Streamlight Siege Review --- Now in neutral white! (September 2014)

[Poppy]

After reading your comments last night, I ran both lights simultaneously on the highest settings with the same brand of fresh batteries (purchased at the same time) in each in a very darkened bedroom with no other light placed approximately seven feet from each other. After one hour I did not really notice any appreciable difference between the two. After two hours the Siege, to my eyes, appeared just negligibly brighter. After three hours, the UST was going strong while the Siege had a slight but noticeable drop in brightness. I didn't persist since sleep was calling after about three hours. If I had carried on the test overnight, I would conclude that the UST would probably just edge the Siege in overall brightness. Both globes were still cool to the touch after the three hours. I'll have to try this sometime.

I think both are excellent lanterns that can be used for walks around the property at night, taking the dogs out, camping, lighting dark closets, accessory and additional lighting in rooms, etc. I think it just boils down to personal preference.

Edit: Alkaline D cells used in both lanterns (Duracell Duralock)

Pete,
Thanks for taking the time, spending the money, and making the effort to give these two lanterns a run-time / brightness comparison.

From my very limited testing experience with the Ozark trail lantern, I found that the batteries do recover a little bit (that may be seen for an hour) by letting them rest for a number of hours. In other words after the lantern has been off for the day, if you were to use it again at night, the lantern will be a little brighter for the first hour, but will then continue to decline afterwards. With the Ozark, the brightness dropped most (but at a decreasing rate) for the first five hours, it then decreased at a much more gradual rate for the next ten and twenty hours. At 72 hours it was still running, but wouldn't be good for much more than a marker.

 

[BanditoPete]

Poppy: I tried running them both indoors again last night from about 9pm to 6am. Yes, both had seemingly dimmed; however, it wasn't all that bad and still quite usable but the UST was just a tad brighter than the Siege after this running.

 

[Poppy]

Pete,
These are my estimations of emitter output for the Ozark Trail.

At the end of the first hour it was down to about 175 lumens
And at the end of the fifth hour it was just above 120 lumens.
For the seventh through seventeenth hours it was between 100 and 110 lumens.
Hours 18-28 it was between 80-95 lumens.
Hours 29-40 were between 70-80 lumens.

Honestly, I was surprised at how well 3 D batteries held up.

I believe that in a power outage situation, considering that so much of the lantern's runtime is below 100 lumens, that a person would do well to have two lanterns, and balance their outputs so that even when they are both in their 18hour -50 hour runtimes, that their light output if summed will still be greater than 100 lumens.

 

[Poppy]

martinaee,
It seems to me that your modification is the easiest to do, and at least for the siege the most productive.

I did get the new emitter, for my Ozark Trail 300 lumen lantern, I think it is more neutral white than warm white, and I swapped it in. It is certainly an improvement over the CW emitter that was in there. BUT the inner diffuser has a slight blue tint to it, which negates some of the tint improvement that the NW emitter brings. I decided to take a cut off tool to the globe to gain access to the diffuser, and remove it. I replaced it with the semitransparent YELLOW cap from a Shop Rite Canola Oil cooking spray can. It is a definite improvement in tint... kinda makes it look more like a lantern flame. It cuts lumen output some though, but not too much.

I am definitely temped to buy a can of the shaving gel that you used because I think the cap is more clear and the tint a little better. BUT I use an electric razor

What MAY be even better is that I have a plug into an outlet emergency on / power failure night light that has a CLEAR faceted acrylic removable dome that I can cut to size and use that as the diffuser. It won't cut the light output at all, and will allow the beauty of the NW led to shine through. NOW... IDK, will that be better? OR will a yellow or amber tinted light be more soothing for a long duration?

One thing I have learned when selecting a lantern, is to LOOK closely at the tint of the diffuser, and globe, to make sure that it does not have any blue tint.

I guess the point I am trying to make is that it was easy to change the LED in the Ozark light, but I had to butcher the globe to change the diffuser, whereas it may be more challenging to change the multiple LEDs in the Siege, but a very simple matter to tint the diffuser. AND it appears that simply tinting the diffuser in the Siege is all that is needed to make it a more comfortable light.

