Milwaukee L4 HL-VIS head torch – first-timer’s verdict
I’ve never owned a head torch. Mostly because of that bloke in the village; the one who talks to you with it still switched on, turning casual conversation into something resembling an interrogation.
But after spending time with the Milwaukee L4 HL-VIS, I now understand what I’ve been missing.
Disclosure: Supplied for review, with no payment and no editorial influence – other than blinding the goats.
This is a serious bit of kit from Milwaukee, delivering up to 600 lumens of light through five modes, ranging from ‘Corrado headlights on a tired battery’ to ‘retina-burning Audi Matrix LED’. In Hybrid Spot/Flood, it’s absurdly bright: owls, aircraft markings, snowmen floating in a moonlit sky, neighbouring villages… all illuminated. Just be warned: at full blast you’ll get about 2.5 hours before reality intervenes. Drop it to the lowest setting and that stretches to 8.5 hours, albeit without the Batman-signal theatrics.
As a novice wearer, I quickly learned what it feels like to be a car’s headlight. Moths love you. Rain reflects straight back at your face like full beams in fog. Character building stuff.
It’s designed primarily for hard hats – there’s an elastic strap, silicone grip and clips – which makes adjustment a little fiddly if you’re just wandering lanes pretending to be a potholer, HS2 engineer or Arthur Scargill. Comfort is decent though: at 0.20kg it’s not heavy, and while you’ll get a forehead mark after prolonged use, it’s nothing too dramatic. Think Mark Knopfler, not medieval punishment.
For working on cars, the revelation is having two free hands. No more balancing a phone on the battery, perching a torch on the inner wing, or wedging something luminous under the bonnet hinge and hoping it doesn’t fall into the abyss. It’s properly enlightening – quite literally – especially when paired with the also-excellent Milwaukee under-bonnet light. At that point there’s really no excuse for special-stage-style mechanical work at 3am, or an all-nighter before a classic car event you didn’t want to miss but your car had other ideas.
A particularly nice touch is the red rear safety light, with steady or flashing modes, making it genuinely useful for roadside walking. The fuel gauge is also refreshingly honest: solid green means you’re fine; flashing red means ‘five minutes left – leave the cave now’. Charging the USB battery takes about two hours, but quick top-ups are effective (around 50 per cent in 30 minutes).
It feels tough, too – rated for 2m drops and IP53 water and dust resistance – the sort of thing you wouldn’t panic about if it bounced down a tunnel wall or fell from the roof of your Land Rover Discovery.
Price guide
Right now in the UK, this head torch typically retails for about £60-£85 depending on where you look and current deals – most spots sit in the mid-£60s. It isn’t a budget torch, but you’re getting rechargeable power with a proper fuel gauge and multiple modes for that money. And there's the bonus of pretending you're Todd the one-eyed Minion.
Quick verdict
Super bright when you want it, sensible and long-lasting when you don’t, and rugged enough to stop you fretting if it gets knocked about. If you’ve been head-torch-shy like I was, this one might just make you a convert – just remember to turn it off when chatting to people at the pub on a winter’s night.
