Here's one that DIDN'T work out for me.
I really liked this Folding LED panel lantern at first. I liked its form factor and the fact that I could dim it to just the right level for the task. I used it as an area light for working on the camper and truck and as a table-top light for the picnic table. It was a bit bluer than I prefer but it cast plenty of light for an outside meal at night or I could dim it down to a glow-light for sitting out. And it worked in near-freezing temperatures. I could tilt the panel to just the right angle for the job and it was relatively compact for a 300-lumen output.
But then it started simply turning itself off after a few minutes -- even after a battery change. It would sometimes refuse to start at all and other times start flashing or simply turn off within a minute of starting up.
I had it past the return period so contacted the manufacturer. I was told they'd be happy to refund my $30 (even though I couldn't find my receipt) and occasionally something like this happens. But when I received the check, I was disappointed to see it contained a legal agreement specifying that by cashing the check I agreed to never pursuing any legal remedy against the manufacturer for any product at any time in the future. (Really?)
I bought a second one at my local Home Depot and of course tried it out right away. Same thing. It ran for ten minutes or so and shut itself off and started doing the same flashing and refusing-to-turn-on things the old one had. There's a demo mode on these that you have to disable so I again went through that process several times. Same thing. New batteries (in case the ones that came with it were bad).... same thing. I gave up and returned it.
I could have just had the bad luck to get two bad units in a row, I suppose. I'm a bit surprised to see it seems to get decent reviews on Amazon. I see there are recent one-star reviews sprinkled liberally through them but lots of good comments too.
I'd be interested to hear of anyone else's experience with this model. I really liked it (until I didn't).
Edited by Old Crow, 28 June 2016 - 12:22 PM.