| NATIONAL PARKS QUICKLINKS |
Backpacker Magazine – May 2011
Gear School: Headlamps
Improve your night sight with the latest headlamp technology.
FIX
>> Battery contacts If jostled roughly, the contacts can bend and won’t connect with the battery. Use a knife tip to bend them back into place.
>> Cleaning Wipe off any corrosion with an emery cloth. If it’s really bad, use your knife or a flathead screwdriver to scrape it away.
>> Dead LEDs They’re rated to 100,000 hours (11 years), so manufacturers say that when they burn out, it’s time to buy a new headlamp.
READERS COMMENTS
You can clean corrosion from battery contact by using an eraser on a common pencil.
Is there any light color that bugs won't swarm? This past weekend our headlamps became handhelds when bugs kept swarming our faces.
Red light is not the best for reading topo maps by night, as the brown contour lines "disappear". Green, blue or even a low output white light is better.
If you do any serious bad weather outdoor stuff go for a waterproof/divers headlamp. Pelican and others make full-on diving headlamps and my favorite is the Underwater Kinetics Vizion headlamp that I use for sailing and kayaking in bad weather. Not losing your light in a bad situation is a very good thing.
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