Looking for a rechargeable LED lantern.

Hi folks,



I've been having a hard time trying to find a rechargeable lantern. I'm looking for one for camping and if there was ever a power outage, similar to the style below. It would be great if it came with a car charger. Are the Colmen's any good? What other brands are there?



Thanks!

I have this Coleman but without the rechargeable battery pack - using D batteries. Good light, no complaints:

http://www.coleman.com/coleman/colemancom/detail.asp?product_id=2000002655&categoryid=26008&brand=

Coleman has come out with some new lights with rechargeable battery packs. Cool looking stuff:

http://www.coleman.com/coleman/ColemanCom/subcategory.asp?CategoryID=26008

I have several Coleman led lanterns. All are solid and work well. I tend to be of the old school and stock up on D batteries for emergencies so I don't use the rechargeable battery packs. However, they might work well for you. If you go with the D batteries, also consider the Rayovac Sportsman Extreme that there are lots of good opinions about here.

Hope you find what you need.

Wouldn't it be better to a lantern that uses standard size batteries and then buy rechargeable batteries of that size? That way you could select the better rechargeable batteries like the LSD NiMH ones and a smart charger, and get better performance. Plus you would have more flexibility since the batteries could then be used in other lights or even other applications.

LanternLover said:

Wouldn't it be better to a lantern that uses standard size batteries and then buy rechargeable batteries of that size? That way you could select the better rechargeable batteries like the LSD NiMH ones and a smart charger, and get better performance. Plus you would have more flexibility since the batteries could then be used in other lights or even other applications.

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One big issue about buying seperate rechargeables is the extra cost involved with having to purchase a charger when the charge solution has a battery and charger with it. LSD nimh D cells and a charger could set you back more than the cost of a lantern or even two lanterns.

Yes, D size rechargeable batteries and chargers are quite expensive. However, AA size ones are quite inexpensive and if the cost is spread out over several devices, then it may be cheaper than paying extra for the built in charger and battery. That is one reason why I prefer devices that use this common size.

What is even more important is that what appears to be a savings initially may actually turn out to be a loss over the long term. How is it that these devices incorporate a rechargeable battery and charger, and yet cost less? I suspect that most of them use the cheapest possible battery and charger. I suspect that many of these products use older NiMH technology (the non-LSD type), and some may even be using NiCd batteries even now! The charger may not be a smart charger either. As a result, the battery may be routinely getting over charged and also over discharged, since lanterns typically don't have regulation which would just cut out the light. My suspicion is based partly on my experience with such devices where I see that they lose charge on their own and after a while simply cannot hold much of a charge. The other basis is all the poor reviews for such devices which reiterate the same complaints: that the devices are great initially but do not hold charge after a while. You will find these same complaints about even Coleman rechargeable lanterns, even in the reviews on the Coleman website. So what appears to be a savings initially may turn out to be a loss when the lantern (or other device) becomes practically useless after a while. I suspect there are people out there who have thrown out very good Coleman lanterns just because the battery in those units won't hold a charge any more!!! Just look at the reviews for this fluorescent for instance: http://www.coleman.com/coleman/colemancom/detail.asp?product_id=2000000850

Further, I suspect that this choice of inferior batteries and charger is what causes the lower performance in crank and solar type lights and other devices. If they used a high quality battery and regulation circuit, there's no reason why they couldn't be as bright as any other light. Sure, you would have to crank quite a bit more or keep it in the sun longer to get enough charge into the battery to keep up the battery voltage but the performance would be at par with devices that use primaries. That is simply not the case, and none of us here look at those lights/lanterns as a serious option.

The lesson I have learned from my failed devices is that I should stick to devices in which I can replace the battery, preferably with standard size ones. This doesn't apply to the class of electronics devices that clearly use Lithium based rechargeable batteries, such as cameras, MP3 players, cell phones and laptops, but it sure does apply to lights.

The coleman have two types of batteries.... the ones sold in walmart for ~$20 are a lead acid and they make a nimh pack but it costs about $60 maybe more. The battery packs just replace the D cells so I am guessing you can swap out the pack and go back to using D cells. Most people looking for rechargable lanterns want more runtime at brighter levels than a 3-4AA LED lantern can provide. LSD AAs have about 2Ahr capacity while the 6v Lead acid battery I am guessing has 2-3 times that capacity and the Nimh should have 3-5 times that capacity. I typically recommend AA lanterns for lower output or less people and shorter runtimes and D lanterns for a larger area. Unless you are heavily using a lantern I would not even consider investing in the $60 nimh pack while the lead acid pack may give you savings even if the runtime may be less alkaline D cells can eat you alive at 75 cents to $1.25 each in cost you are talking $3-$5 each time you drain them it only takes 10 times recharging the lead acid pack to pay for itself and since you can top it off full vs unknown runtime of alkalines that have been used it will be ready for you.

