Reviews > Lighting > Lanterns > Coleman Exponent Xcursion Lantern > Jodi Cornelius > Initial Report

Date: October 5, 2005

My Background: I have been backpacking for 3 years now and before that I car camped quite a bit. I consider myself somewhat new to backpacking and am on my way towards becoming a lightweight packer. I tend to use a Hennessey Hammock since my only tent is a bivy tent. I prefer the hammock to a tent as the hammock leaves me swinging gently in the breeze with no hard spot from rocks on the ground. Nor do I need to dig troughs for my hips and shoulders (side sleeper) so I can practice LNT (Leave No Trace) much better.

Initial impressions:I received my lantern along with a heater and table that I was selected to test. Upon opening the box I found this really cute lantern along with 5 extra packages of push-on mantles for this lantern.

Xcursion lantern, box, and green key

Unfortunately, my first impression after seeing it out of the box was one of annoyance. The blasted thing wouldn't light! I had purchased a can of the PowerMax fuel that is needed to operate this lantern when I learned that I was selected for this test. So it was with eagerness that I filled that baby up and got ready to light it. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me back up. I opened the lantern and removed the globe (see photo below).

Lantern with globe off and mantle installed

I installed the mantle as seen in the picture. Next, I lit the mantle to pre-burn it as this is a necessary part of any mantled lantern. I then replaced the globe and filled the lantern until the sound changed and I was fairly sure that it was full. I then turned the knob to what I thought was on (see photo for close up of knob)

Front of the lantern showing knob

Looking at the photo, you can see the diagram above the knob showing the "off" to "on" position. Unfortunately, nothing in the manual, nor on the lantern itself does it say anything about having to turn the knob PAST where it looks like the "on" is at. The first times that I tried to light the lantern, all it would do is go "poof" in my face and not light. I finally realized, after playing with the knob for a bit, that the knob continues "around the block", so to speak, about 4 or 5 times before it stops. So I relit it and blue flame shot out of the knob hole and blew the match out without lighting the mantle. By now, I'm getting totally disgusted. I wait a few minutes and then return to the lantern (I hate giving up!). This time, I lit the match, stuck it in the globe, turned the knob as quickly and as far to the left as I could and got it to finally light without shooting blue flames at me but then it promptly sputtered and went out. Heaving a huge sigh, I waited another couple of minutes and tried again. FINALLY! The lantern lit and stayed lit! I let it run for about 30 minutes and then turned it off. I waited about 15 minutes and then re-lit the lantern. It wouldn't stay lit again. I turned it off again, waited another couple of minutes and tried again. This time it stayed lit and every time after this, it lit as it was supposed to. When speaking with the representative from Coleman regarding this (I was orignally speaking to her about the heater which is another story and another test) the only reason I could think of for this lantern to act this way was somehow there were possibly pockets of air in the line. She didn't have an answer for that either, but either way, it is now working. Fortuatively, our power went out the next morning before daylight! YES!! A chance to use my lantern. I turned it on, got it lit, grabbed it by the handle and headed back to the bathroom. And the mantle fell off.<sigh>. It had been really difficult to get on in the first place and although I had gently tugged on it to verify that it had, indeed, finally gone on, it still fell off. So making my way back to the dining room where I had my matches, I found a flashlight. Power came back on shortly after that so I went back to the lantern and took the mantle out and examined it, comparing it to another mantle out of the package. There is a brass connecting ring around the top of the mantle with two small clips on the inside (see photos below).

Showing how small the mantle is	Hard to see but where the mark is there is a brass clip similar to a "c" ring

The first mantle I had so much difficulty installing had the "c" ring too far inside the brass clip making it so the mantle couldn't be installed all the way. The next one I installed was fine and it clipped on with no difficulty. After messing with it for the last week, I have finally gotten it to light on a regular basis without fighting it or having it blow blue flames at me. Now that it's functioning properly, it's a pretty neat piece of equipment.

It is very light, weighing in at 12.08 oz/342 g empty and 13.18/374 g full. It holds a modest 1.8 oz/51 g amount of fuel and according to the manual, it will burn up to 6 continuous hours. It's also a bright little thing. The box says it is 10 candle power light output and I tend to agree with that estimate. Another nice thing about the lantern is it only takes 20 seconds to fill! The PowerMax fuel cartridge doesn't stay attached to the lantern which is a nice thing. You don't have the added weight of the cartridge pulling on the lantern. I like that. Another thing that is nice is it has 2 sliding doors that act as a case when both are up or as a reflector when the back one is up.  The green key is a nice add-on except there's no place to "carry" it with the lantern - it would be nice if there was a recessed place in the bottom of the lantern where it could clip in.  Otherwise, it can be real easy to lose.

Test Plan: The box states that the lantern will operate in temperatures as low as 15 F/-9.5 C. I will be testing this to see if it is consistant. I will also be checking to see if it will possibly burn at lower temperatures for any length of time. I will also be checking it for how long it burns on a full tank, making note of each time I light it and how long it remains lit.

Temperatures should range anywhere from 80 F/27 C to possible lows of -5 F/-21 C. I will be hanging the lantern on the Coleman Backpacker Gear and Table System when outside and plan on using it when the power goes out this winter. I will be looking to see if the base gets hot at all (which it shouldn't). I'll be testing, also, to see how well the sliding doors work. Do they stay up with no difficulty or after a lot of use, do they tend to want to slide back down? I will also be watching for any more blue flame attacks.  The altitude will average at 1829 ft/557 m with changes as low as 1100 ft/335 m to a high of 2476 ft/755 m.

Likes:

Dislikes:

Overall, I'm looking forward to testing this piece of gear.

Reviews > Lighting > Lanterns > Coleman Exponent Xcursion Lantern > Jodi Cornelius > Initial Report