PETZL IKO CORE Rechargeable 500 Lumens Headlamp

The head lamp is very comfortable. Usually when I wear headlamps for long runs they get uncomfortable where they press against my forehead. This lamp has been completely comfortable. It feels very light. No bounce. I mostly run with the medium power light as I value the length of the battery life over the brightness. The low power is not enough for running but would be good for reading or using the headlamp as a tent lantern in conjunction with the drawstring bag that is provided. The high power mode would drain the battery too fast for what I do. The medium power is plenty adequate for about 30 feet of illumination – plenty adequate for most running conditions. Navigating the control button is very easy. The only thing I needed to get used to is that storing it in my pack is slightly awkward compared with an elastic band type headlamp. But with a little bit of experimenting, that has worked out OK. I have used many different headlamps over the years. This one is the best overall headlamp that I have used.

Fits great. Battery in the back with light in the front – good weight distribution.

Lo utilizo para correr y me gusta mucho porque apenas se mueve , no oscila la luz en los saltos….me parece un muy buen frontal

La lámpara es muy buena, es recargable y have su función Perfecto !

 TLDR, loved everything about it. Honestly cannot come up with a complaint. Battery life was true to the given estimates in the manual. The lighting was phenomenal. Comfort was excellent; you’ll forget you’re wearing it. It survived TSA across 7 loadings and unloadings from aircraft and went up and down a 7.8-mile mountain trail in the Zion National Park area. Get it.

I’ve never purchased a headlamp before this one, so I don’t have anything to compare to it.

I purchased this lamp for a Ragnar Trail Run in Utah this May. One of the three loops we were required to run was a 7.8mi Red Loop up and down a mountain. It just so happened that my turn to do this particular loop was around 1030pm so the light was a must-have.

CONDITIONS: During this run, there is no artificial lighting. It’s just you, the mountain, the stars/moon, and your headlamp. I didn’t have the mindset to do a review while I was competing but I did manage to take a short video while on the trail that will give you an idea of the illumination it provides. I ran this loop in 2 hours 19 minutes with the light set at its brightest setting the entire time. Temperature was somewhere in the mid 40’s at elevation. It was a dry evening so can’t comment on how it holds up in any sort of precipitation. However, I was sweating like a, well, like a fat guy running up a mountain. You can see in the video that I am wearing the headlamp harness underneath a thick beanie with just the light sticking out the front. I’ll tell you that well before halfway into the run that beanie was soaked enough that you could have wrung it out. I did not experience any shorts, zaps, or zings of any kind and as I said, with the exception of the LED unit the rest of the harness and battery pack were under the beanie.

COMFORT: I can tell you, coming from someone who doesn’t particularly like wearing things on my head/face, this thing is so light and comfortable you’ll forget you’re wearing it. Never once gave it a second thought once I got going. Never felt it, never had any discomfort, didn’t feel any heat from the battery pack or the lamp. As far as I was concerned I was shooting light out of my eyeballs at the trail. The team I ran with have done many of these Ragnar races before (this was my first) and they seemed to like it very much. A few tried it on and all made the same surprised face and commented on how it doesn’t feel like you’re wearing anything at all.

Battery life: I used the included battery pack and bought an additional battery pack but never ended up needing it. This lamp will also run on 3 AAA batteries which I can confirm works but only for testing. I did not use AAAs for any length of time. I charged the battery pack before I left home several states away. The battery was fully charged before I left home. It traveled across multiple states, two airplanes (with multiple delays and cancellations) followed by a three-hour drive to the race site, and then sat in a tent for about 17 hours before I needed it. All in all, I’d say it was charged for roughly 48 hours before I actually used it. Overnight temps at camp were in the high 30s / low 40s, and daytime temps were in the mid 70s for the most part. I turned the light on to the highest setting at the start line and it lasted me through the entire 7.8-mile run. Right near the end, maybe 3/4 of a mile from the finish, it did give me the low battery warning by flashing three times but it lasted till the end. In retrospect, the medium brightness setting would’ve been plenty to see what I was doing out there and increased the battery life drastically but I didn’t want to break a leg out there. The instruction manual estimates a 2hr 30min burn time at full strength. I’d say that’s fairly accurate given I had it at full brightness for 2hrs 19 minutes plus likely an additional 15 minutes to walk back to camp from the start/finish and root around in my tent for a bit.
The manual also says there’s an additional 4hr30min reserve but I didn’t get to test that. I imagine it drops down to its lowest setting at that point.

All in all, I was perfectly content with it. I can’t say enough about how absolutely comfortable this thing is. Again, I don’t have any experience with other products to compare it to but I can’t find any complaints about it.

USABILITY: I did see in other reviews that some folks found getting into the battery compartment a bit difficult. I can’t say I had that problem. It’s just a plastic snap-on cap. I have large hands and was able to pop it off and on with no problems. I actually appreciated that the adjustment strap to fit the device on your melon actually runs thru a section of the battery cover so you can’t fumble it and lose it in the dark. I would suggest that when you first receive the device play around with it. Take a good look at how the battery cover needs to be removed and practice a bit so you’ll have the muscle memory when you need it in the dark fighting zombies or whatever it is you’re doing.
The on/off/brightness adjustment button is right below the lamp itself. I personally had no problem finding it with my fingers while wearing it. The lamp does swivel vertically which was nice while running thru varied terrain and incline. It was great to be able to shine upwards so I could see ahead on the uphills to know what I was coming up against. There was a lot of jumping, some climbing, and a ludicrous-speed downhill in some ankle-shattering terrain but I never felt the lamp move from the position I had set it in.

DURABILITY: Dunno, this was my first time using it. I basically submerged it in sweat and ran up and down a mountain with it strapped to my dome. It survived TSA so there’s that. I like the clip feature that allows you to origami it into a butterfly shape to stow away in its carry bag. Very easy to do so.

I intend to do more of these runs and train with the device in the meantime so if it gives up the ghost I’ll post an update. Until then, I say buy it. Hope this review helps out.