Lantern comparison - Coleman 4AA Exponent Packaway vs. Coast LED 4AA - (PICS)

DM51

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I recently returned from a 10-day camping trip in the Zambezi Valley (link to story in my sigline). I took a large selection of lights with me, including 2 types of lantern – a Coast LED lantern and a Coleman Exponent Pack-away (K2 LED). Both run off 4xAA alkaline cells. Both have fold-down wire handles for carrying or hanging. The Coast cost $42.50, the Coleman $34.00.

The Coleman is an extremely neat unit, which pulls out to expose the light window, which is clear rather than opaque/frosted. When pushed closed for packing, it is very small at 3.1 ins high x 1.75 ins x 2.75 ins. It opens to 5 ins high. When closed, it cannot be switched on – a good safety feature. It has a push-button switch on the top, sequencing as follows: High > Low > Locator flash > Off. There is no battery level indicator.

The Coast has a more traditional look about it, not unlike a pressure lantern. The window is completely opaque, to provide diffuse light. It does not pack away like the Coleman so it takes up more room, but it is still small and neat at 6 inches high x 3 ins diameter. There is a simple on-off push-button on the side (no modes) with a battery indicator below the switch which glows green when full > amber when approx half-full > red when low. This is a useful feature.

The Coleman is on the left in these two photos, closed in one and open in the other. The Coast is on the right.
Lantern-1.jpg
Lantern-2.jpg



The Coleman has been turned sideways in these photos. In the right hand photo both lights are switched on, and the first signs of trouble are immediately apparent – very strong artifacts from the Coleman.
Lantern-3.jpg
Lantern-4.jpg



The next 2 pictures were taken outside, with the lights on 2 chairs back-to-back to separate the beams. The Coleman is on the left, the Coast on the right. The Coast's opaque (frosted) window gives a good, bright, all-round light. The light from the Coleman is frankly dreadful, with an uneven, narrow field of beam and artifacts from the internal components. The Coleman's window is clear, not diffuse/opaque, so the shadows cast by its internal components are strong and very noticeable. The Coleman's beam is also much narrower and more directional because it isn't diffused, and it does not provide all-round light or an evenly lit area.
Lantern-5.jpg


In this photo the Coleman has been turned sideways, and the artifacts/shadows can be seen even more clearly. As you can see, the area lit by the Coleman's beam is a mess, and if you were looking for something with this light you would have trouble finding it. It is a very poor and uneven light.
Lantern-6.jpg


This photo was taken from above, with the 2 lights on the ground. I think it illustrates just how bad the Coleman's artifacts are.
Lantern-7.jpg


The Coast LED lantern won hands down in actual use around the camp, and provided very good and reliable service – I was extremely pleased with it. I did not check run-times but it provided many hours of very useful light on each set of batteries.

I hardly used the Coleman at all – the artifacts are so annoying and their shadows are so strong that it renders this light a total PITA for almost all purposes.

Why on earth did Coleman make this light with a clear window? Why was it not made completely opaque, like the Coast's one? This single mistake in design by Coleman totally wrecks what is in every other way an extremely well-designed light. If Coleman were to change this one thing, the artifacts would disappear and the light from it would probably be as smooth and useful as the Coast's. If they did that, I am sure the Coleman Exponent Pack-away lantern would be a winner, as are so many other Coleman products. As it is right now, this lantern is next to useless.
 
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Grubbster

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Re: Coleman 4AA Exponent Packaway vs. Coast LED 4AA - lantern comparison (PICS)

I believe those are the best pictures I have ever seen demonstrating the beam on a lantern. Great work DM51! The comparison between the two clearly shows the benefits of a frosted globe in a LED lantern. I have read that the new Cree lantern suffers the same beam as the K2. I agree that the design of this light would greatly benefit from a frosted globe.
 

Sigman

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Re: Coleman 4AA Exponent Packaway vs. Coast LED 4AA - lantern comparison (PICS)

Looks like it needs a custom cut up milk container diffuser or perhaps some "press~n~seal" around it!
 

ps56k

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yeah - great shots - better than the dark bathroom shots I was going to post. Notice the very narrow band of horizontal light coming from the Coleman. Overall, like you mentioned, it realy doesn't light up the area in any useful way.

I was also thinking about the whole engineering concept of the extremely bright LED light being bounced onto the reflector cone. I noticed that the tip of the cone was extremely bright - making another "point" of light which in turn then reflected into that very narrow beam of horizontal light.

