Black Diamond Storm+ and Storm headlamps: Tested

Detailed summary

Black Diamond’s two powerful, waterproof, rechargeable headlamps promise serious illumination without complications. We put them to the test.

I’ve used and abused a silly number of headlamps over the years, broken plenty, lost more, and realised that while manufacturers keep making them brighter, lighter and more complicated, I’m a fairly simple bloke.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a gadget geek who loves the latest wizardry, but ultimately a head torch needs to light up the trail, or more importantly a cookpot, without requiring a degree in electrical engineering. Enter Black Diamond’s Storm+ and Storm: two burly little headlamps that get the important stuff right, with some nifty extras.

The flagship Storm+ delivers 750 lumens, weighs 114g and projects a beam up to 149m. Its smaller sibling, the Storm, produces 550 lumens, weighs 102g and reaches 137m. Both models feature spot and flood, providing powerful illumination alongside red, green and blue night-vision modes.

Two buttons control three preset brightness levels, variable output, coloured lighting, strobe and SOS functions. There’s also mode memory, digital lockout, a battery indicator and tilting housing.

Both feature USB-C rechargeable batteries (2200mAh Storm+ / 1800mAh Storm), with claimed runtimes of 4.5–80 hours and 4–70 hours respectively, depending on brightness. Both boast IP67 waterproof/dustproof protection, surviving immersion to 1m for 30 minutes. Recycled components and headband materials are a welcome touch.

I took the Storm and Storm+ packrafting down the Snowy River and hiking Hinchinbrook Island’s Thorsborne Trail. Four nights on the Snowy, four days in the tropics, and neither trip required a recharge. Admittedly, I wasn’t running them flat out, but most of us don’t need 750 lumens to find our toothbrush.

My favourite feature? USB-C charging. Hallelujah! I loathe proprietary cables, and using the same lead as my phone or power bank is brilliant. The downside is no AAA backup, but with a power bank and spare head torch (yep, I’m a Boy Scout, although sometimes that spare is my phone), it’s a compromise I’ll happily make.

The controls are…

Both…

Opening of the article, excerpted from Australian Geographic. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.