Unhappy with a headlight I bought, I decided to spend the money and get something reliable from a brand name recommended to me here. How is the battery life of the Cygolite Metro 400? Can the internal battery be replaced once it exceeds its number of charge/discharge cycles? The 1-year warranty is hardly impressive.
Cygolite Metro 400 USB battery life?
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The internal battery is not designed to be replaced.
I have no complaints with either my Cygolite Metro 400 or my Light and Motion Urban 350, except that below 20 degrees f they run out of juice faster than advertised.
Most battery powered things will die in the first 30 uses, or run until the battery can no longer take a charge. The number of charge/ discharge cycles available for good quality Li- ion cells is astonishingly high. If you compare the cost of AA batteries to run a comparable light over one year, you might still come out ahead with the extra cost of the Li- Ion light assuming it died at exactly 12 months.
That said, I might be the one who recommended this light. More opinions would be better.
Anyone ready to confirm or deny the longevity of Cygolite Metro 400, or similarly priced USB lights from major manufacturers?
I have no complaints with either my Cygolite Metro 400 or my Light and Motion Urban 350, except that below 20 degrees f they run out of juice faster than advertised.
Most battery powered things will die in the first 30 uses, or run until the battery can no longer take a charge. The number of charge/ discharge cycles available for good quality Li- ion cells is astonishingly high. If you compare the cost of AA batteries to run a comparable light over one year, you might still come out ahead with the extra cost of the Li- Ion light assuming it died at exactly 12 months.
That said, I might be the one who recommended this light. More opinions would be better.
Anyone ready to confirm or deny the longevity of Cygolite Metro 400, or similarly priced USB lights from major manufacturers?
I have a Cygolite metro 360 usb charged light. Works well. Unfortunately I can't attest to longevity, because I've had it since the end of last summer (I think). I haven't noticed a decrease in battery life to this point, except in the cold.
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To be clear, do you want to know the runtime, i.e. it lasts 1.5 hours at 400 lumens or do you want to know how many years of use you should get out of the non-replaceable battery?
I've had the older Metro 420 for a couple years now, used it for commuting and trail riding. I haven't killed the battery yet doing either 2x 40 minute commutes on medium or high (I charge every other day), or 1.25 hour trail rides on high.
Haven't had any issues with diminished life so far, and honestly if I get 3 good years out of it I'll be happy. Lights keep getting brighter and cheaper.
I've had the older Metro 420 for a couple years now, used it for commuting and trail riding. I haven't killed the battery yet doing either 2x 40 minute commutes on medium or high (I charge every other day), or 1.25 hour trail rides on high.
Haven't had any issues with diminished life so far, and honestly if I get 3 good years out of it I'll be happy. Lights keep getting brighter and cheaper.
I have 2 of the 350's, a metro and an expilliion ( sp). Recommended. Have had one for 2 and another for 3 years. Stands up to cold, drops and some rain too. Helmet holder nice as well. Easy to switch between bikes as well. The rear hot shot is great as well.
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I have the Metro 360 and the Pace 750. I think both are good value for the money. I'm not a fan of the rubber cover for the USB port nor the mounting mechanism, but again, I think I got a good deal in terms of amount of light for the money. I've been running both for a little over a year now, and they easily get me through a week's worth of commuting on a charge, for about 3 hours of light.
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My sister gave me a cygolite metro 500 for Christmas 2013. I've used that as my main light, since I got it. It's seen temps from -9 to 90 F. I use it a lot, I've started running a light during the day after some close calls often the metro, but not all the time. It gets used almost everyday for some amount. Outside of cold winter commuting, it easily lasts 3-5 days. But I never run it at full power, I use what I call the "ripple" setting. Its a good mix of see and be seen. I bought a light and motion urban 700, I should have bought another 2 metro 500's for about the same cost.
My favorite is the mounting hardware. If you have 1 bike or a commuter you use, the base can stay on the bars and well aimed, while the light can be easily taken on and off when locked up outside BUT the bar mount can easily be moved from bike to bike if you want to.
The only downside to this light is that it has some sort of odd not mini usb charging port. Which I guess isn't that big of a problem if you are very good at keeping it charged, but you won't be able to re-purpose a phone charger to bail yourself out.
I love the damn thing.
My favorite is the mounting hardware. If you have 1 bike or a commuter you use, the base can stay on the bars and well aimed, while the light can be easily taken on and off when locked up outside BUT the bar mount can easily be moved from bike to bike if you want to.
The only downside to this light is that it has some sort of odd not mini usb charging port. Which I guess isn't that big of a problem if you are very good at keeping it charged, but you won't be able to re-purpose a phone charger to bail yourself out.
I love the damn thing.
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Some companies and their products leave a good feeling. I owned a new old stock Cygolite NiMH-HID light that did great service and I got some battery help from them (new-old battery woes), and I like my HotShot taillight. The mount was not the best but easy to adapt it to a Planet Bike one. So I understand a positive attitude to this company.
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