Reviewer Information

• Name: Cora Shea
• Age: 24
• Gender: Female
• Height: 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
• Weight: 150 lb (70 kg)
• Email address: cahhmc "at" yahoo "dot" com
• Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
• Date: August 24, 2004

Basic Product Information

• Year of Manufacture: 2004
• URL: http://www.bdel.com/
• Listed weight
  • Without batteries: 3.3 oz (93 g)
  • With 3 AAA batteries: 4.5 oz (128 g)
• Weight as delivered
  • Without batteries: 3.7 oz (105 g)
  • With provided 3 AAA batteries: 4.9 oz (139 g)
• Advertised battery life: 100 Hours (SuperBright LED), 15 Hours (HyperBright LED)

This report covers long term use, care, and maintenance from April to August 2004. For field testing performed during February to April, 2004, please see my Field Report. For more general product information, more visual details, more reporting on appearance, structure, and items that can be tested and commented on without field testing, please see my Initial Report.

Long Term Testing

I discovered an important thing during the extended use. My friends and I flipped our canoe in Arizona (well, actually, someone else flipped us after our particularly good aim in a water fight) and the Zenix was in my pack and not my drybag. Obviously, it got rather wet. At the time, I did not think much about it. It was not until the evening when I fished it out of my pack (it had dried just fine) and noticed that the light was on. I pushed the on-off button. The light remained on. I pushed it on and off, on and off, and the light still remained on. In fact, both LEDs were on at the same time. I then worried a bit, flipped one of the batteries to force it to be off, unscrewed the case a bit to try to dry it more, and waited.

I went the night without a headlamp, and the next morning it was fine. My batteries were nearly dead, but from the time of the canoe flip to the evening was about eight or nine hours of all three LEDs being on, and the batteries were not new. This meant that I had a headlamp, but a dim one because I had not brought extra batteries on such a short trip.

In one way, the trip made me rather sad because the Zenix failed me, plain and simple. It probably got much wetter than its advertised spray-proofness anticipated it could handle, but at the same time my soft chapstick in the same pocket did not dissolve so I doubt the water exposure was anywhere near full immersion. But, it has returned to full functionality without any signs of corrosion or degradation in function.

That aside, the Zenix served me quite well on every single other trip. In my opinion, the main bashing, thrashing, and challenging of the Zenix occurred during the late snow and spring season during the first field use phase. I never imagined that an LED headlamp could provide enough light for routefinding in snowfall, and I continue to be impressed by that. However, during the long term phase, the Zenix has shown that it is also a great and dependable day-in-day-out headlamp for use on less demanding summer backpacking trips.

Long Term Use Comments

Durability

Other than being a bit leaky as described above, the Zenix has been very durable. I have not given it any special treatment at all, and it has been carried in pockets, around my neck and shoulder, in crammed-full packs, and of course on my head while bushwhacking, kayaking, and during other various activities. And when everything is said and done, it still looks new. The plastic has some small scratches in it, but nothing that could even be called a groove. The elastic is still stretchy after being tangled, stretched, splashed with salt and fresh water, adjusted at least twice a trip, and other such activities. All pieces are intact, and I really don't have much else to say since the lamp is in such great condition.

Care and Maintenance

With six months and about forty field days, I have replaced the batteries twice (meaning I'm now on my third set). That is about the extent of the maintenance I've had to perform. Field changing has been very easy by access via the thumb screw on the battery compartment. The Zenix adjusts to different heads easily (my friends always wanted to borrow it to find a tree in the middle of the night) and has no scratches, pulls, tears, cracks, or even smell! From its current performance, I expect it will be a long time before it needs even something as simple as a grit cleaning.

Summary

The Zenix has proven to be a dependable and versatile headlamp. It is by far the brightest LED headlamp I have used, and is quite comfortable to wear and relatively easy to operate. I still wish there were separate switches for the different LEDs, which would help make it harder to burn battery hours on the bright LED without realizing it in close quarters. But, this headlamp has been there when I need it over this test series, from routefinding in snow to kayaking home in the dark.

• Upsides for me:
  
  • Bright
  • Comfortable
  • Long battery life

• Downsides for me:
  
  • Must check which LEDs are lit every time I turn it on
  • Fails when wet

Read more reviews of Black Diamond gear
Read more gear reviews by Cora Hussey

Reviews > Lighting > Headlamps - LED > Black Diamond Zenix > Cora Hussey > Long Term Report