LED Lanterns

During a moment of introspection while 'organizing' my camping gear, I realized that I am a lantern junkie. I have D cell and AA cell battery in both standard bulb and LED, candle, kerosene, propane, and white gas lanterns tucked everywhere.

My current favorite for truck camping and home emergency is the Rayovac 3-D cell 240 lumen LED Sportsman. I recently used it while performing one of my favorite home owner tasks: replacing the faucet on my kitchen sink. The Rayovac lantern has a feature where the diffuser can be easily removed, leaving the base with a hard ping-pong ball sized dome containing the LED. This is perfect for emergency room lighting or fixing a faucet, and the lantern is still sealed against the weather (or squirting faucet connections).

I also have the 3-AA 85 lumen version for the pack. Its run time is triple that of my little Coleman backpack light with 3 vs 4 AA's and a higher light output.

These both are of a well-designed robust build, virtually artifact-free, and boast excellent run times VS similar sized LED or filament models. No affiliation.

I found this website that has an interesting comparison of the light output of several different LED lanterns.

https://www.getpreparedstuff.com/kb_results.asp?ID=3

You may want to pick up some "AA to D" adapters. That way you can use AA lithium, rechargeable, or alkaline batteries in your D cell lanternse and flashlights. I use the eneloop AA to D adapters but any brand would work.

I'm no battery expert, but recently did actually buy a dozen new version AA Eneloops and a wall mount charger. I found that even fully charged, they will not work in my 1-AA LED light, or in my 4 AA Remington LED headlamps. A friend tells me the voltage is too low for LED use.

Coleman High Tech 3AA LED Lantern running on Sanyo Eneloops... well built and compact... variable light

Huh? I routinely use AA Eneloops in several single AA lights, as well as several headlamps and other battery powered gadgets - GPS, etc. They are perfectly satisfactory. Perhaps your charger is not working?

Eneloops hot off the charger have a lower initial voltage than new alkalines, but they have a much flatter discharge curve. The voltage difference is magnified by how many cells your device uses. It's still very unusual to find devices they won't work in.

Odd. LED's are usually known for getting every last milliamp hour of power out of a battery.

Ni-mh rechargeable AAs have a voltage around 1.3-1.4 fully charged. Alkalines have a voltage of about 1.5. BUT once you start to suck energy out of the batteries the nimh will drop to about 1.2 and STAY THERE untill there's hardly any energy left. Alkalines will drop somewhat more steady if your light doesn't put too much demand on the battery.

Almost dead alkalines will still measure somewhere close to 1.5 volts when left alone - but the voltage of a semi-depleted alkaline drops QUICKLY when you start to use the battery. This is why ligths with depleted alcalines can seem to work fine when you lit them up but turn dead pretty quick when you start using them.

If your light doesnt work with eneloops but works with alkaline I'd say it only would work with FRESH out of the box alkalines, and that you probably have tossed away a good number of halfway used alkalines...

If your light doesnt work with eneloops but works with alkaline I'd say it only would work with FRESH out of the box alkalines, and that you probably have tossed away a good number of halfway used alkalines... [/quote]

You might be on to something. I took 4 new (fully charged by me) eneloops from a different package and they worked fine in both lanterns; one a 3 cell LED, the other a filament bulb 4 cell lantern and also in the 4 cell LED headlamp. One eneloop would not light the single cell LED light though. I took the alkalines out of the small 3 cell LED lantern and tried each in the single cell LED, and they did not work either. I put the alkalines back in the 3 cell LED and they worked fine.

I like dissa

http://www.homedepot.com/buy/energizer-led-red-folding-lantern-fl452wrh.html#.UISeG4bLFlN

20$ Easy to obtain uses 4D cells and lasts forevers on them.