Dive lights are an important part of cave diving. Burn time is simply how long your lights last when diving. Ensuring an adequate burn time is imperative for safety and to ensure a quality diving experience. Therefore, it is important to be familiar with the burn times of each light you’re considering.

When deciding what you should buy, think about what kind of dives you will be doing and make plans ahead of time for how long the burn time needs to be for each dive light, including your primary and secondary lights, as well as any specialty dive lights, such as strobe lights. Cave dive light burn times for primary lights should last at least two to three times longer than the planned dive you are using them for, if at all possible. The longer the burn time, the more expensive the dive lights. However, don’t sacrifice quality and safety.

The most important burn time you need to consider is, of course, that of your primary light. Longer burn time allows for longer diving time and keeps you safe, as your primary light is the light that you use the longest and will be the brightest. The burn time of the secondary light is important, but not as important as the burn time on your primary light, as this light is generally only used as the back-up and for emergencies. The burn time on photo-video lights depends on which type you are using. Continual lighting requires more burn time, and a long burn time is essential when creating underwater videos. Strobes don’t require as long of a burn time because they emit flashes of light and don’t run constantly.

It takes careful planning and strategic thinking to pick out the right product with the best burn time, but you will be glad you bought quality lights as it will make your experience not only more enjoyable, but safer as well.