT to go up in flames if significantly overcharged.
If you want batteries that'll actually last, look for 18650's that use Panasonic cells -such as the Orblites or some of the unbranded cells around Amazon. Those batteries ARE properly regulated and fully tested for more then 3100 mAh (or 3700 mAh's for some of the newer models as of this writing). If you're paying less than eight bucks per 18650 shipped (as of this writing), barring a sale or good deal, it's going to be a poor battery or a knockoff.
Speaking of the included charger, it's a shocker -in a good way. It's rated at 4.5V@500mA, and by golly, it puts out 4.5V spot on to the hundredth digit. I've got quality regulated wall chargers costing more than this entire package that don't put out THAT close to exact. Cord length is pitiful, however, at around 1.5 feet.
BUILT-IN CHARGING
One big feature of this lamp is the built-in charging capability. I'll be frank: don't use it unless you can't avoid it. It dumps all the voltage from the charger directly into the batteries completely unregulated. What does this mean? It means that unless you're using protected cells you can overcharge the batteries, potentially damaging them or in pretty extreme cases catching them on fire. I doubt something as extreme as a fire would ever happen with the included charger as splitting 500mA between two batteries usually isn't enough to cause a thermal runaway in cells of this size, but it's something to be aware of, especially if said charger somehow messes up and dumps out more voltage for some reason. Or if you're using poor quality unregulated cells.
As the batteries are wired in parallel, you can use the headlamp with only a single battery. It'll have half the run time, but it comes in handy in some situations. And as a "bonus", because the charging port/circuit is wired directly into the existing output circuit, you can actually run the lamp without any batteries if you use a charger of enough voltage and amperage. Don't exceed the 4.5Vs of the stock charger, mind, as the circuit is unregulated and too much in the way of input voltage can fry the headlamp and/or circuit. This remarkably boosts the utility of the headlamp. Purchase a large battery pack that can put out 3.7+ volts and a few hundred milliamps, mount it somewhere besides your head, then boom -you have a headlamp that can run for hours upon hours upon hours barring a hardware failure.
THAT SILLY RED LED
For some STRANGE reason, the developers included a red LED that lights up the white label on the battery pack when in use. A bit odd as most people would probably recognize when their flashlight would be on or off -as would those around them. I covered it up with electrical tape at first, but removed it later (see below). Silly, stupid, and unnecessary in my opinion. If they wanted to regulate the voltage there's MUCH more appropriate ways to do that cost so little more.
HOW TO IMPROVE THE LIGHT AT HOME
So, want to make the lamp better and brighter? Stock, the LED get's about 2.61 volts using the included charger only, which puts out, say, 330 lumens ballpark. That red LED I mentioned above isn't part of the headlamp circuit, but still draws power. As it was annoying as all heck, I desoldered the red LED and removed it, which pumped the voltage up to ~2.74 volts across the CREE LED and bumping the lumen output to about 350ish. Furthermore, you can jumper pin 5 of the IC (closest to the text under the IC on the left, assuming the same circuit board layout) to the positive feed of the LED. This boosts the voltage across the CREE to about 2.87, netting even more lumens.
Net result, with a little soldering, you can get a boost in light output, though it's somewhat marginal. My only decent soldering gun on hand is a portable butane model I use for splicing wires outdoors, so it's tip was far too big to solder on a jumper wire on the IC's pin, but enough to remove the red LED. I haven't had any issues with heat output since the modification. Now, I'm not sure how this will change the life of the CREE LED in the long run, but it's not like the lamp is using a quality regulated circuit in any event. As usual, your mileage may vary (especially if they change the board design), and any mods you do at your own risk.
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The headlamp works great. It puts out more than enough light for high-speed mountain biking at night. However, tested individually, the batteries only have ~750mAh capacity (discharge at 0.7A to a low voltage of 3.0V). In practice, this means that the batteries discharge completely in a little under an hour on high mode in the light. I had read reviews of these Ultrafire batteries warning me to this, but I was fine with it as a high quality 18650 can be purchased for ~$10 per battery. I look at is as having purchased the light without batteries for $30. Still a good deal (especially when compared to purpose made bike lights with similar output.
Best Deals for SecurityIng® Outdoor Waterproof 1600LM CREE XM-L T6 LED
I used this head light for the first time tonight on a darkened trail near my home. I go speedwalking at least 3x a week at 5-6 miles per session. I was using a cheaper head light which was just OK. I decided to buy the Cree as it was rechargeable and waterproof. Anyway, I went on the trail which is shared by joggers, dogwalkers and bicycle riders. I cranked it up to the brightest setting and was amazed at how much illumination it put out. I could see everything in front of me, for a change, and I'm sure I must've blinded a few people coming from the opposite direction. I'm very sure that I will never go unseen or unnoticed on the trail again.
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I am a water hauler in the North Dakota Oil Fields and work at night. I used Headlamps from stores that use batteries and was spending far too much for replacement batteries. This headset in many times brighter than store bought headsets. The battery pack has a red light built into it so your seen from behind. Batteries last full 12 hour shift when used as needed. I purchased the Cree plug in charger and 2 replacement batteries so I don"t have to remove the headlamp from my hard hat to charge the batteries. I just swap the batteries out of the headlamp. HIGHLY recommend this if you work or play at night and need your hands free.
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The light is bright just as anticipated, however it takes quite long to charge and a full charge won't even last a full hour. Also not so sure about the durability as I had a piece snap off the top. All in the all the light is great, but the battery kills it.
