Wind up lanterns

[Bingobango]

Worth it? Not to lug around but if camping near the car, handy to have I think.

Looked around a bit but some appear to be junky and not delivering as promised per reviews.

Anyone had any experience with these?

Don't mind to spend the money on a more expensive one that does the job well, but any feed back before I buy would be appreciated.

 

[Bigfoot]

I have a little 6 bulb LED one that I got as from Millets as a freebie when buying some other stuff. It's pretty light and compact and whilst doesn't exactly provide a flood of light, it is good enough to read by and would certainly suffice for someone doing a solo camp, or a couple in a smallish tent. The light fades after some 20/25 mins or so but it is no bother to wind and give it a wee boost. Much batter than lugging heavy batteries around I can only imagine that one of the slightly bigger units would be proportionately better?

 

[toilet digger]

don't give out the greatest light but if space an weight isn't a problem then a half decent one will be a boon.
just depends on whether you consider having to wind it up an inconveniance.
we tend to use ours when camping with the kids on holidays.
if you can get one with a solar trickle feed, that improves thing dramaticly.

 

[Nonsuch]

The ones where you can charge them up beforehand last a long time, but after the initial mains charge has gone, you are winding pretty regularly. My Millets one has a mains charger

NS

 

[fred gordon]

Never been fully convinced by these. I think the technology has a bit to go yet.

 

[Laurentius]

I've got a cheap one, not much light and fades pretty quickly but good as a marker to find your way back to camp.

 

[mountainm]

Think you're better off with an led stick lamp which will charge from your lighter socket.

 

[Manacles]

I bought a couple of Freeplay Indigo lanterns a couple of years back having previously owned Freeplay products and been very pleased with them. The manufacturer claimed 8 hours of LED light when fully charged. My experience was that they lasted for about one hour and a couple of minutes winding only elicited a further ten minutes. They were supplied as standard without a mains charger, so I hunted down the relevant adapter to use a phone charger and even then when fully charged found their performance to be far short of the claims. Ultimately I sold them on ebay and we now ust use head torches and Maglites if we need any portable light.

My recommendation based on this is to avoid that particular model and stick with LED torches etc.

Cheers

Paul

 

[Bingobango]

Thanks all.

Seems they are a bit rubbish really. Think I'll stick with torches for now.