User Review: Petzl Duo LED 14

Petzl Duo LED 14
Above: The current Duo LED 14, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed March 15, 2007 by Boxxer

Rating:
Price Paid: $114

First off let me state that this thing is not for everyday use, both the price and the battery life are indicative of something that is special purpose. I do a lot of caving, crawling around in small spaces. Most caves that I go into are full of water, and the small spaces make the waist mounted battery pack impractical. On the brightest LED setting you can only expect about 3 hours of burn time on standard batteries, thusly, Lithium batteries are a better bet. However, when you reduce LED to a lower brightness the burn time is considerably longer.

On that note the LOWEST LED setting is still at least 5 times brighter than the high setting on my VECTRA IQ. The brightest LED mode will flood a whole room, at a distance of over 100 feet... impressive for an LED. Pare that with the fact that it's got 2 different light systems in the event of failure, it's overbuilt like crazy and waterproof and you've basically got a HUMVEE of headlamps...

Yeah, it's twice the price of anything else, but in a cave 4 miles in, if your light breaks, or fails... you're dead... cheap insurance if you ask me... just make sure you carry extra batteries because this thing eats them for breakfast.