Current best LED lantern?

[filibuster]

Attn: Filibuster

Update - I just bought the Energizer 500-hour LED area light at a local Walmart for $17.

Because of the plastic construction, I found it hard to unscrew & replace the battery housing.

NOTE: it's not 4 batteries, but rather 3 "D" batteries.

Minni, I believe we are describing two different Energizer LED lanterns. The Energizer lantern I was referring to was the "Energizer Weather Ready LED Folding Lantern" and was reviewed and compared to the Rayovac lantern in this thread: https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/206456

The lantern I believe you have been discussing is the "Energizer Weather Ready Multi-function Lantern" which has a non-LED krypton bulb for it's main source of light.

I apologize for not catching this disconnect sooner, this thread has discussed both lanterns but it wasn't until you mentioned that you bought your lantern from Walmart that I put it together. I have the Energizer folding lantern and was thinking about it every time "Energizer" was being mentioned.

And to muddle things further, Energizer has added another LED lantern to the mix: "Energizer Weather Ready 12 LED Lantern"

 

[shakti]

I put in a nice warm K2 TFFC. It got 15% brighter and I think it was a huge improvement in tint.

I will post a pic of the mod, give me a minute or 2.

How did you remove the original LEDs? They are secured pretty tightly.

 

[fishwater]

Has anyone used the Coleman Twin High Performance lantern? It boasts 540lumens - Four (4) Cree® 7090 XR-E Emitter LED's (White). It's big too, powered by 8 D cells.

 

[SirMack]

The Rayovac Sportsmen Xtreme LED lantern (SE3DLN) is my current pick for the best LED lantern out there.

• It runs off of three D cells for extended use
• Gives off a good deal of light, the brightest LED lantern I own (I have about 10 others to compare it against)
• Has a high and low mode (low mode appears to be PWM though but it is at a high frequency)
• Has a very good diffuser which removes the piercing glare factor of the other bright LED lanterns like the Coleman's
• It is compact and can be hung from either the top or bottom of the unit. The globe can be removed when hung upside down.
• Good white light, though I wish it were warmer in color.

Amazon has them for $30 with free shipping

I agree completely! I have 3 of these Lanterns and they work wonderfully! I was going to purchase the Coleman 8D 590 Lumens LED Lantern but for the price I was able to get three of the Rayovac Xtremes. Plus the Rayovacs are small, durable, and have an incredible battery life.

They are also on Clearance at Lowes for $24.99, even cheaper if you use your military discount or have a 10% off coupon.

 

[Rixter]

The Rayovac Sportsmen Xtreme LED lantern (SE3DLN) is my current pick for the best LED lantern out there.

What about the issue of parasitic drain by the blinking LED that is mentioned on the Amazon reviews? According to one reviewer, he was told by Rayovac that the blinking LED could drain the batteries in 32 days, a claim that he found hard to believe. Nonetheless, at some point, the blinking LED could in fact drain the batteries.

Have you stored the lantern long term with no ill effect on the batteries, or is it just a fact of life that you have to store without batteries?

 

[adirondackdestroyer]

What about the issue of parasitic drain by the blinking LED that is mentioned on the Amazon reviews? According to one reviewer, he was told by Rayovac that the blinking LED could drain the batteries in 32 days, a claim that he found hard to believe. Nonetheless, at some point, the blinking LED could in fact drain the batteries.

Have you stored the lantern long term with no ill effect on the batteries, or is it just a fact of life that you have to store without batteries?

Well, I don't know exactly how long it takes before the blinking LED drains the batteries, but it is a heck of a lot longer than 32 days. I forget how long I've had mine, but well over 6 months, and it's still going strong.

 

[jtice]

Well, times have changed, so I thought I would bump this old thread.
I am in the market for a nice LED lantern for camping, one that can last at least two nights on a set of batteries.
Prefer AA or D cells.

So, what are the best LED lanterns that are on the market today?

