UKC

Are they really that good?

Excluding the price, what are the pro's.....

........and also the cons????

In reply to An Triubhas: Yep very good, red LED is useful and bright enough for most stuff but a forum search should tel you more http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=479068

In reply to An Triubhas:
Their biggest disadvantage is that they're currently out of stock (until March apparently). I posted a thread asking for alternatives and got a lot of suggestions, though your requirements may be different from mine... www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=491211

In reply to An Triubhas:

Both the two my lads have, (bought so when on camping trips they don't disappear with £50s worth of Petzl and then come back not being able to remember where they put it!) are great. The only issue that they have both had is that the contacts seem to oxodise(?) quite quickly and so need to be scraped with a screwdriver to ensure a contact when changing batteries. Haven't had this issue with Petzl torches.

They seem a bit more prone to turning on in a rucksack than other torches I've used, but that could be a particularly sensitive switch on this one.

A physical flick switch for a hard 'off' would be a good refinement, if anyone from Alpkit is listening.. very annoying to head out somewhere where your torch is critical and find out it's been on in your bag for the last 5 hours.

Otherwise very good torches, light, bright, sturdy, excellent value - even come with batteries.

In reply to mullermn:

I've also found out that the one I have turns itself on when carried in a pac or pocket, been caught out a couple of times.

Wouldn't say its the most weather resistant either, seen a couple die in heavy sustained rain while other headtorches are fine.

Decent enough for the price, good wee camping or bothying light but for proper hill use might be better spending a bit more.

In reply to An Triubhas:

I do like Alpkit gear. The gourdon backpack is amazing. But my gamma seems to be more of a fair weather headtorch. I wouldn't say I've used it loads, but it's had a reasonable amount of use. As others have mentioned, it's very easy to turn it on in your pack. Also it doesn't seem to be that weather proof. I've used mine in fairly wet weather before now and it now doesn't want to turn on all the time and cuts out occasionally.

However it's nice and bright, very light, small and comfy. And for the stunningly cheap price, you can't go wrong. There aren't many other headtorches that do 90 lumens for £12.50.

It does make me pause to think before shelling out £150 on a sleeping bag or other expensive gear from them.

In reply to mattrm:

One thing I like about Alpkit in general is their willingness to stand by the reliability of their gear - I asked them about my 4 year old Gamma, which had developed a fault. They asked me to send it back to them, and about a week later, a new one landed on the doorstep.

That said, the only bits of their kit that I've ever had real problems with was their original line of sleeping mats - we had a good load of them and several had problems with the surface material delaminating off the foam and bubbling. We've not had any problems with the stuff from their new range.

In terms of sleeping bags, We have 4 - 2 Skyehigh 400s (which they no longer produce), a Skyehigh 800 and a Pipedream 800. They've all been faultless through fairly heavy use, which includes frequent camping trips with 2 collies which like to try and share your bag when it's cold out. My only gripe is that that I can't blag the wife's Pipedream, as it's designed for more streamlined shapes than mine.

In reply to An Triubhas:

As has been said, they have a tendency to turn on when carried in a rucksack. I used to avoid this by turning one of the batteries round, but the repeated opening of the battery compartment that this involves, quickly led to the closures snapping.

In reply to An Triubhas:

Only bad things I would say about mine would be that, as above, I have found it blinking away in my bag, the white LED is the first of the smallest LEDs to come on rather than red, so not great for night vision, and the green LED seems a bit superfluous. In fact that's not true, I like the green LED because it makes you feel like special ops, but don't tell anyone.

Overall though for the price it's ace, and I'm annoyed I can't get another one 'til at least March. I zip tie mine to my bike helmet for XC night rides, and it's a pain in the arse swapping it back to straps every few days so I wanted another one. In the meantime I'm thinking of jumping along to Argos for an Energizer Extreme Cree as seen here:

http://www.energizer.eu/uk/en/site/flashlight-outdoor.html

70 lumens, runs on 1xAA and IPX7 waterproofing for £25 I think is pretty decent. Only bad thing I've found from Google is the headband isn't great, but I'm hoping to bodge something a bit more substantial.

In reply to An Triubhas:


A brilliant headtorch and mine lives in the car (or the big bag if im not taking the car) for when i arrive at a campsite and need a torch to allow me to see to set up.

a great campsite torch

pros=

-good white lights (focused beam and wide beam)
-red light for keeping night vision
-green light for keeping night vision but allowing contours to be seen on a map.
- red light on back of head is good for road walking / letting people follow you.
- easy to turn on with gloves or mitts on
- nice price!

cons=

- the white light comes on first and you have to ccle through the green light to get to the red light ( this causes any night vision you had to be lost and therefore dfies using the red light although this can be combatted by remembering to put you hand over the light when turning it on, but not always possible / able to remember )
- can be easily turned on when not in use.

so overall its a good buy but could be made extremely brilliant with a couple of slight changes.

very good torch for the money. As others say, turns on in your bag pretty easy... have found myself needing it a few times and it has no battery left!

Cheers,

Just need them to come back in stock now.

Oh I should of bought one of them months ago when they were available!!!!