Thanks for reminding me. Rechargeable lanterns typically use SLAs, not NiMH batteries. As for saving money, I am not trying to compare rechargeable batteries with primary ones. I am just pointing out that if you expect that you will be using the lantern enough that you are willing to spend the extra money for a rechargeable one, then you are probably better off buying the rechargeable batteries yourself. You may find that the SLA does not hold up well over time while the LSD type NiMH does. Over the longer term, as the SLA loses capacity, you would have to live with lower performance, or higher cost if you replace the SLA. Now if you were only planning to use the lantern for a few months so that you are done by the time the SLA dies out, then you may save money with the built in SLA type rechargeable.

So cost may not be an issue with the buy your own better rechargeable batteries approach. In fact, cost probably favors this approach over the long term. Moreover, even initial cost may not be that much higher in this approach. Remember, you don't necessarily have to use D size LSD NiMH batteries. You can use the AA size ones with D size holders. And you certainly don't have to buy Coleman's overpriced NiMH battery pack. (I wonder if that is even of the LSD type or just uses the older NiMH stuff.)

If you treat an SLA battery well it will last 4-7 years in use and be able to hold up well enough. As long as you can find replacement SLAs (which the coleman one walmart stocks and I would guess would stock for several years to come as they have always carried coleman parts of sorts). I would say the SLA is a viable option if it dies another $20 replaces it. You would have to really be using a lantern heavily to invest in 4 nimh D cells and a charger which could hit perhaps $75 which could buy a lot of alkaline D cells.
As far as using AA in D cell adapters if you only use 1 per D cell you would probably be better suited to just buy a AA based lantern instead as 4AAs won't run a lantern designed for D cells long enough to warrant having it for more than occasional use.
I am sure the coleman's battery pack would be subC nimh which they do not yet make LSD cells of.
I would love to see some well made 3 or 4AA to D parallel adapters that won't cost a fortune.

Maybe you should be looking at a Lantern/Flashlight like the Pelican 9410. I know it's much more expensive than the lanterns that can be purchased for $15-50. This light can be recharged in the car and runs off D size Nimh cells. With the diffuser it would be a perfect light for inside the tent. It can run for almost 5 hours at 300 lumen plus with its 700 lumen mode without the diffuser it would be great outdoor light!

I agree with you that it would be good to see a 3 or 4 AA to D parallel adapter. Until that happens, AA batteries in D adapters will very likely outperform the SLA, at least for occasional use. Remember that you can keep a set of spares on hand given that they are now fairly inexpensive, so the only downside will be the inconvenience of changing the batteries.

My experience with SLAs in lanterns is that they don't hold up over time. They will work well for perhaps a few months, then they start to lose capacity significantly. Looking at reviews on the web suggests that others have experienced this problem as well. However, I will admit that my knowledge of batteries is limited. What kind of care and maintenance are you doing to make them last 4 - 7 years?

LanternLover said:

I agree with you that it would be good to see a 3 or 4 AA to D parallel adapter. Until that happens, AA batteries in D adapters will very likely outperform the SLA, at least for occasional use. Remember that you can keep a set of spares on hand given that they are now fairly inexpensive, so the only downside will be the inconvenience of changing the batteries.

My experience with SLAs in lanterns is that they don't hold up over time. They will work well for perhaps a few months, then they start to lose capacity significantly. Looking at reviews on the web suggests that others have experienced this problem as well. However, I will admit that my knowledge of batteries is limited. What kind of care and maintenance are you doing to make them last 4 - 7 years?

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Nonsense... AA LSD nimh will not outperform an SLA that has more capacity when it comes to an standard store bought LED lantern. A 4Ahr SLA would have you spending money on a smart charger and 8-10 LSD nimh cells costing as much as the SLA + charger and if misused you could ruin the AAs while an SLA is more simple, plug it in and unplug it when charged. No removing cells from holders and inserting them back. Personally I prefer LSD nimh but for the average user that only needs one device rechargeable and has no desire to put rechargables in anything else an SLA is an option to consider. As far as maintenance you need to charge SLAs a few times a year, don't store them discharged in the cold and recharge them after heavy use soon afterwards (within a day or two) Don't discharge them completely, but instead charge them after you use them a substantial amount (If the SLA will run something for 10 hours don't use it 5 and then store it.. recharge it fully. If you use it 1 hour it would be ok to not recharge it). SLAs can be left on the charger after charging and not be immediately damaged but if left trickling on some chargers too long (months) they can be weakened slowly so unless you have them in a UPS or device designed to maintain them don't leave them charging indefinately.
I think my best advice is not to invest in an SLA powered device unless you plan to heavily use it. If you are not recharging it enough to pay for it in 2 years then it may not be a good investment as many people don't maintain their SLA powered devices instead let them sit for 4 years then try to use them and the battery has long gone dead.

