Rayovac SE3DLN Review Aand Compare

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. 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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