A lengthy ETS thread last winter about surviving being stranded in a vehicle has kept me focused on redundancies for light, heat and fire-starting. This past year UCO came out with the "Micro" candle lantern, it's most diminutive yet, and I decided these have utility for the car and home.

The Micro utilizes tea candles. Amazon currently sells the Micro lantern for $12.35 and Campmor has them for $12.99 REI has them for $12.95

Each lantern comes with two candles - one ready to light and the other stored in the base of the candle holder. UCO claims that each candles burns for 3-4 hours. Campmor sells the UCO-brand candles in boxes of six - for $3 (plus shipping)

I found on Amazon boxes of apparently identical candles -- 125 of them -- for $10 (plus shipping). Very enthusiastic customer reviews.

http://www.amazon.com/Tealight-Candles-W...3453&sr=8-1

In the bottom two photos, the UCO candle is on the right. The much cheaper version from Amazon (which claim 5 hours of burn time) is on the left. At some point I'll compare burn times.

Forty of the candles fit nicely in a quart-size freezer bag, which in turn fits perfectly in an LL Bean soft kiddie lunch box that could hold 80 candles plus a couple of the Micro lanterns.

In the car I see utility for fire-starting, light and a little heat to warm up hands. For car camping they'd be some nice ambience on the dining table. At home they light up bathrooms enough to at least not trip during a power outage.

Thanks for the reminder Dagny. I need to start getting fall/winter gear back in my SUV.

I think this lantern is a great idea. My one concern is the melting point of tea candles. They cannot be stored in a hot environment such as in a car kit in the Southern United States.

If there are tea candles with a higher melting pint, I want to know where to get them.

Jeanette Isabelle

There are beeswax tea candles, but I don't know if they have a higher melting point.

Even in winter it's too hot to store them in the car?

I'm going to go ahead and put one in my car and see how it fares. But temps here are moderating in the next few days.

This kit will be going in the car. It's an LL Bean "lunch box" - one of many I bought super cheap several years ago, they are great for car storage. Its fire orange color will make it easy to spot and remember.

In addition to what is pictured here (40 tea light candles, two Micro candle lanterns, 3 boxes waterproof matches, two boxes of Diamon "Strike a Fires" and two firesteels - a Blastmatch and Strikeforce) I was able to put some more things in before zipping it up.

I keep some fatwood sticks elsewhere in the car.

Hehe, I just bought one yesterday. Here's what I wrote regard it and UCO's other bigger tea light lantern.

It's pretty neat, smallest lantern I've ever seen. I like the chain and hook bail instead of the loop only. The lower chimney height however means it's not as wind resistant as its bigger brother. You can fit two candles inside as Spork said, but the the other one will hold 5 so its larger size is not entirely wasted (obviously you need to put the extra elsewhere in use). Overall I don't regret the $11 price, though I don't know how much I'll actually use it over other much more efficient LED type.


I would advice against buying UCO's tea candle, the wick smokes a lot when extinguished, and the melting point of wax appears to be too low, the 100 pack from any other store will work better.

there are multiple grades of paraffin, your mileage may vary.

low melting point parafin melts at ~ 130 F
medium is 130 F to 145 F
high melt point is 145 F to 150 F

beeswax is 144 to 147 degrees farenheight.

plumbers candles usually have a higher stearic acid content to slow down burn time, this also raises the melting point closer to beeswax.


most dollar store candles are cheaper, with lower melt points.....

A side point the Coghlans model is available for around 5.00

I have now put one of the cheap tea candles in the car and will see how it fares over the next few days of sitting in the sun. The ambient air temp outside the car right now is mid-80s.

Beeswax tea candles do burn longer than paraffin. My estimate is 5-6 hours. Plus they smell nice and burn much cleaner for indoor use. They are more expensive though.