LED or CFL Lantern?

I hope it is ok to post this here as it is related to both LED's and CFL.

Right now I am using a coleman 4D LED packaway lantern and it is ok but not amazing. It is only around 120 lumens or so, and because of the LED, has a very bright center that is hard to look at.

I just checked the coleman website and they have a few new lanterns that interested me. They have what appears to be an upgrade to the lantern I have with a better led(xr-e) and a built in diffuser to make the output more usable and pleasing but they also now have a number of CFL lanterns that look quite nice too. They claim to be much bright and although they have significantly less runtime still claim to have quite decent runtime. They are also quite cheap, under 20 bucks.

So what do you guys think? Should I go for the LED lantern or the cfl?

IMO. I would go for an LED - provided it is setup properly with the right optics designed for a lantern.

I've used older style CFL's in the past and find that they take a while to reach full brightness, and turning it on/off too frequently may shorten it's life. My eyes are also sensitive to the flicker they seem to produce. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe it's the same with the newer CFL's.

no idea, but thanks for the input.

guess it depends on what you are going to use it for... for me it's power outages in the house or car camping, so small size isn't as much as a factor for me.

I've been using CFL lanterns for years and am pretty happy with those. The one I have now is a 4D coleman CFL and it seems about as bright as a 30-40 watt light bulb and is enough useful light to read by in a pitch black house. If I remember correctly, battery life is 10 hours or so. That being said, I've been on the same set of batteries for a few years with several short power outages and a camping trip.

If size and battery life are more important, LED's are a good way to go but they're not as bright at the same price point. LED's have come a long way in the past few years though and the gap is closing

Thanks for the vote for cfl, thats the one I kinda want, I just wasn't sure. I kinda wanted a 4D one but I couldn't find a 4D cfl packaway, and I really like the packaway design. It seems like it will protect the mroe fragile cfl as well. Is yours a packaway one or not?

Thanks again for the input!

the one I have is just a regular old-school looking lantern with high and low that doesn't fold down or anything... got it on sale for less than $10 at Kmart.

There also is a Rayovac Sportsman Extreme LED lantern that runs on 3D batteries and is supposed to be pretty bright from what I hear... it doesn't fold down or anything and costs a bit more, but might be worth a look. Guess it depends on form factor and how much you want to spend.

Yeah I'm familar with the sportsman vaguely, but I like the packaway design and I think there lumens are way overrated from what I've heard. Also i've heard about some issues with their quality.

Off topic, but I sure miss my 30+ year old Coleman white gas lantern. The pumping, the hissing, the fumes, the pumping, the magical glow of the fragile mantles.... I wonder if my new kid will have as fond of memories with an electric lantern as I do with gas.

cityevader said:

Off topic, but I sure miss my 30+ year old Coleman white gas lantern. The pumping, the hissing, the fumes, the pumping, the magical glow of the fragile mantles.... I wonder if my new kid will have as fond of memories with an electric lantern as I do with gas.

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I love the smell of naphtha in the evening.

It's amazing how powerful a memory-trigger that smell is.

cityevader said:

Off topic, but I sure miss my 30+ year old Coleman white gas lantern. The pumping, the hissing, the fumes, the pumping, the magical glow of the fragile mantles.... I wonder if my new kid will have as fond of memories with an electric lantern as I do with gas.

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Not to mention they have way more output CFL or LED based lanterns.

I did a big shootout in my kitchen about 2 years ago where I demonstrated that. The only lights that had better room lighting characteristics that I had at the time were HIDs.

One of my favorite lanterns I use most often is a Energizer Weather Ready 4D led lantern. It's the red model that folds, it has three settings hi/lo and then a amber night light. It runs forever it seems even on high, I'll see if I can find a link I think a bought it at Walmart.

Oh and its is nicely diffused so it doesn't irritate the eyes. I was once worried about it's water proofing but while fishing one night I dropped it over in the lake and it worked just fine after I retrieved it.

First row second light-

http://www.energizer.com/PRODUCTS/FLASHLIGHTS/PREPAREDNESS/Pages/emergency-lights.aspx

sol-leks said:

So what do you guys think? Should I go for the LED lantern or the cfl?

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I guess it depends what you're after. I don't have any of the multi-LED lanterns from Coleman (or anyone else), but the 4D Coleman pack away didn't impress me a lot. There was a Sylvania 4AA lantern that was quite popular when modded to use a SSC P4 w/ optic several years ago that delivers a great deal of usable output in the right places (more than the 4D packaway) from a small package. But, obviously it doesn't have the runtime of a 4D light. FWIW, all the CFL lanterns I own have more output than the 4D Coleman packaway.

Some comparison shots from my old shootout thread...

Coleman 4D Cree Pack-Away Lantern:


Sylvania 4AA Lantern with SSC P4 and Khatod optic:


Energizer 4D twin tube fluorescent lantern:


GE 4D Fluorescent Lantern: (sold at Costco)


Hitachi 14.4V Fluorescent Lantern:



Keep in mind all of these pale in comparison to a real lantern with a glowing mantle.

Coleman Pinnacle PerfectFlow InstaStart Propane Lantern High:

ok,fuel based lanters do have there down side,fumes and the need for good air flow...but...and it is a big but.....they do give of an awful lot of heat.to some this may be a down side,but if there a power cut(outage) not ownly do you lose lighting but also for heating. my northstar and tilly lanters have kept me warm.warmish during many camping trip and power cut. i still have a cfl for the quick outages and to get the beasties up and running

Thanks for the comparison pics, the different tints are particularly interesting.

I have the Coleman 590 lumen Quad LED and it is very impressive! It has two diffuser tubes with two LED's each diffuse the beam. The beam is very smooth and VERY bright! Absolutely crushes the old packaways in output and beam quality.

adirondackdestroyer said:

I have the Coleman 590 lumen Quad LED and it is very impressive! It has two diffuser tubes with two LED's each diffuse the beam. The beam is very smooth and VERY bright! Absolutely crushes the old packaways in output and beam quality.

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Is this the one you're talking about about?

Yeah, that's the one. adirondack did a very nice video review on it some time back. :thumbsup:

I have one, too, and it is my brightest lantern by far and boasts a perfect, artifact-free beam.

It does look very nice, but 50 bucks is a lot for me to spend on a lantern. And I do like the packaway design.

i used to have a coleman CFL remote controlled lantern, It was great, efficient, and durable, until I went camping in February in Michigan (yes there was a foot of snow and we slept in tents) The most that lantern could manage was a purplish glow at the base of the CFL. I don't know if they make a cold-start version, or how many people are crazy enough to camp in that weather, but its something to consider with LED vs CFL