How many of you folks use the UCO Original Candle Lantern? I recently bought one based on the myriad rave reviews. I thought it prudent to thoroughly try it out at home before relying on it in the wilds. After burning a box of candles I want to post a few impressions. Overall I like it a lot. The design is better than the execution.

The positives: The thing has worked flawlessly for me. The spring does allow the candle to burn completely down to nothing. There's a wax catcher but there's very little waxy mess- most of it burns. The globe/wind screen works very, very well.

The negatives: You might think I'd list the $1.10 per candle as a downside. However, I don't. They're superb candles and I doubt you could better them for the price. My main issue is that the unit is pretty flimsy. Normally you don't need to completely disassemble it, but when you do you notice how flimsy it really is. So much so that it's tough to reassemble. I'd love to spend 2x or even 3x on a better built version of this lamp.

That said, overall I really do love it. So much so that I'll be buying a few more. But I really wish it was a bit sturdier. If I was borderline-hypothermic, hands shaking, I'm not confident I could put this back together if I had to break it down to work on it.

What do you all think of the UCO lantern?

Bottom line - I like them, although I don't used them very much. Candle lanterns are very traditional - just the ticket for lighting our path as we pick up our alpenstocks and leave the hut for our predawn start up the Matterhorn. I generally like any appliance that provides both heat and light (like this forum).

The downside is that, where I live anyway, is that the candles melt and freeze up the mechanism very easily. This has always been a problem for me with all candles, not just UCOs. Hence they are not a very prominent part of my kit.

I think you are right about their light construction, but they will function with reasonable care, as long as the candles don't melt on you...

At what point do they melt? I've seen a high temp of 113 F in my life although we rarely get much over 100 F. The lowest I've seen is -38 F, although I doubt a candle minds being cold.

I think it's the bee's knees for using in power outages, etc at home. Probably nice for camping if I can suss out how warm it can get w/o melting.

Probably in the car or garage. 113 is not a typical day in CA, but any typical summer day can see a car heat up to over 140 degrees inside.

I'm with Hikermor- I have one, it's kind of a fun novelty item, but I've never used one outside my house.

I have one in brass and aluminum and love them. I use beeswax and paraffin candles. They work well for general camp lighting.

I've heard that older versions were brass. Are those still available? I've never seen one before.

Order the beeswax candles for them. They have a MUCH higher melting point. The stock candles completely melted in my car in the Texas summer(duh...) The Beeswax ones do not even seem to get soft!
One warning... I have heard that it is a very BAD idea to use them in bear country!
Note... That last bit was NOT A JOKE.

I much prefer the UCO Candlelier (3 candles), can boil a cup of water on top and it puts out nice light for a picnic table. Used a few candleliers during a week long power outage at a friend's vacation home after Hurricane Irene last summer.

I have several of those and quite a few of the original UCO lanterns - started buying them 20 years ago, when they were a lot cheaper. The originals seem overpriced to me now.

+1 on the beeswax candles but the regular candles are one-third the price.

Aluminum and brass appears to be two separate items, my local store has both and the brass is $7 more.

Oops, sorry for the confusion. I meant one of each in brass and alu. Mine is a farily recent purchase so I'm sure you can still buy them. Its twice the weight but the brass looks very classy.