Bob from Nature Travels had the opportunity to test two camping products from ITEHIL on a kayaking and wild camping tour in the Norwegian fjords and a cabin stay in the Stockholm Archipelago in Sweden.
The people at ITEHIL got in touch recently to ask if we would like to test and review any of their range of outdoor and camping products. While much of the company’s product line is aimed at vehicle camping (motorhomes, caravans, etc), there were two products which were very relevant for us – a Mosquito Repellent Camping Lantern and a Portable Carbon Monoxide Detector – and we gladly accepted the invitation to try them out.
I travelled to Stavanger on the Norwegian coast to do our Self-guided Kayaking in Lysefjord tour in early June, so this was a perfect opportunity to test out the Mosquito Repellent Camping Lantern. Shortly after, myself and Sofia travelled to our summer house in the Stockholm Archipelago to celebrate Midsummer with the family, which was an ideal scenario to test the lantern again and also to try out the CO Detector.
So how did they perform? First up, the Mosquito Repellent Camping Lantern.
Review of ITEHIL Mosquito Repellent Camping Lantern
Specs:
Weight 165g, height 14cm (or 26cm with tripod) rated IP6 waterproof. It comes with a screw-on tripod base to be free standing, or you can use the included clip to hang it up, and a USB-C cable.
The unit is re-chargeable via USB-C and has multiple functions – as a mosquito repellent/killer, lantern/torch and as a power bank. Current retail price is around $70 USD.
The unit contains a 5000mAh battery which takes about 3 hours to charge fully. Quoted battery life times are:
- Lantern: approx. 2.5 hours on high setting or 65 hours on low setting.
- Torch: approx. 3.5 hours on high setting or 65 hours on low settting.
- Repellent: approx. 5 hours on high setting (red), 8 hours on medium setting (amber) or 16 hours on low setting (green, “sleeping mode”).
The repellent functionality requires slot-in, single-use mosquito mats, a few of which came supplied, which are heated up by the unit (to 165 degrees C, apparently). The mats supplied were made by Shanke. When the mats are depleted and need changing (after about 4 hours), they turn white.
Although I wasn’t able to find any information about the active ingredient in the pads either on the ITEHIL or Shanke websites, I assume that the unit works in the same way as other similar products, that is that, when heated, the pads release a chemical repellent agent which can repel and may also kill mosquitoes, as well of course as being potentially harmful to other insects, including moths or bees. The descriptive text on the ITEHIL website says, rather vaguely, “We extracted the raw materials of mosquito repellent from plants to ensure safe use”, but there are no further details given and it’s not clear if the ITEHIL repeller has any environmental benefits over similar devices.
Never having used a repellent heater or mosquito coils before (I’ve relied mostly on long-sleeved clothing and hoping for a bit of a breeze, plus very occasionally a face net and/or a repellent body spray or lotion when things are really bad), I wasn’t aware myself of the potential toxic affects the chemicals used in such devices may have on insect life generally until researching for this review. However, depending on the active ingredient, body-based repellents may of course also contain chemicals harmful to insect life generally, as well as being toxic to aquatic life when washed off while swimming or showering, etc. You may wish to consider the pros and cons of your chosen solution when deciding how you will choose to keep the little devils at bay – non-chemical solutions such as clothing, netting or a fan will always be the most environmentally friendly options.
The lantern/torch functions can be used at the same time as the repellent function. Of course, for extended trips away from opportunities to re-charge, if you use the lantern/torch or repeller on high power too much, you’ll probably run out of battery, and you will of course also deplete the battery more quickly if using more than one function at a time (though you could re-charge with a separate powerbank if you have one). On the lower settings, battery life should be much longer and more than enough for a few days’ use between charges.
For light, you can choose lantern only, torch only, or lantern + torch. The lantern can be used with or without the tripod fitted. For the torch, you’ll need to remove the tripod, as the light shines from the bottom of the unit.
The light provided both by the lantern and the torch is bright and useful and the tripod forms a stable base if you’d like it to be free standing instead of hanging up.
As for assessing the effectiveness of the repellent function, during both my kayak tour in Norway and visit to the Stockholm Archipelago in Sweden, mosquito numbers were quite low, as it had been fairly dry and cold in the weeks before.
However, it did seem to help to keep those mosquitoes that were around at bay quite effectively. It seemed less effective against the tiny midges that came out on a couple of evenings in the Norwegian fjords during our kayak tour.
