Celebrating a victory at work and headed to happy-hour oysters, my fiancé and I were driving down a stretch of highway just after a particularly nasty cold snap when we hit the pothole. Every guy knows the feeling: That sudden flapping of a flat tire, the jerk of deceleration, the panic as to whether or not your spare tire has any air in it. But I steered to the side of the road, took a deep breath, and reached in the glovebox for my dirty-job companion. For changing a tire, fixing a leak, and numerous other household chores, not including that weekend camping trip, every man should own a headlamp and keep it handy. That’s why we heartily recommend the Walmart house brand Ozark Trail and its . Here’s why.
The beauty of any headlamp is that it lets you work hands-free. Wrestling with a tire iron and stubborn lug nuts? A headlamp allows you to use both hands for leverage. Inspecting your garden at night for pests? A headlamp frees up both sets of pinchers. There are so many activities that benefit from two hands rather than one, with the other holding an iPhone flashlight, that it’s not even worth listing additional scenarios. Trust us, if you consider yourself a resourceful man, you need a headlamp, and you will find numerous uses for it.
Read more: Best Headlamps
The reason we’re keen on the Ozark Trail option specifically is its battery source. While many older headlamps were powered by AA or AAA batteries, leading to a panicked moment when you discover it doornail-dead in your time of need, this one is powered via a rechargeable battery. Rescuing a damsel in distress? After you return home, plug it into the wall via any one of the thousand micro-USB cables you already own. It also includes a spare cable if you’re out.
On to its function. With a throw of more than 300 feet, it has five lighting modes, including a high spot, low spot, high flood, low flood, and red mode. On full power, it has enough juice for close to four hours, and its lowest setting will get you through a whopping 42 hours. It also has three-foot impact protection and water resistance, making it the perfect companion for all conditions.
There’s plenty more we could say to laud the humble headlamp, and ditto about the Ozark Trail 400 Lumen Rechargeable LED Headlamp at Walmart. But the best review is the one you’ll make yourself. You may not need this the day you receive it, or the next day, or the next. But eventually, you will reach for it, and then, its light source will become a new appendage, assisting you in getting the job done faster, easier, and with more precision. No one brags about a headlamp. But after using one, you’ll never be without one.
