Two COB Head Torches for £8.97: What 12,557 Gritin Reviews Actually Tell You (And The Detail A Third Of The 1-Star Ratings Miss)

The Review Everyone Writes by Mistake

Scroll through the 1-star and 2-star reviews for this head torch and a pattern jumps out. Trevor Ball writes: "It wasn't what I thought it should have been. I thought I'd ordered a rechargeable, not 3 batteries in the back of the pack non rechargeable." Highland Phil says simply: "Assumed the battery was rechargeable. Unfortunately they aren't." A reviewer posting as cs was "Initially very pleased as easy to use and nice and bright" before concluding the product "drains batteries quickly so not cost effective unless you have rechargeable batteries to use."

None of those are product faults. The Gritin LED Head Torch is openly, unambiguously a battery-powered headlamp. The product title literally says "Battery Powered LED" and "6 AAA Batteries Included". It runs on three AAA batteries per unit, and the pack ships with six alkaline AAAs in the box so you can switch them on the moment you open the packet.

If you want a rechargeable head torch with a built-in lithium cell and a USB port, this is not that product. There are plenty of those on Amazon for £15 and up, and they are a different buying decision. If you want a cheap, instant, no-fuss pair of torches to chuck in the car, the camping box, a drawer, and the kit bag for the dog walks, and you are happy to feed them AAAs from time to time, you are in exactly the right place.

One word of warning from reviewer Gatt, who fitted rechargeable AAAs and reported: "was great whilst it worked, added rechargeable batts and then it blew, both." Rechargeable AAAs put out 1.2V per cell rather than the 1.5V of a standard alkaline. With three of them in series that is a real voltage difference, and it seems some units do not like it. If you do use rechargeables, proceed at your own risk.

What £8.97 Actually Buys You

Let's get the numbers out of the way. The RRP is £13.99, current price £8.97, which works out to roughly £4.48 per head torch including the batteries. At that price you are not expecting miracles, but the spec sheet is still pretty respectable for a headlamp you could just as easily lose down the back of a camping chair.

Each unit uses COB LED technology, which Gritin claims extends run time from a single set of batteries by up to 80 percent compared with a conventional LED bulb. The advertised irradiation range is 30 metres. You get three modes on a single top-mounted button: high, low, and strobe. The lamp housing tilts through 45 degrees, so you can point the beam at your feet on a dark campsite path or straight ahead when you are rooting through the boot of the car. Gritin lists the headlamp weight as 0.18 lbs, roughly 82 grams, and the marketing graphics quote 86 grams. Either way, it is light enough that you forget you are wearing it.

The headband is adjustable and stretchy. Sian Hetherington, who admits to having "quite a large head", was worried it wouldn't fit and came away impressed: "They are completely stretchy comfortable material and adjustable size. I plan to wear one (adult lady) and one is for my 12 year old son." The same review notes batteries "super simple" to fit, no screwdriver required, which matters when you are swapping cells in a freezing tent at 6am.

Water resistance is listed on the official spec sheet as "Water Resistant" rather than a specific IP rating. The product imagery on Amazon shows an IPX5 claim, but we would not bank on it. Treat it as rain-shower-safe, not pressure-washer-safe.

How Bright Is "Bright" In Practice?

Brightness is the single most-repeated word in the 5-star reviews. Silicone dentures (yes, that is the username) calls it "Very bright head torch, good quality and great price for 2." Kat F says "Good quality and very bright." James describes it as "Excellent product, well made and easy to use... superbright." Don reports "Lovely and bright batts seem to last a long time." Mr Richard S T Workman writes that "The light quality is brilliant. The device improves the visibility in dark places." Sian Hetherington, in one of the most detailed reviews, says the light "actually does my new normal torch some shame".

The most useful assessment is from a reviewer posting as Astonished!, who rates it 5 stars and had 3 people mark their review helpful. They describe the high setting as "quite bright enough indoors for most tasks", low as enough "to move around safely", and strobe as "easily visible outdoors to mark your position in say an emergency". That matches what COB LED headlamps of this class typically deliver: plenty for short-range tasks, dog walks, pitching a tent, checking guy ropes, reading a map, or fumbling around inside an awning.

Does it live up to the dramatic marketing images of powerful beams lighting up canyons and mountain ridges? No, it does not, and there is one dissenting voice worth quoting. Craig reilly writes: "The pictures in the add make it look as if it's very bright. It real life it is no where near as bright. They mislead you in to buying this item." That is one review against many dozens praising the brightness, but the lesson is the same one you apply to every sub-£10 head torch: it will not out-shine a £60 Petzl or LED Lenser at full throttle. For close-to-mid-range camping tasks it is impressively capable. For long-range trail running in pitch darkness, you want something with a bigger price tag and a rechargeable lithium cell.

Where Two Torches Starts to Make Real Sense

One reason this pack keeps turning up in UK camping kit lists: the second torch is almost the whole point. You are not paying £4.48 for a second head torch, you are paying that for the freedom to put one somewhere useful and forget about it.

