heaters for tents

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  1. Based on your reviews I bought a Mr Heater Portable Buddy Radiant Heater and have just unpacked it and read the enclosed operating instructions. It has warnings all over it not to use it in an enclosed area but I bought it to use in a tent. Now I’m unsure what to do. Can you please help me decide?
    Cathy

    1. There seem to be two versions of the similar model. We have one that says it’s safe for indoor use – but similar looking Mr Heaters sold at the hardware store advise not to use indoors. I’m looking into it.

    2. Cathy,
      There are just too many conflicting viewpoints of CO2. YouTube testers have a variety of variables: size of heater, size of room, ventilation and height of CO2 detector that lead to varying results. Bottom line is we breathe 20.9% oxygen and deficiency starts at 19.5%. This is easier to determine with a ~$600 ‘professional’ (there are cheaper versions that may or may not be as reliable) multi-meter. If you can justify spending that much, great; I would still proceed with caution. I’m not a doctor/scientist/astronaut- I have just determined this from hours of research when I should have been doing more productive things. I own two Mr. Heater Big Buddy heaters that I run in a 1,200 sq. ft. shop. Does great if I’m standing next to it. Going to install a small exhaust fan just to be on the safe side. I’m not comfortable with being in an enclosed space with these bad boys running. Too much of a risk with me already sharing oxygen with my wife and three dogs. Hope this helps.

  2. Hello everyone,
    This thing really saved my butt and perhaps marriage. Tried to sneak in a late season camping trip in Flagstaff, AZ a few weeks ago only to find the temps dropping into the ~25 range as a low. Dog bowls and all bottled water were frozen SOLID each morning. As a tent camper, I was a bit worried about leaving this thing on all night. I bought the Mr. Heater Buddy Series Hose Assembly – 10-ft., Model# F273704 and had a full-sized tank of propane outside my tent. A major worry was the warning that this heater may not work above 7000 feet elevation and where we were was 7300. Regardless it worked like a charm and I even pre-heated the tent before we called it a night and left it on all night while we slept. I did pick up two CO2 alarms just in case because I’ll admit we did not have a ton of ventilation. Not even a chirp from them nor did I ever smell any incomplete burning or propane smell. Needless to say, we woke up every morning nice and toasty and slept very well throughout the night. After 4 nights the full-sized propane tank was not even touched speaking tot he efficiency of this unit. Lighting is easy but if using the 10′ hose don’t forget to hold down the pilot light for about 30 seconds until you smell propane. There is a lot of air in that line that you need to bleed out.

    1. Very helpful responses to the article. Just one comment CO2 is Carbon Dioxide, the bad stuff that kills you in your sleep is CO or Carbon Monoxide. We are heading up to Yosemite this weekend and possibly heading into storm with lows in the 30’s. Living in So Cal has made me soft so I am looking at using this typeof heater. Thank you for your blog and for the responses as well.

  3. Hi just a correction the tooluze butane heater burns 100 GRAMS per hour not 100 mg as stated in the article. 100 mg=1 gram

      1. Hi Bryan, I was just reading your article and found it very informative.
        I have been developing a safe candle heater for small spaces, I would be very grateful if you would visit my website and have a look.
        If you are interested and want to know more please let me know.
        Kind regards
        Vince

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