BriteAngle Warning Triangle review: breakdown safety 2.0

Visibilty is key to a safe breakdown, which makes an LED warning triangle an interesting idea. We've been finding out if it's any good.

Written by Ryan Gilmore Updated: 1 April 2022

While almost all cars will have one somewhere in the boot, it’s still only advised that you carry a warning triangle here in the UK. However, it’s a clever idea to buy an aftermarket one for an older car as well. Designed to warn other motorists of your stricken vehicle, it’s that big red reflective triangle you can find in your boot. It’s a low-tech and simple way of staying safe, however one company claims to have improved upon the warning triangle to make a breakdown even safer.

What is it?

This takes the old-fashioned warning triangle and drags it kicking and screaming into the 21st Century. Produced in the UK, the biggest difference is that instead of reflective material there are 28 LED bulbs that are claimed to be visible up to 300 metres away. With how popular and safe LEDs are in car headlights, it seems like a very natural progression that warning triangles adapt the same technology.

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The BriteAngle is also designed to be tough enough to deal with whatever mother nature can throw at it. As well as being waterproof, it’s claimed that the BriteAngle can withstand winds of up to 45mph which means in theory, this warning triangle could be really important to your saftey should you break down.

BriteAngle Warning Triangle

Price £49.95 | VIEW OFFER

Is it any good?

First impressions are good, it’s clearly a well thought-out and ergonomic design. It comes in a large, vibrant storage box (perfect for dimly-lit emergencies) that also forms the base of the triangle. It also comes with a handy Velcro patch for mounting it to the boot of a car. Campers will be happy too, as the BriteAngle comes with a suction cup so you can mount the warning triangle directly to the rear of your campervan in the case of an emergency.

It’s also really easy to assemble. Once you’ve unlocked the storage box lid all you need to do it pull the folded triangle like you’re trying to snap a turkey wishbone and it’ll erect itself. Best of all, it’ll also turn itself on once it’s assembled which means no faffing around looking for an on switch (you can however choose between flashing or solid once it’s on though). The storage box then slots into the rear of the triangle to assemble it. Simple, even at the side of a busy A-road.

BriteAngle claim this means the triangle can be placed directly behind the car as opposed to the 45-metres written in the Highway Code, which means no more perilous walks up a busy road. Whether or not a police officer will agree with your BriteAngle placement will depend on their interpretation of the law, so we recommend going the advised distance to keep yourself on the right side of the highway code.

The LED lights are powerful enough for a night-time breakdown and the four included AA batteries are a welcome addition. I didn’t try the full 300 metres, but from roughly 100 metres away the triangle was easily visible once the sun had gone down.

I also took the chance to test the weatherproofing of the BriteAngle. A medium downpour was easily deflected while moderate winds were incapable of uprooting it. There were no storms to test the stability of the warning triangle (thankfully) but the impressions gathered from other weather was impressive.

Verdict

It may be more expensive than a traditional warning triangle, but it is really effective and a clear improvement over a tradiitonal warning triangle. However, as it’s not strictly a proper warning triangle (espeically when travelling in Europe) and can fall fowl of a grumpy police officer,

It’s still a really good purchase as it’ll improve visibility for a conked-out car more than a traditional warning triangle and is a genuinely clever bit of safety tech, but until legislation catches up your best bet is to keep a traditional warning triangle with you as well to just in case.