Amazon.com Reviews
Average Rating: 4.0 out of 5 Stars
The following review received 52 helpful votes out of 53 total votes:Review Date: 2006-03-28"Really cool gizmo"
I love,love,love,this light.Take my word for it buy this and you will not regret it.I bought this becuase,i'm going backpacking across europe this summer.I took out my gear for a test run this weekend and fell in love with this light.The light really lit up my tent and is easy use.You can put it anywhere in tent or anywhere you need an extra light.This light runs off 4 AA batteries and takes up little space in your bag. 5 stars The following review received 45 helpful votes out of 46 total votes:Review Date: 2006-08-20"Good light - not so bright"This is a pretty good tent light and reasonably priced.
Pros: It's small and easy to pack. It safely attaches to the tent without causing and problems. It's easy to use. It works. Flexible.
Cons: The light it gives is a bit dim. Many battery based lanterns give off much more light (although not as flexible in positioning). It's difficult to position with just one person because you have to have the magnet outside the tent and the light inside, so unless you can reach to the point outside where you want it, then you need to have someone else hold the magnet in place while you place the light inside the tent. This isn't much of a problem though.
Overall I gave it 4 stars because it works and it's easy to use and low priced. It could use a brighter light, but otherwise is pretty good. 4 stars The following review received 21 helpful votes out of 21 total votes:Review Date: 2007-08-10"A Nice Piece of Kit, Somewhat Bulky"This is a really nice piece of camping kit, as it "clips" with the magnet to any part of your tent in seconds. (It's got a pretty strong magnet bar, which goes on the outside of your tent, and the metal bracket of the light anchors it on the inside.) At first I wondered if the tight contact of the light would cause the tent to leak, and so far the answer has been a very clear and dry no.
The light is incandescent, inside a more or less traditional sealed bulb. I have had no problem with the light or bulb in the 2+ years I've owned this light. The lens diffuses the light nicely, so if you put this light at the crown of your tent, you will have light throughout.
My only problem with this unit is that it's kind of big and bulky. It's not that heavy, even with the four AA batteries installed, but it's kind of large. In a camping world in which we've got wind-up LED systems and increasingly smaller lights which provide more and more light, I would think that an up-tech'd version of this light could be smaller and throw out more light. If you're doing backwoods trekking where every ounce counts, this is probably not the solution you need. But if you're doing family camping, car camping, or going to camps that have existing tents (summer camps, scout camps), then this is a really fantastic piece of gear.
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Update, 24 July 08
Now about a year on, here are additional comments on this piece:
It continues to function just fine, but I have one complaint. I do not store this unit with batteries in it, so each time I go camping I open the case to install and then later remove the batteries.
(The case opens by way of gently pinching the two sides together at the lamp's waist, between the on/off switch and the lower magnetic housing. There are no locks, springs or mechanical latches; the two parts of the lamp are kept together only by the flex of the upper lamp housing itself.)
After a year of easy and careful use the upper plastic housing around the pinch points has started to crack. The unit still works just fine (I just got back from a week in the woods), but it's only a matter of time now until the housing splits or a large chunk of the plastic comes off, preventing the unit from coming together and thereby ruining it. 4 stars The following review received 17 helpful votes out of 17 total votes:Review Date: 2006-07-11"The right light for a nice night"The Coleman Tent Light is a specialized flashlight that's versatile and lightweight. It has a xenon bulb that's about the brightest bulb available in a flashlight and it only requires 4 AA batteries. The diffuser disperses the light throughout your tent or other area. It attaches safely to your tent without taking up a lot of room nor does it add any heat load to your comfort space.
The bottom line: the Coleman Tent Light is a nice addition to your camping equipment list unless you absolutely must cut to the bare minimum. 4 stars The following review received 11 helpful votes out of 11 total votes:Review Date: 2008-05-27"A for Idea, B for Execution"The Coleman Tent Light is a great idea. This wedge-shaped light is backed with two powerful magnets and a removeable metal mounting plate. Take the mounting plate off, put the light wherever you want to in your tent, put the mounting plate on the outside of your tent behind the light and viola! You now have light, and it easily clicks on and off with one hand, which is important when camping. The magnets are strong enough to mount the light to either horizontal or verticle surfaces. It takes AA batteries and it's easy to get the unit apart to put the batteries in or replace them.
In fact, it's too easy, and that is one of my complaints. The magnets are so poweful that pretty much anytime I take the mounting plate off, the light comes apart, too. I guess it's not that big a deal, but seems to me that it just could have been designed to avoid that. Things that continually fall apart have that "cheap" feel to them, and that's not what I want to feel when I'm in the middle of the woods. I want to have confidence in my gear!
My second "complaint" is that the light is also not that bright. I put this in a four-person tent and it was just a little more dim than I would have preferred. It was certainly bright enough to see and get ready for sleep; this is not going to be a reading lamp, though.
All-all-all, this is not a bad product and I'm happy I have it for the price at which it was sold. I just wonder if there maybe isn't something a little better out there. 3 stars |