 

[Illum]

Whats the parasitic drain on the siege while in storage, does anyone know?

 

[RobertMM]

I've seen some arrive at a local store, the neutral white version. I'm thinkinh of buying but would like to know anout the parasitic drain too.

 

[Poppy]

Whats the parasitic drain on the siege while in storage, does anyone know?

I don't know, but really does it matter? If you use it all the time, it's consequences are minimal, if you almost never use it then maybe you shouldn't be storing the batteries IN the unit; especially if they are alkalines.
If parasitic drain, is an issue, store the batteries outside the unit, or inside the unit with a piece of cardboard between the batteries and the connectors (actually you only need to break the connection at one place).

 

[martinaee]

martinaee,
It seems to me that your modification is the easiest to do, and at least for the siege the most productive.

I did get the new emitter, for my Ozark Trail 300 lumen lantern, I think it is more neutral white than warm white, and I swapped it in. It is certainly an improvement over the CW emitter that was in there. BUT the inner diffuser has a slight blue tint to it, which negates some of the tint improvement that the NW emitter brings. I decided to take a cut off tool to the globe to gain access to the diffuser, and remove it. I replaced it with the semitransparent YELLOW cap from a Shop Rite Canola Oil cooking spray can. It is a definite improvement in tint... kinda makes it look more like a lantern flame. It cuts lumen output some though, but not too much.

I am definitely temped to buy a can of the shaving gel that you used because I think the cap is more clear and the tint a little better. BUT I use an electric razor

What MAY be even better is that I have a plug into an outlet emergency on / power failure night light that has a CLEAR faceted acrylic removable dome that I can cut to size and use that as the diffuser. It won't cut the light output at all, and will allow the beauty of the NW led to shine through. NOW... IDK, will that be better? OR will a yellow or amber tinted light be more soothing for a long duration?

One thing I have learned when selecting a lantern, is to LOOK closely at the tint of the diffuser, and globe, to make sure that it does not have any blue tint.

I guess the point I am trying to make is that it was easy to change the LED in the Ozark light, but I had to butcher the globe to change the diffuser, whereas it may be more challenging to change the multiple LEDs in the Siege, but a very simple matter to tint the diffuser. AND it appears that simply tinting the diffuser in the Siege is all that is needed to make it a more comfortable light.

Hmm.. I don't know. I think it's personal preference whether truly warm tints or more neutral tints are more soothing for long term. I think I'd go for a neutral that border on warm if I had the choice for that. So I guess a very yellowish amber

Whats the parasitic drain on the siege while in storage, does anyone know?

I don't know if the Siege has a parasitic drain honestly... maybe it does but it's probably very slight. Like I said I'm not personally worried about D cells leaking if they are fully charged and you use them in good time before the expiration date. I'd keep them outside the lantern like I do and if there actually is a long term power outage then pop those babies in! Unless it's on your desk it's probably not the first light you'd be reaching for anyway. If you do use NiMh D cells in it it's probably fine to keep cells in it.

I really do hope this lantern has been selling well. Like I said I think a larger version with a bigger diffuser and much more output would be amazing. Just make it 4 or 6 D's as the Tenergy LSD D NiMh cells seem to come in packs of 2. Of course I'll have to convince Gillette to make a larger size can of shaving gel then too then! :nana:

 

[Phaserburn]

I've seen some arrive at a local store, the neutral white version. I'm thinkinh of buying but would like to know anout the parasitic drain too.

Stock neutral white?

 

[Monocrom]

I don't need another lantern. But looks like I'll be getting this one anyway.

 

[Illum]

I don't need another lantern. But looks like I'll be getting this one anyway.

Me too. and while I don't shave, a bottle of Gillette FUSION too

 

[martinaee]

Alright, well I went ahead and bought a Tenergy charger and three cards (6 cells) of the Tenergy Centura LSD NiMh D cell batteries (8000mAh).