The "cone" might make sense for a normal bulb, but maybe some other geometry is required for the highly focused LED light, sorta of like a laser beam. Maybe instead of the usual "pointed cone" that reflects the parallel beam of the LED, it needs to be some "rounded" shape to help scatter the beam ? Just some random thoughts on how the LED narrow beam focus + cone reflector might be changed to help scatter the incoming beam...

thanks again for the great shots.
 

NutSAK

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I would like to see the beamshots with the lanterns higher off the ground. I've used the Coleman, and it projects its beam well below the unit, not just outward as the Coast, or most other lanterns. Due to this, I've found it most effective when it's hanging overhead.
 

Bimmerboy

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I recently returned from a 10-day camping trip in the Zambezi Valley (link to story in my sigline).
It's no longer in your sigline, but is that the adventure in which there was an angry, charging elephant?

There is a simple on-off push-button on the side (no modes)
Hehe... Au contraire, mon frere! Press and hold the button, and ye shall be rewarded. If you haven't already discovered this, I won't ruin the nice surprise!

with a battery indicator below the switch which glows green when full > amber when approx half-full > red when low. This is a useful feature.
I either forgot, or didn't realize that about these. Very nice touch, and thumbs up to Coast/Led Lenser for including this feature, as well as the entire design on this totally top notch, little lantern. Thanks for the heads up on that, DM! Just drank a bunch o' beer after modding one of these things with a high-CRI SSC, and am about to use up the still fresh OEM batts tonight just to watch the voltage metering. :party:
 
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Radiophile

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Hehe... Au contraire, mon frere! Press and hold the button, and ye shall be rewarded. If you haven't already discovered this, I won't ruin the nice surprise!

+1 - You'll like what you see!

I got amazingly lucky at Lowe's last year and got 3 Coast 4AA lanterns for $4 each. Compared to the other lanterns I own it's got such an even and diffuse light that I rarely use the others unless I need more light. (I've got a bunch of Coleman lanterns courtesy of Target's clearance sales. Who can resist 75% off of something that lights up? Not me!)
 

Radiophile

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...modding one of these things with a high-CRI SSC, and am about to use up the still fresh OEM batts tonight just to watch the voltage metering. :party:

What LED is in there from the factory? Got any pictures? I haven't gotten around to tinkering with mine yet and I'd like to know how it comes apart. Thanks!
 

Bimmerboy

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Ya' know, I thought about taking step-by-step pics, but was in one of those moods to just get the job done in the shortest amount of time, and also figured there wouldn't be much interest. Shoulda' just grabbed the camera anyway.

It comes stock with a Lux III, and getting to it begins with prying up the little metallic disc on the top center of the plastic crown, to reveal a single screw. I took my smallest precision screwdriver, and using the handle of a larger screwdriver, very lightly tapped it into the seam between the disc, and the plastic. Be gentle when prying as the metal is quite soft, and deforms easily. Fortunately, any small deformations can just as easily be tapped back into shape using the handle of the beforementioned larger screwdriver. There is a bit of glue holding it on, but it breaks well before the risk of destroying the disc. As soon as I pried the disc up just enough, I slid a thin guitar pick underneath, and worked it around to lift up the rest of the disc.

From there, disassembly is fairly self-explanatory, but here are a few more tips to help the overall modding job come out nicely.

1. When you reach the emitter, make absolutely sure to take note of it's positive/negative orientation as this will be of utmost importance when you go to solder in the new one... lol. One way to test is by using a couple AA batts in Radio Shack holders, tied together in series.

2. When removing the stock emitter, use solder wick to get rid of most of the solder at the pads, and snip the emitter legs as close as possible to the pads in case you want to save the old thing (you'll still have some solderable legs left on it). Knock the emitter off the heatsink, clean up the heatsink pads with more wick, then re-tin them.

3. You'll have to remove the AA epoxy inside the heatsink pocket that the Lux III sat in, and a great tool for the job is the sharp end of a cut up credit card, or anything else similar. It'll do a great job of removing the AA without any scratching to the heatsink surface.

4. Use thermal paste for the Seoul instead of thermal epoxy. It transfers heat better, and once you see the three-screw plate that holds the emitter in place, you won't have any worries about getting contact pressure to the heatsink. This is one of the design aspects of the lantern that I particularly like. Put a little dab of paste in the center of the heatsink pocket.

