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 Battery Free Emergency Camping Crank Lantern 12 Super-bright LED 3 Light Settings By: As Seen On TV Average Rating: 2.5 Total Reviews: 6 More Information BAD CRANK AND SWITCH DESIGN  On: 2008-02-19This product is ok for emergency back-up when it works. Twice I have returned this product because the crank keeps breaking. You are to crank it for one minute to get its full charge. Twice I have cranked the handle and something broke inside. So after the charge went down you cant get it to charge anymore. I took it back and got my money back. My advice to anyone who uses this light is to have a good light for a back-up. Its unknown how long the crank will last before it lets you down and wont be able to have lite. Both of mine broke within no more than four cranks and had to return them. They are a great idea and nice to have. They just last to long. Good for tenting!  On: 2007-06-14After cranking for one minute, you can push once for 4 LEDs, push off and on again for 8 LEDs, or push off and on again for 12 LEDs. With all 12 LEDs lit, you get a light barely bright enough to read a map by for perhaps 30 seconds. With 4 LEDs lit, you get a light good enough to go into your tent, take off your clothes, find a place to put your shoes and glasses, zip up the door, and get into your sleeping bag without stepping on your wife - but dont expect to be able to read a book as you fall asleep. After that, with the 4 LED setting, it slowly fades to night light status good enough to answer natures call and return to bed without turning on a flashlight inside the tent, and one LED was still glowing the next morning. Good for tenting, not good for much else. Dimmer and dimmer..  On: 2007-05-26I got mine locally, couple bucks cheaper, but same lantern. Mine was bright while cranking but dimmed very quickly afterwards to point of being a glow in dark nightlight, not any kind of camper lantern. In other words my experience with this lantern is just like the other reviewers experience. Always curious, I removed the four screws and took off the bottom. Inside is little circuit board like all led flashlights have, then you see the inside of the little generator, and finally the little battery pack that looks suspiciously like one from a cordless phone, you know the kind that look like somebody shrinkwrapped 3 short AA cells together and soldered on couple leads. After full minute of cranking these showed 3V and those phone battery packs are supposed to be 3.6V. My guess if you want long term bright light, get one of those plastic battery holders from Radio Shack and make it use 3 D cells wired in parallel. Use alkaline batteries for very bright light (I have a 3 D cell LED flashlight that is very bright with alkalines) or use nimh for recharging with plug in adapter. Imagine it would take long time to charge 3 D nimh with the little crank generator and it possibly not good for nimhs. Not sure if factory battery pack is nimh or nicad, both were used in cordless phones. Note this is pure speculation, and try it at your own risk. I havent modified my lantern yet though I think I will experiment as it worthless as is, thus nothing to lose. I hoped for a bit more On: 2007-01-15This lantern does do what it says. Wind it up and you get 12 very bright LEDs which do give off a good amount of light. For about 2 mins that is. After that they get maybe half-bright(which isnt much light at all)...but do stay lit for a long time. One test I did had the LEDs still lit after 30 mins. The major dissapointment I have is that I dont have any documentation on charging it with a charger. I have a universal ac adapter and have plugged the lantern into it. It does appear to take a charge but I do not know for how long to charge it, and how that translates into runtime at full bright levels. I did a quick test after charging for only like 30 mins and it did appear to stay at fullbright levels for a bit longer than winding it up. I like the idea of the wind up lanterns, flashlights, radios, etc. But I think it is important to also have the ability to fully charge them via an ac adapter and get LONG runtime. It doesnt appear this lantern gets long runtime at all (at least at the highest setting). I have bought a coleman flouresent lantern (small size) for about the same price. It runs for about 24 hours on 4 D batteries and puts out at least double the amount of light this thing does. I hoped for a bit more On: 2007-01-14This lantern does do what it says. Wind it up and you get 12 very bright LEDs which do give off a good amount of light. For about 2 mins that is. After that they get maybe half-bright(which isnt much light at all)...but do stay lit for a long time. One test I did had the LEDs still lit after 30 mins. The major dissapointment I have is that I dont have any documentation on charging it with a charger. I have a universal ac adapter and have plugged the lantern into it. It does appear to take a charge but I do not know for how long to charge it, and how that translates into runtime at full bright levels. I did a quick test after charging for only like 30 mins and it did appear to stay at fullbright levels for a bit longer than winding it up. I like the idea of the wind up lanterns, flashlights, radios, etc. But I think it is important to also have the ability to fully charge them via an ac adapter and get LONG runtime. It doesnt appear this lantern gets long runtime at all (at least at the highest setting). I have bought a coleman flouresent lantern (small size) for about the same price. It runs for about 24 hours on 4 D batteries and puts out at least double the amount of light this thing does. Not so good . . . On: 2007-01-09This was received as a Christmas gift, and was a disappointment. After following the spartan instructions, we cranked the lantern for 5-6 minutes. We powered up the unit and the LEDs dimmed to half brightness after less than one minute. The lights at half brightness stayed lit for quite a while, but half brightness is just too dim to be usable. I wouldnt recommend this product to anyone. Not so good . . . On: 2007-01-08This was received as a Christmas gift, and was a disappointment. After following the spartan instructions, we cranked the lantern for 5-6 minutes. We powered up the unit and the LEDs dimmed to half brightness after less than one minute. The lights at half brightness stayed lit for quite a while, but half brightness is just too dim to be usable. I wouldnt recommend this product to anyone. small  On: 2007-01-05This lantern is very small, but puts out a decent amount of light, but not enough really for a camp table. I recommend it for small uses (or emergencies). |