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The last of the suns rays were slipping over the Uinta Mountains and the Wasatch range to the west as the first few stars began to glimmer. I was ending another day of scouting for elk prior to last fall’s archery season. I was 3 miles away from the trailhead and my car, one of those miles requiring a descent through aspens and dense undergrowth to get back to the trail. Not really the type of situation you’d like to be in without tried and trusted gear, particularly your headlamp.
I had recently picked up the Coast H7 headlamp that features LED Lenser technology and figured it was as good as any for the job but just in case it didn’t live up to the hype I had my Black Diamond Spot headlamp as backup. The Spot headlamp never made it out of my pack.
Who is Coast?
Coast is sure to be the biggest light company you’ve never heard of, particularly in the outdoor industry. My first exposure to Coast was at the SHOT trade show when my friend told me to look his direction only to be blinded by an oversized flashlight he was checking out at the Coast booth. Literally, I was blinded for about 15 seconds.
Then at the summer Outdoor Retailer show in August 2009 I was checking out the Benchmade knives and turned around to see Coast at the show. I stopped by and after chatting with a guy about Coast and how they have been pioneering LED technology for such a long time, he showed me their latest headlamp the H7. Sure, it’s an uninspiring name but I was surprised that even indoors the light shone bright, very bright.
The H7 runs on 3 AAA batteries that reside in a rear housing that is quite small. The smallness of the rear housing keeps the straps to one around the head strap and no over the top, which I don’t particularly like so that was a bonus. The dim mechanism is an easy to use (even with gloves on) lever on the battery pack. The on/off button is located above the light on the front and the narrow/wide slider is also located on the light itself. The on/off is again easy to use with gloves on but the dim/wide slider takes a bit to get used to. All in all, it’s an easy clean design.
Coast Hy Headlamp Features
- 160 Lumens (this is not a typo)
- 84 hour battery life
- 528 Feet Effective Range
- Lifetime Warranty
- Advanced Focus System with hinged position beam
- Variable Light Control Technology (VLT)
Coast H7 LED Lenser Headlamp Review
Unlike standard focusing headlamps, Advanced Focus System headlamps combine a unique lens and reflector system to provide seamless transition from a broad flood beam to a focused spot beam. The Advanced Focus System flood beam provides a broad circular beam of light that illuminates larger, close-up areas and eliminates dark spots in the center common in traditional focusing headlamps. The Advanced Focus System spot beam provides a sharply focused beam that illuminates more distant areas.This Coast LED Lenser headlamp features Variable Light Output Technology (VLT) that enables the user to adjust the light output to suit the task. Lower light levels illuminate close-up areas and conserve batteries, while higher light levels illuminate areas that are further away.
While down hiking that night last fall I made it to the trail and wanted to give the headlamp a true test since it was now pitch black, so I determined a little night time trail run would do the trick. About 1/4 mile into my run I kinda felt like I was cheating. Running down a trail at night with what seems like a car headlight on high-beam wasn’t something I had been accustomed to from past experiences of night running. After all, at max brightness it has 160 lumens and I think that is accurate. None of my friends have ever not been blown away or likely felt some jealousy when we’re out hiking at night and I don the H7.
In fact, if there are any Ultra Marathon trail runners out there I would go as far to say that the H7 will hands down match any headlamp for brightness to lightness ratio and with the easy to use dimming lever I contend there isn’t another headlamp that can hold a candle to the H7.
The dimming lever is very easy to use on the go or around camp. The hinge on the front of the headlamp gives you 4 fixed locations for the light and if there is anything I think could use some redesign it would be to add more locations along the hinged lamp, but I’m reaching for sure.
With gloves the on-off button is still easy to access, although super thick gloves like I use for backcountry skiing do make it just a bit harder, although no where near as hard as other lights like my back up. The claim of 84 hours of battery life lived up to the hype as one set of batteries lasted me a few months of use, both hiking, hunting and then backcountry skiing once winter set in.
Bottom Line
The Coast H7 is the real deal if you want a powerful, lightweight headlamp for any outdoor use. I just can’t seem to find its equal so the H7 is the go to light in my pack. Do yourself a favor and check out the Coast H7 Headlamp and other LED Lenser lighting.
Buy Now
None of our retail partners offer the Coast H7 headlamp so visit Coast’s website to purchase one or find a retailer.
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The H7 is a piece of junk. It’s great when you first buy it. Super bright, light, and easy to use. But, use it a while and you’ll see what I mean. It falls apart. I bought my first one last summer. After a couple weeks the hinge broke. It’s just a little bit of plastic on another little bit of plastic. The result is that it permanently points straight down. When that happens to yours you can take a rubber band feed it through the strap slots and wrap it around the front by the beam adjuster and you can use it. I mean it’s better than nothing. But, I really liked the light. So, last October, I bought another one. I tried to be careful but after a couple of months it’s hinge broke. But, that’s easy to fix, right? But they have another annoying problem. The strap stretches, and stretches. So, you twist the strap to take out the slack. This works for a while but it keeps stretching. It’s so bad I can’t even use it, anymore. I wish it weren’t so, but after two of them doing the same thing, well, it’s your choice.
Thanks for the thorough feedback. I too have noticed recently that the strap is getting looser with time, but fortunately I’ve not found anything else wrong with the headlamp or had the troubles you’ve stated. I used it this past weekend in the southern Utah desert and the week before that for early morning skiing without any problem. I hope I don’t find the hinge breaking on me like you experienced.
How was Coast to deal with on the warranty side of things? They state a lifetime warranty on their lights.
Well just baught one and its working brilliantly for the bush and walking around at night. Great for zooming in on wildlife…after what I have read by you guys – I hope they sell part replacements because it works so well…
But now…I don’t find a plug in point for the charger ??
I like how the light is very bright. However, I only get about 5 to 6 hours of battery life on full beam. I mainly use it for trail running early in the mornings where I only need it for 2 to 3 hours. I must agree that the workmanship of the light is not very good. On my first light (lasted about a year), the on/off switch went out, that is, it stayed on until you removed the batteries. I’m on my second one right now. The only reason I like this light is that it is bright and I only need it for 2 to 3 hours. I would not trust this light on any backpacking trips. I do have a backup light I always seem to go back to – Rayovac K2 (85 lumens). It was around $30, and it has been very reliable. Please note, I have most if not all the “name-brand” headlamps – Petzel, Black Diamond, Princeton Tec, etc. so I have used and compared many headlamps.
Hi, I bought an H7 last week (wednesday to be exact) and used it for the very first time next day on my usual thursday night MTBiking. The trail I use to run requires around 2 hours with the lights on. I have to say that I’m impressed with this lamp, it has very good reach and excelent brightness, and what to say about the beam; with VLT and Focus system my problems got solved: on single tracks or tight turns the ligths mounted on my handlebar wont move mith my eyes, but with the H7 on the helmet I never loose the track or miss any surprising branch or rock. The batteries included seem to be pretty cheap so I don’t think they will last long, anyways, power was enough for 2 hrs. run. I hope not to have to deal with broken or loosing parts, so far I fully recommend this headlamp.
Regards
Melon – glad to hear it served you well mountain biking. Either the other guys got the only lemons or I got the only solid one cause I’ve had mine for well over a year and a half now and it’s been nothing but flawless from battery time to components. I do adjust the light brilliance as the conditions warrant – no need to run on the highest bright when I don’t need it. I’m using Energizer batteries now and have used regular alkali and Duracell as well with similar results