I'm looking to update/upgrade and replace an old D-cell battery powered lantern that has served me well for many years. It is primarily used to get from the house to the livestock and barn. Can the good people on this forum give me your 2 cents on a specific suggestion of lantern you use or wish you had bought. I have plenty of headlamps and flashlights. I'm not looking for compact, lightweight or tac. It just needs to be reliable, durable and throw a lot of light.
Thank you

www.rei.com/product/896680/goal-zero-lighthouse-mini-lantern

Adjustable brightness - can throw 180 or 360 degrees - compact and reasonably light.Also serves as power source for cell phone or similar gadget. I haven't had mine long enough to comment on durability, but I am impressed. Useful on a daily basis and a good item for power outages and the like.

Lumora LED lantern uses 4 AA batteries rather than an 18650. I like the 18650 lights, but if you aren't already there, AA's may be a better option.

Hi norhumco

I'm not sure what bulb type your current lantern uses but you might want consider looking at LED replacement bulbs.

Most of them just drop in like a normal bulb so you won't need to do any modifications to the lantern/flashlight but they can give you a real increase in light output and battery life.

You can usually find a wide range of different types on ebay quite cheaply.

I hope this helps.

Hikermor - Is the 18650 battery in the GZ lighthouse mini a standard 18650 or does it have proprietary ends? I'm reading those batteries are not interchangeable with other 18650's such as those in a ThruNite TN-12.

The battery is proprietary, with an interesting feature- both ends are flat and either end can be inserted first. Each end has identical positive and negative terminals, so reverse polarity isn't possible.

The same battery is used in the GZ Switch 10 recharger and perhaps in some of their other units - rated at 3000 Mah.

norhumco,

It sounds like you prefer a standard (large) lantern with a heavy duty carry handle. If that's the case, the small and lightweight backpacking/camping lanterns may not be for you. I know that Coleman LED lanterns aren't particularly sexy, but they tend to be big and robust.

If your existing lantern is still functional, Cauldronborn2's suggestion of a LED replacement bulb is an excellent option. You won't believe the improved quality of the light from the same lantern, and your battery life will quadruple.

If you can standardize on rechargeable AA's, I would highly recommend it. You will save a big bundle of cash over time. Even "D" lanterns can be adapted to AA's without much trouble if they use LED bulbs.

Concur. I upgraded my 3-D Maglite to an LED bulb; the batteries have not died and are replaced as they time out. I really need a good set of rechargeable D batteries.

I ditched my incandescent flashlight bulbs some time ago. LEDs are the way to go, especially for portable lighting, and probably for other applications, as well.

Fenix makes a couple of CR123/18650 powered lanterns (CL25R, CL30R). Multimode, regulated, rechargeable, and weather resistant(IPX6). If I was looking for a one-and-done utility lantern, I'd give those a serious look.





Energizer makes rechargeable D-cells, but they're only rated to 2500 mAh vs. 12,000 mAh for Alkaline. I strongly suspect that they are smaller NiMH cells in a D cell housing.

In your shoes, I would get Enloop AA NiMH. I know that Sanyo has their own D cell adaptors. If you're desperate, there are adaptors that can cram multiple, parallel, AA batteries into a D-sized shell. Caveat Emptor on those as I don't like parallel batteries without a pair of diodes to handle voltage mismatches.