Ray-O-Vac Sportman 360 - Two 6W fluoresent tubes & four 6v batteries

For almost 20 years I've used the Ray-O-Vac Sportsman 360 (runs w/four 6v heavy duty or akaline batterties) during long term power outages durring hurricanes (I live along the Gulf Coast). The four 6v batteries run the lantern continously at the high setting for weeks and store for the longterm well when not in use. Its been an increadibly good inside the house lantern for these boarded up emergencies, but its just now about worn out.

Is there any other comparable flouresent (or an LED) four (or more) 6v battery powered lantern available - as a replacement? Price is usually a major concern to me, but not as to this item.

Any comments or suggestions in this regard would be greatly appreciated.

(During the last 20 years I've only had to replace the 6 watt fluoresent tubes a few times - and they are extremely bright on high - and the light and tubes have been surprisingly durable.)

more then likely stay with flouresent....gives you the most light per watt used still...some up to 97 lumens a watt. as far as a specific one, i dunno. have you tried making your own? or maybe modding out the old one with newer and more efficient parts?

I don't think you will find any 4x6v lanterns out there but I do have an 8D 18watt rayovac lantern that probably will do nearly as well.... it can run off 1 or both tubes and D cells are cheaper capacitywise than 6v lantern batteries.
Another thing.... the 8D lantern by rayovac is warranted for life... I got mine at a flea market and it had a bad circuit board that drained batteries dead in 2 days in the off position.. for $7 shipping they sent me a brand new one.
Coleman makes a 15 and 12 watt? twister version...... 8D cells also.

I saw a lantern similar to yours that a friends tried to sell at a garage sale.. they donated it to charity and I *think* it used 2x6v in two sets series/parallel. I have a few 6v lanterns but they have the 4D converters as I wont buy those batteries any more.

What Lynx_Arc said. I've been shopping for battery lanterns for the last couple of weeks. Rayovac makes one(probably the best) that uses (2) 9w tubes and 8 Ds, Coleman makes probably 10 different fluorescent tube lanterns running on rechargeables, 4 Ds, or 8 Ds. I'm pretty sure there are none using 6v batts.

I didn't have any idea about the Ray-O-Vac lifetime guarantee. That is the temporay solution. Will consider D cell lantern in future - but will need to collect some information on cost comparison and reserves. Do 2 akaline D cells contain more power than one 6v akaline?

A 6v lantern battery has 4 F cells (better alkaline ones, cheaper have 4 D cells).
4D cells have less capacity than a lantern battery but if I recall an F cell has about 22,000mah vs about 18,000mah for a D cell and 8D cells cost about as much as one lantern battery so you essentially have 36,000mah (4cells) vs 22,000mah or over 50% more capacity for about the same price.
Another advantage is lighter weight and cheaper battery changes. If you have an 8D lantern you can change batteries for less than $10 vs about $30-$35 for your 4x6v lantern.

Actually I read a post on the battery forum where Energizer/Eveready is the only company using F cells in lantern batts, all others use D cells. Based on that information, the best 6v lantern batteries are the Energizer alkalines, however the Rayovac alkalines might be better on a $/capacity basis. Still, I just bought a 12 pack of Rayovac alk Ds for $9.00, I don't think 6v lantern alk batteries can come close to that price, short of a going out of business sales. I ended up buying a Coleman 8D Pack-a-way lantern at Wally world since they were on special for $15.00. It uses a 15w spiral tube and collapses the globe end into the base. Was it the right buy? Dunno. I still think the Rayovac is probably the best one, but it costs at least $10 more. Rayovac bulbs are about $4.50 and it uses two, the Coleman 15w bulb is about $9.50. Coleman also has some single bulb 13w lanterns and those bulbs are about $6.00. I'm into this topic as I like lanterns, the area ones like these, plus the flashlight lanterns. That sorta makes me a pariah on this board, but those $200 dollar 123 lights don't mean crap when changing a tire(I like my Duracell Durabeam lanterns with the adjustable stand that I can set 10 ft away, out of the way), or any other number of uses where the light needs to sit on the floor/ground.

I haven't tried all lantern/tube combinations but have tried 4,6, and 8 watt straight tubes, twisters of various wattages (AC versions but design is same) and the Utubes and
prefer not to use the long 6watt and up tubes and like the Utubes and twister bulbs the best. Anything 12 watts or more to me makes a good lantern for most everything while less than that you may have problems covering a large area but would be fine in tighter areas. I would say a good starting point is to consider 4watts/person on output so if you have 4 people using the light of a lantern a 15 watt or so would probably be good enough while 1 person can use an up close 4 watt tube pretty well... two people a 6-9 watt version should suffice.

Well, I returned the Coleman 8D pack-away after confirming with Coleman that it wasn't weather resistant. Sheesh, you'd think Coleman would know that weather resistant might be something people would require in a lantern. So, I called Rayovac about the 8D Sportsman, the answer I got was, "sure it's water resistant, just wipe it off." I now have the Rayovac. It's brighter, lifetime warranty vs 5yrs, better construction, and water resistant. Well worth a few extra dollars. Walmarts in IL have it for $25.

something to think about with the florescent lanterns also is that you can change out the tubes. i've got 2 of those folding energizer 4D ones in which I've put short warm white bulbs. They are slightly less bright, but the light quality is so much more pleasing to read or live under than the stark white. I know a lot of folks like the blue tinted light for regular lighting, but for me it only works when you have lots and lots of it, not just a little form a lantern.

The straight tube lanterns are generally easy to swap out, but the other ones tend to use non-standard tubes. I have the 8D coleman pack light, and I like it a lot, it's quite bright and runs forever on the 8D and even longer when connected to an external battery by the connections I added to it But the bulb is a non-standard configuration. I can't find any replacement bulb that will fit in there, so I'm stuck with the ghost white color of the bulb.

Correct me if I am wrong, but it appears that the old Ray-O-Vac Sportsman 360 flouresent lantern (which uses four 6v akaline lantern batteries) is or must be the "king of hill" as far as requiring/containing/having the most battery power & reserve of any off the shelf lantern using "off the shelf" readily avialable batteries? (4 6v lantern batteries = about 20 D cells ???) I did not find any off the shelf lantern available now using 20 D cells or its equivelent ??

4 6v lantern batteries or more than about 12D cells gets rather heavy/bulky and costly to replace cells when they are depleted. When you start to get that many batteries I would look into SLA based lanterns as just a few sets of batteries would pay for a rechargable system.

I have one of these. Where can I find tubes for it?

if its like mine they are f6t5/whatever color. like f6t5/cw.
i have some vitalite full spectrum i got in bulk.
brighter and good color rendering.
btw i hooked a 25' length of zipcord to mine with an anderson powerpole on the end.
runs from 12v now.
otherwise that thing is way too costly to run.
see we are spoiled with leds and 18650 batteries now.

Lightboy21 said:

I have one of these. Where can I find tubes for it?

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Unless you can get them locally or buy a bunch of them the cost with shipping may be better spent investing in an LED lantern which likely will be more efficient and brighter and no longer require bulb replacement. I got rid of my big Rayovac twin tube fluoro lanterns long ago I bough them when LEDs were expensive and the best available was a Luxeon 3 which couldn't match the output and the flood pattern. Now we have LED COB and smd chip emitters that surpass the efficiency of fluoros and can be had using better battery tech.
I agree with snakebite we are spoiled and I have 18650 lanterns that match the output of my twin U Tube Rayovacs that take 8D cells and it runs off a single 18650 and is brighter and smaller than a can of beans.