~John

 

[LEDAdd1ct]

Hi, jtice. Well, in many areas things do move fast, but I would have to say for brightest stock lantern, the Coleman Twin High Performance is still one of, if not the brightest LED lantern without modification. The most popular lantern with an excellent UI and water resistant design in mind remains the Favourlight 3D lantern marketed in the states under the Rayovac name. Both of these lanterns will take D cells.

If you are willing to forgo those cell sizes as an absolute must, then I highly recommend taking a serious look at Barbarin's creation here.
Forgot about aluminum or copper heatsinks: the light itself is the heatsink.

Those are my two cents; and now, it's off to bed.

 

[jtice]

The Coleman 8D High Performance is one I was looking at actually.
I love that it is quite bright, and has 7 brightness levels.
I dont like that its rather large, and takes 8D cells. I have 8 rechargable D cells, but my charger does 4 at a time, and it can take 8+ hours to charge a set!

The Favourlight 3D lantern, or Rayovac one seems really nice actually.
My main complaint about it is that it only has 2 brightness levels. If it had more levels, especially a really low low, I would get one for sure.

Like anything else, none are perfect.
Might entertain the idea of making one, but I ran into this in the past, the packaging/housing is always the tricky part.
Neat water cooled lantern though, that is quite innovative.

~John

 

[LEDAdd1ct]

Shameless Plug: I do have a Coleman Twin High Performance in the MP, if you are interested.

Yeah, Javier's lantern looks awesome. Dump out the water, and it is very light; fill it up and you get light.

 

[jtice]

I ordered some parts to upgrade my Sylvania/Osram 4AA lanterns,
and I ordered one of the Rayovac 3D 300 Lumen lanterns, they seem to be well liked around here.
I see thats also what you are wanting to trade your Coleman for.

~John

 

[Ray_of_Light]

I have this:

http://www.litexpress.de/de/laternen/camp/camp-201/

It is the beefed-up version of the LED 3D lantern (it is branded Ray-O-Vac in the US, LiteXpress in Germany, Silverpoint in the UK), it uses 6 D cells. It has the same current draw, 700 mA on High and 200 mA on Low, uses the same direct drive, and is PWM dimmed.
It is much brighter because the voltage is 9 V and uses 4 power LEDs for a total of 400 lumens.
In addition to the 3 cell Extreme (which is equivalent to the LiteXpress Camp 200), it has a navigational LED and a red LED on the back that can be controlled separately.
The parasitic current draw is 8 uA, much lower than the Extreme.

Regards

Anthony

 

[jtice]

I got my Rayovac 3D LED lantern the other day, and I am VERY impressed.
It seems very well made, rubber on the bottom top and sides. Its a nice size and shape, and has great light output.
My ONLY complaint would be that it seems to shine more light upward than downwards.
if I have it on a table in the house, most the light is at the very top of the walls, I would rather it shine straight out the side of the lantern.
But other than that, its excellent, and I can see me getting at least one more of these lanterns.

~John

 

[arnold ziffle]

I have a brunton Polaris I really like. it's small but puts out a lot of diffused warm light. it has an amber lens over the led that warms up the tint and a diffuser that looks like a diamond sharpened that smoothes out the beam and cuts down the glare so it doesn't blind you if you look at it.

downsides

kind of pricey at 39.00 but well worth it.

uses three c batteries which I don't use for anything else. sorry for the crappy cell phone pic.


upsides.

small
and light

runs really bright , enough to read by , for about twelve hours.
then it dims a bit and runs for days.

two levels. probably run for a couple weeks on low which is easily enough to navigate around the house.

nice warm tint.


I've been using this light in a trailer I spend three nights a week at work. I've had it for a year or two and have only changed the batteries once or twice. it works so well I don't bother with the deep cycles any more.

