Lamps

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Information

Very useful for caving these! They help keep you on the right track and allow you to see spectacular cave features. We stock the tried, tested and proven Speleo Technics range, and some of the beefier Petzl headtorches are here too. Smaller Petzl headtorches and accesories can be found in the Lighting section, along with Maglite torches of all sizes. Helmet brackets for the Petzl headtorches can be found under the manufacturer, or email to ask us for the best solution.

Things are changing on the lighting front in caving. Just as electric replaced carbide, now LEDs are replacing incandescent bulbs as the thing to see with in caves.

Why?

Simple, they're more efficient and so you need less battery for your trip.

This means that your whole lighting system can now be helmet mounted, so no more battery and cable to snag in the tight bits. In addition to this LEDs can run on a very low current so as your battery runs low, instead of your light suddenly going out, it will continue burning, getting slowly fainter over a period of days. This is an important safety feature, as is the life span of LEDs which runs into hundreds of thousands of hours, making it extremely unlikely that one will blow.

We stock three options from Speleo Technics, two of which are purpose-designed for caving based on the FX3 headpiece. These feature either seven or fourteen LEDs arranged in an arc around the periphery of the reflector and retain the halogen main bulb in the centre. This gives a combination of good all-round light for getting around, with the option of a strong beam for searching out belays in shafts, or viewing distant formations. The third option is the single Luxeon LED seen in the excellent NOVA 3 light, which is 35 times brighter than a standard single LED and has two brightness settings to enhance duration.

There are a number of bettery options for driving the LEDs and these are: - FX 3, Nickel Cadmium Headlite and Nickel Metal Hydride rechargeables and 4.5v Alkali batteries. Since one of the main advantages of the more efficient LEDs is being able to do away with a large waist mounted battery and cable the FX 3 doesnt make as much sense as it used to. Both the Headlite and the Nickel would be ideal batteries with the efficiency of the LEDs meaning that one charge of the Headlite battery would last about 16hrs in the case of the 7 LED unit and 12 in the case of 14 LED option. The NOVA 3 runs for 18 hours on the Nickel Metal Hydride battery. This battery comes in a -50m watertight case, has no memory effect on recharging and over the long term works out as the most cost effective form of powering your NOVA 3.

The final option, a 4.5v alkali battery, makes the perfect choice for multi day camps or for expedition use. Each battery gives about 30 hrs of useful light but with easily another 10hrs of reasonable light in reserve, if necessary 3 - 4 batteries will be enough for most expeditions, finally putting an end to all the hassles of obtaining carbide, carting it around and of digging the alkali gunge out of your generator with your tattered and torn fingers.

The FX2 (now DX2) is still the best choice for centres with its low weight and bulk providing minimal hindrance to young or inexperienced cavers. Helmet mounted systems, unless very light, tend to be too heavy for young necks.

The FX3 (now DX3) gives a brighter light than the FX2 for about the same duration with a small penalty in terms of weight.

The Headlite is a compact durable helmet mounted caving system, using small interchangeable rechargeable batteries mounted on the back of the helmet.

The NOVA is a head or helmet mounted allrounder system which uses interchangeable rechargeable batteries mounted on the back of the helmet.

Petzl provide us with helmet mountable and mounted Duo systems which use a standard bulb and halogen combination run off 4 AA batteries for shorter trips.

Spare lamps are an important part of all caver's kit. Without a doubt the best spare lights are the new generation of LED head torches such as the Petzl Tikka XP, these are small, light, tough and provide more than enough light to find your way out of the cave. Find these under Lighting.

Carbide

Although largely banned or heavily discouraged in South Wales due to its associated conservation problems, carbide is still in use in Yorkshire and may be useful on foreign expeditions. The main advantage is that as much light as is required can be carried in the form of more Carbide, but we can't get it!