Dive rite h1000 for Monterey

np251 · Jan 18, 2011

Hi

Me and KLJ are in the market for can lights and were wondering if any of the locals have any comments on the DR H1000.15 w , 1000 lumens. It seems like a lot of light for a good price- realistically, we can't afford to get anything in the higher price points.

How does it do in our local waters? Any info very much appreciated.

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Hepcat62 · Jan 18, 2011

np251:
Me and KLJ are in the market for can lights and were wondering if any of the locals have any comments on the DR H1000.15 w , 1000 lumens. It seems like a lot of light for a good price- realistically, we can't afford to get anything in the higher price points.

How does it do in our local waters? Any info very much appreciated.

I was looking at that light a while ago... I believe that Anti-Hero has one, and has been using it locally for quite a while now. For signaling during the daytime when it's bright out and the water's clear-ish, you definitely can't beat a bright, tightly focused HID.

I ended up deciding to stick with LEDs, mostly because I found a great deal on one and I like the smaller, damn near indestructible light heads. I don't know if you're also looking at LEDs, but here's what I found over the last 6 months or so, and the decision I made.

My current light is the Hollis 16w LED light, which is manufactured by Light Monkey. It's an incremental, but noticeable upgrade over the LM 12w LED. Dollars for donuts, I'd probably buy the 12w LED (better performance/$ ratio). None of the LEDs I've seen or tried have been adequate for signaling over a distance of greater than 5-6' in the daytime here. Usable signaling distance increases noticeably, but not dramatically, on a really overcast day with less ambient light - maybe 8-10'.

If you're buying HID, the DR light you're looking at seems like a good deal. I've read about reliability being called into question a few times, but IIRC Anti-Hero has had great success with his. If you decide to consider LED, I'd definitely recommend the Light Monkey lights, and advise you to stay away from DiveRite. LM's single emitter designs are WAY more tightly focused than the DR multi-emitter designs. For comparison's sake, I found that the Halcyon EOS LEDs sit somewhere in between the two in terms of focus.

Anti-Hero · Jan 18, 2011

Hepcat62:
I was looking at that light a while ago... I believe that Anti-Hero has one, and has been using it locally for quite a while now. For signaling during the daytime when it's bright out and the water's clear-ish, you definitely can't beat a bright, tightly focused HID.

I ended up deciding to stick with LEDs, mostly because I found a great deal on one and I like the smaller, damn near indestructible light heads. I don't know if you're also looking at LEDs, but here's what I found over the last 6 months or so, and the decision I made.

My current light is the Hollis 16w LED light, which is manufactured by Light Monkey. It's an incremental, but noticeable upgrade over the LM 12w LED. Dollars for donuts, I'd probably buy the 12w LED (better performance/$ ratio). None of the LEDs I've seen or tried have been adequate for signaling over a distance of greater than 5-6' in the daytime here. Usable signaling distance increases noticeably, but not dramatically, on a really overcast day with less ambient light - maybe 8-10'.

If you're buying HID, the DR light you're looking at seems like a good deal. I've read about reliability being called into question a few times, but IIRC Anti-Hero has had great success with his. If you decide to consider LED, I'd definitely recommend the Light Monkey lights, and advise you to stay away from DiveRite. LM's single emitter designs are WAY more tightly focused than the DR multi-emitter designs. For comparison's sake, I found that the Halcyon EOS LEDs sit somewhere in between the two in terms of focus.

You have a great memory, dude!

I do have an H1000. It's a great light for the price, and I have had no problems with mine. With that said, you can get "more" light for the same price if you buy a used 18-21 watt.

The H1K is very bright, with a nice, tight, focusable, beam. It's obviously not as bright as a 21W HID, but I have never felt that my light was inadequate for our local diving waters.

Next time I'm in Monterey you're more than welcome to take it for a dive and see how you like it. I'm sure someone else would let you use their Brand X light and you can compare side-by-side in on a real dive.

Good luck!
-Casey

np251 · Jan 18, 2011

Thanks Anti-Hero, i hoped youd find this thread.

Thats great to hear. I actually pulled the trigger on a couple deals and got 2 for little under $700. Both practically brand new. Since we only very infrequently will be diving with people with bigger lights, im sure these are going to be great.

Overall, any comments on the build quality and reliability compared to some other brands? Ive been seeing a lot of people posting negatively about the canisters leaking or the cords being fragile.

Also, what is common practice as far as checking everything is good to go during the pre-dive buddy check? Switch on the light, let it strike then wait a few minutes before turning off? Then turning it on again just after descending? The instructions state the h1000 bulb has a 4 minute warm-up period- should i always leave it on for 4 minutes any time i strike it before turning it off? Id hate to go blowing a bulb the first day of use.

Cheers

Thanks

Anti-Hero · Jan 18, 2011

If you got 2 H1000 for under $700.00 you got a SMOKING deal! Congrats.

