Coleman Charger 1 - Rechargeable Flashlight

Author's product rating:   

Durability
Style
Comfort
Value for Money

Advantages:	Lightweight, rechargeable in car and house
Disadvantages:	Expensive at full price

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Coleman Charger 1 Rechargeable
Krypton Sportlight
Model 5347 Series II

What a mouthful, it’s only a torch I hear you saying. Well it may only be a torch to you, but to me it’s a “lightweight, weatherproof, sports lantern with 5-year guarantee”. Coleman are a long established supplier of all things ‘outdoorsy’ in the US and Canada and have a very comprehensive website at, surprisingly, www.coleman.com.

There is a reason I bought this particular unit, apart from the fact it was on special at B&Q, but I’ll come to that later in the op.

General Description

This should really be called a lantern, rather than a torch, as it’s quite large. It’s nine inches long, and nearly five inches in diameter. The main body, lens cap, and lens are all plastic and appear fairly rugged. The manufacturer doesn’t give details of the plastic used but I suspect it’s a PVC derivative. This is important as it means it’s flexible enough to take knocks and bumps without cracking. The picture, providing Ciao have got the correct on the page, is exactly this unit and should give you an idea of the general appearance.

Features

A long list of ‘features’ in the manufacturers blurb, but hopefully I’m giving you the ones that a consumer really needs to know.

Weatherproof: Although not described as absolutely waterproof the construction is fully sealed with rubber seals and ‘o’ rings. Even the access hole for the charger lead has a rubber plug to seal it when not on charge.

Lightweight: It is! Only weighs 500gms even when fully charged (some of those electrons can be *really* heavy you know). I’ve found with some other rechargeable units that the battery/charger combination makes them too heavy to use comfortably for any length of time. This unit certainly doesn’t suffer from that problem, but may falsely give the impression that it’s not very substantial.

Stand: This is really useful. The stand permits a range of adjustments between 10 and 80 degrees of tilt to allow for hands-free working. Damm useful if you need to change a wheel at night, or work on things in an unlit loft. Added to the fact that the sides are flat, so it wont roll away, and it can be stood on its end to shine vertically this is one of the real plus points for me. The stand folds away when not in use.

Rechargeable: This is the clincher for me. I’m sick of finding out the batteries are dead just when I most need a torch. Owing to the battery/charger combination used, this lantern can be left on charge all the time, the charger circuitry ensuring that the battery isn’t damaged. BUT the really clever thing is that it’s also supplied with a connector lead to allow for charging from a cigarette lighter type point in a car. I’d expect that this feature would make it useful to the camping / caravanning crowd.

1 Hour continuous usage: This is the manufacturers claim. When I tested there was still a useful beam after about ninety minutes, but then it faded almost instantly.

Spotlight/Floodlight options: By twisting the bezel around the lens cap the beam can be changed from spot to flood. Detailed empirical research (Shining it out of the kitchen window on to the shed) reveals that this changes the beam from 2’ diameter at 60’ to 8’ diameter.

Downsides

Don’t expect to buy one, take it home, and use it straight away. The initial battery charge, which must be done using the 13A adapter supplied, takes *20 hours*.

The battery is a Nickel-Cadmium unit and can suffer from Ni-Cad memory problems when recharging. This is documented in the leaflets provided and I think that most people are so used to this pheonomenon that it shouldn’t present a problem in normal use.

The five year guarantee doesn’t apply outside the US and Canada, so we’re back to ‘fit for purpose’ and ‘merchantable quality’ type of cover in the UK.

Summary

Good overall performance with a useful range of real features and little in the way of downsides. Available from many places, including Amazon! At prices ranging from £24.99 to £29.99. I bought mine (two, one for house one for car) from B & Q for £14.99 each.

Epilogue

Mary and I had one of these supplied on our last trip to Canada, in the Winter Emergency Pack loaned with the rented car. On an afternoon hike to Maligne Canyon I noticed that Mary had put the torch in her bag. Not planning on being in the woods after dark I asked her why. “For the bears” she said. “You’re not going to beat off a bear with a torch” I replied. “It’s not to beat them off, if they come I’ll shine it on you so they can see you, while I run away” The joys of married life…