There is a category of equipment that I like to think of as “stocking stuffer material”. Gear that I might not buy for myself, gear that I think I don’t really need, gear that someone might give me as a gift because they know I “like the outdoors” and (here is the most important quality) gear that turns out to be well designed and quite useful. The StakeLight by UCO definitely falls into this category.
As the name implies, the StakeLight is a lightweight aluminum tent stake that has been fitted with an LED. If you’ve ever tripped over your tent stakes in the middle of the night, you understand how useful this can be. The LED runs on a AAA battery and is encased in a water resistant housing, which, if the need arises, can easily be taken off of the stake and brought inside your tent for a little extra illumination. The light has two modes, area mode (which some people call “on”) and strobe. Area mode will provide 17 Lumens* of light (more on that later) for up to 10 hours while strobe mode can be used for up to 24. All in all, it’s a handy little piece of gear.
Here is my only complaint. I actually found it to be too bright. The piece of plastic that covers the LED ends up casting a lot of glare. Even when I angled it down toward the ground, it still kept catching my eyes. This, in turn, made my pupils contract, compromised my night vision and made it hard to navigate outside of the ten-foot radius illuminated by the StakeLight. I tend to like things fairly dark around the campsite, so I have to admit this is a minor (and perhaps odd) complaint.
In the future, I plan on trying some modifications to reduce the glare. I also noticed that UCO is now making a colored version of the StakeLight. These might be a better option if, like me, you like the dark, enjoy star gazing but don’t enjoy tripping over your tent stakes.
the good
- lightweight
- well designed
- LED encased in water resistant housing
- provides light radius of about ten feet
- bright
- available in RGB color option
the bad
- too bright for my taste, but modifications should fix this (hello electrical tape).
Available from Industrial Revolution starting at $5.99
The more you know: The Lumen is a unit of measurement that represents the total amount of visible light emitted by a source. It is defined in relation to the Candela, which is a unit of measurement that represents luminous intensity of a source (more on that here) 1 Lumen = 1 Candela. A common candle emits approximately 1 Candela. So, going back to the StakeLight… 17 lumens is roughly equivalent to (and I emphasize roughly here) 17 candles.
boring stuff: UCO provided me with a free review sample, this in no way effected the opinions expressed in this review. All images via UCO.