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November 22, 2016 Comments (0) Gear Reviews

Petzl Reactik+ Headlamp – Product Review

Petzl Reactik+

Petzl Reactik – $85.00

The potential of 300 lumens is what makes this headlamp initially appealing, but after some use what you may find most exciting about the Reactik+ is the battery life. Sure, it’s got bluetooth technology that allows you sync your headlamp with your phone, letting you check batter life on the fly or adjust brightness settings to compensate, but when it comes right down to it, what really matters is how all of it works together.

The Petzl Reactik+ offers up to 300 lumens of continual light projection. The standard setting on the headlamp is the reactive feature that adjusts the amount of light based on where you are pointing your head. In Standard the max projection is actually 170 lumens that dims down to 100 lumens (estimated). In today’s lighting world that doesn’t seem like a lot, but because of the way the lighting is projected and focused, those 170 lumens seem more like 200+. Above all, on the Standard setting you get 5 hours of lighting before you need to recharge.

Usage Settings

Lighting technology Lighting color Lighting modes Brightness Lighting distance Burn time Reserve mode
REACTIVE LIGHTING white MAX AUTONOMY 80 lm 70 m 10 h 15 lm for 2 h
STANDARD 170 lm 90 m 5 h
MAX POWER 300 lm 110 m 2h30
CONSTANT LIGHTING MAX AUTONOMY 30 lm 35 m 15 h
STANDARD 100 lm 70 m 6 h
MAX POWER 200 lm 90 m 2 h
red MAX AUTONOMY 2 lm 8 m, visible for 1 km 30 h

It’s important to understand that the 5 hour battery life on the Standard setting is relative. It really boils down to how hard the lamp is working, reacting and projecting and for how long in each setting or how frequently it is changing. I wore the Reactik while pacing Stormy Kies on his Hennepin 200 miler. I was with him through the entire 2nd and third night, which totaled approximately about 18 hours of darkness when the headlamp was being used. I did have two opportunities to recharge the lamp, but in neither case did I give it a full recharge and/or the lamp wasn’t completely dead when I started charging. In fact, between two nights of use, I never got a low battery notification. My estimation is that I was getting closer t0 7 hours of lighting before needing to recharge. I was using the Standard setting and the lamp was needing to adjust very infrequently as the trail was flat, wide, and open. Users will find that this varies based on their usage and trail conditions.

Petzl Reactik 1

The only negative feedback I have for the lamp is the strap system. Like the Tikka RXP and other lamps in the line it has the two-part construction that, while allowing for easy adjustment, seems to loosen over time. Worse still, and maybe this is just me, the adjustment points seem to sit in just a position on the back of my head that I end getting a headache after about 2-3 hours. The only option I have is to hold the lamp in my hand because loosening it to the point it no longer hurts just makes it fall off. For people who don’t have this problem they will find that this might just be the perfect headlamp. I certainly enjoy it.

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