Install a new mantle or mantles on your lantern. Hold a match or lighter to the bottom and allow it (them) to burn completely. Remove the ventilator coleman lantern and globe, then spray the lantern with a household cleaner like Simple Green®. Remove as much dirt and dust as you can and remove the old mantle(s).
I’ve had it over 40 years, and it’s still going strong. It can get messy trying to refill it with gas, but other than that, I don’t mind using this one. It has a nostalgic feel to it, and brings me back to the days when I’d go ice fishing late at night with my Dad. In fact, this is his lantern, that I acquired.
Linking to this external site does not constitute an endorsement of the site or the information it contains by CPSC or any of its employees. Federal law prohibits any person from selling products subject to a Commission ordered recall or a voluntary recall undertaken in consultation with the CPSC. If it has a strong really sharp smell, that is varnish from old gasoline that has gone stale. Varnish can coat the internals and block them. If it smells real bad you might need to tear it apart to clean the internal parts. Remove the fuel filler cap and pour all the old fuel into an approved container for disposal.
The center globe cage base disk is stamped Sunshine Safety Lamp Co., Kansas City, MO. This lantern is in Dwayne Hanson’s collection. The embossed ventilators date it to 1922 or later.
It is fully adjustable and can be set lower if you are trying to conserve propane. However, if the propane canister is running out, it occasionally makes a rather loud whistling noise. Coleman made this model for their Sunshine Safety company (post 1923). It has many of the same parts as Quick-Lite Model L327. The collar, generator, and cap nut are different from that model.
Make sure that the valve wheel is turned fully clockwise to the closed position. Rotate the pump handle counterclockwise one full turn, place your thumb over the hole in the end and give it a few pumps. If there is no resistance when pressing down on the pump, you will need to repair it before continuing. This product comes with a metal guard to protect the globe and reduce rattling. We used it for months during which time we took an RV trip for over ten weeks straight and used this light almost every single night.
The one I choose most closely resembles the other two. For your money, I don’t think that the Coleman Rechargeable Lantern is the best value. It comes across cheaply made, has poor battery life and doesn’t offer many of the features that other lanterns do. This lantern is the largest and the heaviest product we reviewed. It packs into its plastic carrying case with ease once the propane canister is removed. The carrying case is light and closes securely.
Its great not having to worry about bringing extra fuel along. For this test, I used a Canon D6 DSLR camera mounted on a tripod. I used manual settings to keep the exposure coleman lantern the same for all three lanterns. Here they are starting from dimmest to brightest. The test was conducted in my shop which is a approximately 30ft X 30ft.