Helmet light or Right Angle flashlight

Im looking at buying either a helmet light or a right angle flashlight for my jacket, im leaning more towards the helmet light because of weight. Could you share your experience with both or which you prefer? Any help would be appreciated.

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Permalink Reply by Justin Cloutier on August 25, 2008 at 11:48am

That is a very good point and I had'nt thought of it that way, eventually I will probably end up having both, thank you for your input.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on August 25, 2008 at 11:53am

Both, plus a spare flashlight in a turnout pants or coat pocket.

I use both - a Big Ed right-engle on a coat clip, an Eveready LED white/red helmet light, and a hazardous locations-rated Pelican flashlight as a backup. I also carry three or four green chemlights. Can't have too many lights.

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Permalink Reply by Randy on August 25, 2008 at 12:02pm

the hands free part and always pointed in the right direction is a plus i do use both

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Permalink Reply by T.J. on August 25, 2008 at 5:12pm

we pretty much go with the jacket lights do to them being tougher than the helmet lights and are easier to get to, but we've got guys that like them both. so you should try them out or get them both:)

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Permalink Reply by Rolf Peterson on August 25, 2008 at 5:39pm

I do not recommend anything being attached to your helmet at all. Keep your helmet clean and equipment free.

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Permalink Reply by PFC Harmon on August 25, 2008 at 11:13pm

I use both I have a pelican right angle on my turnout coat and a cheap husky light on my helmet. My experiance with helmet lights is not to use anything expensive due to melting.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on August 26, 2008 at 12:17am

Current technology LED lights add only a few ounces of weight and don't really increase entanglement hazards. The trade-off is having a light source that points wherever you are looking.

Given that minimal trade-off, why not wear a helmet light? Being able to see where you're going will keep you out of way more bad situations than will a totally clean helmet. Wearing a big light on your body is at least as much of an entanglement hazard as is wearing a small LED headlamp.

And...if you wear a traditional helmet with the big frontpiece, your helmet really isn't clean and equipment-free anyway.

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Permalink Reply by Shareef Abdu Nur on October 27, 2008 at 3:02pm

I carry both a helmet light and a light on my jacket. I use the helmet light not to see, but so others can see me.If you are worried about a flashlight weighing your jacket down, get rid of some of your stuff. a flashlight is paramount!

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Permalink Reply by Ed on October 27, 2008 at 3:17pm

I started with a right-angle-light and found that when I'm crawling, it doesn't do much for me in the way of lighting my path. What I've done is keep that light, but I bought a Streamlight helmet light (miner style) for the front of my helmet. Its brighter than hell and the Streamlight brand stands up to heat REALLY well.. GO FOR IT!

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Permalink Reply by mike on November 4, 2008 at 11:43am

i know that a helmet light has worked better for me so i would suggest using one of those. and when you get a light i dont recommend leds. they dont work very well in smoke. but thats just my experience.

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Permalink Reply by Rolf Peterson on November 4, 2008 at 4:43pm

During our training, we have demonstrated over and over again that a clean helmet is the safest way to go. We have had numerous firefighters loose their helmets due to entanglement during these exercises.