Thread: Which headlamp to buy???

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005...fdec2e0eHIK2F2

Originally Posted by Mauser308

Wow...

I was told a while back stick with "manufacturer branded" cells like LG, Panasonic etc rather than relabelled.

good advice!

The reality is that you should be paying around $1 per 100mAh so a 3500 will be just shy of $35
You may find good quality for less but then do they have all the protection circuits, ATR etc; these are lithium-ion after all and prone to the odd explosion every now and again.

Another clue is in the so called massive mAh they apparently achieve. Anything above 3600mAh for an 18650 Li-ion is suspicious as the battery size doesn't allow for it which is why the 21700 was created.

Originally Posted by Dyls

Maybe im asking too much from a head torch, but Ive just had a play with the ledlenser h19r dual head torch and was massively underwhelmed considering they're close to $500. They claim 3500 lumens and a 300m throw but it didnt come close to lighting up a tree 200 away. Ill have a look at a nitecore but is there anything that is properly grunty? Might just strap a maxtoch shooter to my head and call it good.

Try the NZ made Glo-Worm series, can mount them to anything, bikes, helmets and have head bands

Up to 3600 Lumen from memory

They have huge battery capacity

Originally Posted by Mauser308

"prone to the odd explosion every now and then...". Sounds like somewhere near the middle east. All things being equal li-ion don't just pop because they've have had a bad day and got the rag on - it's not like they are married to us. If you know what to look for, and do the correct checks it's not hard to fish them out of the general population before they go bang. What is very concerning, is of the cordless tool 18v packs I've opened recently a good percentage have been showing the signs of a failed battery management system (and becoming a battery murder source). One I have is very peskily running the front two cells low so at half charge, the next to at full charge and cutting charge out on those, and the remaining six somewhere in the middle. What that does is cause the fully charged pair to cook and eventually spit out the good stuff and probably start to go frssssst. That by the way is a technical term I just invented.

yeah the odd explosion bit is simplified but I'm sure you understood what I meant.

I am particularly wary of generic power tool batteries, Trademe and FB is full of them with promises that they are identical to the original with high quality ICR18650's blah blah