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Just received this product so I will defer commenting on battery life until later. Overall I have been very pleased and surprised with this product. First off, this lantern is fairly compact...I was under the impression that this would be larger from the pictures but once I opened it up, I was pleasingly surprised. The unit is very compact and feels very sturdy. There is rubber on the base and around the lower portion of the lantern, the switch is very easy to operate and has 3-modes (High, Low, and Strobe). The entire top/globe can be unscrewed and hung upside down (clip in the base) to use as a room or tent light in "bare bulb" mode. Overall I have been very impressed with the output of this lantern as well. This is a very bright lantern for it's compact size; outshining normal 4D fluorescent U-tubed lanterns and a coleman pack-away LED lantern. The diffuser is also very pleasing with no rings, lines, or shadows to speak of. In bare bulb mode, the light is almost too bright for your eyes but works well if it's hung high overhead (so you're not looking directly at the unit). Low mode is also very useful and brighter than your typical "nightlight" levels in other LED lanterns "low" modes. Overall I am very impressed with this product and plan to purchase more of these units for use while night fishing, camping, and to use during power failures.
Update (10/31/09): Just an update, I recently used this light in a power outage and it performed great. Bright and the batteries are still going strong. I also purchased 2 additional units and with just 3-D batteries each, who can complain! This is a great compact lantern.
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Basically in agreement with the positive reviews, with a few quibbles.(1) Changing the batteries is a clumsy operation. The base twists off to load the batteries. Putting back the base however requires a tricky alignment of the contacts. The base has two sections. The section with the contacts rotate freely about the section that you grip. Maybe I'm just clumsy, took me six tries. [[Update 5/18/2012. See notes below for hints on battery installation.]]
(2) Overall rugged materials and construction, with the exception of the tent hook. Cheap plastic, probably would break if dropped. Folds flat into the base. But held in place only by friction fit. If you use it enough, it will probably wear and no longer stay folded in place. If you don't fold and unfold the hook often, not a problem.
(3) Even when the power is off, one LED flashes every couple of seconds (like a smoke detector). This is a "finder beacon" to allow you to locate the lantern in a dark tent or room. I keep it around for emergencies. I don't know whether this causes any significant drain on the battery. When I have time, I'll check with the manufacturer. [[Update 4/30/2012. Battery drainage by the finder LED is negligible. See notes below. New reviewers continue to believe that battery drainage is a problem. It is definitely not.]]
(4) Still, it's one of the few units that run on a few (3) D-Cells. Many run on AA cells or then jump to 8-D-Cells. AA cells don't last as long, of course, but 8 D-Cells by themselves weigh a ton. Good unit for the price. Another example of Amazon's quirky pricing,though. Seems to vary from $26 $30 on a daily basis. Still, Amazon's shipping and customer service is amazing.
Note added 9/13/09: There are differing opinions about ease of battery installation. As I originally reported, the problem is that the bottom cap consists of two pieces that are joined by a pivot. The inside piece, with the notches that lines up with the tabs in the battery compartment, is free to swivel about the outer piece that you actually grip. So you first line up the notches with the tabs, but when you try to seat the cap, the inside piece can swing out of alignment. I bought two units. One is easy to assemble because the pivot is tight, and the inside piece doesn't swing too freely. The other is a pain because the pivot is loose, and the inside piece swings easily. I think that's why some people say it's frustrating and others have no problem...depends on how tight the pivot in their unit is. This is difficult to explain without a diagram. Still, I think the configuration is poorly engineered. However, this is an operation you don't need to do often, unless you use it constantly.
Note added 4/27/10: I've had a unit with the same set of batteries for a year now (infrequent use), so current drain by the beacon LED is minimal. No need to disable it or remove the batteries. But I do agree with others that the beacon LED is useless because its emission field is so narrow that you can't see it unless you're staring at it straight on.
Note added 11/6/2011: Here's a comment I posted in response to another review concerning the battery installation issue. I thought others might find it helpful, so I'm reposting it here.
Look at the first two photos posted by SirMontego. The first shot shows a close-up of aligning the groove on the top contact plate (which is mounted on the cover and is free to pivot) with the tongue on the bottom contact plate (which is fixed to the body of the lantern). The second shot shows a wider angle view of the contact assembly. The problem comes about at the next step (not shown). You now need to swing the cover over the body of the lantern in order to seat it. In so doing, the tongue can slip out of the groove since the top contact plate is free to pivot about the cover. If the pivot is snug, then the tongue tends to stay in the groove, and seating the cover is easy. If the pivot is loose, then the tongue can easily slip out of the groove. I have three of these units. One pivot is snug, one is slightly loose, and one is very loose. Customers who get units with loose pivots cuss about the idiotic contact assembly; customers who get units with snug pivots can't understand why others are such klutzes. I have seen many designs of battery installations in flashlights. Streamlight gets it right consistently. The most idiotic is on the Eveready Hardcase Pro 4-D lantern. The one on this lantern is on the clumsy side, but would be fine if the pivots were consistently snug.
Note added 11/6/2011: I notice that recent reviews are still concerned about current drain from the beacon light. Here's another data point. I've had one lantern now for ~2-1/2 yrs, still with its original set of batteries. Until this past week it was used only intermittently. I was caught up in the pre-Halloween snowstorm and had no power for 4 days. I ran this lantern on low for ~20 hrs total (not continuous). I still have not had to change out the batteries.
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OK folks,let me start off by saying that I am a flashlight afficionado. If you ask me about pistols, rifles, knives, or lights...you are now in my world, and I will talk your ears off.