It’s hard to say if it could be a total replacement for having long-sleeved clothing (and a face net if things get really bad) or using a body-based repellent, and of course will only be effective over a certain area (the ITEHIL website doesn’t specify how large an area it could be expected to cover, though it seemed to work well for 6 of us around the dinner table in Sweden) but it may certainly help to make things more comfortable during times outside in the evenings when there’s no breeze and the mozzies are out in force.
One thing I found fiddly is that the switches for the repellent and lantern/torch functions are black buttons set flush into a black surface. This makes them difficult to locate in the dark, so if you wake up in your tent in the night and want the torch, it’ll take a few seconds to work out where to press to switch it on. It would be much better if the buttons could be raised and/or highly visible (e.g. flourescent) to make them easier to see and use.
Verdict:
If you’re anticipating spending evenings outside when mosquitoes are likely to be an issue, the ITEHIL Mosquito Repellent Camping Lantern could be a useful addition to your packing list – it’s light, seems built to last, and is quite effective. I would like more information on the possible toxic effect of the repellent on insect life generally, though, to be able to make an informed decision compared to alternatives.
If the repellent feature was the only function of the unit, I don’t think wouldn’t be as appealing overall, especially for backpacking trips, when space and weight are at a premium and you don’t want to carry any more than is absolutely necessary.
However, as it’s also a very good torch/lantern and (provided of course that you haven’t used up all the charge with other functions) can also serve as a power bank to re-charge phones or other devices, it could certainly be worth bringing this along on summer camping trips when mozzies might be an issue. For myself, I anticipate that I’ll probably use it as a light and power bank in future more often than I will as a mosquito repeller, but it’ll certainly be coming with me on future trips.
NB: If possible, you may want to avoid taking the unit as hand luggage when flying. I’ve taken four flights with it as hand luggage so far. The first three were no problem, but on the last flight back from Sweden, it raised some questions at Security because of the heating element. They took it away for closer inspection, and I did get it back a couple of minutes later, but I did think for a minute that they were going to confiscate it!
Where to buy: https://itehil.com/en-gb
Now for the Portable Carbon Monoxide Detector.
Review of ITEHIL Portable Carbon Monoxide Detector
The Carbon Monoxide Detector is designed as a safety device, for use anytime you’re in enclosed spaces where build-up of CO could be a possibility.
The unit is small (about 6cm x 6cm ax 3cm) and lightweight and comes with a cord to hang up if required and a USB-C cable for re-charging the 1000mAh battery (stated battery life approx. 140 hours on a single charge). Current retail price is around £30 GBP.
Like the Mosquito Repellent Camping Lantern, it has some extra functions which make it more useful, showing not only any Carbon Monoxide detected (in parts per million) and sounding an alarm if potentially hazardous levels are reached, but also displaying temperature (in Fahrenheit or Celsius) and humidity, as well as battery level.
There is one button which controls all functions – a long press turns the unit on or off and a short press toggles the temperature reading between Fahrenheit and Celsius. I did find that because just a single long press is required, the unit can quite easily be turned on unintentionally when stored in a backpack, etc, so you can end up accidentally running down the battery. A double-press to activate, like the Mosquito Repellent Camping Lantern has, would be much better. This is a general design bugbear of mine – I’ve flattened the batteries on many a headtorch in my pack over the years which turned on with only a single press, which can be very frustrating just when you need it.
Verdict:
For something like our kayaking and camping trip, where we were sleeping in well-ventilated tents each night and cooking outside, a CO detector is of course rather unnecessary. I wouldn’t bring it on a summer camping trip of this kind.
However, where I can certainly see this being very useful would be:
- On winter camping trips where you are planning to use a stove to heat and/or cook in your tent (which requires some skill and knowledge to do safely).
- Any trip where you’ll be spending time/sleeping in simple cabins with wood-burning stoves or gas cookers, etc, or in a caravan, campervan or motorhome where a CO alarm is not already fitted.
We took it to our summer house in the Stockholm Archipelago to use in our cabin there and will certainly use it on visits there in the future. Even if you never need the CO alarm (and I hope you never will), it’s quite fun to be able to check what the temperature and humidity is.
And I’ve found another great use for it at home – it’s ideal for monitoring the humidity level in my music room to make sure my acoustic guitars are being neither over- nor under-humidifed!
All in all, an affordably priced item which could be very good to have in the right circumstances, with some welcome extra functionality.
Where to buy: https://uk.itehil.com/