Build quality is fine. I haven't been gentle to mine over the years and she hasn't let me down yet. Take the negative comments with a grain of salt. DR has been making HID's before many of the other brands ever existed.

The only issue I've ever heard of was the bulb getting loose in the ballast and randomly shutting off. It's easily remedied, by unscrewing the bulb/ballast assembly and reseating the bulb.

As far as the cord goes, they all require replacement at various intervals. No brand has been able to avoid that. When you strike the light you should always let it run for 4-5 min. before shutting off to protect the life span of the bulb and ballast. The only thing I would regularly do is check the top o-ring for cracks and damage. Then wipe the o-ring with a soft cloth sprayed with silicon. Also wipe off the sealing surfaces that come in contact with the o-ring. Sometimes sand and other misc. debris can get in there.

Burn testing is also a good thing to do periodically. Charge it up fully, then place the whole light in a bucket filled with cold water and let it run until it dies. Note the run time, then do a full recharge and repeat again. (I'd do this before diving with them)

This will give you an approximate idea of the battery condition.

np251 · Jan 18, 2011

Sweet, thanks for the info. Good stuff.

Ben_ca · Jan 18, 2011

Anti-Hero:
Burn testing is also a good thing to do periodically. Charge it up fully, then place the whole light in a bucket filled with cold water and let it run until it dies. Note the run time, then do a full recharge and repeat again. (I'd do this before diving with them)

This will give you an approximate idea of the battery condition.

For burn testing I would recommended to terminate the test when the voltage reaches 10. Get a digital multi meter, a bucket of water, a notepad and a timer and take a reading every 10 mins... (there's a couple of spreadsheets that you can use to graph it) you should be able to see how healthy your battery is and how much burn time you'll get.

Here's a more detailed procedure:

Burn Testing | Halcyon Dive Systems

Gombessa · Jan 18, 2011

To add to Ben's sage advice:

1. Burn test sparingly. By nature, a burn test is a deep discharge, and even cutting off the test at a "safe" voltage (which you should do) is potentially adding to the stress of the pack. It doesn't mean your pack instantly loses a year of its life, but it adds up. I used to burn test a couple of times a year. Now, I'm edging more towards once every other year, just to note if there's any significant degradation in the pack. I'm not doing big expedition dives where I absolutely need to know my burntime to the minute.

2. As the pack discharges, it'll drop voltage more quickly. A 12v pack may take an hour to go from 12.5 to 12.0v, but it'll probably take 5 minutes to go from 10.5 to 10.0v, so watch it closely as the voltage drops. Also note that most >10w ballasts have a voltage cut-off between 9-10v to prevent damage.

3. In the spirit of not deep discharging, if you're diving regularly, it's better to keep the battery topped up between dives, rather than use the light on four 1-hour dives in order to exhaust the battery pack's 4-hour burn-time. The battery will last longer, and you won't find yourself in situations wondering whether your battery has enough charge for the next dive.

KLJ · Jan 18, 2011

Thanks for the info guys

I used to burn test home made NiMh packs for bike lights so im pretty good with the procedure. After a couple ruined packs, long ago, i kinda modified my procedure. I never 'exhaust test' batteries anymore. Particularly with the 10w ballasts that dont auto-cut off at 10v. The way i do it is almost exactly the way Ben describes- except ill basically over-rate the pack by 25% or so on its excpected capacity. What i mean is, if its rated for 4 hours, like this one, ill only run it for 3 hours before switching it off. Then recharging the battery. Im never going to run it more than 75% before recharging (basically 3 dives) anyway. If these particular packs make 3 hours, ill note the final voltage for my records and ill pretty much know we can do an average day without stressing the packs, If they are close to the 10v mark after only 3 hours, i might look into getting replacements and cycling the batteries every couple dives. Hope that makes sense.

Curious- how are people recharging between dives? Long lunch in the deli next to an outlet? Inverter in the car/truck. Ive been looking at an inverter for the Jeep so this might be the way to go.

Finally, noticed the DR charger is 2amp. Seems kinda fast for me on a 4.5Ah battery. Is it worth using a slower charger (i have a couple 0.5/1 amp chargers around) to more gently charge the battery?

Cheers again for the info guys, really appreciate it

Neil

Ben_ca · Jan 19, 2011

KLJ:
Curious- how are people recharging between dives? Long lunch in the deli next to an outlet? Inverter in the car/truck. Ive been looking at an inverter for the Jeep so this might be the way to go.

I don't know of anyone who charges in between dives... I do know some people have 2 batt packs that get swapped out during the SI.

Finally, noticed the DR charger is 2amp. Seems kinda fast for me on a 4.5Ah battery. Is it worth using a slower charger (i have a couple 0.5/1 amp chargers around) to more gently charge the battery?

Cheers again for the info guys, really appreciate it

Neil

I'll deffer to the subject matter experts on that one...

Dive rite h1000 for Monterey

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