Black Crater Cord Lock Light Review

The Black Crater Cord Lock Light was one of the National Outdoors Top 10 Products from the 2008 Summer Outdoor Retailer Show. As you can see from the picture, it's a pretty simple product. It’s a cord lock with an LED light on it.

Cord Lock Light on Jacket

I prefer to use the Cord Lock Light on my jacket. It’s more mobile and used more often then on my sleeping bag on or a stuff sack.

Cord Lock Light on Stuff Sack

Here’s a good reference to compare the size of the Black Crater Cord Lock Light and a traditional cord lock. This stuff sack has a big knot in it, and I couldn’t get Cord Lock Light to fit over the knot. With a little effort to undo the knot, I could have easily attached the Cord Lock Light. I just preferred to keep it on my jacket.

Water Test

The Cord Lock Light is water resistant and the spring inside the device is corrosion proof stainless steel. This submersion test is a bit extreme, but the light held up fine.

Lighting Test

This picture was taken on the low setting. As you can see, the map is illuminated very well. What you can’t see is how well the Cord Lock Light illuminates the entire room. It’s not as bright as a headlamp or flashlight, but when you’re in a pinch or going lightweight, it gets the job done.

The Cord Lock Light has a battery shelf life of fives years and will operate 12 hours on the high setting, 20 hours on the low setting and 50 hours on the flash setting . This is great info, but in reality I didn’t really keep track of the time while I was using the light. You’ll notice the light dim, prior to the batteries wearing out completely. It runs on two 3V Lithium batteries, which are nearly weightless, so you can keep a few in your backpack or pocket, if you’re worried about the batteries wearing out.

PROS

Not only is this light a great idea, it’s also very well made and designed. (Scott Hartley, the founder of Black Crater, is an Engineer.) Unlike most headlamps, the first “click” on the Cord Lock Light is low power, not high power. The low beam is still bright enough for most of your lighting needs. This design change will add hours to your battery life.

The Cord Lock Light also makes a great safety device. One night, I clipped the light on my daughter's fleece and used the flash setting. She ran off and I could where she was by the flashing light on her coat. Of course, she thought it was fun, but this is a great feature. (The Cord Lock Light will run 50 hours in the flash mode.) Imagine how you can use this as a safety signal at night.

CONS

Some draw strings have knots in them, and it’s difficult to fit the Cord Lock Light over the knot. This makes it hard to quickly remove the Cord Lock Light from the draw string. For instance, if you needed a light in the middle of the night, you may have a hard time getting the Cord Lock Light off the draw string of your sleeping bag, due to the knot. There's an easy fix, just put the Cord Lock Light on something that's mobile. I like to wear it on my jacket (as picture above).