Wasn't cheap, but I intend to have the Streamlight Siege for a long time, so I'll have 2 sets of pretty high capacity NiMh cells to go along with SHTF-usage alkaline D cells for it. With my luck they'll release a 4 cell version of it as soon as I get my cells. I want to keep sets of cells with all my lights so I ended up getting a 3rd pair of these batteries so that I didn't have 3 + one more random cell.

The Siege isn't the absolute brightest lantern out there, but now I've found a way to at least make the tint better and also have some serious run times with it. I'll take more pictures/update once I get the Centura cells and charger and play around with them.

I'm assuming right now the capacity of 3 AA NiMh in the Siege is about 5700mAh. This will make it more like 24,000mAh. Powerex now makes 11,000 mAh D NiMh cells now I read, but even though they are great from reviews I'm assuming they aren't LSD cells. And even if they are they are another 10 dollars per card of 2 over the 18 dollars of the Centura cells I bought. 8000mAh should be plenty of run time and I'd rather know they aren't losing a lot of charge if I don't charge them that often.

 

[Poppy]

I'm assuming right now the capacity of 3 AA NiMh in the Siege is about 5700mAh. This will make it more like 24,000mAh. Powerex now makes 11,000 mAh D NiMh cells now I read, but even though they are great from reviews I'm assuming they aren't LSD cells. And even if they are they are another 10 dollars per card of 2 over the 18 dollars of the Centura cells I bought. 8000mAh should be plenty of run time and I'd rather know they aren't losing a lot of charge if I don't charge them that often.

When batteries are in series, you do not add the mah, so for example three 1.2 volt 2400ma batteries in series will give you 3.6 volts 2400ma.

 

[martinaee]

That makes sense.

Nice. Well I should be getting the D batteries and charger hopefully by this weekend, but it might be more like Monday. I'll get to test and play with them in the Siege then and will update this thread.

I haven't done much for Halloween, but I put the Siege in my apartment window on red mode. It looks great from the outside and makes the window spooky red

 

[UnderPar]

Keeping an eye on this. Still checking where I could get the adapters or D cells.

 

[martinaee]

Keeping an eye on this. Still checking where I could get the adapters or D cells.

If you are fine with recharging more frequently the Eneloop D to A adapters are good which is what I've been using in it. I'm getting LSD NiMh Tenergy D cells soon for it though. You can get both on Amazon.com or other sites.

 

[UnderPar]

Thanks Martinaee!

 

[fasuto]

Streamlight has now a AA version:
http://www.streamlight.com/en-gb/product/product.html?pid=312

 

[martinaee]

LOL well dang... they must have seen my review using 3 aa's. I can't really see it very well, but in the pics on their site it almost looks like one main white led in the center instead of 4. Oh yeah, it says it is only one led. That might make sense to go with one since they also reduced the max brightness to 200 lumens. They are 30 dollars in most online stores. A great lantern alternative to the bigger D cell version I can already tell. I wonder if it defuses as well though since the diffuser is much smaller and also the main led is in the center... you'll get straight out at a right angle effect rather than having the softer bigger glow potentially since a lot of light will hit the inner cone at a perfect right angle. I don't think I'll be getting one of these, but somebody else should do a review on a smaller version.

Something weird I noticed... The red mode now uses 2 leds and is only .7 lumens? Uh... okay. In my review I noted the red mode is fantastic, but if anything it would be better brighter. I bet they are using low power 5mm red leds or something, but that's disappointing. The red on the "big" D Siege is basically a nice marker/flare in the dark at 10 lumens. This .7 lumen red mode might be good in a tent, but won't be visible at long range nearly as well, especially in a 360 degree dispersion pattern.

------------

I ain't even mad about this new Siege iteration though. The D version may be a little more expensive especially with me getting 6 D LSD NiMh cells and a D charger, but I truly feel ready now in case I ever experience a much longer power outage or want to go camping with a lot of area light. I got the 6 Tenergy Centura D's in the mail today and a Tenergy charger. I'll update the review and this thread with pics and thoughts soon.

 

[martinaee]

I've updated my review on page 1 showing results with 3 LSD 8000mAh D NiMh Tenergy Centura batteries vs 3 AA Eneloops. More pics included!