Let me say that this is a great little lantern. I was walking around my local "Big Boys Covet Store" (Lowes) and saw this lantern on sale. I went over to check it out and inspect it, and then kept it on the back of my mind. When I got home, I went to one of my internet hang-outs (CandlePowerForum.com) and plugged in the lantern for some feedback, or reviews. Evidently it was very highly talked about. So I went back the next day (or was it IMMEDIATELY?) to purchase the little lantern. I gotta admit, I was not disappointed.
Since I have gotten the lantern, it is my new ruck sack companion. I will not leave to a mountain trek without it. And when I am not out in the bush, it stays on top of my reloading bench in case of an emergency blackout...or an earthquake. (I live in the San Freakcisco Bay Area).
The light is small (3.5" x 3.5" x 7.5"), but is plenty tough. It has a great rubber base, a rubber top section, and rubber side grips. Like the earlier folks stated, it has a HIGH, a LOW, and a STROBE function. As for the installation of the batteries...yea...I was scratching my head for a few seconds the first time. (No, not minutes seconds). But after I looked at it for a second or two, it was pretty easy to see how it was supposed to go on, and I have not had a problem since then.
The little plastic hook on top is a total waste to me. Why? Because everthing else on this little beast is built so well, and then the did this?! (Added a flimsy little "Alfalfa Hair Piece" to the top of this exceptional little lantern). It has not broken on me yet but then again, I will not take the chance of hanging the lantern from this flimsy little hook and provoking Mr Murphy to curse the lantern to fall and possibly break.
It is small and compact, but beefy and with heft.
Like I said, it's a great little lantern for the money.
You will not regret it.
In Christ: Raymond
Honest reviews on Rayovac Sportsman LED Lantern (SE3DLN)
I bought this Rayovac latern off of Amazon after reading tons of reviews and visiting some other sites about the quality of this product. I did happen to give this lantern it's full fledged test at a camp out this past 4th of July weekend and put it head to head with other lanterns. One of the other lanterns were Energizer's 3D cell 12 led Weather Ready from Walmart, the other was a Coleman 8D cell CFL type lantern, and the third was your basic Coleman propane lantern. The Rayovac was the most compact of the bunch, next was the Energizer, then the CFL Coleman, and lastly the propane lantern.Now when it came to my shopping there were 2 things that were high on my list. 1st was the brightness level. 2nd was the energy (batteries,fuel, etc.) needed to run the product and the longevity of the energy (how long could I run it before having to change the batteries etc.
Let me run through the energy and consumption level. Obviously since the propane lantern runs on "fire" it did consume it's fuel the fastest, because we had to change the propane canisters at least twice for the 3 night camp. As for the other 3 I still have no idea. I would think that the CFL lantern would go out before the Rayovac and Energizer, that and the fact that it takes 8D cells make running it a little more costly. The Energizer claims 3 weeks running time at 5 hours a day use and the Rayovac claims around 75-150 hours running time, so I would call it a fairly even match between the two.
Now let's get to what your really interested in and discuss brightness level. This is purely based on what I saw and has nothing to do with comparing LED's with CFL's etc. On an overall brightness scale reguardless of type, the overall winner was your standard propane lantern. On max output it clearly outperformed the lot. To my surprise, the Coleman CFL was the second brightest. It was equivilent to your standard CFL light in a household setting and we were all impressed at how bright it was coming pretty close to the propane output. As for the LED lanterns... the Rayovac outshown the Energizer. With the top portion of the Ravovac removed and flipped upside down as a tent light, the Rayovac quickly impressed me with lighting up a fairly reasonable amount of area with light. The only edge that I thought the Energizer had was it's adjustablity to brighten and dim at the turn of a switch while the Rayovac had either bright or semi-bright. Though this is about light output and 2 of the Rayovacs hung upside down with the top removed can easily light a 10X20 camping area (the size of our canopy tent).
My conclusion on overall performance. One of the three propane lanterns caught on fire due to some kind malfunction and the fact that you have to light them with a match, change canisters on a regular basis, and change those bag things every other trip puts propane at the bottom. 3rd place would have to be the Energizer. Although it uses only 3D cells and had light adjustment equivilent to the propane lantern, it was still the dimmest (although still very bright) of the lot. 2nd would have to be the Coleman CFL. It uses batteries, although a wopping 8D cells, but is much safer than a propane lantern catching on fire. It is extremely bright, 2nd only to the propane. It's only downfalls would be the price and I'm assuming battery life as compared to LEDs. The winner in my book, is obvioulsy the Rayovac. It was the brighter of the two LED models, it's very compact, uses only 3D cells, has long battery life, can change from a free standing lantern to a hanging light(very good bonus feature), and is very well priced on Amazon. I am the owner of three of the products tested and am giving my unbiased opinion. I would highly recomend the Rayovac and plan on buying one or two more for some serious light.
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Let me start off by saying that this is overall a VERY good product, but receives 3 stars for a design flaw.The green LED is ALWAYS blinking, even with the main switch "off". This constant parasitic drain on the batteries ruins my intended use of a long-term storage emergency light for the house.
I did call Rayovac on this issue and they said that it will drain the batteries in 32 days. This cannot be accurate and I know that this small load will take MUCH longer than 32 days to drain the batteries. Still, for my purpose I now must remove the batteries and fumble in the dark to put them in during a power failure.
The difficult battery cover (mentioned by many in the reviews) does not help this issue!
Yet another product that is ALMOST great. I would have bought many more of these for family members to use as emergency lights, but now have to find a better option where the batteries will still be full after long term storage.
Hope this helps!
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