It is important to keep your camping lantern clean and maintained. It increases the longevity, and is very easy to do. It is a very simple process and with the help of these few easy suggestions can be very beneficial to the life of your camping lantern. A clean lantern will make it also run much more efficiently, and will more than likely give out more light and be more useful to your whilst camping.
The first thing you need to do is after every single camping trip is to make some time to clean your camping lantern. Simply by using warm water and soap, something along the lines of dish washing detergent, you should wipe down the outside of the lantern after every trip. It will attract dirt and dust. Not only that, bugs are attracted to the soft like that the lantern gives off, and you will end up with a lot of bugs on your lantern. Leaves and other kind of debris can get on the inside of the lantern as well, that’s why it is important to clean it up after every trip. Once you have cleaned this area, you should make sure it is completely dry before you put it away because it may develop rust or similar damage.
The mantles are an important part of the camping lamp and also needs to be clean. If there are any cracks or tears on the mantle you should replace it before you next head out on another camping adventure. Make sure the connecting valve is cleaned as well.
At the end of each camping season you should do a much more thorough inspection of your camping lantern and clean each part of it extremely well. Cobwebs and spiderwebs might have built up on them because you may not have gone camping as much as previous seasons. In this case you need to take the lantern apart and clean out any tubes or areas that look like they may be clogged. A bottle brush works really well for this.
After you have thoroughly cleaned your camping lantern and replaced any parts that are cracked or broken you should store it well. The best way is in an airtight plastic bag. This will prevent any insects and stuff like that to get inside and clog up the open areas. This can occur when its sitting for a length of time, hence out of the camping season, in your garage! Then once the camping season is back and you are ready to get into it again, your camping lamp will be pristine and as clean as it was after you finished iving it the once over.
If the lantern that you have is a fuel one then you need to empty the fuel tank before you put it into storage. The fuel can build up in the tank and then your lamp will run much less efficiency.
So, keep your camping lantern clean, and you will find that it will last longer, and run more effectively, giving you a lot more light!