rayovac-300-lumen-led-lantern-is-very-bright

LED Lantern Technology For Survival Preparedness

Being a bit of a geek for things like LED technology (which is now commonly designed into flashlights, lanterns, and other lighting products), I know that it’s a perfect technology fit for anyone’s survival preparedness kit, emergency lighting situations, or any general purpose lighting application.

Present day LED lighting technology is enabling very bright and powerful light while consuming very little power. The power consumption of LED lamp products is a fraction of that from traditional types of bulbs.

The LED’s themselves will seemingly last forever without burning out like other bulbs and the batteries that are powering them will last for a very long time before requiring replacement or a recharge.

Awhile ago I purchased a Rayovac LED Lantern.

I believe this LED lantern is one of the best portable lighting solutions for any emergency, and is surprisingly small and light weight.

 
Rayovac LED Lantern

 

Rayovac LED Lantern Review

It is much smaller than a traditional lantern, like the classic Coleman  lantern that many of us have or have had (the Coleman white fuel lantern has its own advantages and I still wouldn’t be without one).  However this Rayovac model is small enough to pack nicely into small spaces. It’s only 7 inches tall (3.5 inches square). It is perfect to stash into a survival kit.
 

Batteries

It takes three D-size batteries, and will power the LED on high brightness for about 3 days straight, 24 hours a day! Of course you wouldn’t have it turned on during the day, so if you ran it for 6 hours a night, the batteries would last for 12 days. On low brightness, this same scenario would last 25 days! If you use rechargeable batteries, and a solar powered battery charger, you would be set up for many years with ‘free’ light.
 

Brightness

This lantern is brighter than I expected. It is bright because of two reasons, 3 watt LED power (three 1-watt LED’s) and a very good reflector lens design. The plastic lens assembly spreads the light, seeming to magnify it so to spread around a 360 degree circle.
 

Light Settings

The settings seem ‘right’ with bright, low, and strobe. The strobe is very bright, and a great idea for an emergency survival situation where you are trying to be seen or located. Also, just above the on-off button is a small LED indicator that flashes dimly and unobtrusively about every five seconds to help you locate the lantern in the dark (great idea!).
 

Ruggedness

This lantern, although small in size, is rugged. All edges, and the bottom are rubberized for shock absorption, plus it will grip nicely on any surface. There is a traditional type of carrying handle as well as a clever folding hook on the bottom which allows you to hang it upside down, which better projects the light when it is up high. Nice touch.

 
Rayovac LED Lantern Reflector

Rayovac LED Lantern Design

Rayovac LED Lantern 240 Lumens

 
Conclusion

I rate the Rayovac LED lantern with 5-stars for a perfect set of features for its intended purpose, rugged and compact design, LED technology, and reasonable price.

I highly encourage anyone who is survival preparedness minded, to get yourself some LED flashlights and – or a lantern similar to this one.

Rayovac Sportsman LED Lantern

I Love My Dorcy Cyberlight LED Flashlight

Best Flashlight

11 Comments

  1. I have several of these RayOVac lanterns as well as a half dozen of their smaller cousin
    which is similar in design but smaller and runs on AA batteries
    great products
    highly recommended

  2. I too bought this wonderful lantern over year ago for camping/emergencies. When you take off the globe, it becomes a great flashlight, perfect for seeing the intrusive “night crabs” on the Virginia beaches. Highly recommended!

  3. This is the only lantern I’ve ever bought… definitely cool… I like the miniature beacon light that flashes every 5 seconds like you mentioned. Hardly any drain on the batteries whatsoever. Had the need for it recently, one was plenty to light a big room and easily read small print on the other side. Only one I’d want to own.

  4. I absolutely HATE and DETEST those flasher type lanterns. Are there any good lanterns without the flashers?

    1. @Mossy, I believe you misunderstood the spec of this lantern… as one of it’s ‘settings’ it can be set to flash. It’s a setting. It behaves as any other normal lantern, and can also flash. It ONLY flashes if you set it to flash. Setting the lantern to flash will be a benefit if you are LOST and want to be FOUND by someone – in the dark. Your reference to hate and detest a lantern that flashes is puzzling…

      1. I think you should call it a red location indicator light as to not confuse the location blinking light to the actual light strobe function.

        Both the strobe and the indicator light are both beneficial and handy – my Nite Ize upgrade for my Mini Maglite has the same red led indicator light to find it in the dark coupled with the SOS and strobe function.

        Ken, also forgot to mention that the unit is really well gasketed and is water resistant. And that the batteries will last in excess of 150 hours per set when used on the low function. Looks like a pretty good lantern to me for the price you can get them for!

        1. Oh,oh… I get now what Mossy was referring to – not the strobe function itself, but the tiny ‘locate me’ flasher. Well that’s easy enough to get around – stick a piece of black electrical tape over it ;)

        2. If you remove that – as mentioned best to cover it with black or coloured electrical tape.

          Another option for a dim find me option is to place a tritium vial on the lantern itself, ai am currently looking into finding some of these vials to place / glue into some of my items for finding safely at night.

      2. No, I do not want a flashing light. On/off is all. No, I don’t think it would be of any benifit if I’m lost. Where am I going to get lost?

        I had two with a flashing “feature” that require cycling the switch through all settings. Returned one and removed the red LED on the other.

        Cycling through settings is fine, provided the dimmest setting is first. Had one (threw it away) that started on “high”, just what I did not need in the middle of the night. Murder on night vision.

        Considering the lack of alternatives mentioned, I take it that no one knows of one or it’s not offered.

  5. I’ve got a similar lantern however runs on 4 AA’s and I run lithium’s and while it’s in storage I’ve isolated the batteries from the contacts with a sheet of plastic. The other advantage of my lantern, which is not as cool as this Rayovac with its multifunction blink pattern etc. The benefit of my little lantern is that it can take replacement LED globes or filament style globes if needed eg: after CME or multiple CME’s… The replacement globes that I have come in a handy shielded drop in style format with LED’s facing outward at 4 points and diffused by the diffusing shield. So if there were any issues with the LED’s, I have three bulb sets left to change over to – or a heap of krypton bulbs from my many C & D size maglites.

    One other issue with D size batteries is that they only sell in 2,4,8 or more packs here in Aus and it was extremely annoying to buy more packs of batteries needed to make 3 batteries as needed while out and about, so storing batteries in packs of three would be the go so that they dont short out or damage themselves and inadvertently end up leaking in the lantern. Storing of batteries is another issue – I’ve just managed to overcome and sort out, as being a neat freak I hated having batteries just stored willy nilly…

  6. hey Mossy,

    a smaller more simple lantern that has minimal functions can be found at the BACKPACKING section of the sporting goods store or the hardware store. You bring up a point that not all of us want to signal low-flying aircraft and relatively few of us use a flashlight to follow a blood trail on a moonless night in undergrowth.

    The sections of the store that sells the most complicated gadgets seems to be under camping or picnic area or the hunting and fishing sections of a sporting goods store. Backpacking goods are relatively small, lightweight and simple. Hopefully you will find a brand that you can live with.

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