Over at Amazon, their Gold Box deal of the day is this Rayovac Sportsman LED lantern (SE3DLN), for $18. We have one of these at home and paid $26 for it about a year back.
The Rayovac Sportsman lantern outputs 240 lumens of soft diffused light when set to high, and also has low and strobe lighting modes. 3x D batteries power the lantern for up to 40 hours on high and 90 hours on low.
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It’s durable, water-resistant, and easy to use. You can set it down on any flat surface or hang it from a hook for hands-free operation.
Buy Now(via Amazon)
The sale price is $17.99, and regular price is about $25-26.
To be honest, this lantern changed the way I feel about Rayovac products. It is well-built, very bright, and overall a great product. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another one, and at this price I am very tempted to.
We used the lantern a couple of times in the past year when needing short bursts of 360° room-level illumination. Flashlights are great, but the power outages that followed Hurricane Sandy proved that we really needed a lantern. Should we suffer another blackout like that one, the lantern’s 40 hours of runtime at high and 90 hours at low will last a couple of nights at least.
Deal is valid all day 12/20/13 and ends 3am ET Saturday 12/21/13.
Don’t forget to pick up a couple of D batteries, locally, from Amazon, or elsewhere. You need 3 to power the lantern.
Russell Berger
We purchased a couple of these for Sandy and they are fantastic.
DaddyO
Stuart,
There were alot of negative reviews on the flashlight concerning the battery compartment cover and the difficulty of getting it back on once the batteries are installed? I figured if this was a problem other than user ignorance or plain stupidity i.e. manufaturing defect, that you would have stated this in your review. There is a great video that not only shows the features of the lantern (cool) but also how to replace the battery cover after installing the batteries. Looks fairly straight forward to me?
Stuart
While not as easy as say screwing down a Maglite tail cap, it’s not that difficult to do. It takes me 2 or maybe 3 quick tries to get the lantern closed and sealed properly. Even if it’s a bigger hassle for some, how often does one have to open and close the battery compartment to swap batteries?
fred
I have 2 – 1 bought for Sandy and it took les than 1 minute to figure it out. On mine there are two alignment arrows inside one in the battery compartment and one on the inside of the cover. When you un-twist the cover just put it down so you remember the orientation and then put in the 3 D-cells (2 down and 1 up I think). Then holding the cover in its starting position – push down and twist. If you are really not mechanical (I find that hard to believe if you are a Toolguyd reader) then just try it a few times without the batteries to get used to doing it.
Les Garten
I live in Hurricane Country and just snagged 2 of these, great price!
Les Garten
And Lifetime Warranty!
fred
Nice lantern – What you may not know is that:
Rayovac is part of (actually the progenitor of ) Spectrum Brands that sells all sorts of home and garden products. Spectrum acquired part of the Black & Decker and Stanley product lines in 2012 – i.e. the Black & Decker Home Improvement Group. So some door, lock and other hardware labeled Baldwin, Kwikset, National, Pfister, and Weiser is now part of Spectrum Brands. B&D coffee makers, small appliances and some garden tools may also be part of the Spectrum Brands buyout.
Stuart
I did not know that, thanks for the info!
Mike
Ordered on with some D sized spacers for my Eneloops. Interested to see how well they work.
Mike
Just got the lantern and spacers today. Works great with Eneloops.
SteveR
Stuart–Happy New Year. I saw this review and was going to buy one, then saw the listing on Amazon for the Streamlight Siege lantern. I purchased one of these instead on Amazon for $38 and change. It seems to be more solidly built. It was introduced last year, and its 340 lumen output on high may be an exaggeration; I understand their is a new standard for determining that. Nonetheless, it is bright;
has low, medium and high for normal viewing, plus a red mode to protect your eyes and a flashing red SOS mode to attract attention. It can take a six-foot drop, is waterproof and floats
SteveR
Stuart–I accidentally clicked and sent the above comment before I had finished writing it. It also doesn’t blink constantly, like the Ray-O-Vac, which might kill the batteries a bit sooner. We went through a power outage here in Southern California in early December, which lasted for 24 hours. It wasn’t serious, but it was inconvenient if you weren’t prepared for it. Having either of these lanterns would have been ideal for that emergency. Any chance of your getting a sample and making a comparison of the two for your readers?