Coleman Northstar Dual Fuel Instastart Lantern

This is a fairly well built single mantle, but bright, lantern. It is made to work for years and years. This lantern would be best suited for car camping, or overnight stays at a cabin. I would and have recommended this lantern for others I know who prefer car camping.

I purchased this lantern at a Coleman Factory Outlet store about a year ago, and I haven't been disappointed yet.

It is one of the easiest liquid fuel lanterns I have ever used.  All it takes is filling up the fount with either Coleman Fuel (Naphtha or White Gas) or regular unleaded gasoline, a few pumps to pressurize the tank, turn the control knob and hit the electronic ignition and you are off running.

That being said, liquid fuel lanterns have always seemed to be a little more dangerous to use.  However, after learning to use them, the ease of finding available fuel and their reliability have always made them worth having to me.  

This is a single large mantle lantern. The Northstar series uses one long mantle instead of two smaller ones.  The size of the mantle does seem to aid in putting out a good bright light, illuminating a campsite very well.  I have used the same mantle in my lantern for the year that I have had it, and it doesn't appear that I will be having to change it anytime soon.

The construction of the lantern seems to be good.  It does have a bit more plastic to it than other Coleman lanterns, but that doesn't seem to hurt the quality much.  I do like the metal cage surrounding the globe on the lantern, protecting if from bumps and small falls.  The electronic ignition has worked well.  The ignition does use a single AAA battery, it hasn't died yet but that is something I have to keep in mind when getting away from civilization.

The advertised run time for this lantern is 14 hours on low, and 7 hours on high.  I would stick closer to around the 7 hour mark.  It doesn't seem to require much pumping to keep pressure up for normal use.  In the evenings or morning when I use it, I pump it up once and it will easily burn a couple of hours on that pumping.  I rarely have the lantern on any longer than that.

Due to this being a liquid fuel lantern, I would not use it inside a tent or other interior space.  It does put out a lot of heat.  It also puts out carbon monoxide, so it would need to be used in well ventilated areas.

Overall, I think this is a very reliable trustworthy lantern.  I expect it to last for years of use.