Spelunking Special
Electrek 7 LED Head Lamp
Price: £1
Manufacturer: Electrek
Model: unknown
Power: 7x 5mm LED's
Run By: 3x AAA
Focus Type: fixed
Modes: 2 High and strobe
Vendor: Poundland
First Impressions
I can't believe it, I'm hunting ebay day and night looking for the best headlamp/Flashlight bargains and Poundland have one just down the street!
I came across this item quite by accident. Originally I had gone in to the Poundland store to buy some more AAA batteries. Nestled within the camping gear was this Electrek headlamp begging to be plucked from the shelf. It only cost £1 of course so it went in the basket without any thought.
This particular design of headlamp is very common. 7/12/20 LED variants have been seen for sale over the years.
With only 7 of these old school LED'S on board this headlamp is never going to set the world on fire but you can't grumble paying a quid for it.
The lamp is made from cheap yogurt pot plastic with a rather nasty silver paint job. This headlamp has never seen aircraft grade aluminium so you can forget tough rugged metalwork!
The LED Head is all plastic with a shiny shallow reflector. I'm expecting this lamp to throw a beam as far as the end of my arm and no further.
The Lens is a non-convex plastic affair, probably quite easy to scratch and cloud up.
Underneath the reflector is the LED and circuitry. It's very cheap and basic but works well none-the-less.
An important feature of any headlamp is the headband. And how good was a £1 headband going to be? I wasn't expecting any kind of quality that's for sure.
Instead the band turned out to alright. It's made from the same stuff they use in jogging bottoms to stop them fallen down round your ankles. It's very stretchy and very thin in places. This band has a third center strap which goes over the head preventing the weight of the lamp from pulling the band down over your ears. Despite the mediocre quality the band fits OK and doesn't move that much when it's on the head.
You get what you pay for and overall it's still a good product for £1.
Testing
This headlamp produces a short throw diffused beam of light. Not that overly bright to be honest but certainly useful for close work.
Reading things up close in the dark is easy and with very little glare - something the more poweful headlamps often fail to do.
For general camp side activities this lamp is plenty good enough.
On full power the brightness output is no more than 80-100 lumens at the very most. Its bright but not eye scrunching. That's not a bad thing necessarily.
What is bad is the lack of a half power mode meaning that you have to run this lamp at full power the whole time. It's nice to have the option of dimmer beam and less power consumption.
For a basic lamp it's good enough.
Rating ✅✅✅✅ 4 out of 5
Headlamps costing as little as £1 are a rarity on ebay. And for mooching around the camp site after dark it will serve you well.
For those who are on a tight budget then it's a no-brainer. Well done Poundland