Reviewer Slimite sums it up perfectly: "For a pack of 2, one at home and one in the car, its suits me just fine!" That is a fairly universal camping truth. The torch you need is always in the house when you are at the campsite and at the campsite when you are trying to find the spare fuse for the caravan at 11pm on a Tuesday. Having one in each place solves the problem for less than the price of a meal deal.

Other reviewers found second-torch uses worth borrowing. Sian Hetherington is using one herself and giving the other to her 12-year-old son for family trips. Jez describes it as "Perfect head torch for winter evening dog walks", which is probably the single most common UK use case for a head torch in the months when it gets dark at 4pm. Janner is using his for model work at a desk, which is a pretty brilliant bit of re-purposing. Rachel Taylor took hers sledging in Lapland and rated them 5 stars, which is about as stern a cold-weather test as a UK buyer is likely to give them.

If you are a family camping with kids, you want more than one head torch in your kit so the children can find the toilet block without nicking yours. If you are wild camping solo, keeping a backup in the rucksack is basic redundancy. If you are a festival-goer, one in the tent and one round your neck is just sensible. Two torches for £8.97 is not a gimmick, it is often the actual right number.

The Battery Drain Question

After "not rechargeable", the second-most-common complaint is that the supplied batteries drain faster than expected. Amazon Customer gives the product 3 stars and writes: "Product good... make sure you have batteries in stock as the ones are rubbish with the product." Jan jardine gives it 5 stars with the title "Needs better battery, but great". The cs reviewer, as mentioned, found the unit "drains batteries quickly so not cost effective unless you have rechargeable batteries to use".

Here is the reality check. Cheap alkaline AAAs bundled free with any budget electronic product are rarely long-life cells. They exist so the item works out of the box, not so you can power it through a fortnight of nightly use. The COB LED bulb is efficient, and Gritin's 80 percent run-time claim is specifically about the bulb versus a normal LED, not about battery quality. Drop in a branded Duracell or Energizer AAA three-pack and the picture shifts considerably.

The counter-evidence is worth noting too. Solomon writes that "battery lasts some time, and it can be dropped as it is durable". Don: "Lovely and bright batts seem to last a long time." Captain: "Good for walking. Long battery life." Those are all with the supplied cells. Run times probably depend heavily on which mode you spend most time on. High mode burns considerably faster than low mode on any COB headlamp.

Practical move: buy the torches, put the bundled batteries in the glovebox as emergency spares, and fit a fresh pair of brand-name alkaline AAAs as your starting set. Or, if you want to take the rechargeable route, be aware of the Gatt warning above and test one unit first before committing both.

Durability and the "Toy Like" Complaint

Nobody buying a £4.48 head torch expects LED Lenser build quality, and most reviewers don't. That said, a small but worth-noting group mentions the plastic housing feeling cheap. Inroki writes: "A bit toy like but functional." Barry M. scores 4 stars and adds the caveat: "For the money they are great price and will do the job. Not made for robust work." Oneyedjoe notes straps "feel a bit thin and lamp a bit chunky in comparison to others but does the job for the price". ADW, rating it 5 stars, puts it even more bluntly: "Probably not good enough for long term work use though."

Read that as budget pricing working as advertised. The housing is ABS plastic, the headband is a fabric strap, and the whole unit weighs next to nothing. It is not built to survive being reversed over by a Land Rover or dropped onto a rock from height. For weekend car-camping, caravan kit, power cut backup, dog walks, and general garden-to-garage use, the sub-£10 build quality is entirely fit for purpose.

One reviewer, Jen, flags a real-world issue that might catch some campers out: "The elasticated band doesn't last long with me as I usually wear over a cap and the band usually loses elasticity." If you wear yours over a beanie or cap in cold weather, that extra stretch may shorten the useful life of the headband.

Shipping niggles showed up too. Faye P reported receiving only one torch instead of two, which is clearly a packaging or fulfilment issue rather than a product defect, but worth being alert to on delivery. Open the box and count before you clip the bag.

Who This 2-Pack Is Actually For

This is a backup-layer head torch. Buy it as your second (or third) pair of lighting, not as your only pair. It excels in exactly the roles UK campers tend to need cheap lighting for: glove box, caravan drawer, kitchen cupboard for power cuts, festival rucksack, kids' camping kit, and the dog-walk coat pocket.

It is a fair primary torch for short trips where nothing mission-critical rides on it. Weekend car-camping, a first family camping trip, festival weekends, an emergency kit. It is plenty bright for pitching a tent, cooking in the dark, finding the toilet block, and walking the dog on winter evenings.

It is not the right buy for long backpacking routes where you need one reliable light for a week straight without recharging. It is not the right buy if "rechargeable" is a hard requirement, because it isn't one. And it is not the right buy if you want a serious beam distance for night trail running or technical caving, because the 30m rating is fine for camp tasks but modest by specialist standards.

Given that the 4.6-star average comes from over 12,500 ratings, the complaints are pretty well-distributed across "I expected rechargeable" and "the supplied batteries are mediocre", both of which are solvable problems once you know about them. Everything else about this head torch, for the money, is very good indeed.