yookyland: October 2015

In my last post, I've talked briefly about these headlamps and how invaluable they have become in our everyday life in the city with the dogs. We no longer have the luxury of letting the dogs out in the backyard, so now have to schedule in time for their walks three times a day, everyday, rain or shine. And once we started to lose daylight hours, we quickly ran into the challenge of walking dogs in the dark. I considered carrying around a flashlight, but decided that I would much like to have both my hands free to be able to handle the dogs and also to deal with picking up their "business"...so, I started to consider headlamps. I was a bit skeptical of their effectiveness, and I also was not so keen on walking around in public with one of these on my head unless I'm in the wilderness somewhere hiking or camping, but I eventually talked myself into at least trying one.

After doing some research and spending some time at REI, I was set on purchasing the Petzl Tikka model. I decided that for our needs, we would be fine with the most basic model without all the bells and whistles like the red light function or the rechargeable capability. I basically wanted a very simple unit that is bright enough for quick walks, is lightweight, and one with a tilting capability to control the beam direction.

I found the Yalumi headlamp by chance on Amazon when I went to place my order for the Petzl. It had comparable specifications, had over 1000 solid positive reviews, and it was half the price of Petzl at $15. Somewhat skeptical, I went ahead and bought it and I'm really glad that I did. It's been about 3 weeks and since then I purchased another one in different color so that we can both wear one, and we use it everyday now, both in the morning and at night. They are super bright (90 lumens) and allow us to see everything immediately in front of us, as well as alarming us to what's ahead. It has 3 different settings--low, high, and strobe and it is controlled with a simple click of a button on top of the unit. 95% of time, I keep it on the high setting. Each unit came with 3 AAA batteries and I haven't had to change them out yet, and I plan on switching to the rechargeable NiMH batteries once these wear out. For $15, I this is one of the best purchases I've ever made, and I highly recommend it for any dog owners out there.