New Lanterns!

I have had four lanterns hung from large hooks on my farmer’s porch here, as well as at my previous home. They are at least ten years old and the paint is pealing off badly and rust has formed. The fake LED candles that I had placed inside the lanterns when they were new are also damaged after all of these years. They were nice when new and were made to look like real candles. But they also haven’t worked in years! But, initially, they looked so pretty when they did work! But I left them inside the lanterns all of these years anyway, as they still looked nice. But not anymore! Two candles are cracked and deformed now, likely due to sun and overall temperature changes throughout the year. The other two are still intact but in the verge of cracking. 

I ordered four new lanterns, which arrived today. I decided to go with galvanized lanterns instead of the standard metal with black paint, thinking that the galvanized lanterns might last longer. I should have done this a few years ago, LOL! 

Unfortunately, each of the two of the new lanterns had broken glass on one side. So I have ordered replacements from the seller, who will be shipping to me at no cost. They aren’t supposed to arrive until next Monday; five calendar days from now. Bummer! The two broken lanterns will be dropped off at a FedEx location and shipped back for the return as soon as I can get to a FedEx drop off site. 

In the meantime, I have taken down all four of the old, worn out lanterns and hung two of the new lanterns. 

I have also ordered rechargeable LED candles for them. They come in a package of six candles but I only needed four. I just could not find a four-pack of rechargeable candles that were the correct size for the lanterns. But, I can use the extra two candles elsewhere. I already have plans for them! 

I figure I can charge all six candles and put them out. They work with a remote control device to operate the lighting so they can easily be turned on and off without having to remove them from and place them back into each lantern, one at a time, manually to turn them on and off. When my old candles were new, I had to do this and it was a bit of a pain. As a result, I often did not bother with it and didn’t get much use out of them when they still were working. 

So, with the new LED candles, once recharged, they should last a few uses before needing to be pulled from each lantern for recharging. This, in combination with the remote control device to operate the lighting, will be far more convenient and, as a result, more enjoyable, and I know I’ll use them more! The new candles will arrive in a couple of days. I’ll at least be able to put two of them into the two new lanterns that I have now. And the two extra candles will go into my outdoor candle holders in the deck out back! They will look nice there! The other two candles will just have to wait for the other two lanterns to arrive. Hopefully the other two lanterns arrive intact! Fingers crossed! 

So, I have the old lanterns in a box to bring to the transfer station this weekend. I can almost guarantee someone who wants to and can fix these up will want these! I think I paid around $10 for each one years ago! You can’t buy these brand new for less than $20 now! Most are $30 and up! I got a great deal on the new lanterns at around $25 each after an extensive search! The glass is intact and the metal is not warped or damaged. The old paint can be removed fairly easily since either most of it had either peaked off or is pealing off badly! Then all that’s needed is some primer and a couple of coats of paint paint. They would likely be good for another number of years! And the new paint doesn’t have to be black. Someone could paint them whatever color they want! I don’t believe the glass can be removed without risking breaking it. I wouldn’t want to try to remove it. Painting them would be much easier if the glass could be removed. 

I had thought about doing this myself but decided it was not a project I wanted to endure! LOL!! It is much easier to buy new lanterns! And since my new lanterns are galvanized and not painted, they might last longer in the long run! Hopefully!  

Well, here are the old lanterns, in a box ready to dispose! 

And a couple of them when they were still displayed! 

In this next photo I had replaced two of the new lanterns with the new ones and still had two of the old ones hung. 

 And the old candles have been tossed in the trash! They’re also pretty filthy! They could have been cleaned if it was worthwhile to do so. 

And here are the two new lanterns that had broken glass when they arrived. They were both inside one box and were packaged differently than the two that were in a separate box. The two that did not get broken were packaged far better than these two were! 

I can’t wait for the replacements to arrive! And I can’t wait to try out the new LED candles too!