Aladdin lights for boondocking?

[LyleB]

Anyone ever resort to Aladdin lamps for boondocking? Seems like a very workable solution to conserve electric power.

Solar shower, kerosine or gas lamps, gas stove, gas refrigerator, small solar charger to top off electronics batteries if you must. No electrical hook-up needed, total comfort.

Sounds good to me.

[Byron Kinnaman]

There's one problem with flame generated light, yup it's fire.
I replaced all of my interior lights with LED lights. Now I can boondock in the summer for close to a month without recharging the battery. In the winter when I need the furnace I usually need to recharge about every 4 or 5 days, depending on how cold it is and how much the furnace runs. FYI-I set the thermostat for 50°F at night.

I have a portable 65 Watt solar panel that I use for recharging if I'm in one place long enough. Otherwise the truck does the job. Solar showers work good too. Flame light, to me, is no-no. If you don't want to change the lights for very little money there Lulci lights. I have 3 of those that I use outside. But would be better to use inside than flame lights.

[Gilda]

Just for fun, and a little illumination, try these battery-operated LED string lights. I love the Tinkerbell quality to them! I hang mine in a swag over the back window. Ashland® Everlasting Glow™ Light String

[Byron Kinnaman]

LED rope lights are pretty cheap and you can get them with solar charging. I have on string. Look here

[Glenn Baglo]

And, kerosene stinks. Do not spill it in the vehicle or in the trailer.
I got rid of my kerosene heater and left the porta potti behind when I sold my cabin.

[Cathi]

We have Black Diamond battery-powered lanterns from REI from our tent days. We used them on or last trip and many times for years and they work very well.

[Al and Cindy K]

We have several oil/kerosene lamps around the house (not sure how many, if any, are the Aladdin brand) and use them whenever there's an extended power outage which isn't that infrequent in rural northeastern NC. They work well for this purpose but I don't think they'd be a great option for camping.

You'd need to transport them empty to avoid leakage and they're relatively fragile and bulky. Also, as Byron noted, there's the issue of an open flame and I'm always bumping into something when moving around inside the camper. If the wick is trimmed properly and you use a good quality fuel, they produce little odor when lit but do output a surprising amount of heat in confined areas which may or may not be a bad thing.

For ambiance lighting, the battery or solar powered strings recommend by Byron and Gilda look good. Earlier this year, we converted to all LED's in the Scamp and replaced the 12v with two 6v golf cart batteries wired in series. So far, power hasn't been an issue and we seldom camp with hookups. We also have a couple of battery powered LED head lamps close by if more light is needed for a particular task.

[MRClaus]

do they make a propane ac ?

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by MRClaus

do they make a propane ac ?

never seen one.

[slowpat]

I wouldn't. I've got two of them that I have used during power outages in my house.
They can be smoky and do put out an odor.
They have to be watched--sometimes they burn weirdly and flame shoots out the top. I could see them burning the ceiling of a trailer quite easily.
They are fragile and expensive. The mantle would fall apart if treated roughly and the chimney is made of very thin, breakable glass.


I like the Luci light. It is a lightweight, solar recharging LED lantern. It weighs a couple of ounces, has two bright settings and of course, a strobe. It squishes down into the size of a CD, and is not fragile.

[Roger C H]

From our tenting days, we had a kerosene 'railroad' lantern and eventually bought a Coleman propane gas lantern.
The kerosene does put out an odor and the light is okay for general use but not strong enough for playing cards or any activity which requires seeing detail.
The Coleman is akin to having an 100 watt bare electric light. It is plenty bright but does put out a lot of heat.
We had incandescents as OEM on our Trillium, but have now replaced them with LEDs. The incandescents got really hot and I was concerned about what was near them.

[Bob Miller]

Originally Posted by LyleB

Anyone ever resort to Aladdin lamps for boondocking? Seems like a very workable solution to conserve electric power.

Solar shower, kerosine or gas lamps, gas stove, gas refrigerator, small solar charger to top off electronics batteries if you must. No electrical hook-up needed, total comfort.

Sounds good to me.

I'm only guessing that you are talking about these:
Aladdin Oil Lamps - the world's finest non electric lamps
and, with the advent of inexpensive LED lighting I can't for the life of me see any advantage whatsoever.

If you really want a "Fuel Burning" lamp, there were, at least at one time, wall mounted LP burning RV lights offered. They were an option in Hunters I the early 70's. But with replacing mantels and using up LP fuel, I'd still opt for LED's and even the smallest of solar panels to top off the battery during the day.

[Captleemo]

There is a brand of LED lanterns called UST. They have a 10 day, 30 day, and a 60 day lantern. On the low setting they will run 10 days, 30 days, or 60 days 24 hours a day at the low setting. There are several YouTube videos of people testing the 30 day version to see if they will really run that long. One of them said the batteries still had some juice in them after 30 days. I bought the 60 day version and it takes 6 D cell batteries. I figured that it would be a nice camping lantern and come in handy at home during a power outage.
http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Survi...60+day+lantern

[Carol H]

I honestly do not recall seeing anyone out camping in the last few years using a flamed based lantern. For travel storage and safety, the LED Lanterns are far better options. With the low power use of LED lights the batteries last a long time vs older traditional battery operated lanterns. When not in use just toss them into a storage spot and forget about them - does not matter if they store on their sides or fall upside down.

I have seen a lot of old fuel based/open flame lanterns at garbage sales though. ;-)

[Ttocs M]

Love my Luci Lights - put them on dash of car when driving, or top of kayak when kayak camping...guess I could put them on top of my cap while hiking!