Choosing the right camping lantern is important if you want to make your camping experience worth remembering. In buying a camping lantern, you have to choose from hundreds of designs and varieties for lanterns. Now, how will you get the right choice of camping lantern that would suffice your camping needs? You can do the choosing better if you are informed of the outdoor lanterns’ different types available.

Camping lights come in four types: the battery-operated, gas-fueled, liquid-fueled, and the candle. All these four types of camping lights have different advantages and disadvantages that must be considered when deciding what to buy. Although all are useful in some ways, not all can provide exactly what you need in your camping activity. In order for you to get the best choice, read the speculations for each type and select the one that you think is perfect for your needs.

Battery camping lanterns use a battery for power. The battery can be rechargeable or disposable. The advantages of a battery lantern is that it is easy to use, quiet during operation and provides a dependable light source. Additionally, a battery lantern is rather safe as there is no open flame to pose a fire or burn risk. The disadvantages are that the light is rather dim compared to other types of lanterns as the amount of power left in the battery directly relates to the brightness of light.

The camping lantern that needs gas is also dependable when it comes to lighting the camping area. The most common gas for this lantern is the butane and propane. This gas fuel is stored in a canister. The good thing with this gas fuel is its convenience and brightness. But you have to be careful with this lantern because it has an open flame and it can get too hot when lit. The cost also should be considered since the fuel is expensive. The canister also weighs about two pounds so if you want to bring more, you have to consider the weight. The lantern may get noisy as well when used and when the weather is not good, the lantern may not work properly.

Liquid fuel camping lanterns use camping fuel, kerosene or unleaded gas for power. This type of camping lantern produces a bright light, is relatively a cheap fuel option and also provides heat in addition to light. It is also more quite in operation than a gas camping lantern, but does emit a soft noise, so it is not completely quiet. As with the gas camping lanterns, liquid fuel lanterns get very hot to the touch and have an open flame which can both produce safety risks.

The candle as a camping lantern is also a good source of light. Aside from giving light, it can also provide insect repellant through its citronella contents. This is considered as the simplest and indigenous type of lantern which does not require any battery or fuel. But the disadvantage with candle lantern is that it has an open flame that might cause fire. You can not use the candle when the wind is strong and the light it gives is only limited to narrow area which means you need to use more than one candle.

Using camping lanterns does not mean using only one type of lanterns. You are free to use two or more types in order to get enough light and brightness for your camping area. If you want to save on expenses, you can use gas-fueled lantern and candles at the same time.

After you have known the available options for your camping lanterns, you should now be able to select the right type of lantern for your perfect camping activity. Just make sure that you prepare for it and plan for it the right way. This will make your camping truly an experience to be remembered for a lifetime.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 4:18 pm and is filed under Exercise. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.