Anyone know of budget 4AA lanterns

They would be good for non flashaholic and if they have good modes and efficient LEDs they could have impressive runtimes

I’m thinking to get the UST Lanterns.
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4 AA: Pico (2 Modes + SOS/Strobe)
Bright, clean light – up to 123 lumens
Runs 91 hours continuously on “Low”
Runs 22 hours continuously on “High”
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6 AA: 10 DAY™ Lantern
Bright, clean light – up to 250 lumens
Runs 10 days continuously on “Low”
Runs 26 hours continuously on “High”
Modes: HIGH>LOW>SOS FLASHING>OFF
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Really interesting is the D-Cell variant.
(or 2/3*AA to D adapter)
30 Day Lantern
Bright, clean light – up to 300 lumens
Runs 30 days continuously on “Low”
Runs 32 hours continuously on “High”
Modes: HIGH>MEDIUM>LOW>SOS FLASHING>OFF
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Runtime test

There is a 60 day as well. But this on the heavy side.
Colors: They have silver, GITD, Blue, Green etc. for some lights.
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I have this Coleman, featuring a cool white 1st gen xp-e led (Q5 probably), with two levels.
It has a cool feature: LED can be rotated so it acts as an handeld flashlight (floody and useful beam).
It doesn’t seem to be regulated since output visibly lowers as time passes. I don’t have a precisely figured runtime, but not impressive at all.

I forgot to mention
Lumora LED Lantern™
Bright R3 XP-G CREE LED provides a diffused white light, in lantern mode, up to 180 lumens.
Battery Life—up to: 190 hours on low
Dimming switch controls on/off and adjusting from bright to low light to conserve batteries.
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UCO Clarus LED Lantern (3* AAA)

Bright XP-E R3 CREE LED provides a diffused white light, in lantern mode, up to 150 lumens.
Burns up to 70 hours.
Durable, plastic base with on/off button.
On/off button switches light levels from bright to mid to dim light to conserve batteries or strobe for emergency situations.
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I would like to focus on budget lanterns

Waht is the max budget you wanna spend?

<10$
Got this 3 month ago. Build quality is OK. 3 modes (hi/”low” and blinky) for 9.03$
Some struggle with Kodak LSD’s (seems contact issues on the adapter), which by the way perform really well. Discharge after > 2 3/4 years and still 76% of the charge out of the package.

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3 AA Lantern for 9.90$

high and low mode
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16 LED Lantern for 6.96$

brightness adjustable
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7 LED Lantern for 9.00$

high/low

kloppholz, some great suggestions on lanterns. Nicely done. I’ve been meaning to buy one but struggled with finding good ones.

Bort, thanks for creating this thread it’s very useful

Thanks Kodachrome40. I was or am still in the situation…
I’ve the UST Brila incomming. Nice little 2*AA light. Not that bright, but optimal for camping hiking (SIZE HxW: 4.5” x 1.75” (114 x 44mm)). Runtimes are OK with 2 AA’s.
Build in magnets and carabiner. Seems to be sturdy.

Bright, clean 360° light distribution – up to 27 lumens
Runs 14 hours continuously on “Low” (I think low is 13.5 lumens)
Runs 5 hours continuously on “High”
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I’ve got one of these on order. I’ll let you know if it’s any good once I receive it.

I’m hoping to just swap the existing LED with a neutral XP-G I’ve got lying around here.

I have one of these 4AA lanterns: Sunree C3 lantern | 4xAA | Tomek.G | Flickr

Its the Sunree C3 but the company also sometimes goes by Glaree so its also sold as the Glaree C3

The original C3 like the one in the video (and the one I have) has been replaced by a newer C3, I prefer the older one but the new one would do the same job.

It has infinite brightness control by holding down the button to the desired output and then doing the same to dim it again.

I personally use the Coleman PackAway or Coleman MAX 4 AA lantern around the house, while camping and as an emergency light. It is collapsible, so it protects itself when bouncing around the car or whatever. I keep one on my motorcycle all the time and it has held up for years. It actually puts out decent light, I use it to light my camp sites while moto or car camping when weight is not an issue. I don’t mess with gas lanterns or even the large lanterns anymore, compact Led stuff for me now. I have two of them, both have held up well and are used often. They run $18 to $24 depending on where you buy them. Target and Walmart usually stocks them in store for $18.95 and they come with 4 AA Duracell batteries, so the price is a decent value for a durable unit that actually works.

Coleman Pack Away

The 4-AA PICO (as noted above) are good stock lanterns.
Also these Energizer Lanterns are good in stock form, ( though a bit on the cool white tint side) they all have variable output dimming, great run-times, and very durable.
I have the pop-up version below:

and also have the Lantern/Flashlight combo model, ( the far left on in the below photo:

Most all of my 4-AA lanterns are all modded now, except for the Energizer Lantern/Flashlight models.

I have the little UST Brila and think it’s pretty neat. I’m thinking about picking up one of the Pico lanterns for times when I need more light.

Second that. Or the 10 day (6*AA). I would like to see on both a mode in the middle of high an low.

Just came in yesterday (GITD & green)

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Not that bright but for emergency lightning of a small/medium room ok. Perfect for camping.
Just put it on my nightstand over night to check if the GITD holds up all through the night. Yepp. Not that bright but still able to see the lantern’s location (I didn’t charged it up with a flash light.).
But this morning. Not bad, the GITD looks a little like the green one.
Over the weekend I’ll make a runtime test, which shouldn’t take long :bigsmile: .
Product spec’s:
“high” 27 lm 5hrs
“low” 13.5 lm 14hrs

an older version was discontinued at target recently for $1.99.
4 aa and runs 3,6 or1 red blinker.
i put warm whites in one i kept.
dayton area stores cleaned out but might get lucky in your area.i only got to keep 1.

I also like the “Energizer Light Fusion Technology” lanterns.
I have the 4AA pop up lantern and the larger folding lantern 4AA, or 8AA.
They each run on 4-6 volts. I added a USB cable to each so that I can run them from 18650 power banks with 5V USB outputs if I choose. At any rate, I really like the smooth no glare outputs of them. The pop up lantern does emit some glare on high (150 lumens) but it is acceptable.

Regulation and Runtimes for the pop up lantern:
This is a regulated light, with an electronic dim-able feature.
Energizer lists it as 150 emitter lumens (and as we all know that means less out the front)
I loaded it with fully charged Duracell 2400ma iron core batteries and set it on high.
Since the diffuser panel is appox 1/4th the square area of its larger brother, it does emit a bit of glare on high compared to the larger unit on medium. It is still acceptable though.

The interesting thing is that the output gradually/imperceptibly dropped sometime during the first hour of testing. I then powered the light output down to low, and back up to high, and it was back up to the original high output. I found that the Rayovac Indestructible 2AA behaved similarly. Its Big Brother 300 lumen Folding lantern with light fusion technology did the same thing.

Run time on HIGH 8 hours 20 minutes ( with resetting it to high every half hour to hour)
Run time on LOW about 75 hours. (15 lumens)