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This $20 Gadget Changed How I Grill

This quick Amazon purchase was one of my most used grilling accessories this summer.

EverBrite LanternPhoto by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

By Tucker Bowe

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Up until a few months ago, I don’t think I’d have ever heard of EverBrite. The company sells a variety of flashlights, headlights and camping lanterns that, as one of my colleagues put it, are “frighteningly affordable.”

Anyway, earlier this summer, I got tired of having to use my iPhone’s flashlight to see what I was grilling at night. I knew I wanted a light that could rest beside me and free up both my hands. And before you ask — no, I’m not about that headlamp life.

So, as one does, after a night of grilling pork chops and broccoli and downing a few hazy IPAs, I went on Amazon and ordered one of the cheapest rechargeable lanterns I could find. It was this bad boy by EverBrite.

After two-and-a-half months, dozens of night grilling sessions and a few summer power outages, I can say it’s been one of my best $20 purchases in a long, long time.

EverBrite Lantern
It gets up to 1,000 lumens, but I used a lower brightness setting while grilling.
Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

It’s simple and just works

Listen, I’m not going to wax lyrical about how amazing this $20 rechargeable lantern from a brand you probably never heard of is. But I can tell you that it works as advertised — and has worked all summer long — and that’s all I needed it to do.

The lantern has a grand total of one button (located at its base) that you can click through five different brightness levels. The sixth button press turns the lantern off. That’s it.

EverBrite Lantern
It’s about the size of a bottle of beer. Or a bottle of mustard.
Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

It gets bright, real bright

The lantern has a 20 built-in LED lights and can achieve a brightness up to 1,000 lumens. For context, that’s equivalent to a standard incandescent light bulb. As far as I’m concerned, it gets brighter than you’ll ever need while grilling.

Typically, I used the lantern at half brightness — the default brightness when you first turn it on. The max brightness is the third brightness setting (when you hit the button three times). Then there’s a dim setting and a really annoying flashing setting (which I can only assume you’d use in emergencies).

EverBrite Lantern
The lantern frees up your hands while grilling.
Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

It charges via USB-C

One of the things that’s pretty rare in gadgets this cheap is USB-C charging. But thankfully this Everbrite lantern has it — a welcome alternative to micro-USB — meaning you can charge it with the same cables as you other gadgets.

One caveat, however, is that you need a relatively low-power wall adapter. If you use the same USB-C charging setup as your laptop (or even your smartphone if you have a powerful wall adapter), it won’t charge it.

I’ve been recharging it with the same USB-C setup to charge my battery-powered milk frother. (Yeah, I’m a latte guy.)

EverBrite Lantern
It charges via USB-C.
Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

It can even work as a portable battery

The little lantern is rated as getting right hours of battery life when “in low mode.” Admittedly, I’m one of those people that charges things more than I need to — I freak out when my iPhone gets below 70 percent — so I haven’t had any issues with the lantern dying on me.

As you can see in the picture above, it does have a USB-A out port. This allows the lantern to function as a portable battery for your other devices, like your smartphone or smartwatch, if you’re in a pinch.

I only ever used it once to recharge my iPhone when it died — we had a 24-hour power outage after a summer storm — and it worked. Pretty neat.

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