Review: Luci Solar Powered Inflatable Lanterns
I found about MPOWDERD’s Luci Lanterns on the High Sierra Trail. On the first night, one of the women in the group pulled out her lantern, blew it up and hung it in a tree for more light in camp. I thought it was brilliant!
It solved the problem of everyone sitting in camp with headlamps on blinding each other. The lamp helped set the mood.
Once in your tent, you can even hang up the lantern to have light so you can read and relax before going to bed. And in the morning, she deflated the lantern, hooked it on her pack, and charged it while we hiked.
I bring at least one of these lanterns on all of my trips in addition to my headlamp.
I’ve tried a couple of their lanterns, and below are my thoughts on their different ones.
I’ve taken this one on the most backpacking trips since it’s fairly smaller in size and light. It has a nice frosted look to it which I like, I’m all about setting the mood in camp. The light will also last up to 24 hours on a single charge and charges in 7 hours of direct sunlight.
It’s 65 lumens with 10 warm white LEDs and has four light settings – low, medium, high, and 1-second flashing.
On low, the lantern can run for 24 hours, on medium it can run for 12 hours, on high for 6 hours and on the 1 second flashing it can run for 9 hours.
Bring a carabiner or something else to hang this light in your tent. It has a little strap which is nice to be able to hang it from a tree or to hold it, but inside of my tent, I have little loops on the roof. So I can carabiner the light to the roof of my tent and have a nice light to read with or if it’s raining, you can hang in your tent and play cards.
This lantern is also waterproof and floats when inflated! So you can use it for a nighttime pool party too.
It’s small – 10.8 cm height, 12.7 cm in diameter, 2.5 cm collapsed and only weighs 4.4 ounces.
If you don’t like the frosted look, there’s also one without it.
It’s heavier (10.1 ounces) and bigger ( 6 x 6 x 2.3 inches) than the Lux but it has a charging port so you can charge your phone, watch, portable charger, etc. with it.
Also, you can charge this one through a USB port at home which takes 5 to 6 hours or through the sun which takes 28 hours.
This one is waterproof, has 31 warm white LEDs and four light modes – low, medium, high, and flashing. The high setting goes up to 360 lumens and lasts up to 2.5 hours.
I also like that this one has a fixed strap and one that unclips and can be extended. Since it also does unclip, you don’t need a carabiner to hang this lantern in your tent.
This lantern also has a frosted finish. Yay ambiance in camp.
I haven’t used this one as much as the others because it’s not frosted. Small cosmetic preference.
It has a USB port so you can charge your phone with it and charge the light with it. It’s lighter and smaller than the Luci Base Light (1 inch collapsed and 5.5 ounces).
It has 10 cool white LEDs that shine up to 150 lumens, and it has four modes – high, medium, low, and 1-second flashing.
It charges fully in 14 hours in direct sunlight and 2 hours through the USB cable and lasts for 50 hours!
Like the other lights, this one is waterproof too.
I love these! They’re not as functional on a long backpacking trip compared to the others, but I love that they’re colorful and you can use them in your backyard, at home, and in camp.
I was at a backyard wedding in Colorado in July and they didn’t have lighting when it got dark except for a few candles. So I brought out my colorful lanterns and it made such a difference!
You can change the colors to lavender, violet, sky, powder, mint, lime, coral, and rose.
They are waterproof so you can toss them in the pool for a nighttime pool party. I also bring them car camping to add some light and color to our campground as we’re prepping freeze dried meals, chatting and playing cards.
These have a frosted/matte finish, they are 5 x 4.25 inches inflated, weights 4.4 ounces, and have 10 RGB LEDs.
They can last up to 24 hours on a full charge and take 7 hours to fully charge in direct sunlight.
This one is my favorite because it’s colorful and glittery! Two of my favorite things!
There are 9 color modes including red, green, blue, purple, yellow, cyan, orange, and white and it can last 6 hours.
The lantern is 5 x 4.25 inches inflated, weights 4.4 ounces, and has 10 RGB LEDs.
And it’s waterproof so you can still have the pool party or hang out at the lake with these.
