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padredw's avatar
padredw
Nomad
Jul 29, 2020

Portable Gas Heaters

We have a trip planned for early September, 2020, inside the Rocky Mountain National Park which is at an altitude of over 8000 feet. I have been considering a portable propane heater to supplement the furnace (to save battery) but note that there are alerts about them not working above certain altitudes. For example the Mr. Buddy or Big Buddy. Do any of you have experience using such heaters at high altitudes? I will appreciate your comments. I know we will need heat and wish to conserve the batteries as much as possible

18 Replies

  • X2 for an RV specific heater, not a buddy. The buddy type throw off so much moisture it can be challenging to manage if you're trying to stay sealed up keeping the heat in.
  • Get a Portable Buddy heater. We have been using one for several years, and they are safe.
  • there are heaters made for rv,s out there ,not the buddy,s . google rv heaters.
  • Thanks to both responders. Yes, we do have 200 watts of solar (portable and movable) and 200 Ahs in 2 lithium batteries, so maybe we have nothing to worry about.

    Thanks for responding.
  • We have a 200 watt solar "suitcase" that works great and has never failed to recharge the four 6V deep cycle golf cart batteries we have. It's much safer than a portable propane heater too.
  • Howdy. We had friends in a similar situation and explored some of the options you are presently exploring. They chose to buy a 200 watt portable solar panel to just cover their extra power needs. He said the only thing that came up was they were in one spot in the trees that made it hard to get the panel in the sun. He bought an extra 25 foot extension cable for the panel and problem solved. He had to move the panel around during the day to keep it in the sun but said it wasn’t an issue and the grand kids actually caught on to it and made it their duty. A learning situation for the grand kids as well.

    Hope that helps.

    Cheers.
  • Preserving batteries and using an unvented heater vs. a vented furnace and recharging batteries? Choice is easy for me...the safest way is the latter.

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