Propane fuel filter for catalytic heater?

red31 wrote:
Response from Mr. Heater: When you connect any of our Buddy model heaters to a remote propane tank, that tank can have over 120 PSI of pressure inside it.This high pressure in the rubber hose connected to the heater can squeeze a plasticizer or an oil out of the rubber in the hose and once it gets into the heater it is trapped and will plug up the tubes

That's it. Oil from long hoses. I guess I shouldn't worry with my 3ft hose, the rest is all iron and copper tubes.

dup

I have 12' of hose between a cylinder and a weber Q, the hose makes a few loops. A few summers ago I left the cylinder valve open for a week in 110F high temps. When I went to use it, oil leaked out of the air intake downstream from the Q's regulator. I disconnected the hose and used the propane to blow out the hose. If the Q's regulator was at the cylinder I likely would never had this issue.

Response from Mr. Heater: When you connect any of our Buddy model heaters to a remote propane tank, that tank can have over 120 PSI of pressure inside it.This high pressure in the rubber hose connected to the heater can squeeze a plasticizer or an oil out of the rubber in the hose and once it gets into the heater it is trapped and will plug up the tubes and cause the heater to be an unreliable unit.We came up with a fuel filter to prevent this oily substance from getting into the heater when using a high pressure hose.The hose manufacturers came up with a hose that doesn’t have the plasticizers in it so NO filter is needed (our part number for this plasticizer hose is F273704).BUT the draw back with this hose is with no plasticizers in the rubber it causes the hose to be very stiff especially in cold weather.

dbbls wrote:
I had the orifice plug after one season without a filter. Installed the Big Buddy filter many years ago and have never changed it. Still works like new.

Was it on Olympian cat heater or Buddy heater?

Seems to be a rare problem with catalytic heaters. I found only one guy that complained on this. He installed Buddy filter on Olympian - was difficult with those fittings of the filter - and lived happily ever after.

OTH, owners of Buddy heaters complain often that heater was acting up until they added the filter. Probably because there is few times more propane going into Buddy, so it clogs sooner.

I had the orifice plug after one season without a filter. Installed the Big Buddy filter many years ago and have never changed it. Still works like new.

Almot wrote:

...I know about oils leaching from rubber LP hose. But can anybody tell me if I should be worried when there is NO hose....

Actually a slight amount of oil is added to the LPG as a carrier for the Mercaptan odorant. The oil builds in the system over time because it settles and isn't consumed with the gas.

I've been using the Olycats for 40 yrs w/o any filter. And I plummed the last RV w/ all (fuel inj) hose. My current RV is plummed w/ all xxx hose. I don't use propane hose,.....as almost any hose is better than propane hose.

I've used a Wave 3 for years. So have several friends. No filter of any type. No problems of any type.