What sort of lamp do you use for your main light?

[Stu]

But Sam...Yorkshire is the ONLY place to cave, so don't really matter!!!

 

[Neil B]

What are you going to do when you want to go down a cave where carbide is not allowed. (Peak/speedwell, south wales and mendips.) since you've sold your electric set up on Ebay.

Well, at the moment I do 100% of my underground stuff in Cumbrian mines and Yorkshire caves where carbide isn't a problem (yet!), so the FX3 would have just been sitting there gathering dust, and it's too good a lamp to be just used as a spare.

If I did do some caving in the Peak, Wales, etc then it's just a case of unclipping the carbide headset from my helmet and buying a couple of sets of batteries for the Duo mounted beneath it.

 

[Titch98]

Good old Speleo FX3 from Caving Supplies at Buxton. Bog standard with 0.85A main bulb and 0.30A pilot. No problems with it so far and the light level is enough for me to see what I'm doing!

 

[Neil B]

I think that there is something wrong with my pretzle arian, probably the valve that drips water, it didnt seem to be working.
Any similar experiences out there?

Might be old news to you but, there's a plastic strip with holes in that slots into the carbide chamber - the water is supposed to trickle down through these holes onto the carbide. However, when I've opened my Ariane to clean it, I've noticed that the holes are sometimes clogged with limedust from the spent carbide.

 

[Johnny]

I've noticed that the holes are sometimes clogged with limedust from the spent carbide.

Yeah, I've noticed that, the holes in this part in mine are a little larger than usual as a result of me reaming them out with a knife!

I think that the problem may be in the metal bit where the pin, the bit you twiddle, adjusts the aperture size.