Rayovac Sportsman FL

Check out the "living dinosaur" I found at Home Depot last night!



I had no idea they were even still making these, much less selling them. Needless to say, it ended up coming home with me. I haven't had an FL lantern for some time now and never one of these bad boys. This thing is bad ***! It's huge, heavy duty handle, rubber "tire tread" overmold around the fount, clear hood (not much in the way of a reflector, just a mirror on the bottom of the chamber which is probably all that's necessary). Puts out 300 lumens of cool but comfortable, non-glaring light on high (both tubes), 150 on low (one tube) plus it also has an LED nightlight mode which pretty nice as well.

It's also big, heavy and fragile with an 8D appetite, so I don't think it will make the best camping lantern. It's obviously more suited to home/emergency use, though arguably there are plenty of more practical options for that as well. None the less, I'm just thrilled (probably far more than I should be) to own one of these. They claim 1m drop resistance, but I'm not really willing to test that. The wrapper also has a cryptic meteorological symbol which leads to believe it's moisture resistance is IPX4. The battery door is the most secure I've ever seen, it actually has a bolt in the center to tighten it down.

And the best part? You can still get the replacement CFLs for these! Battery Junction has them (and probably others do as well). My only regret is that it never gets cold enough around here to experience the "angry purple glow". Now for the obligatory beam shots.


High

Low

LED nightlight

I just sold 2 of these recently as I never used them and these days LED lanterns put out more light for less power and run longer on less batteries plus no worries about tubes going out on you. The ones I had were prior to the LED nightlight version. One thing I did like about these lanterns is the warranty on them if they quit on you (except the tubes) you can mail it to rayovac and they will either fix it or send you another one. The only drawback was shipping cost me $7 at the time but I ended up with a brand new lantern that cost me $12 as I paid $5 for one that turned out defective as it would drain batteries when it wasn't even on.

I have a Rayovac Workhorse FL lantern that my dad bought in the early 90s... it works. Uses two of the 6v lantern batteries. Seems to last a good long time, the light output is... adequate. I don't really use it, but it's there in case of emergency in the house.

I have/had two fluorescent lanterns.
A Northwest territory spiral tube with a cool white tint, that recharges a SLA 6V battery,
and a Two tube Coleman, that runs on 6V dry cells. It has a much warmer tint. I gifted that one.

I mention this just to share the fact that FL tubes can be had in different temps.

The cool white is better IMO for working in the kitchen with knives, but the warmer tint is more relaxing.