A friend of mine is considering a two mantle lantern for power cuts and camping. Mine is propane, he prefers Coleman fuel. Which do you like, and why? Does one have a big advantage?
Wick lamps for ultra pure or kerosene don't put out enough light.
A friend of mine is considering a two mantle lantern for power cuts and camping. Mine is propane, he prefers Coleman fuel. Which do you like, and why? Does one have a big advantage?
Wick lamps for ultra pure or kerosene don't put out enough light.
Have you looked at the LED lanterns? Very bright and 40 hours on a set of batteries. If you are looking at indoor use for power failure they are much safer too. I have a couple of them.
Stormin Mormon wrote in news:rLgny.167092$by4.35504 @fx14.iad:
Given the choice between only those two, propane wins hands down. It's safer to use and transport, you don't have to worry about spilling anything, and it's easier to find.
But the choice isn't limited to only those two: like Ed said, check out the LED lanterns.
For camping I prefer propane - no stink, no slopping flamable fuel, no filter funnel required.
For power cuts a duel fuel liquid fueled lantern is ideal - you can run it on leadfree motor fuel.
My choice for power interuuptrion though is neither. A good LED battery operated lantern is much safer and works very well.
I prefer propane because I don't like storing or transporting liquid fuel. I also use the small propane tanks for my portable stove and grill for short camping trips and picnics. Therefore, one fuel for all purposes.
For longer camping trips, I have a Y connector and long hoses so I can use my portable stove and grill with a single 20 lb tank. I can also refill the 2 lb tanks for the lantern from the 20 lb tank.
However, on my last camping trip I left the lantern home and threaded a 5 meter string of LED's through the framework of my pop-up canopy. It was powered by a jump start battery pack and hooked up through an LED dimmer control. It was sweet. Full bright for meal prep and low, mellow light for most other activities. SWMBO absolutely loved the convenience.
I should take another look at them. I've got a Coleman rechargeable LED lantern with a mirrored conical reflector. It's better than cursing the darkness but not by much.
LED lantern has no heat. But at times lantern could be heat source like old fashioned mantle type running on white gas. I mean old Coleman lantern.
L E D would be the choice of most people today.
just one example.
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The downside of anything electrical is you are then at the mercy of finding a long-term power source.
We have a few battery powered LED & CFL flashlights/lanterns that we use for sporadic/short term use. Rarely left "on" for more than a couple of minutes at a time. We keep crank lights by the bedside to make our way to a better light if we awaken to a house without power. This minimizes the need to keep fresh batteries on hand.
We run a cord to a nearby UPS and use table lamps with CFL's for power outages. This lets us have a fair bit of light in several locations. That way, we don't have to buy (and STORE!) lanterns that are SOLELY used in the absence of power -- along with keeping batteries for same.
I opted for propane for the disaster kit instead of white gas for similar reasons: I can keep propane on hand for the BBQ grill, camp stove and propane torch (plumbing). Storing white gas
*just* for an emergency/camping means it's something "extra" instead of something that can find other "normal" uses. [Currently looking into a propane genset in lieu of gasoline; diesel would be preferable -- but then we have to store diesel fuel instead of siphoning FRESH gasoline from a vehicle!]
I converted my genset to Propane/NG and can still run it on Gasoline
- so I've got the best of 3 worlds - right now the 7500 watt unit is limitted to 5200 on Natural Gas due to the sise of my line. Great on propane and gasoline
You better hurry and get a LED lantern. The world is running out of LEDs. The LED mines are all running out, and soon there will be no more of them. The miners keep digging deeper trying to locate more LEDs, but it appears there are no more anywhere in the world. So, when our present supply of them runs out, LEDs will no longer be available anywhere in the world. Thats when beeswax candles will become popular again!
Not even funny.
For light output, I like my fueled Coleman best. Liquid fuel probably preferable to gas as its cheaper and you could also use gasoline. My Coleman is over 30 years old, moderate use, and only a couple of new mantles needed. I used to take it to my friends hunting camp and it was great for tracking blood trails at night.
I've been disappointed with all the LED lanterns I've bought. Have not seen one that put out enough light to read by.
I'll mention that idea. The one LED lantern I had put out light in a bad pattern (flat like a pizza pie) and not enough light to be useful. New Cree emitters might be different story.
The one time I tried a liquid fuel lantern, too much work and bother. Propane runs till it's dry, and never needs pumping.
Two votes for LED battery, now.
I'm seeing a trend toward LED. Might mention that to my friend. As to house lighting, i've heard of folks using strings of Christmas lights up and down the hall. Car battery and small inverter.
My LED lantern has a silver tornado funnel reflector. One I had with a tornado reflector, I tried spray painting the reflector flat white. More even light spread that way. But still not bright enough to be useful.
Walmart has a cheap fluorescent lantern that is bright enough to be useful.
Power cuts often happen in the winter, when that heat is welcome.
We use this: it has an 11W CFL powered by 8 D cells and throws a pretty bright beam a considerable distance.
Set it FACE DOWN (!) and "stretch" the body: to expose the SIDES of the bulb as an "area lamp" -- more than adequate to read by, light a large tent, etc.
OTOH, spare bulbs are $5...
what type of batteries does this come with?
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