My German shorthair would put her nose against it.
Her face would get hot - HOT to the touch, but I guess it did not bother her. It bothered ME! I would put a scat mat in front of the heater so she would not lay so close to it.
As for me, I prefer to stay about 6" away from it while doing something near it, like cooking breakfast. Many times I would shut it off in the morning while cooking, because it plugs in with a 18" long flex gas line to under the stove. I put a tee under the stove, with the fitting coming out near the wall, in the under counter kickspace.
The front is not all that hot, once about 3" away, you can keep your hands there for a long time. It is sort of like a stove burner, keep your hands about 4" away, and they will warm up, but not overheat.
I have a 1994 version of Olympic Catalytic Safety heater. The dust cover protects it while stored in the closet, and feet option on the bottom allow me to move it around in the kitchen. Mainly it points forward, once I pointed it toward the bathroom door, and it sort of overheated the trip a little bit. Now I just run the furnace to warm up the bathroom before a shower. With the door configuration, I could not leave it open very well, or get the heater pointed directly into it, without a 36" or longer flex gas line.
My flex line is not like the steel one on a home water heater or a home stove. It is red rubber hose rated for gas, and sold by RvSolarElectric.com for that use.
Good luck with your installation! From what I have heard about the Plat Cat, they are a very nice unit, and don't use much power at all! Less than a couple of amp hours daily. And the RV uses 35 amp hours daily to run the CO detector, propane detector and refrigerator. That is about what one of my 120 watt solar panels puts out in a day.
I would suggest a solar system if you don't already have one. I have 400 watts, and with the inverter, e-meter, and other things it all added up to $3000 back in the 90's. I figure that I have saved that much at least 3 times over the years - even at a conservative $10 per night dry camping. (Yes I selected dry camping over hookups at least 900 times over the years).
Now you can buy a 400 - 500 watt solar system and controller for less than $600.
SunElec.com is one place for lower cost solar panels.
Fred.
