A longlife light for the camp - UCO candle lanterns

 Disclaimer: This is _not_ advertisment or product placement. Any product shown here I have bought on my own, and in this test you only get to read my opinion about it. 

11cm in size when packed

While walking, a good headlamp does it's job, but later on in camp, a different light source may be a good thing. Something that does provide light for hours while not drawing electric power or drain your powerbank. Last but not least, a little bit of heat production isn't bad, so that the walls of your tarp or tent do not get wet from the night's airflow.

That's where the UCO candle lanterns come in handy, at a weight of 181g (including a candle) and a packed height of around 11cm, these use spring loaded candles firmly

My 15 year old UCO candle lantern,
while the glass needs some cleaning,
it works like a charm till today

pressed to the top of the candle holder, so that these special candles burn without any wax dripping, if the lantern is kept straight and is not moved to much. Ideal for the base camp.

A single candle can burn up to nine hours in a go, while producing approximately the heat of a tea-light. While that's not much, in my cases
it at least helped to reduce the humidity at the tarp walls significantly. 

The candles are available in a citronella flavour to get rid of insects while in operation, with a neutral wax, or with natural bee wax. If operated as designed, there's next to no smell of a candle in the room. The lantern cover is telescopic, and when shut down, the candle can stay inside.

When in operation, there's a little window in the body of the lantern, showing how
much is left of the candle to burn. The lantern's light body is made of sturdy glass.

A candle, being a solid fuel, independent from electronics, and heating, the UCO lantern makes the optimal base camp light source, and work nicely as a backup light. It provides enough light to read and cook. On my longer trips, I always have one of these in my backpack, alongside my PETZL Actik Core headlamp.

The springloaded candle
is always pushed atop the cylinder

While I love the UCO lanterns, of course there is a con. That is, the candles are special in the mix of fuel/wax, and it absolutely can only be operated with the original candles sold by UCO. I can deal with it, most of my trips are only over the weekend or less, and with 9 hours burntime I am very happy. However, one has to know these candles are sold separately and they do cost significant money. UCO also does produce a different lantern that is compatible with regular tea-lights, but due to the long time burn of the original UCO, I like that more than the newer variants.