Ebay Cree headlamps

[Gazz]

I have read many comments on the ebay headlamps being quite awesome but has anybody compared them to an expensive lamp & what where they like compared?. I am planning on going ice fishing & don't want to buy an expensive 1 unless i need to as i already have 1 back in England and i will probably only go ice fishing once or twice. I am actually looking forward to it, setting off on a skidoo a couple miles out.

So if anybody has compared & found the ebay ones close to/as good/better than their expensive one could you tell me which 1 it is i should go for.

Thanks

 

[steak and kidney pie]

the ebay ones are great but.......the battery life is short, good for a couple of hours by the shore to bait up and see the fish come in, however if you are wanting them on constant then they will likely only last for 15 mins. 5 watts of light from 3 trip A batts is a lot to ask.
if you can find one with a bigger sepreate battery pack it would be better, failing that a cheap low wattage light for generall use may do well for hours with the 5 watt cree for seeing distance!

failing that take a bucket load of batteries!

 

[shaun]

there good, as said wont last long after a 4 hour sesh it will be dull, but i just use recharables and recharge after every seshion. for a fiver you cant go wrong...

 

[kingcod deano]

the cree lamps are mint for the money i get around 10hrs fishing time out of a set of batterys as i dont put it on the full power setting you only need it on the half power one

 

[BAZACODBASHA]

Bought one from Hong Kong on e-bay a few weeks ago. £5.00 for the actual headlight, but £10.00 postage. Nearly a month later ! , it finaly arived. Looked excelent value, and indeed very bright. However after only one session, one of the wires came away from the contact, rendering it "useless".
Decided to open my wallet, and go for the Lenser type Headlights. Much more expensive, but far better build.
No doubt a lot of anglers haven't had the same problem with the Cree headlights as I did, but you can only go by your own experience.
Good luck.

 

[harry barker]

Bought one from Hong Kong on e-bay a few weeks ago. £5.00 for the actual headlight, but £10.00 postage. Nearly a month later ! , it finaly arived. Looked excelent value, and indeed very bright. However after only one session, one of the wires came away from the contact, rendering it "useless".
Decided to open my wallet, and go for the Lenser type Headlights. Much more expensive, but far better build.
No doubt a lot of anglers haven't had the same problem with the Cree headlights as I did, but you can only go by your own experience.
Good luck.

I've got two,this happened because the first one had a little fault...I emailed them and they sent me a replacement.Not cost effective to return old one so they said just keep it.
Had no more problems at all and I find a can get well over 6hrs on one set of recharge batterys.
I would drop them a line mate.

 

[clarky]

Like the lads av said not a long battery life with normal or re-chargeable batteries, if your looking for some decent hours out of your cree or any other light use lithium batteries more expensive but they last for bloody ages.
Pack of 6 for £7 in asda not sure if all asda's sell em but the ones with a photo centre do as they sell em with the digi camera's

 

[Gazz]

Cheers for the info, At home i have a fenix hp10 & it takes 4xAA which last 8hrs constant use, it actually lasts longer it just gets dimmer.

It would be essential that i have constant light for say 4hrs, i had looked at this 5W CREE Q5 LED HEADLAMP FLASHLIGHT +2x 18650+Charger on eBay.ca (item 310288040556 end time 18-Jan-11 15:18:45 EST)

but dunno if any of you lads have this 1 or whether the batteries will last.

 

[Davey-m]

Cree headlamps are great use a good quality battery i use 3x aaa1100mah rechargeables got 2 sets incase i want a 8-10 hour session and use the maximum beam alot, if i use the second beam setting it lasts all session like kingcod deano says.

 

[smokie]

You can always carry a spare set of batteries.

 

[spoonface]

I've had the cree 5w headlamp for around 18 months now which I purchased from ebay. I encountered four minor (YMMV) problems with mine but the pros for me outweigh the cons.

The headband was a bit small so I had to remove the adjuster and stitch it together, only a problem if you have a huge head and wear trapper hats.

Water got inside after a very heavy downpour (didn't stop working) but that was sorted with a small blob of fishtank silicone.

Battery life can be a problem but I now use Duracell rechargables and they last a week of walking the dog at full power with very little dimming.

The hinge can fail, but again can be fixed with a bit of faffing.

Anyone looking to buy torches or headlamps should give this site a a try, but don't believe the lumens, as a rule I would half the stated lumen rating.

http://www.dinodirect.com/flashlights/currency-GBP.html

I have ordered from them three times now and had no problems, also free postage if you don't mind waiting (can take up to three weeks).