UST 20-PLC6B-08 10-Day 6-AA Lantern; silly name, great lantern. A key step in preparing for a power failure is emergency lighting. Flashlights like the Fenix LD10 are a good start, but they are not always practical; try to light up a kitchen when cooking during a power outage with a flashlight. Ultimate Survival Gear also produces larger versions the lantern that use bigger batteries and have a longer run time. The lantern in this review is orange, but a variety of colours are available. 

UST 20-PLC6B-08 handle folded

Overview

The UST 20-PLC6B-08 lantern can be had from Amazon.ca
for about $32CAD. Ultimate Survival Gear also makes larger 30 and 60 day lanterns. The 30 and 60 day versions use D cell batteries. I prefer that the UST 20-PLC6B-08 lantern uses 6 AA batteries, making it easy for me to rotate my existing collection of rechargeable batteries. The UST 20-PLC6B-08 lantern is advertised as a 10 day lantern. Using Amazon Basics 2000 mAh batteries the UST 20-PLC6B-08 lantern ran for 26 hours on high and 10 days on low. It does start to get dim after 20 hours on high and around 9 days on low. I did not test the SOS mode. I actually would prefer if this mode didn’t exist at all.

The UST 20-PLC6B-08 lantern is a little bigger then a pop can and weighs a bit more with batteries. The UST 20-PLC6B-08 lantern is available in orange, silver, blue, green, and glow in the dark. The top hanger folds compactly around the globe. The globe is also removable to provide a more direct light. The lantern also features a tab that can be unfolded to hang the lantern upside down. The front button will activate the lantern on the high setting. Pressing the button again cycles the lantern through low, SOS, and off. After the lantern has been running for a minute pressing the button turns it off. The lantern is ridiculously bright. On high it is adequate to light my living room or kitchen. It’s doesn’t replace regular home lighting, but it is very usable. On low it is enough to let me move around with out stubbing my toes. SOS is super annoying, but maybe if you were lost in the woods at night you could signal with it? SOS mode makes the latnern blink SOS in Morse code on the brightest setting. I don’t care for the SOS setting at all. If it were up to me it wouldn’t have been included.

The grey plastic is rubberized and features a grippy texture making it easy to twist the globe or battery compartment off the lantern’s body. The lantern is built around 2 lifetime Nichia 1W LEDs. The Nichia LEDs are supposed to be unbreakable and never burn out. This seems like an unreasonable claim, but I suspect that they will last for a very long time. Even if they are not, the lantern is not terrible expensive to replace should the “lifetime” LEDs not outlive the owner.

Specs

• Weight (with batteries): 405 g
• Dimensions: 15.7cm x 7.4cm
• Number of batteries: 6AA (not included)
• Modes: high – 250 lumens, low – 21 lumens, and SOS flashing
• Advertised run time: high – 26 hours, low – 255 hours, SOS – 150 hours
• Actual run time: high – 26 hours, low – 255 hours, SOS – not tested

Pros

• Small/lightweight
• Inexpensive
• Uses common AA battery
• Very bright
• Long run time

Cons

• SOS mode

Neutral

• None replaceable LED

For $32 CAD on Amazon.ca or about $25 USD from Amazon.com the UST 20-PLC6B-08 fills a huge void on my indoor lighting preps. Its small and light and runs for extremely long times on common batteries. The only gripe I have is the SOS mode.