Anyone got a zanflare T1 lantern?

What high input voltage, your wallwart or powerbank is already stepping down mains or boosting batteries to 5v and the lantern on USB only is using 4.somethibg volts. And this is with no battery. With a battery charging and it being on high I think it may top 160 degrees I hadn’t got mine yet will it let you run it on high and charge at the same time? I imagine the lantern is sealed and somewhat waterproof? So my theory is between the DC to DC converter and the led heat it’s just being trapped like a greenhouse

Thanks Speed4goal, then I guess it should be ok for normal battery use then and will keep an eye on it if I use it to charge batteries and see how hot it gets. Will grab the 2.1A wallwart too as I need two more anyways. Didn't know they were that tough. I have used the 2.1a ones from the dollar store that plug into the car 12v and they still working years later but you never know with those.

After having it run on battery power for about 90 minutes, end cap temp was 117F with the IR gun, so I pulled the battery and IR gun reading for battery was 123F

I just noticed the same thing. Considering this lantern is only 350 lumens, it is a bit concerning. BTW, my tailcap spring looks perfect. No corrosion at all.

I’ve been thinking about this as well, and at this point I have no concern. It’s indeed only 350 lumens, but it’s pretty much an all plastic device. And heat transfer in plastic is pretty terrible, almost non existent. So even with just 350 lumens, heat will accumulate inside the light. There is only one way of getting rid of the heat, and that is via the metal battery tube, and the metal/magnetic tail cap.
So this could also explain why you have a metal battery tube; perhaps this is actually a well thought design? But it is wise to do as stated in the manual and don’t charge the battery while using the lantern in max output.
As stated before the max temperature is well below what becomes troublesome, nevertheless swapping the battery for a Samsung or Sanyo will provide me extra assurance. :sunglasses:

Mine won’t run on usb unless the battery is inserted

At least running via battery does not seem to produce heat issues…

I did a run time test with a battery starting at 4.03V… cool white LED… highest brightness… shut down after almost 10 hours, but no heat at all…

That’s odd. Light should shut down much sooner at around 3 hours with max output and CW. https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/51852

P.S. Since output reduces over time with depleting cell voltage, it is possible that max temperature of cell/tail cap is reached before the cell is depleted.

You’re right… my mistake… I meant: cool white… dimmed to roughly 1/2 to 2/3… not full brightness… sorry for the confusion… it was at least 1/2 … rather 2/3…

No problem. :+1: It’s good to know with reduced output heat is not an issue. All I know is that with max output with WW on my sample, my tailcap was on the warm side, but not worth worrying.
I think I will do more testing if I have time.

Maybe I should have post this at the “stupid questions” thread but here it goes.
If I understand correctly, electricity leaves the cell (discharging) from + pole and enters the cell (charging) from - pole. I would expect + pole to get warmer while using the lantern and - pole to get warmer while charging the battery. So, why and how the - pole gets hot when using the lantern?

Electricity is produced by a chemical reaction in the cell, throughout the whole cell, and flows as a current through the whole circuit. So there is some heat produced by the internal reaction which will be evenly distributed, some heat produced by the current flowing through internal cell resistance, which is again throughout the cell and evenly distributed, and some by external factors, such as the heat produced by the LED and distributed unevenly throughout the whole light, and heat produced by resistance to current at any point where there is a bad connection, thin wiring, or any other reason for bottleneck.

Thinking the current leaves the cell at one point and heat should be generated there is like thinking of the cell as a barrel of coal, burning from the top down, it just doesn’t work that way. The cell is more like a barrel full of AAA cells, each one generating current and heat evenly.

Used the T1 for 2 - 3 hours every night since I got it about 2 weeks ago.

The diffused lighting gives a really nice glow, I wonder if the multiple LEDs make a difference from a single LED.

With regards to the heat, I have a potentially stupid question- is the magnet being heated by induction? I would test it myself but I don’t have pliers to remove the magnet!

The magnet is heated by conduction. The primary heat source is the leds. Heat from the leds is transferred via the battery tube to the magnet.

Just for something to do, I ran the lantern on usb power for a few hours with the magnetic tail cap removed and then got a reading of 134F for the inside of the metal battery compartment.

Got my second T1 today. The spring has no corrosion just like the first one I got

Has anyone tried modding their T1?

In many ways it’s good light for me….

  • like the format (though 21700 would be better)
  • like the price (a lot)
  • like CCT (a lot)
  • accept the UI (though that’s definitely not my favourite)

But I despise how it doesn’t incorporate high-cri LEDs.
For a lantern I require at least 90 and highly prefer at least 9080.

I wonder if LED swap would be feasible….

Although high CRI would be nice, I’m a bit of a tint and CRI snob, I run the lantern around 3500K and have to say the light emitted is pretty tolerable, perhaps it’s the mixing of the two different LED spectra.

Unfortunately the Zanflare T1 is discontinued. So not available anymore.
https://www.gearbest.com/outdoor-lanterns/pp_1823563.html

Yes the $22.99 one,

But this one is merely “Out of Stock”.

This lantern appears to be more popular than expected. Gearbest cannot keep up with demand.

I am keeping my fingers crossed to receive the two I ordered on June 20th