Lantern recommendation?

I’m on the hunt for a few no frills, “cheap”, easy user interface lanterns that would be good to have around the house during a power failure. I’d prefer something with just a few modes, as simple as possible with long run time. Mainly this would be something easy to operate for my wife and kids if they need them while i am not home. Any suggestions? AA or 18650 is fine. Thanks!

Fenix lanterns. But they aren’t cheap in that, you get what you pay for

The BLF LT1 is a solid choice for an amazing lantern.

He said easy user interface.

The LT1 looks real nice and I want to get one eventually, but right now I am using my Maglite ML50s with a stand and a defuser that I 3D printed.

These are very easy to use and work real well and with adapters that I also 3D printed, I can run these lights on 8 different types of batteries - everything from AAA and AA’s to 18650’s and 21700’s.

Fireflies NOV-MU works great as a lantern. The diffuser made the CRI go up lol

Easy/ simple to use and inexpensive points to the mainstream. Energizer, Coleman or Rayovac produce decent lanterns.
Streamlight is better and the BLF LT1 is perhaps the best, but they get more complex.
The key with the mainstream offerings is to store them empty, so the batteries don’t ruin them.

I mean if you ignore everything else with click sequences for other modes and just use it as a lantern and ramp to desired brightness that seems fairly straight forward.

something similar to these is what we use:

https://www.amazon.com/LED-Camping-Lantern-Lights-Collapsible/dp/B06XT55GS9

just slide them open to turn on
and slide closed to turn off…….BUT
as posted above…take the batteries
out for long-term storage, otherwise
they corrode and will not work two
years later when you need them.
$16 a pair.

For sure, but my wife managed to mess with ours while camping last summer and got it stuck in some mode. Had to pull out a flashlight, and the instruction sheet to get it back. It’s really an enthusiast lantern. Too bad there is no simple on/off, ramp up/down, without all the blinkys and color temp ramping, etc…

It’s actually not a great camp lantern either unless you camp in an area with no bugs. It needs a red mode.

I have a few Fenix lanterns and they are very good, with a decent CCT unlike some of those cool blue cheap lights on Amazon. The triple AA CL23 and the CL26R 18650 lantern. Both have a red mode and super simple to operate.

You might like the Streamlight Siege Mini (which runs on AA cells). I like my full-size Siege. It’s made for D cells but I run it on AA with some AA-to-D adapters.

I’ve got two of the Siege Ds, one for me and one for my gal.

Much more capacity with the D and so she doesn’t have to change them out often.

Decent white light and modes.

I got them off of Ebay for $74 shipped a few years ago.

Chris

finally found exactly what we have……

4 for $20 with batteries.

the others i posted are COB, so they are probably better.

I have done dozens of boy scout camps with my sons troop over the years with these Luci inflatable camp lanterns. They strap them to the outside of their packs and tents and they solar charge pretty efficiently all day. Never had a problem with them.

Being the flashlight / headlamp geek I dismissed them at first. I thought they were just a gimmick like those stupid hand crank, hand shake lights. After seeing them in active use however, I think they are worth your consideration. I guess the immediate drawback would be the overall brightness is only around 70 lumens. Which for me is more than enough. You have to remember to keep them charged too, but thats no different than any other light I suppose. FWIW we would only run them from sun-down till’ lights out, roughly ~4 hours every evening.

Color tints can vary though, and I think some models are advertised specifically as warm tint. I dont recall PWM ever being an issue… and I am highly PWM sensitive in general.

https://www.amazon.com/MPOWERD-1023-002-001-002-Luci-Outdoor-2-0/dp/B074NQLRTF/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=luci+light&pd_rd_r=2727940b-1b28-443e-b056-c36433b143a0&pd_rd_w=xw0Vd&pd_rd_wg=xEdsH&pf_rd_p=9dad86ae-1554-484b-9cc0-f9673b44705e&pf_rd_r=CWJMDQJQHGH3A3BG0533&qid=1613764905&sr=8-5

I use a Nitecore LA10 CRI in my tent on wildfire deployments. Single AA and dead simple to use. If high CRI is not important, the standard LA10 is brighter. It may not wow you with brightness but is bright enough to see what you are doing in a room. It has a magnetic base and the small size makes them easy to just keep around with your AA batteries (don’t store alkaline inside the light).

My standard go-to camp lantern / flood light has always been a zebralight H501. For 10 years this has been a great camp light for me with eneloop or energizer lithium primiary AA. I use the rubber clip attachment, and it tail stands nicely too.

I have also gotten surprising use from that harbor freight 3AAA light. It has a retract-able hook and magnets. 2 modes, resistor direct drive and no PWM. It was free with a harbor freight coupon!! I have loaned out countless times to young scouts who forget to pack flashlights and lighting. It’s not water resistant, so I keep it in a zip lock storage bag… LOL!! P.S. … Some of those boys will forget their heads if it’s not firmly attached!!

Does a red mode actually help against bugs? A LT1 with red mode will be coming, just idk when