Rayovac SE3DLN Sportsman Xtreme 300-Lumen LED Lantern
by Rayovac
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Rayovac SE3DLN Sportsman Xtreme 300-Lumen LED Lantern
Customer Review: Impressive little lantern
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Customer Review: EXCEPTIONAL!!! Rivals Anything Else Out There & More
Summary: 5 Stars
I must agree with others here.... this is THE very 1st Rayovac item I have EVER been happy with - let alone THRILLED with. However, the reviews here did entice me to 'take the plunge' and I'm a happy beaver about doing just that. Well worth every penny spent and then some.
The price is right, the lighting is fab, the lantern is nice and compact.... everything is perfect about this puppy!!
Others complain about the 'blinking on' light....
It's SO small, who cares!! You can't even notice it.
Sure, Rayovac would do good by eliminating it - but whatever, tis the way of almost all lights these days....
Whatever battery life that little blinker is draining - it's undectable by my standards. I find no need to remove the batteries for short trysts about & around. Storage @ home is a different matter.
This lantern lights the way -- and lights the way to everywhere!
And, as with ANY other battery-powered something - one should never keep the batteries in it until 'kingdom come'.... they'll corrode, leak, and ruin the unit.... so common sense says to remove the batteries but keep them readily available (nearby) for any emergency armageddon that may arise.
Personally, I have this lantern in my 'weekend outtings' kit.
Batteries 'in' cuz I'm out & about most weekends.
She sits nice & pretty until I need it to use in the back of my suv to wrangle thru whatever I'm in need of wrangling thru.
She's also 'basecamp' for many other outtings where my 'stuff' needs to be centralized outside the vehicle and I need to see.... both my stuff (all of it) and just where homebase is from afar.
I'm ready for ANYTHING with this puppy.... ET find home, ET go away, ET come talk to me..... home is where the heart is!
You just can't go wrong with this lantern.... the lumens outdo any others out there for the price. Not only is it BRIGHT, but she just keeps going and going and going. Sure, I'd recommend a spare set of batts to keep alongside with this unit... but I've yet to need them. She doesn't just 'turn off' - she just gets a bit tired -- and so far, depending on my needs (aka: lack of breadcrumbs), that's when I'll replace the batteries.
I'm back for another lantern; this one for the EQ kit. And I figured, that while I was here that perhaps I'd waste a few minutes of my time and write a quick babbling review. Babbling accomplished, quick - maybe not - yet every word has been ripped from the pages of my heart in order to share that 'yet one of those gosh-darn good deals out there' where perhaps someone else is searching for that review that 'turns on their nightlight' and allows them to perhaps more wisely choose one product-over-another-product without searching thru those 'blank stares, just happy to have rec'd, non-real-feedback' reviews that seem to exist everywhere else otherwise.
Godspeed...
and to all those that believe - "ET, with this - you will find home!"
~~~~~~~~
FORGOTTEN THOUGHTS (aka: more babbling)
RE: The battery problem scenario that some speak of here -- it really isn't a problem whatsoever..... just line up them arrows (as the instructions say) and you're good to go. And should you have no other light in order to see those arrows, just line up the lantern and the screw-bottom in such a way that 'touch' allows you to feel the exact 'proper alignment moment' when parts catch and you're then ready to screw top to bottom properly. It really isn't deep but a light will surely help.
Customer Review: Good battery-op lantern
Summary: 5 Stars
Much has been said about this lantern, so I'll keep it brief:
Pros:
*Good smooth light output, equiv to about a 25w incandescent on high. No harsh shadows/irregular output of the Coleman lanterns.
*Removable globe/lens that converts it to a great flood lamp
*Regulated light output -- brightness consistent throughout battery life
*Pulse-Width Modulation for dimming -- doesn't use energy-wasting resistors for the dimmer like Coleman lanterns do.
*Good runtime ~75 hrs high / 150 hrs low
*Water-resistant (yes, I've tested it)
*Durable
*Switch resistant to accidental activations
Cons:
*Battery compartment design! It's terrible! I thought other reviewers were making a mountain out of a molehill, but they're not. Changing the batteries is best done when it's light out. Changing them in the dark is possible but requires a lot of patience and swearing.
*Blinking find-me light. The find-me LED is buried so deeply in the lantern base that unless you're looking at it head-on, you're not going to be able to see it. Some have complained that this is draining the batteries. I don't see this little LED blinking every 5 seconds causing a major shortage in battery lifespan.
Wish list:
*Fix the battery compartment design. Overall I'd rather have this than a flimsy battery door, but how about making wedge-shaped guides to help the battery cover alignment easier?
*Brighter, less-directional find-me LED WITH off switch. I can see where a brighter light would be objectionable if you were sleeping in close proximity to the lantern.
