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Friday, July 10, 2015

The New Thrunite TH10: Headlamp for Disasters


Thrunite TH10 (NW) 750 Lumen CREE XM-L2 U2 $39.95
A few weeks ago there was a debate in a survivalist forum regarding what kind of flashlight was most useful for survival. One member argued that for all practical uses a low lumen output light was more than enough during blackouts and for utility/general purpose use. Another member quickly countered saying that in his own experience during disasters low lumen lights were very much useless and that you need a powerful flashlight, brighter than anything you can get out of AA and AAA batteries.
Turns out both are right. Depending on the nature of the disaster or emergency you are dealing with, you may need as much brightness and as much throw as you can get (tactical use, security, guarding a perimeter, search and rescue during disasters) or you may need a light that puts out a modest amount of light for very long periods of time running on commonly available batteries (long term SHTF, long term power outages).
I have often explained that a headlamp is the best kind of light you can have for survival and emergencies given that it allows the use of both hands while quickly placing the light exactly where it’s needed. I’ve literally spent days using little AAA headlamps from Energizer and Petzl. The problem is that these headlamps, while great for their intended use, aren’t very bright (very bright these days being +500 lumens or so) and they usually don’t have great throw. This is where the Thrunite TH10 comes in handy.
The Thrunite TH10 is the kind of light you would love to have for those high brightness, good throw applications. I asked Thunite to send their neutral white version which I believe renders colors better than cool white. It is also a bit cheaper for some reason. Like all other Thrunite products it is well made, with a nicely finished aluminum construction. It has CREE XM-L2 LED with a maximum brightness of 750 lumens on turbo mode lasting 118 minutes. It also includes low, medium and high as well as strobe, all reasonably fast to access thank to it simple user interface which Thrunite typically uses. Clicking the light turns it on and off. Keeping the switch pressed cycles through Low(11 lumens, 107hours), Medium(172 lumens, 9 hours ), High(490 lumens, 178 minutes), with a memory function remembering which one of these you used last. A long press starts the light on Firefly mode (0.2 lumens, 65 days). A double click starts the light on Turbo while a second double click activates the SOS (750 lumens, 270 minutes).

The TH10 uses a 18650 li-ion rechargeable battery, 2xCR123 or 2xRCR123A . While more commonly available batteries are of course easier to come by, the lumen output would of course be much less. While the aluminum construction light feels a bit heavy at times when moving, the headband, overhead strap and rubber mount keeps everything in place.
There’s not many headlamp throwers out there and the more technical ones can be pretty expensive. For 39.95 the Thrunite TH10(NW) fills that niche well.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

1 comment:

Steelheart said...

I picked up a Fenix headlamp a couple months back to upgrade from my old 3 AAA lights. The output is nice and the battery options are comforting.

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