While getting ready for my most recent GORUCK event I noticed that all of my old headlamps had rusted out (thanks to Seattle’s salt water.) I took this as a sign that I needed to review another headlamp. Instead of going for a nice expensive piece of gear I wanted to find the cheapest waterproof (not water resistant) headlamp around that had at least moderately good reviews. What I ended up purchasing was the Streamlight Enduro Waterproof Headlamp from Amazon. It fit the bill at under $15 shipped which is under half what the Petzl or Princeton TEC cost.
I took some pictures of it the day it arrived and then some again after the event. I live in an unique area in that we have the potential to go in both salt and fresh water during these events. This is an issue because it means there’s a good chance that headlamps (and other electronics) will rust out after an event if they’re not cleaned.
The headlamp performed wonderfully during the event. There were absolutely zero issues with it. It survived submersion during the two water entries that we had and made it through being dragged in the ground during the tunnel of love and low crawls.
The headlamp was comfortable to wear during the event. At night I briefly had it on my head but due to all of the hiking through the woods we were doing I ended up letting it hang around my neck. It actually stayed around my neck during the entire event and never bothered me.
After the event I washed the headlamp under the sink faucet to get all of the salt water off of it. I made sure to get in and clean all of the cracks so that it wouldn’t end up rusting. Turns out it didn’t rust so I must have cleaned it well enough.
For less then $15 this headlamp performed much better than expected. Although it’s not made in the United States like the Princeton TEC it works great and allows you to GORUCK on a budget. It truly is waterproof and the Streamlight Enduro is a solid piece of gear.
Thank you for this review Brian – getting ready for my Heavy, looking for something in this price range, but this one doesn’t seem to exist any more. Steamlight 61405 Endure seems to have replaced this one – 50 lumens, waterproof up to 1 meter. .. thoughts?
Thanks for this review/option Brian. My 1st GR’s are finally coming up so I started picking up the last of my gear. I recently bought a lamp from Streamlight called the Sidewinder Compact II. It’s about $65 on the La Police Gear website, and although I haven’t used it in an event yet it looks promising. It runs on a CR123, or an Lithium or Alkaline AA. Red, Blue, and White LED with various intensity settings and a strobe. The lamp separates from the headstrap and can clip onto the MOLLE on the shoukder strap of your ruck too which I thought was great. Check it out when you can. https://www.streamlight.com/en-gb/product/product.html?pid=247