The other day, in a fit of hurricane paranoia, I went searching for my double mantle Coleman propane lantern and apparently it is stashed back in the dim recesses of the camping gear trailer.
I dwelt on the idea of unloading the entire trailer to get at the thing for about ten seconds before getting into the truck for a run to Walmart.
Ozark Trail offers a double mantle lantern for $16.99 and that sure beats emptying that trailer!
I have a single mantle lamp in the tornado bucket but that is a fully self contained unit and the gear in there is not to be touched until TEOTW or a tornado, whichever comes first. So far it has been used through 2 tornadoes but never an EOTW event and yes it has provisions for the heating of water and contains the required jar of instant coffee so I do not have to trade a brick of .22lr for such simple things.
Anyway, I made the trip to Wallyworld and purchased the lantern. Came home and fired that sucker up and blew the bottom out of one of the mantles furnished with the lamp. Not sewn correctly or made of inferior stuff apparently. The remaining mantle was already ragged looking after one light up.
I went to the lantern mantle stash and fetched a Coleman mantle, placed it on the new unit and fired it up again. The Coleman mantle was twice as bright as the Ozark Trail mantle on the other side of the lamp.
I got a second Coleman mantle from the stash and now the unit has good mantles on both sides.
The point to be made is that the Coleman mantle is far better and far more sturdy than the off brand mantle, and since they cost only $1 each you might as well buy the better product, especially for an item that has a very good chance of being used in an emergency.
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