I have a suggestionā¦
Go buy something else from another source if you want a lantern now or yesterday.
I can not, and will NOT push a manufacturer who has stepped in to take on this project for us, to get it done in the time some of you want it.
Sorry it has been in the works for some time, (because First, some of us have lives other than dedicating time & energy into projects that donāt put bread on our table & pay the bills. Some of us donāt have the perfect life or lives going as smoothly as you may have, (read back through my current situation with what i am dealing with family and real life outside this project, where most would have walked away like others have when they run into hardships in their lives) Its comments like yours who drive the interest from us who spend sleepless nights and many, many hours of free time to push these projects forward. We have some key team members helping with this lantern project disappear from BLF completely (TheMiller & DEL) who were helping me and the few other dedicated people here working to help get this a reality, if you can not understand that and how much can go into developing something like this then go elsewhere to get want you want. There are a couple posters here in this topic who have been a āthorn in the sideā of this project for some time, we donāt need more.
I completely understand your response(I run my own business, have family and run a team in SAR) and was actually after a simply time frame so I would know/ have an ideaā¦
And sometimes thatās all it takes to appease people.
As to pushing a manufacturer I never suggested you doā¦
BUT if you would prefer I leave this thread and nolonger have the three lanterns am down for then simply sayā¦ā¦
I also support the itās done when itās done mentality, I donāt see a good reason to rush the production of a simpler version with a much better mk2 on the horizon.
And I would be careful to recommend the Zanflare T1: on the one hand itās a nice little lantern, but on the other hand it has serious overheating issues. Because the inner metal tube doubles as led heatsink and battery tube the battery gets critically overheated (50-60Ā°C in most cases, some even hotter) when the lantern is on max power for more than a few minutes. Some people already had accidents with venting batteries.
Yesā¦ā¦ PLEASE show us.
Im pretty sure this is simply BS. I dont think there has been any problems with the Zanflare T1 unless a defective battery is used or the unit is bad. Some said there was a design issue but if that was true, it would affect ALL T1s. I have three and none have issuesā¦ā¦ā¦ I love them and patiently await the LT1
No one wants you to leave the group buy. But with the interest list over 1000, if you do decide to not purchase 3 lanterns some one will scoop them up eventually. To ālightenā things up a bit, pretend you are about to go swimming here:
! !
I know less about when this will happen then those more experienced. If I needed a lantern for this fall/winter I would be definitely looking elsewhere. If I needed one for next spring/summer camping, I would be holding on for now. I have a few people I want to gift this lantern to, so the timing is not critical for me.
All that said, time for an update to the interest list.
A couple of those above said the number interested might change depending on price. Price estimates have been bantered about, likely between $30 and $40 each without batteries. Nothing is settled, so that is only an estimate. If you want an update to the quantity based on my estimate, just post here or PM me.
I was indeed talking about the discussion under DBSARs review, seems like I forgot to insert the link. And yes he is the only one who had a venting battery (so far). It wasnāt my intention to start a panic about this, I just wanted everybody informed about this flaw, so that they can use the lantern savely.