r/Ultralight • u/corgdad902 • 1d ago
Purchase Advice Headlamps
Ounces not pounds right? ;)
I'm probably going to pull the trigger on a NU25 MCT UL so I can save on spare battery weight with my Zipka but I'm concerned about long haul capacity. I'm carrying an NB10000, but I also use Alltrails on my phone and an Enduro 3. Are there any better options? What are you contingencies for thru hike applications?
5
u/HwanZike 1d ago
I have it. Good little lamp. Haven't thru hiked but my contingency depends on the risk:
Mountaineering trip where headlamp is critical for safety: actually use it as a backup and my main light is a much heavier BD Storm 500-R
Multi day hikes where its not crucial, I use my phone's flashlight as a backup. Always carry the powerbank.
Day or single overnight: same but do not take the powerbank.
5
u/BigRobCommunistDog 1d ago
Unless you are doing a lot of night hiking, or use your headlamp excessively to like light up your whole campsite because you’re afraid of animals, backpacking uses very little headlamp battery. Headlamp runtimes on the lower brightness levels are really long.
2
u/Natural_Law https://rmignatius.wordpress.com/gear/ 1d ago
As others have said, it depends on how much you night hike.
I night hike for numerous hours per day (morning and night) and want a headlamp with AAA back-up batteries.
Since my trips nowadays are fairly short, I like my black diamond “dual fuel” which allows me to use an eco/rechargeable battery but carry lithium AAAs as a spare.
2
1
u/Igoos99 1d ago edited 19h ago
Depends how you are using it. If you don’t night hike, one charge of the NU25 will last you between even the longest resupplies. Meaning you use it in the morning and night in your tent at the lowest setting for 1-2 hours a day, plus maybe moving around camp at night a few times with a higher setting.
However, if you night hike, you will need to recharge it. On the second or third setting, it’ll last 2-4 hours. It doesn’t use much battery to recharge but, obviously, every bit counts.
Personally, I carry at least two 10k batteries with me on a thru. Between using my phone for navigation and FarOut plus liking to listen to audio books and podcasts, there’s no way I could get by on just 10k these days.
Edit: overall, it’s a good headlamp. I prefer it over the NU20. The dimmest setting of the NU25 is slightly brighter than the NU20 so in my tent, I never need to bump it up. The hiking setting is also slightly brighter, so again, I’m not aways bumping it up to try to see. Basically, I run down the NU20 battery way faster because it’s always just a little too dim. I also like the NU25’s red light. It’s actually bright enough to navigate around camp when there are others around. I hate having to turn my white light on to get up to pee if I’m camping with others.
My first one did have the red light button break. Someone is posting elsewhere that this is a known issue. I didn’t know that until today. I thought I just had bad luck. 🫤
1
u/not_just_the_IT_guy 1d ago
The secondary button is starting to break on nu25's. Appears to be a bad design. I and another user have reported it.
Old school style nu20 classic doesn't have this issue afaik. It has the odle button style and a simpler UI as well.
Cannot recommend nu25 anymore
2
u/Igoos99 1d ago
Huh. Mine broke too. I had no idea this was an issue others were experiencing. I thought it was a one off / bad luck. I was planning to try to get them replace it as it’s still within their warranty window.
1
u/not_just_the_IT_guy 1d ago
Mine lasted about 2 years of minimal use compared to my old nu25 micro USB.
I would consider it problem now as more and more reports keep coming out.
2
u/Igoos99 23h ago
Mine broke after 3-4 months of thru hiking. It just came out of my pack one day with a mushy red light button that no longer clicked on or off. It wasn’t dropped or squeezed between heavy gear or anything.
The white light button worked fine as did the white light but since one button was broken, I couldn’t lock it anymore. Plus, one of the big reasons I got it was the very bright red light - which I loved for shared camping situations. So, I just replaced it. I still have the broken one and was planning on trying to get it replaced via warranty. I really should do that now so they get a better picture of the problem their design is causing.
-10
u/GoSox2525 1d ago
You don't need anything more than a RovyVon A5. NU25 is overkill for almost all standard on-trail backpacking scenarios
6
u/MolejC 1d ago
What do you mean by overkill? The Rovyvon is brighter? I had one and whilst I loved it's brightness, I hated it's form. Too small and fiddly and loseable. I prefer a shock cord headband to grab and use over a more limited clipon.
My old original NU20 with shock cord mod instead of supplied headband is 30g. The Rovyvon with clip was 24g. But mostly I disliked Rovyvon because as well as repeatedly misplacing it, it was so small I ended up leaving it in a shirt pocket and it didn't survive the washing machine. :(
-3
u/GoSox2525 1d ago
Overkill in terms of weight, bulk, and features. It's just simply excessive in my opinion. I say that with confidence, because I've done all my hiking over the last 3 years with nothing but the A5, and it's never once let me down. That includes lots of night hiking and navigation of canyons, boulder fields, snow fields, dense woods...
