Butane Lanterns
Reviews And Information

Canister isobutane and butane lanterns are nice for camping and backpacking because they're plug-and-play. There's no pumping or priming like there can be for other camping lanterns. Turn the knob, ignite, and you have immediate light. Canister lanterns usually burn clean on butane, propane or a mixture of the two. Canister lanterns are the easiest and cleanest to use. Like anything they do have their downside...

Butane burns hot but doesn't perform well in temperatures below freezing. Mixing butane with propane (isobutane) helps down to about 20 degrees F (-7 C) and then performance begins to fall off again. Propane lanterns are good down to about 0 degrees F (-18 C). If you're doing a lot of backpacking or hiking, carrying and disposing of the one-use canisters might be a consideration. Also it can be challenging to find replacement canisters in certain areas, especially outside North America and Australia, the Brunton Glorb (below) addresses some of these concerns...

The Brunton Lampray folding butane lantern at BackCountry is neat because you can direct the light by moving the "wings" to focus on your task-at-hand. At 120 watts it puts out a lot of light and will burn for 5 hours at that. At 8 ounces it isn't the lightest butane lantern out there, but it does have a wire mesh globe making it much tougher than glass. It's great around the campsite when you can easily keep extra fuel and mantels on-hand. With the electric ignition it's my butane lantern recommendation for campsites.

The Brunton Glorb refillable butane lantern with piezo ignition is a great idea worth mentioning. This lantern burns for 2 hours, is about as compact as a candle lantern, and puts out 60 watts of light even if the mantle is damaged. But the really cool thing is that its butane fuel cartridge is refillable with easy-to-find lighter fluid. At 8 ounces it's a little heavier than the lightest backpacking lanterns but it saves room because you won't have to carry bulky fuel canisters. The intake is also adjustable for different altitudes so you can get the most efficient burn.

The Primus Micron Lantern Isobutane weighs in at 4.4 ounces, can put out up to 70 watts of adjustable light, is tough, compact, and will burn for 12-24 hours. The piezo ignition means you don't have to hunt for matches, and the wire stainless steel mesh globe makes it more durable. This is my recommendation for backpacking. Neither REI nor Altrec have them, but BackCountry does.

Maintain your butane lanterns at the same time you do other hiking gear and/or camping equipment so it doesn't get over-looked or let you down on your next trip. Know how to fix it and have what you need on-hand before you leave in case you need it.

Think safe, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and tent fires can kill so use use butane lanterns outside where they're safer. Battery lanterns are better for inside use.