Folks, keep walking. I bought a pack a couple weeks ago, and it took me less than 60 seconds to determine these are a complete piece of junk, with no redeeming qualities. :thumbsdowRiver Rock's they ain't. Fit, finish and performance are not even in the RR's ballpark. I'd spend another $20 on one RR over three of these at the $17 markdown price I paid. After Christmas you'll probably be able to buy the three-pack for $5 or less. Even then, I won't be in line, so worthless are they.
0:00 - Remove lantern from box.
0:05 - Note four cheap, anemic 5 mm LEDs pointing up toward a RR-
like reflective cone.
0:10 - Remove threaded battery cover. Note two short sets of shallow threads molded into base, covering only about 30% of circumference.
0:30 - Load four AA batteries in the not-too-terrible battery holder and insert into lantern body.
0:45 - Struggle to screw battery cover into body. With loaded battery holder, it's impossible to screw the cover into the base without cross-threading the cover. :hairpull: You either have to keep screwing it in cross-threaded until it pops into the proper threads on the last turn, or push on the cover to pop it into the proper threads. Once situated, it seems secure, but how long can these cheesy, shallow plastic threads survive cross-threading at every battery change?
0:60 - Go into dark laundry room and press power button. Nothing. Diddle with battery cover, light flickers. Unscrew cover slightly -- find sweet spot -- light works. This is supposed to be a "lantern," right? Dim only begins to describe this thing. :candle: Someone mentioned that this lantern has only one power level. The RR has only one also, but could use another one or two. On this lantern, however, three power levels would equate to dim, dimmer, and dimmest. To put a dimmer on this lantern would be akin to donning a pair of sunglasses on the eve of a full moon. If you turned a River Rock 4AA, 1.5 watt lantern on, and turned this one on next to it, you would not even be able to see this lantern's illumination at all. To call the throw "ringy" is being polite. It casts a dim light only from the "horizon" upward about 45 degrees, with lots of pretty artifacts. At the very upper end of it's reach, the pattern is actually quite pretty ... looks sort of like a doily.
Illumination below the horizon is nonexistent.
Fit and finish are, I suppose, what one would expect from a $5.66 made-in-china lantern.:shakehead
So, sixty seconds to ascertain it's a POS ... one hour to go back to store and stand in the return line. Don't bother. And if you're thinking maybe you could just give a set as a cheap gift, saying to yourself, "It's the thought that counts," your recipient will be asking himself after turning it on, "
What was he
thinking?"
It's really not worth modding.
That battery cover is going to give up the ghost quickly and undo all your hard work. Putting in a brighter LED isn't going to overcome the poor reflector. It's shape and orientation casts no light below the horizon. You can see the reflection of the four LEDs in it from a higher angle, but as you bring your eyes down to it's side, the LEDs disappear from sight. What's that sticker you see on the back of semi-trucks? "If you can't see me in my mirror, then I can't see you." The surface of the River Rock conical reflector has a radius to it, to help cast light downward also. This reflector does not. It has just a flat slope. Makes all the difference.
Yeah, the package looks cute and pretty... should move a lot off the shelves before Christmas.
But in sales jargon, they're a "boomerang", or a "be back." :wave:
