Special Note – I am bringing these around today because the upgraded model listed below is on sale for about the same price as the original models.  Clearly right now buying the older models doesn’t make sense.  These things are awesome and 4-8 belong in ever home.  They are also great gifts for your non prepper type friends.

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is Etekcity’s 4 Pack of LED Lanterns.  These things are an incredible value and are the result of a lot of research.   And now Etekcity has made this product even better, you can still get the original ones in a four pack for 25.99 which is 6.50 a piece.

The new upgraded option is 4 units for 29.99 or 7.50 bucks a piece.  So what does the higher price get you?  Two big things, first they now have a dimmer switch, with four different light levels, that can extend the insane battery life even more, or it is just nice when you want less light.  Also the bases on the new models now have magnets so they will stick to any metal surface.

On top of this the tops now have a storage space.  It isn’t a ton of space but plenty for a small bit of cordage, some tinder, extra keys, etc.  Heck drop a cheap ferro rod in each of them and you have fire and light where ever you go.  All in all as I order more of these, and I will, I will happily spend the extra dollar fifty a piece for these upgrades.

I have previously reviewed The Streamlight Siege Lantern.  And I still think it is the highest quality LED lantern on the market.

It is also 26-114 dollars based on the options you pick.  Even at the lowest priced option if you wanted one for every room of a 8 room house, you are looking at 200 bucks.  Frankly for this type of thing, it is over kill.  I wanted an affordable solution for every room lighting during an extended blackout.

I started looking around and dozens of companies are marketing these little pop up lanterns with minor differences.  The housings are almost identical.  Some are very inexpensive and some cost almost as much as The Siege, none are as good though.

Well I love Etekcity which has a lot of really cool stuff much of which I have reviewed in the past like their Thermal Gun, Power Failure Lights and Remote Control Electrical Outlets.  So I checked and they have this four pack for only $25.99 with free shipping.  This pack is an Amazon best seller with over a 4000 reviews and an average of 5 stars.

But I always check the one star reviews before picking an item.  Many times you can tell said reviews are written by idiots.  In this case, however; they bothered me.  Almost all of them say they got one that didn’t work out of the box and then never worked again.  So I began checking other options, heck it is almost like ever single brand of these things are clones.   They all have great reviews, a few bad reviews and all the different ones have almost the exact same complaint, dead on arrival or after one use.

So I contacted Etekcity who has great service and said basically that it is understandable at this price point and selling so many a few will have problems, but what is your return/replacement policy and this is what I got back in return, within an hour by the way!

Hello Jack,

Thank you for reaching out to us and thank you for all the feedback we appreciate it. Honestly we sell hundreds if not a thousand of these lanterns a day and we do have problems with them, they are not perfect.

 

Typically the main issue is a little toggle switch in the base that likely during shipping breaks unfortunately and once in awhile the top of the lantern is cracked or loose again probably due to shipping.

 

Once the lantern makes it to the customer and they arrive in good order we never hear from the customer because they seem to not fail with normal use.

 

We usually only hear from the customers the moment they open the package and find the damage and then we immediately send out a replacement and then all lanterns come with a 1 year warranty.

 

These are not the worlds greatest lantern but for around $6 each, they are one of amazons best sellers and we think for the price they are the best around.

 

thank you

Okay so every single one of those one star reviews are people that simply could  have gotten a free replacement, on a $6.50 product?  Honestly this is why I have recommended so many things from Etekcity.

Talk about honesty in a nut shell they said, “hey look when you sell this many products of this type some will have problems, but we stand by and replace them”, what more could you ask for for about 6 bucks?

With that I was sold, I got two sets, we have them in our black out kits and if one fails, I don’t care I have 16!  That said all of mine have worked just fine and were in perfect shape when they got here.  But this was important to me, I wanted to be sure that if you did have a problem, Etekcity would fix it and I wanted to give you a lot cost option for back up lighting.  And hey even at this stupid cheap price, batteries are included!  Please consider that even cheap ass Rayovac Batteries are about 8 bucks for a 12-Pack.

And these do that, they will give you 12 full hours of light off three measly AA batteries.  So to me at the cost and for what they do this is the best deal in back up LED lighting for your house and your BOK (Black Out Kit).    So I really recommend you pick up at least one of the orginal Etekcity’s 4 Pack of LED Lanterns  and I really think the Upgraded Version is worth the exta few bucks.  I really have to say though, I like that Etekcity didn’t discontinue the old lanterns and left the choice to consumer.  There are some other manufacturers out there that could learn a thing or two from them.

Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com

P.S. – I have noticed a few negative reviews complaining of leaking batteries ruining these lanterns.  Here is my rule for batteries, never store them in your devices for long periods of time.  I don’t care if the device is expensive or cheap, I don’t care of the batteries are generic or top brand, just don’t do it.

We keep flashlights (mostly D-Cell Maglites) around the house, we use them all the time.  Used devices never seem to have this problem.  When they start to weaken we replace them.

In our BOK we keep our devices and with them a ziplock bag with 4 sets of batteries per device in the bag.  We use our power failure lights and flashlights to retrieve our BOK and simply put the batteries in at that point and time.

Note that it is true that battery manufacturers are required by law to replace any device that leaking batteries destroy.  That doesn’t help in the middle of a black out though does it?  Simply put any device that is not used often, take the batteries out of it, store them with it and save yourself the headache.