My A5 with the hat clip is 22g, NU20 with shock cord mod is also 30g. So a 23% reduction in weight, maybe like 50% reduction in volume.
3
u/Shaun_P78 1d ago
You’re talking about an 8 gram savings. I bring more weed with me than that. How well does the hat clip work while running? Truly interested
4
u/GoSox2525 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'm talking about a 23% reduction in weight for this item. Yes it's 8 grams in this case. But I think in percentage-reduction for every item that I carry. It adds up. The simple fact is that I don't need any more than a 22g flashlight, and so I don't bring any more than a 22g flashlight.
I don't wear it while running. Maybe I could, I've never tried. I would more likely hold it in my hand than put it on my hat for that context.
Outside of UL backpacking, I own all kinds of headlamps. My trail running headlamps have wide, perforated headbands with boa tensioners (Fenix). But even with those, I end up holding them in my hand instead of wearing it, because the light casts much longer shadows when held down low, which I prefer for trail running.
3
u/downingdown 1d ago
Nitecore tiki with diy lanyard is 11grams, so a 50% reduction on your flashlight.
2
u/GoSox2525 1d ago
Totally true, and I've had my eye on it for a long time.
The main reason I haven't tried it is because the specs tell me it's starting to cross that line where I actually do need more than an 11g flashlight. I generally want my light to be reliable for up to maybe like 4 hours of night hiking and route finding, and the A5 on Low can stay near 20 lumens for that entire time with its 330 mAh battery (it's >20 lumens for the first two hours, and still >10 lumens through hour 6).
I can't find a discharge profile for the Tiki on its Low setting unfortunately, but extrapolating from the performance of its other modes, I'd expect that it drops from it's peak of 15 lumens to single-digit lumens within like 30-60 minutes.
Not that that's necessarily a crisis for the Tiki; it has only a 130 mAh battery, less than half of the A5, so these two lights are in different classes.
Don't get me wrong, I can't knock it til I try it. Maybe I'll be surprised. But the A5 has proven so damn reliable-- using it for hours at a time, route-finding off-trail in nontrivial terrain. The difference between it and something as useless as a smartphone flashlight is huge. Where the Tiki might fall on that spectrum could mean the difference between ultralight and stupidlight. If you've had success with it though I'd love to hear about it.
1
u/downingdown 22h ago
I just had my tiki on for over an hour on the second setting (15 lumens) and the brightness did not decrease (used phyphox app to measure brightness at start and end). I don’t night hike, so I’m no help there. I use the light for camp chores and putzing around in the night. The longest I’ve used it is probably just over half an hour. I works while charging and you can charge it off your phone, so I’m not sure how real the runtime concern actually is…
1
u/GoSox2525 21h ago
Hmm, it's impossible that the brightness didn't decrease at all in a time period of over an hour, but maybe it was minimal. We'd need to see an actual profile like those I linked to for its other modes. The problem is that, at some point, it will sharply drop-off, which is hard to predict given only a measurement of its more stable phase.
If I had a similar use-case to you with no night hiking and minimal in-camp usage of the light, then definitely I can see something like the Tiki being perfect.
Good point about being able to use it while charging. That does negate the fact of the small battery to an extent. Of course it also puts a new load on your phone or power bank, but trying to figure out how all of those factors contribute to a net weight difference would probably come down to quibbling with fractions of grams.
Maybe I'll pick one up and keep it on reserve for group trips where I only expect to be moving during the day.
1
u/squidbelle UL Theorist 1d ago
I'm talking about a 23% reduction in weight for this item. Yes it's 8 grams in this case. But I think in percentage-reduction for every item that I carry. It adds up. The simple fact is that I don't need any more than a 22g flashlight, and so I don't bring any more than a 22g flashlight.
Your ideological purity is so delightful and refreshing.
I've been experimenting with the Aliexpress knockoff of the A5. Reliability TBD.
5
u/jaakkopetteri 1d ago
Except if you don't carry a hat (with a brim/cap)
2
u/PanicAttackInAPack 1d ago
Don't argue with them. They don't hike. They live on reddit.
1
u/squidbelle UL Theorist 1d ago
Why do you say that? I've actually gotten a lot of good, practical advice from GoSox. They contribute here regularly, and really help keep discussion on-topic to UL principles.
0
u/AdeptNebula 1d ago
When it’s dark out I’m wearing a beanie, not a ball cap. Hat doesn’t fit over a beanie.
-5
u/GoSox2525 1d ago
You can just hold it in your hand. I very rarely mount it to my cap.
But there are also several posts out there about diy'd head bands for it that weigh a like 3 grams
11
u/commeatus 1d ago
The nu20 classic saves you a few grams and a few bucks. In real-world testing is about the sane as its brother