5. Lightly tin the Seoul's legs, then place the emitter into the pocket so the tinned legs are sitting on top of the tinned pads. Hold the emitter steady with one hand while taking the iron in the other, and simply heat one leg until it sinks into the solder on the pad. Repeat on the other side. This method will ensures that a minimal amount of solder is used because if there's too much, it could ground out against the heatsink, and you'll have to soak it up with some more wick.

6. Before re-assembly, I de-oxited every possible contact, including the threads on the positive and negative posts that come up through the unit, and the nut surfaces that bear down on the PCB. Those two posts, and nuts are how the power is carried to the LED, which is another cool part of the design... the structure by which the entire top bolts onto the light, also carries the juice! Very cool, and also strikes me as very German, if you know what I mean.

Oh, and again, the polarity. Make sure to install the top in the right direction. You can do a quick test with batts in the unit before tightening down the bolts, and finishing up the last part of the job.

7. You can tape over the bolt holes in the top with tape just like stock to seal them up again, but I left mine open in hopes that they'll let a little more heat escape. They're fully covered by the outer metallic ring under the crown anyway.

8. Lastly, when putting the metal disc back on the crown, you might find it doesn't want to go back in with finger pressure. Using, once again, the plastic handle of the beformentioned screwdriver, I lightly tapped around the circumference, and there it is. Plenty tight (it'll never fall out), and no glue needed.

I'm sure some pics would've helped even further, but hopefully these tips are descriptive enough, and will come in handy. With a little attention to detail, it should be a fairly easy mod to do nice and clean. Enjoy!
 

Radiophile

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Thanks for the help and info! I suspected that you had to go in through the top, but hadn't yet tried it because I didn't want to beat it up. Mine spins a bit, but it never loosens.

Lux III - that screams for an upgrade! Is it twice as bright afterward?
 

Bimmerboy

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Oops!... sorry, Radiophile. I had seen your question, got distracted, and forgot to answer it.

I used a U2SWOH, and I'd say it's easily twice as bright. And that's in apparent brightness. Since our lumens perception is logarithmic in nature (for example, we perceive a doubling in lumens as a 30% - 40% increase, or something like that IIRC), and the mod is WAY brighter than stock, I would bet that actual measured output is more than double. Even with a high_CRI Seoul which takes a considerable hit in lumens compared to the U2, output is noticeably brighter than stock.

Very much a mod worth doing! Please let us know if you get around to it, and how you like it. :)
 

DM51

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Well well... resurrection of 2-year-old thread! Interesting new posts about the Coast lantern. That sounds a very good mod, Bimmer.

I'm glad I never discovered the "modes" by holding the button down, though. For me, the Coast is just a great and very simple lantern, and nothing else I've tried comes close. It has now done 3 trips with me to Africa. It wasn't trodden on by the elephant, but it's been bashed around quite a bit and still functions perfectly. I wouldn't be without it.

An Army friend of mine was once trodden on by an elephant on patrol in the jungle (not in Africa) having neglected to get out of its way. He was squished into the mud, had 4 broken ribs and had to be casevaced by helicopter. When the helo landed back at base with him, the crew disappeared to find medics to help him, but he got bored waiting. He climbed out of the helo and wandered around in a daze, filthy and stinking (as you do after a while in the jungle). He was challenged by a fierce female Colonel who shouted at him and demanded to know what he was doing there.

He said "I've been trodden on by an elephant."

The female Col. immediately had him arrested and he spent 12 hrs in the slammer until the medics eventually tracked him down there, lol.
 

Bimmerboy

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I'm glad I never discovered the "modes" by holding the button down, though.
Uh oh... you've apparently been trodden on by some sort of large, heavy animal as well, and are in a state of shock.

Quick, DM! Hold the button before the female Colonel sees you! :nana:
 

j3bnl

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Anyone have a link where these Coast LED 4AA Lanterns can be bought from?
Would need to be somewhere that ships to UK.


Edit :- Found a UK supplier and await it's arrival.
 
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j3bnl

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Just like to thank DM51 for this thread (even if it is quite an old one).
My lantern arrived today and the light it gives off is quite simply brilliant.
Seems very well put together and I'm sure will give years of good reliable service.
So DM51, thanks very much.:twothumbs
 
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