What is the best LED tent light?

Can anyone share there thoughts on what the best tent light would be for me. LED, AA batteries, used strictly in a tent from ceiling. I just bought the River Rock lantern which is nice but because of it's shape, does not light very well directly below it. It is better as a table top light. I need a ceilng light. I really need it to run on AA's or AAA's. Just don't want anything with D's. I have not found anything. Thank you

Seems to me you could get by with hanging any of the following:

1. CMG/Gerber Infinity Ultra
2. Folding 4AA Energizer 2 LED Lantern
3. MiniMag with a LED with the bezel off using it in candle mode
4. eternaLight (which would be great because of it's soooo many selectable options and dimming capabilities!).

Any of these options are inexpensive, run on AAs, and have loooooong runtimes!

Thanks for the response. I have tried a Dorcy AAA which I believe is about the same amount\type of light as the Ultra. Although this is indeed a nice little light, it fails to perform as a general room light for my large family tent. Ideal for my 2 man tent, but I need something for my 10 man family sized tent. I have also tried the folding Energizer light which is better at lighting, but I was hoping for a little better hanging type light. Maybe I am getting too particular, but as many great lights that are out there, I figured someone has to be making a specific LED tent light that is designed to illuminate from the ceiling, much like any light in the house. I'll look into the other two suggestions. Has anyone owned the Squid light? If so, would that fit my goal? Thanks.

CMG/Gerber Bonfire Blaze

http://www.gerbergear.com/product.php?model=0051

Oops, just reread that you want to light up a full size room. Bonfire ceratinly won't do that.

I don't think you'll find a AA-powered LED solution for that. Home Depot sells a small fluroescent light that runs off 12 VDC or 8 AA's. One of those might work.

I second the vote for an Energizer 2led-4AA folding lantern. It has a hook to hang it by, and can be bent to accomodate any angle needed. The light is nice and diffuse, with 2 levels. Runtime on alks should be in the 40+ hour range, so don't worry about draining your batteries if you fall asleep!

:sleepy:

jbrett14 said:

Can anyone share there thoughts on what the best tent light would be for me. LED, AA batteries, used strictly in a tent from ceiling. I just bought the River Rock lantern which is nice but because of it's shape, does not light very well directly below it. It is better as a table top light. I need a ceilng light. I really need it to run on AA's or AAA's. Just don't want anything with D's. I have not found anything. Thank you

Click to expand...

the river rock lantern gets better with some satin tape around the globe, you might want to try that. also if you have a gear loft/hammock in your tent the Energizer 2Led 4AA lantern would work pretty good if placed in the the gear loft face-down.

btw, your screen name caught my attention. my name is Joshua Brett........... what's yours?

It's not a very bright setup but what I use is a Opalec/minimag with a white traffic cone. Soft white light. You can't read by it but you won't be fumbling around in the darkness looking for your other lights either. And on a fresh set of batts it will burn all night.

Try the UK 4AA eLed. It's not the brightest light in our world, but it will burn at the same brightness for 10 to 12 hours on alkalines. Around 18 hours if you use AA lithiums. Good luck.

an Eternalight,

or an Osram Lantern

on a recent trip through scotland i used a (oldie but goodie) osram mini dulux. it runs on two aa's and when hung from the ceiling it lights up the whole tent very evenly and brightly... went through 4 sets of alkalines in 10 days because i used it for about an hour every night. chris did a review of that light here.

chris

kelmo said:

It's not a very bright setup but what I use is a Opalec/minimag with a white traffic cone. Soft white light. You can't read by it but you won't be fumbling around in the darkness looking for your other lights either. And on a fresh set of batts it will burn all night.

Click to expand...

Took the words right out of my mouth only I use the Nite Ize drop in not the Opalec. Same results though, and cheap, so you could hang several around the tent for a chandeleer effect.

How does the glow-toob fx function as a lantern or tent-light. I know the primary function is a marker, but I was just curious as to how good of an "area" light it is.

I used a dorcy1aa modded to luxeon once. It was nice hanging from the center of the tent. I suggest something to hang like that. Perhaps a Minimag with the 3led nite ize drop in, that would be about as bright as my luxeon. Or something like that...

I have used the same setup as Kelmo with excellent results.

I'd have to say no on the glo-toob, wouldn't produce the amount of light that you are looking for.

4x4Dragon said:

the river rock lantern gets better with some satin tape around the globe, you might want to try that. also if you have a gear loft/hammock in your tent the Energizer 2Led 4AA lantern would work pretty good if placed in the the gear loft face-down.

btw, your screen name caught my attention. my name is Joshua Brett........... what's yours?

Click to expand...

Well I don't believe I have ever met another with the same last name. My name is Jonathan Brett. Thank you for your suggestion.

Just got back from Gander Mountain to check out the Bonfire Blaze. I was surprised to see the less-than-expected quality of this light. It seems no better in quality than some cheap $6 lights that I have seen. The rubber end cap is a joke, to me anyway. I appreciate all the quick responses. I think I will check out the Osram light. I don't need the light to be real bright, just evenly dispersed would be nice.

Here is another thought.... I made a light for camping. Nothing really worked for me stock. I have 2 Infinities with lithium that I have for backup.

I used a module from the Eternalight folks. It's compact form is only 1.18 inches tall by 1.95 inches wide by 1.2 inches thick.

You can either make your own ( I did ) or visit the camping section and get one of the under $10 round lanters and put this module in. It works FOREVER on D cells but you said you did not like them. I tried D cells and they were a tad heavy. I finally settled on 6 C cells. Read the specs below and see why I went with the higher voltage. Efficiency is huge the higher the voltage. One set of C cells will work for a week of camping... ON all night and fairly high for 2-3 hours.

It also works PERFECTLY on a 9 volt battery. What I really like about this is this module has constant, yet adjustable, light output with input voltage ranging from 2.2 to 13.8 volts dc!!
You can suck the life out of a set of batteries...

The "flood pattern" is very nice and a soft feel.
The lighting pattern is a 20 degree flood pattern without reflectors or diffusers. Constant light output is adjustable via onboard potentiometer from 0% to 100% of total power output.



You can make your own case as well. It comes with a "template" for drilling holes that the lights will poke through. It is EASY to do as I am not that good at measuring things.
Examples... Here is a tiny project box..


Here is a flashlight that had the reflector cut out.


Here is an Otterbox with 2 modules .
VERY small and HUGE HUGE light output


The trick is YOU get to chose the SIZE and the VOLTS and ONE module fits all. Only drawback.....A little pricey..
Good Luck.!

can't believe no-one has posted the ultimate tent light. which of course is Arc AAA-P

it's so small and last so long. I leave one folded inside my tent, hanging on a top loop.

here's pic of Arc AAA 2003 cpf on Tooth of Time ridge at Philmont this summer.

cy said:

can't believe no-one has posted the ultimate tent light. which of course is Arc AAA-P

it's so small and last so long. I leave one folded inside my tent, hanging on a top loop.

here's pic of Arc AAA 2003 cpf on Tooth of Time ridge at Philmont this summer.

Click to expand...

Can't see the pic?