 

[LEDAdd1ct]

I ordered some parts to upgrade my Sylvania/Osram 4AA lanterns,
and I ordered one of the Rayovac 3D 300 Lumen lanterns, they seem to be well liked around here.
I see thats also what you are wanting to trade your Coleman for.

~John

Yes, the Coleman is *by far* the brightest lantern I own, but it is very heavy.

I forgot last time, but if you haven't seen my thread here, take a look.

*bump*

I am also looking for a small (and compact) LED lantern that will run on either AA or AAA batteries to take on backpacking trips.

Right now I am leaning towards the Black Diamond Orbit. It seems small, runs on 4 - AAA batteries, and can be found under $30.

But before I buy one, I was just wondering if there are there any other lanterns similar to the Orbit that I should also be taking a look at? Or the is Orbit the best choice in its price/size category? :thinking:

You may wish to take a peek at the Favourlight mini lantern.

I've got the "Rayovac SP1W3AALN-B Sportsman 70-Lumens LED Mini Lantern". I have'nt had the chance to use it much, but it would be something else to look at.

That's one I haven't had a chance to play with yet. Once I got the warm white Favourlight mini lantern, I lost interest in looking at others.

 

[filibuster]

I just ordered a warm white LED lantern that matches the description of the Favourlight mini lantern and I'll have to see how it compares to my current favorite the Rayovac 3D which I use nightly to read by.

My only complaints with the Rayovac is the flashing locator beacon which I took care of by opening it up and wiggling the green LED until it broke off, but I would rather have a warm light to read by so I'll give this new light a try.

I've already tried the Brunton Polaris but found the glare too problematic to read by. I'm concerned that the Favourlight might have a similar issue but I'll give it a try. The Rayovac's diffuser has been hard to beat compared with any light I've tried personally or tested on a store shelf. The company that makes the lantern for Rayovac has a version they sell in Japan with warm white LED's but price is a little much to buy it an have it shipped.

 

[atisch]

The Rayovac Sportsmen Xtreme LED lantern (SE3DLN) is my current pick for the current best LED lantern available.

• It runs off of three D cells for extended use
• Gives off a good deal of light, the brightest LED lantern I own (I have about 10 others to compare it against)
• Has a high and low mode (low mode appears to be PWM but it is at a high frequency)
• Has a very good diffuser which removes the piercing glare factor of the other bright LED lanterns like the Coleman's
• It is compact and can be hung from either the top or bottom of the unit. The globe can be removed when hung upside down.
• Good white light, though I wish it were warmer in color.
• Runs over 60 hours on one set of 3 D cell batteries on high mode, or over 100 hours on low
• Run well with the eneloop AA rechargeables in the AA to D adapters

Amazon has them for $25 with free shipping

I agree completely with your assessment.

Also noteworthy is that it is now just $22.50 at Amazon.

For those who are concerned about the drain on this lantern due to the location indicator flasher I've made a practical estimate on the dent this make in the life of one set of batteries running at full power.

A good estimate of the amount of light generated over time is about 1/2 Lumen for about 1/10 of a second every 5 seconds. If you run these numbers it works out to a constant output of 300 Lumen (high) for 30 minutes over a period of 1 YEAR! This means that you lose less that 1% full runtime over a full year which is negligible. This make the ability to locate the lantern in total darkness an all-win feature.

I'm running mine on 3 rechargeable, LSD, D cells (AccuEvolution) which work as well as alkalines and lose less than 15% of their charge in one year. The bottom line is that for a total of about $40 I have a fully rechargeable, high powered lantern that can easily last a lifetime. Hard to beat.

atisch

 

[Bolster]

Which of the above emit less plastic toxins?

Seriously? There are so many things that will kill you before these lanterns will. What do you consider a "toxin"? The smell? A particular molecule?

 

[RI Chevy]

Anyone ever looked at the Coast 4 C cell LED Emergency Area Lantern? Only 60 lumens, but looks good. 50 hour run time.

 

[LEDAdd1ct]

The reviews are mediocre. I will pass.