I just got 10 LSD NiMH batteries and a smart charger for about $25. That would be about the cost for a SLA, would it not? Assuming I use 4 of those AAs rated at 2000mAh, I am getting a capacity of 8 Ah versus the 4 Ah for the SLA. This includes the cost of an extra set of batteries, so I would still have batteries after the SLA has died. How then do you claim that the LSD NiMH solution does not outperform the SLA? And the LSD NiMH is lower maintenance - no charging necessary unless you actually use them, unlike the SLA.

Have you actually obtained a 4 - 7 year life from a SLA? I suppose they would work in a better controlled environment like a UPS, but in a lantern they just don't work out that well usually. Of course, I agree with your final comment. Rechargeables in general make sense only for frequent use. For infrequent use, they won't provide any savings over primaries.

LanternLover said:

I just got 10 LSD NiMH batteries and a smart charger for about $25. That would be about the cost for a SLA, would it not? Assuming I use 4 of those AAs rated at 2000mAh, I am getting a capacity of 8 Ah versus the 4 Ah for the SLA. This includes the cost of an extra set of batteries, so I would still have batteries after the SLA has died. How then do you claim that the LSD NiMH solution does not outperform the SLA? And the LSD NiMH is lower maintenance - no charging necessary unless you actually use them, unlike the SLA.

Have you actually obtained a 4 - 7 year life from a SLA? I suppose they would work in a better controlled environment like a UPS, but in a lantern they just don't work out that well usually. Of course, I agree with your final comment. Rechargeables in general make sense only for frequent use. For infrequent use, they won't provide any savings over primaries.

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You are doing better than average, most people cannot get 10 decent LSD and a decent smart charger for less than about $40 here. One thing you don't realize is a 6v SLA is greater than 6v when charged and 4 AA nimh LSD cells is less than 6v when hot off the charger. The SLA after days sitting off the charger will still measure 6.5v or so while your LSD cells will drop such their combined voltage is about 1 cell short of the SLA battery. I don't use SLAs often but I have SLAs that I have purchased 8 years ago I check and charge on occasion that still work 8 years later. Under heavy use I would consider 4 years on properly treated SLAs about average lifespan while 7 years would probably be more of an exception.

As for your 8Ahr claim your math is all wrong, Ampere hours are NOT accumulative when batteries are using in series, only when in parallel do they add up. You would have to take all 10 of your LSD batteries to equal both the voltage of the SLA AND get 4Ahrs. You would have to somehow rig it so you could use all 10 in a series parallel arrangement and then juggle the cells in and out to recharge probably 4 at a time in 3 batches assuming your charger does 4 at a time. In other words you may have matched cost in batteries/power/charger but have a problem matching the simplicity of design/charging/use of an already incorporated SLA design.

For clarification, the charger I got is smart in the sense that it does monitor voltage but it is not a fancy charger in that it does not have an LCD, refresh function, etc. The batteries themselves are also quite inexpensive now: just look at the Duracell pre-charged ones on Amazon.com now. They are under $2/AA. In fact, my total cost was $20.97 shipped.

I agree that the voltage for the NiMH battery combination will be a little lower, which may affect the brightness ever so slightly, since lanterns don't seem to have regulation. I agree also that the AA cells will require frequent changes. Those are the caveats with the NiMH solution. At this point, it would seem that the choice would be a matter of personal preference. However, the SLA solution didn't work for me in the past, so I am now trying out the NiMH solution. So far I like it, but I admit I just got those batteries and charger last month, so it will be a while before I can say for sure.

LanternLover said:

For clarification, the charger I got is smart in the sense that it does monitor voltage but it is not a fancy charger in that it does not have an LCD, refresh function, etc. The batteries themselves are also quite inexpensive now: just look at the Duracell pre-charged ones on Amazon.com now. They are under $2/AA. In fact, my total cost was $20.97 shipped.

I agree that the voltage for the NiMH battery combination will be a little lower, which may affect the brightness ever so slightly, since lanterns don't seem to have regulation. I agree also that the AA cells will require frequent changes. Those are the caveats with the NiMH solution. At this point, it would seem that the choice would be a matter of personal preference. However, the SLA solution didn't work for me in the past, so I am now trying out the NiMH solution. So far I like it, but I admit I just got those batteries and charger last month, so it will be a while before I can say for sure.