*More dimmer levels. The low setting is what I normally run this lantern on and it's still plenty bright. It could probably use two even dimmer settings. One dimmer for ambient light and an ultra-dim level as a night-light, similar to Energizer Folding 8-LED Lantern.
Don't let the terribly-designed battery compartment throw you off, this IS the lantern to buy if you want a well-built lantern that has the best balance of performance vs. runtime. The lantern gives plenty of warning before the batteries are completely dead, so you'll have plenty of time to change the batteries while it's still light out. Also take a look at it's little brother Rayovac SP1W3AALN-B Sportsman 70-Lumens LED Mini Lantern. With Batteries
FWIW, the constantly-blinking find-me LED would take about 8 years of continuously running to drain the batteries in this lantern. Not exactly the battery-guzzling feature others have made it out to be. It'd take a little over 2 years to do the same if you are using AA batteries w/sabots in this light.
Customer Review: Awesome lantern
Summary: 5 Stars
BRIGHT! This thing is definitely good enough for any scenario I could imagine. Tried it out in our dark basement, and this thing lit the place up.
I read all the "bad" reviews and these are the two biggest complaints... Battery cover and "easy find" blinking LED that slowly drains batteries.
Battery cover - not bad at all if you line up the RED ARROWS!... although changing in the dark would be tricky, I don't think it would be impossible.
Blinking LED (that's only really visible if you're looking directly straight on at the front of the light, so I don't really see it being that useful anyway - Easy solution if you don't mind taking it apart and voiding the warranty, which at this price I was willing to take a shot. There are 3 screws in the battery compartment that you have to unscrew to separate the battery and light assembly from the outer case. Once I took this out I used a pair of needle nose pliers to GENTLY twist and break the blinking LED off of the circuit board. No LED = no completed circuit to drain the batteries. Put it back together and the light works same as it did before, and now I can confidently leave the batteries in and know that I'll have a working light a month or two from now. Problem solved. I'm sure the manufacturer wouldn't recommend this, but I'm a problems solver and I couldn't help myself.
So in conclusion... this is a compact and super bright lantern that is built to last. The only flaw is the (barely visible) blinking light, but as you can see... it can be remedied. For the price... you can't go wrong.
Update 5/21/2010: Took this thing camping for the first time last weekend in the Shenandoah National Park, VA. I was very excited to try it out, and was not disappointed! First night there were some strong T-storms coming through, but we managed to get tents up and a small fire started before they hit. I ended up using the lantern in the tent to get stuff situated, and used the tent hook on the bottom of the lantern(some reviewers are skeptical about the sturdiness of this) to hang in the tent. Well, it didn't rain much, so we stood out by the fire in our ponchos to enjoy what was left of the fire. The wind was the worst part of the storm (I'd say 15-20mph)and bounced the tent around quite a bit. That lantern was swinging around inside but never fell, and was so bright it made our tent this glowing pod that cast plenty of light that we could see perfectly out by a now smoldering fire. It was actually pretty enjoyable to watching the top of the tent dance around in the wind with the light swinging around inside. So after that, I feel very confident and pleased with the design of the tent hook on the bottom of the lantern... it comes in very handy.
Customer Review: Great light, VERY Bright, Well built
Summary: 5 Stars
I just got this light so can't comment on the battery life yet, but in terms of the design, brightness and construction.. very good!. I was Shocked at how powerful this light is, it's almost like looking into a 100 watt bulb, it's that bright and easily lights up an entire room with useful light, even on low it's still more than bright enough to see what's going on. The bulb itself has had three very bright LED's inside totally a 4 watt output. I've found it to be as bright or brighter than the dual mantle coleman gas lanterns that are known to be very powerful as well but with this you don't have to worry about the gas or fire.
Some have complained about the batteries being very hard to install and I can see why some might have trouble. But I've found that if you just line up the two arrows, one on the battery compartment cover and the unit itself where the two grooves slide into each other first, then press the cover on and give it a twist it locks in with no problem. I took it off and put it on in 5 seconds once you just line up the slots it's no problem.
The top dome comes off easy to expose the bare bulb mode and goes back and secures just as easy. It has a metal handle covered in rubber that is strong and sturdy as well as a plastic hook on the bottom that you can hang it upside down in a room or tent. Some have said that they wouldn't trust the plastic hook, but I hung it over my bed, hung it on my finger with the batteries inside and shook it up and down very hard to see if it would break off at all and it held totally securely. I even pulled the hook with about 12-15lbs of force and it still showed no signs of coming off so I would not be concerned about that and I would hang it by the hook if needed.
The unit also has a strobe mode by holding the button for 3 seconds which is nice as well. So you hit the button once for high, another time within about 2 seconds for low, then once more to turn it off. It does have the flashing LED locator light which some have said will drain the batteries and it probably will, so I just take the batteries out and install them when needed since I found getting the battery cover on it be easy once I used the method mentioned above.
Overall.. very impressed with the feel, construction and POWER of this light. Great light to have!