Any headlight that use proprietary battery pack but can also run on standard battery?

Kaban

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Nov 29, 2012
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I really want to get the Surefire Maximus 1000L model, but I am worried that if the battery runs out and I am out in the woods at night, I am kinda screwed.

I have a few dozen flashlights and on one of them, the Surefire UNR, it uses a proprietary SF battery but also has an adapter (basically just a battery holder) that can house some standard CR123's in case the main battery runs out of life.

I like that concept.

Does anyone make something like this with a headlight? Something easy to recharge, plug into the USB port but also in emergencies can use standard batteries?
 

Keitho

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Jun 7, 2017
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Olight has a line of USB rechargeable 18650 head lamps that seem to get good reviews. The weight penalty seems minor to carry a charger with you, and a spare 18650 cell weighs less than 50g.

"In emergencies can use standard batteries" means different things to different people. For me, that means swapping my "standard" 18650 cells when they're drained, and recharging on one of my many car, solar, or wall chargers; for many others, it means exactly what Szemhazai said, finding a USB rechargeable 18650 light that also accepts CR123's, or 3xAAA in an adapter, etc. I steer away from proprietary battery packs--they often are expensive/impossible to replace, of limited use for other devices, and low performing.
 

terjee

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Other than battery selection, what are you looking for in the light?

And any special reason why you consider proprietary a good thing, rather than just using 18650 batteries? (It's your light, so just asking to understand, not at all complaining).

There are also really small and portable chargers like Nitecore F1 and F2.

Personally I'm somewhat hooked on Zebralight headlamps these days. They don't have proprietary batteries, but are awesome. :)
 

Kaban

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Thanks guys.

I actually have 2 Zebralights (H600w Mk II) that I purchased last year and I love them but I wish I did not have to unscrew the cap; and remove the batteries to charge them in the traditional battery charger. It gets old really quick when you are using the headlights all day long at work. We have some rechargeable Scangrip headlights that do not have nearly the same lumen output but because you can just plug them into the wall charger and not have to remove batteries, those lights get used much more for the ease of recharging.

Is it safe to assume that with the Armytek and Olight headlamps you can charge them in your car with the 12V cigarette light adapter or in your house through a USB wall charger? I am leaning toward this option right now.

And to answer the question about what I am looking for in a headlamp, I am looking for a general use headlamp, do not care about stupid high lumen output, mainly something with decent runtime (a few hours minimum) on 200-400lm light output). Turbo modes are sometimes fun but I noticed on the Zebralights, the headlamp gets STUPID hot within seconds of running it on the high output mode, gets too hot to the touch.
 
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