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Typically decent smart chargers without thrills cost ~$20 like the duracell CEF23 if you got one that can charge and terminate properly then you are set. I have seen places you can get the chinese LSD cells or possible Eneloop clone cells mail order for closer to $1.50/cell online. I have a 6v and 12v SLA and they equate stand by (or non trickle charge) voltages at about ~6.7v so essentially it takes 5 LSD nimh that have sat for a few days to equal the voltage. I would expect a 4D cell lantern to have a semi decent buck circuit in it such that higher voltage (with the buck circuit losses) would equate more into runtime than brightness until you deplete below the Vf of the LED in which case a SLA cell would be below depleted anyway.
SLA solutions are not for power users in a lot of instances but they are an easy was to cheaply supply power to devices with minimal wiring and charging problems that have to be addressed with multiple cell packs which either have to have smart chargers and special connectors or must be dissasembled.
My advice is to expect about 1/4 to 1/5 the runtime per AA (in parallel) LSD cell that is put in place of an alkaline D cell. One big issue of SLAs going bad is when they sit too long in stores they can discharge low enough that if not charged it starts hurting them. If you buy something that has already sit 3 years on a shelf that has an SLA in it you probably already have a weakened SLA that is alread aged a few years so you won't get nearly the 4 years but maybe 1-3 years before it starts getting weak. SLAs have individual cells (~2.1v) that could even reverse if got too low and used in a device.
I would say the cheap 2AA to D adapters (sonshine?) in a 4D lantern would give you a compromise bright lantern with 3-5 hours runtime in high mode perhaps. The biggest desire if using AA nimh is to have a useable low mode to conserve power so you don't spend a lot of time charging for a few hours of runtime. I have modded a few sylvania LED lanterns with newer LEDs one that was originally set to run at 350ma/75ma now runs at 250ma/25ma with a 50% more efficent LED in it using 2100mah LSD AAs. I estimate runtimes on high at 8 hours and low to run for 80 hours. The high is perhaps 30-50 lumens with about 5-10 lumens low. The big colemans claim a 190 lumen high so the current may be 700ma or more depending on the LED/bin used and buck circuit efficiencies. This would give you 2.5 hours on a single AA setup (4AAs) and perhaps 5 hours (8AAs, parallel in pairs).

Yes, I agree. That is why I would need 8 or more of the NiMH batteries, since runtime on one set alone would be rather short. So the SLA solution just seems less reliable in the sense that even a seemingly new one could die on you soon. And it would certainly have a much shorter life if care is not taken. That would explain why it works for some people and seems to perform poorly for several others. The extra robustness of the NiMH solution is more important to me, but I can see that SLAs work okay for you.

LanternLover said:

Yes, I agree. That is why I would need 8 or more of the NiMH batteries, since runtime on one set alone would be rather short. So the SLA solution just seems less reliable in the sense that even a seemingly new one could die on you soon. And it would certainly have a much shorter life if care is not taken. That would explain why it works for some people and seems to perform poorly for several others. The extra robustness of the NiMH solution is more important to me, but I can see that SLAs work okay for you.

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To be honest I am not an SLA advocate, I just see that LSD AAs are inadequate to power high output lanterns it takes too many of them resulting in complicated charging issues and costs and dealing with adapters. SLA is a solution for the power needed for bigger lanterns that even with drawbacks allows for affordability. I would rather see subC nimh LSD cells made into battery packs to power lanterns with smart chargers and easy swap batteries. Runtime may not be but half as much as D cells but at 2.5 times AAs they would approach acceptable runtimes and you could make a 5 cell pack that would give you 20% more power available than a 4 cell pack which in turn would be close to having 3 AA eneloops in 4 adapters in a 4 cell lantern.. very acceptable.

Lynx_Arc said:

... SLA is a solution for the power needed for bigger lanterns that even with drawbacks allows for affordability. I would rather see subC nimh LSD cells made into battery packs to power lanterns with smart chargers and easy swap batteries. .. very acceptable.

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Yes, I would like see such a solution myself.

LanternLover said:

Yes, I would like see such a solution myself.

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I am thinking it won't happen as people that tire of subC batteries discharging too fast jump to lithium ion cells instead. I have several items with nicad subC cells in them I don't even bother charging any more as they are always dead every time I want to use them. If I could get LSD subC nimh cells for cheap I would replace nicads with them and not worry if they fail after a few years of use just having something ready to use 6 months from now and not worrying about leaking batteries or having to replace expensive lithium primaries in something I could drain dry 5 times in a few days and never use for a year

I am wondering when the first high power XML based LED lantern based upon 18650 lithium batteries will be produced. You could have 3-4 of them in parallel in place of 4 D cells and run an 1-3 XMLs at 2 amps each max putting out about 1000 lumens. When LEDs start coming out near 200 lumens/watt perhaps AA nimh LSD cells will be able to power a 200 lumen lantern for 8 hours.