We’ve discovered loads to like concerning the Petzl Iko Core ($100), which is why we picked it as our favourite headlamp for path runners for our Finest Working Headlamps information.
Weighing simply 2.4 ounces and producing as much as 500 lumens of unpolluted, cool white mild, this headlamp is good for our every day path working wants. Whereas it positively checks all the appropriate bins for weight and efficiency, it made the highest of our listing as a result of it’s additionally tremendous comfy with its progressive band and even distribution across the entrance, sides, and again of the top.
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A aspect view of the Petzl Iko Core. All images iRunFar/Meghan Hicks until in any other case famous.
Petzl Iko Core Options and Specs
The Petzl Iko Core leads the market in expertise, innovation, and luxury. This light-weight headlamp is constructed with a skinny, adjustable panel of LED lights on the entrance, an ultralight however sufficiently inflexible Petzl AIRFIT silicone band to carry it in place across the head, and a battery pack on the again to steadiness the burden.
The sunshine has three brightness ranges of six, 100, and 500 lumens and each flood and combined beam settings. It’s operated with a single button under the LED mild, which can be used to lock or unlock the sunshine.
The headlamp may be powered with its included 1,250-milliamp-hour Petzl CORE lithium-ion rechargeable battery or three AAA/LR03s batteries. It’s price noting that the sunshine capabilities higher when working off the Petzl CORE rechargeable battery than AAA batteries, particularly in that the utmost energy setting yields 500 lumens with the rechargeable battery and simply 350 lumens utilizing AAA batteries.
For storage, the headlamp can fold up into itself. Moreover, it may be configured with its storage pouch to function a lantern — not a characteristic that’s tremendous practical for path working, nevertheless it may come in useful at camp or on a fastpacking journey.
A entrance view of the Petzl Iko Core.
Petzl Iko Core Efficiency
Whereas it is probably not the lightest headlamp accessible, at an precise weight of two.4 ounces, the Petzl Iko Core is loads light-weight for our path working wants.
We discovered the silicone band, which is adjustable utilizing the orange elastic band, to be ridiculously comfy, and we may barely even really feel the LED mild on the entrance. The band and total low profile, streamlined design are one of the best — and most progressive — elements of this headlamp, fingers down.
Whereas we respect the bottom six-lumen brightness setting of the headlamp, path runners will most steadily use it at both its center 100-lumen setting or its brightest 500-lumen setting. Nonetheless, six lumens gives sufficient mild to faff round in your automobile’s trunk earlier than or after a run, to gas up in an help station, or to make your approach round a fastpacking campsite.
We’re residing in a headlamp period the place corporations are continuously attempting to make brighter headlamps, however we consider that extra will not be at all times higher. We’ve discovered that lengthy nights of working with super-bright headlamps result in extra eye pressure than utilizing an acceptable quantity of sunshine for the circumstances.
As such, we’ve discovered that 100 lumens is sufficient mild for normal-speed path working on a well-developed and marked path. Thus, the medium setting of the Petzl Iko Core provides you loads of mild for typical evening path working.
Nonetheless, there are occasions and locations the place extra lumens assist, equivalent to when the path is technical, you’re searching for far-off course markings, or circumstances are poor. Extra mild additionally helps once you’re trying to run quick and wish to have an extended stretch of path illuminated in entrance of you. The five hundred-lumen setting of the headlamp gives greater than sufficient mild for many tough conditions like this, however not for a prolonged time period.
For those who’re trying to run for greater than a pair hours with a extremely vibrant headlamp, you’ll both wish to get adept at switching out the batteries on the Petzl Iko Core, otherwise you’ll must search for a headlamp with an even bigger battery.
Our solely gripe with the system is that altering the batteries is awkward, particularly whereas sleepy, chilly, or in any other case experiencing the results of a protracted evening on the path. If the batteries have been simpler to vary, we’d completely be utilizing this headlamp for full in a single day path missions.
The again battery pack of the Petzl Iko Core.
Petzl Iko Core General Impressions
We love the consolation, performance, and flexibility of the Petzl Iko Core, which is why we picked it as our favourite headlamp for path working in our Finest Working Headlamps information. Whereas we’d just like the battery change-out to be a bit simpler, we’re blown away by how comfy this headlamp is for on a regular basis path working. Moreover, at 100-lumen and 500-lumen settings, it gives ample mild to assist us see the path however will not be so vibrant that it strains our eyes. We love how simply it folds up and stows when the solar comes up and that it may double as a lantern at camp. Lastly, we respect the rechargeable battery, which makes the headlamp a simple selection for path working adventures that begin or finish at nighttime.
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Name for Feedback
- What’s your favourite headlamp for path working?
- Do you at all times use the identical mild, or do you could have a every day headlamp and an ultrarunning-specific lighting system?
[Editor’s Note: If you’re affiliated (i.e., an employee, ambassador, etc.) with a brand, please share your relation in each of your comments on this article. Thanks!]
iRunFar’s Meghan Hicks utilizing the Petzl Iko Core on a daybreak run. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
