Nathan Strobe Light

The local runners store carries the Nathan Strobe Light for $10. When you look at it, you wonder where the $10 price goes because it surely doesn't cost more than $2-3 to produce, transport and market, at most, but when the package promised over 50 hours of light on steady and 100 hours on strobe, it seemed like a reasonable deal.

Well, the light is good. It clips on to the chest strap of my backpack for my 6 mile predawn walk to town and back. It alone, but also sometimes with a good flashlight, clearly makes me visible to drivers on the roads where I walk, which are the rural roads between home and town.

But their promise about battery life, doesn't ring true. The original batteries lasted just over 40 hours on strobe, the mode I always use. The first set of replacement batteries, Duracell brand, only lasted just over 30 hours. I bought a 9-pack of generic batteries for the price of the strobe, so I'm testing them now.

While I like this light, and it clearly does a good job, it's also clear it eats batteries, and will cost over time more than the light, and if you use it for distance walks, take a spare set of batteries, because when it quits, it quits without a blink.