Etekcity Camping Lantern Review: I Brought It to Five Different Campsites

The first time I pulled out the Etekcity collapsible LED lantern at a campsite in Ochlockonee River State Park, my camping partner looked at it and said, "That's it?" It weighs 4.6 ounces with three AA batteries inside. It collapses to a disc about the thickness of a paperback novel. And for the past 14 months I've brought it to five different sites across Florida and north Georgia, including one trip where it sat in a tent through a night of steady rain. I want to tell you what I actually found, not just recite the bullet points.

I spent 14 years as a park ranger at Apalachicola National Forest before I retired. Lighting at a campsite is something I think about differently than most buyers because I've responded to enough nighttime incidents to know what happens when people's gear fails them. When I bought the Etekcity B00XM8HTIS for personal use, I paid attention to things the average buyer might skip: how evenly it distributes light, whether the on/off mechanism holds up after dozens of cycles, and whether the 100-lumen high mode is bright enough for a two-person tent setup.

How I've Used It

Over 14 months I used this lantern across five camping trips. Three were car camping trips at developed sites with fire rings and picnic tables. One was a two-night dispersed camping trip in Conecuh National Forest where I hiked in about 1.8 miles. One was a family group site at Anastasia State Park where I had the lantern going for six or seven hours a night over three nights. I used it for reading inside the tent, as a table lantern during dinner, hanging from a tree branch above the cook station, and clipped to the top of a daypack left at the entrance to a pit toilet. Not glamorous, but representative of how lanterns actually get used.

I ran it on Energizer Max AA batteries the entire time, which is the baseline the product description implies. On high mode I got roughly 8 hours of usable light before the output dropped noticeably. On low mode, which puts out around 30 lumens, I tracked closer to 28 hours of runtime over multiple sessions. If you run it on high for two or three hours each evening, a single set of three AAs will last you a standard weekend trip. I went through two sets of batteries across all five trips combined.

Brightness: What 100 Lumens Actually Looks Like

The Etekcity is rated at 100 lumens on high. For context, a typical candle produces roughly 12 lumens. A decent headlamp starts around 150 to 200 lumens. So 100 lumens is not blinding, but it is genuinely useful. At a picnic table with the lantern in the center, I could read a map, sort through a first-aid kit, or prep vegetables for dinner without straining. The light diffuses evenly through the white plastic panels in a 360-degree pattern, which is the real advantage of a lantern over a flashlight.

Where 100 lumens falls short is illuminating a larger space. For a two-person tent with gear spread across the floor, one lantern on high gives you reading light but not working light. On the Anastasia trip I had two of them going simultaneously, one hanging near the door and one near the foot of the sleeping bags. That combination worked well. If you're planning a group site with a large dining fly, plan on two or three of these rather than one. A single 100-lumen lantern for a 6-person group is not enough.

The light diffuses in a full 360-degree circle, which is the one thing a flashlight cannot do no matter how powerful it is.

The Collapsible Design: Clever Engineering or Fragile Gimmick?

The collapsible mechanism is the feature that sold me and the feature I watched most carefully. When collapsed, the lantern is about 1.5 inches tall, flat as a hockey puck but a bit wider and oval in shape. You pull up the top handle and the accordion plastic body extends to full height, around 5.5 inches. The LED panel sits inside the extended body and the top handle doubles as a hook for hanging.

After 14 months of use including packing it loose in a stuff sack, dropping it twice on rock, and leaving it in a hot car in July, the collapse mechanism still clicks in and out cleanly. The accordion panels have some minor stress marks near the base folds but no cracks. The handle hook has some play in it now that wasn't there initially, so I wouldn't trust it with much more than 8 to 10 ounces of hanging weight, which is fine since the lantern itself weighs 4.6 ounces. The battery compartment door opens and closes without issues. For a lantern at this price point I expected the plastic to feel thin and temporary. It is light, but it doesn't feel like it's about to break.

Battery Life Deep Dive

The Etekcity runs on 3 AA batteries. That is both a strength and a limitation. The strength: AA batteries are everywhere. If you're car camping at a developed site and your batteries die, the camp store at the entrance almost certainly sells AAs. If you're three days into a backcountry trip with no resupply, the extra weight of spare AAs matters. On a backpacking trip I prefer a USB-C rechargeable lantern. On a car camping trip, AAs are a genuine convenience because I don't have to think about charging before I leave home.

At high mode (100 lumens), expect 6 to 8 hours from a fresh set of Energizer Max AAs. At low mode (approximately 30 lumens), expect 25 to 30 hours. The step-down in output is noticeable when you switch modes but not jarring. There is no gradual dimming control, just two settings via the button on top. I would have liked a middle mode around 60 lumens for dinner table use, but at this price point that is asking for a feature that costs twice as much to build in.

Weather and Durability: The Rain Test

On the Conecuh National Forest trip, my tent developed a small floor leak during a night of steady moderate rain. The lantern was on the ground at the foot of the sleeping bag. It got wet on the outside, not submerged, but more than a light mist. It kept working. After I got home I checked the battery compartment and the contacts were clean. The Etekcity is not rated IP67 waterproof. The product description does not claim any specific weather resistance. I would not set it out in open rain or use it near a stream crossing. But the construction is tight enough that incidental moisture, the kind you get from condensation or light drizzle while moving between tarp and tent, has not caused any problems for me.

The plastic body does pick up scratches easily. After five trips mine looks used, not broken. The paint or coating on the yellow plastic has some chips where it collided with tent stakes in the gear bag. None of that affects function. If you need something that looks pristine after years of hard use, you're in the wrong price range entirely.

Alternatives I Considered

Before I settled on the Etekcity I looked at the Black Diamond Moji lantern and a UCO Cloak headlamp/lantern combo. The Black Diamond Moji runs on AAA batteries, puts out 100 lumens, weighs about 3 ounces, and costs significantly more. Its advantage is a smoother dimming dial. Its disadvantage is that it is harder to hang and does not collapse flat for packing. For a detailed comparison of those two, see my piece on the Etekcity vs Black Diamond Moji lantern.

The UCO Cloak hybrid was interesting but the lantern attachment mode felt like an afterthought. I want a lantern to be a lantern. I'll carry a separate headlamp. If you're curious why I prefer LED lanterns over propane for most car camping situations, I covered the main reasons in my piece on why LED camping lanterns beat old-school gas lanterns.

Who This Is For

The Etekcity is the right call for car campers who want reliable ambient light without adding weight or complexity to their gear list. It is especially good for people who camp two to four times a year at developed sites with vehicle access, because the AA battery dependency is never a problem and the compact pack size means it takes up almost no room in the camping bin. I also think it's a strong recommendation for anyone building an emergency kit at home. The collapsible form factor stores flat in a kitchen drawer, it runs on the same batteries as a TV remote, and it puts out more useful light than any candle.

It is also a good secondary lantern for backpackers who use a more powerful rechargeable unit as their primary light and want something lightweight to leave on inside the tent for midnight bathroom trips. At under five ounces you barely notice it in a pack.

Who Should Skip It

If you're running a large group camp with six or more people and you need to light a communal kitchen area or a dining fly, this lantern alone will not do it. You'd want something in the 300 to 500 lumen range with a solar or USB-C charging option, like the BioLite SunLight or Goal Zero Lighthouse. If you're a serious backpacker who counts every gram and prefers USB-C rechargeability to avoid carrying spare batteries, the Etekcity's AA requirement may frustrate you. And if you're looking for a lantern with a gradual dimming knob for atmosphere around a dinner table, this two-mode design is too coarse.