Garrity 2 LED Headlamp
Owner Review
Date: December 15, 2005
- Name: Eugene King Nelson
- Age: 61
- Gender: Male
- Height: 6' 3" (1.91 m)
- Weight: 165 lb (75 kg)
- Email: kawl at lycos dot com.
- Home: Edgewood, NM
Backpacking Background:
I have been backpacking since 1981. Most of my trips are two to four
days; I often set up a base camp and from there go dayhiking. My
longest was a five-week hike on the Appalachian Trail about 13 years
ago. I have recently lowered my base pack weight from about 35 to 18
pounds.
Field Environment:
My hiking is in the New Mexico mountains on established trails and in
mesa canyons of southern Utah, all being three-season. Temperatures
generally range from 30 to 45 degrees F (-1 to 7 degrees C) on the low
side and 60 to 80 degrees F (16 to 27 degrees C) on the high side. I
avoid going out if stormy, rainy weather is forecast, but I do
occasionally encounter it.
- Manufacturer: Garrity Industries, Inc.
- Year of manufacture: 2004
- http://www.garritylites.com
- Weight specified: Not available
- Weight as measured: 3.6 ounces (102 g) including batteries
- MSRP: Not available
Review:
I purchased this headlamp at Walmart about a year ago. It included the
lamp with two LED white lights, headband, and three AAA alkaline
batteries. A hard plastic lamp body rotates 90 degrees up or down on
the headband bracket. The lamp itself has six positions controlled by a
single, spring-loaded, pushbutton switch located on the top: 1) high 2)
medium 3) low 4) slow flash 5) fast flash and then 6) off; they work in
that order with each push of the button.
If
the switch is in any of the five active settings for two seconds or
more, the next click will turn it off. The switch has two small light
indicators in front of it; one flashes green to show "batteries ok" and
the other is red indicating "low batteries" (I have never seen this
one). The battery casing is held in with a screw cap that attaches to
the head bracket. The cap is removed by turning it according to the
open/close arrow printed on it; then in order to slide the battery case
out of the lamp, I have to lightly hit the lamp casing against my hand.
The battery case is clearly marked showing the correct battery position
and the batteries insert readily. The case is easy reinserting and can
go in only one way. The cap is screwed back on and reattached to the
head bracket.
The
headband is a single strap, 3/4 inch (2 cm) wide, with a rubber pad
behind the lamp bracket and a slide adjuster at the rear of the head.
The adjustment was simple and the band held nicely for me.
The
lamp provides area lighting with no narrow beam. The illumination
extends 30-40 ft (9-12 m) forward and 12-15 ft (4-5 m) to either side,
with the brightest part in the center of the field. There is a small
circular line about halfway between the center and edge of the field.
This line is usually light blue, but appears amber on paper; it does
not affect usage for me. It lights the camp area very adequately for
virtually any normal task excepting one requiring a narrow beam and
works well as a reading light. It's very convenient to use while
cooking, and the brightness can be changed easily when needed.The
"batteries ok" flashing green light makes it easy to find if I need to
get up during the night. I haven't done any night hiking with it or
encountered rain with it. It functions well on the low LED and claims
up to 350 hours of usage on a set of batteries, presumably on the low
setting. I am still using the batteries that came with the unit, with
about 30-40 hours on them so far. I have also found it very handy at
times in working around the house in dark areas.This headlamp has been
very useful for me. It is my first one and I prefer it far more than
handheld lights. Some minor things that caused problems:
1) part of the headband pad broke, but still remained usable; a stronger material or design change would improve this.
2)
I remove the batteries after each trip and occasionally, on the next
trip, have had to reinsert them once or twice to establish electrical
contact.
Things I like about it:
1) It is reasonably comfortable and always stays in place on my head as well as in the up/down position.
2) the low light setting works for virtually every thing I do, extending the battery life.
