610 Lumen Highpowered LED Lantern 5949

First, I am a survivor of Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey. I lived without power for weeks and so I have become an expert on battery powered led lighting. Led lanterns are safe for the indoors unlike the propane lanterns. The propane lanterns should absolutely not be used for indoors at all as they are very dangerous for that purpose.During Hurricane Sandy I used the 3 D cell Ray-O-Vac Sportsman Extreme lanterns which were the brightest led lanterns for the 2012 time period. Since that time, there are two brighter 6 D cell led lanterns which came out on the market. Just recently, I purchased both of them to update my lantern collection. Lets face it, the weather has become more pronounced and every household needs multiple lanterns and flashlights.Here are the differences between the two:- Both lanterns appear and feel similarly constructed. There are minor differences in appearance, but both seem like the same people might have built them.- The Weatherrite uses a single Cree KM XML-U2 led emitter covered by a plastic diffuser. It has high, low and flash settings. The globe is transluscent, clear and thus the light is sharper/stronger then the UST lantern. It takes 6 D cells.- The UST 60 day uses 4 Nichia led emitters covered by a plastic diffuser. It has low, medium, high and flash settings. The globe is clouded thus producing a softer light then the Weatherrite lantern.- The Weatherrite seems brighter, the resulting light is sharper.- The Weatherrite seems a tad looser built then the UST 60 day. Not much looser built, but just slightly looser build then the UST. The UST has RoHS and CE stamped on the battery cover. The Weattherite has none. Both are made in China.- The battery covers are similar on the outside, but different on the inside. Both seem challenging to change the batteries quickly. You need to line something up on both.- The UST 60 day has absolutely no complaints in the various reviews. The Weatherrite has overall good reviews, but there are several complaints where the lantern suddenly stopped working.- The UST 60 day is priced at $47 and the Weatherrite at $32.For myself, I have two Weatherrites, two UST 60 days, four UST 10 days, the Ray-O-Vac lanterns I used for Hurricane Sandy and quite a few others. Im not getting caught in the dark again and I suggest everyone have multiple lighting solutions.As I was typing this review there was a huge lighting bolt which hit and the power went out. The outage lasted through the night. Both the Weatherite 610 and the UST 60 Day really provided a lot more light then what I was used to during Hurricane Sandy. I took off the globes and I would say each lantern was about equivalent to a 40-60 watt bulb. My opinion its best to use these with the globes removed and to mount them up high like on a shelf bouncing the light around.Whichever you get, it will be an improvement over your previous lanterns.

This is the brightest battery-operated lantern that I own, hands down. The lantern might not be as efficient as other LED lanterns, but if you want a bright lantern and don't want to use propane or white gas, this lantern is the way to go.The lantern has three modes: low (270 lumens), high (610 lumens), and high flash. For reference, a typical 60-watt incandescent bulb is about 800 lumens, so we're not talking blindingly bright, but plenty of light for most anything you want to do. You can cycle through the modes by pressing the pushbutton switch repeatedly. The box says that you get 50 hours of light on low and 30 hours of light on high. That's not a lot of time to get out of six D batteries, but it's better than what you'll get from any fluorescent lantern that puts out anywhere near the amount of light as this lantern puts out.The glow-in-the-dark pushbutton switch has a green LED behind it that blinks when the lantern is off. The switch is visible from pretty much any angle in front of the lantern.The lantern is sturdy (ABS plastic in a rubber jacket). The lantern weighs 3 1/2 lbs with six D batteries (1 lb 11 oz without).You load the batteries by unscrewing the battery compartment lid from the bottom of the lantern. You can remove the globe by unscrewing the globe from the base, and then hang the lantern upside down from a small hitch point that's embedded in the battery compartment lid. The hitch point is pretty small, so if you want to hang the lantern upside down, thread a bit of rope or a ball bungee through the hitch point and hang the lantern that way. There's no O-ring around the globe or around the battery compartment lid to keep water out, so take extra care not to dunk the lantern.The main drawbacks of this lantern is that 1) there's no super-low mode that you can use to sneak off to the bathroom without disturbing sleeping companions (only bright and brighter), 2) the lantern is physically larger and heavier than most LED lanterns, and 3) if the box is to be believed, the lantern on low mode eats batteries at a considerably faster rate than other LED lanterns that produce around 300 lumens (for example, the Nichia 300 Lumens Extreme LED Lantern). I'm inclined to believe the box, because the lantern uses only one LED to produce all the light, and the one LED produces quite a bit of warmth for an LED. There's smaller, lighter, more efficient options if you don't need so much light, but if you need a super-bright battery-operated lantern, this is the way to go.

The lantern is pretty rugged and throws a ALOT of light. However, once the batteries are installed, the on/off button begins to blink green (so you can find the lantern at night) but there is no way to turn that off which ends up draining the batteries unless you take the batteries out.

The base is in two parts, the internal part has metal strips that connect the batteries together. Unfortunately, the internal part of the base is connected to the external part with a small screw that threads into plastic. Of course the screw stripped out and the part with the metal pieces that is supposed to connect the batteries spins freely and does not connect the batteries. With some fiddling I was able to get the light to work and it is quite bright. The design of the base is fatally flawed, though.

This lantern and other ones that look similar to it are bad designs. When hung vertically it does not illuminate directly above or below itself. When laid horizontally it does not illuminate left or right of itself, so useless! The 610 lumen rating is a BLATANT LIE, I have a $16 Might-D-Light Mini rated at 250 lumen that shines at least 25% brighter than this piece of garbage lantern (yes, the lantern was on its brightest setting). I seriously regret paying $32 for this stupid thing. You'd be wise to buy a brighter, less expensive, and much more useful and versatile light like the Might-D-Light instead: Might-D-Light LED125C, LED Compact Folding Camo Worklight