Anyone using the Mr. Heater "Journey" catalytic heaters?

They sure are proud of them. And they are out of stock.

Looks like it is a "private label" olympian heater. I have one of the olympian versions, makes a nice heater on the porch etc. Downside is in the inside of a trailer around here, dumps to much water into the air and ends up with moisture issues. In a dryer climate may help for low humidity.

Unvented propane appliances dump slightly less than a gallon of water into the air for every gallon of propane burned. That can be good or bad.

bgum wrote:
They sure are proud of them. And they are out of stock.

The Walmart website shows them as being in stock, and selling at considerable discount.

Price looks comparable to the Camco version.

I don't think it's a rebranded Camco, since it appears to lack a separate piezo ignitor button. Also, the burner control knob is on the opposite side of the enclosure, next to the fuel inlet.

ktmrfs wrote:
Looks like it is a "private label" olympian heater. I have one of the olympian versions, makes a nice heater on the porch etc. Downside is in the inside of a trailer around here, dumps to much water into the air and ends up with moisture issues. In a dryer climate may help for low humidity.

Unvented propane appliances dump slightly less than a gallon of water into the air for every gallon of propane burned. That can be good or bad.

If you decide to not vent a propane appliance you'll easily have moisture problems and it's an invitation for death.

We use both a Mr Buddy to quickly heat the camper and a Weber catalytic heater to keep interior of the camper at night 50 degrees in cold weather. We ALWAYS vent!

Enjoy,


Perry

ktmrfs wrote:
Unvented propane appliances dump slightly less than a gallon of water into the air for every gallon of propane burned.

Operating on the 1500 BTU "low" heat setting, a catalytic heater would need to run 2.5 continuous days to consume a gallon of propane (and thus produce one gallon of water).

One person exhales that same amount of water in roughly 48 hours (not counting daily activities such as bathing, showering, washing dishes, etc.)

So - Yes, it contributes some additional moisture, but not a huge amount.

Skibane wrote:

ktmrfs wrote:
Unvented propane appliances dump slightly less than a gallon of water into the air for every gallon of propane burned.

Operating on the 1500 BTU "low" heat setting, a catalytic heater would need to run 2.5 continuous days to consume a gallon of propane (and thus produce one gallon of water).

One person exhales that same amount of water in roughly 48 hours (not counting daily activities such as bathing, showering, washing dishes, etc.)

So - Yes, it contributes some additional moisture, but not a huge amount.

We boil water for coffee in the morning. That's a much larger problem than the little water our Weber catalytic heater puts out all night.

The biggest problem is if someone decides not to vent their camper when using a catalytic heater at night. In Minnesota it seems every winter some drunk in a fish house dies from carbon monoxide poisoning. Can't fix stupid.

We did purchase a second CO detector for our smaller camper. Have yet to have a readout from our small Weber catalytic heater, but am amazed at the readout when using our stove cooking meals. I'd say 99% of the time our Maxxfan is cracked 1" for needed venting when camping.

Enjoy,

Perry

Skibane wrote:

ktmrfs wrote:
Unvented propane appliances dump slightly less than a gallon of water into the air for every gallon of propane burned.

Operating on the 1500 BTU "low" heat setting, a catalytic heater would need to run 2.5 continuous days to consume a gallon of propane (and thus produce one gallon of water).

One person exhales that same amount of water in roughly 48 hours (not counting daily activities such as bathing, showering, washing dishes, etc.)

So - Yes, it contributes some additional moisture, but not a huge amount.

Actually, a RV can be considered a "confined space", a 8' x 30' RV is only 240 square feet which is not a lot of space.

Bathing, cooking and breathing can put a considerable amount of moisture into the air, so much so that in the right weather conditions your ceiling will start dripping water droplets.

Now add in any extra moisture input from an unvented gas fired heater without adding any way of allowing air exchange from the outside you are just making a bad thing even worse.

I did some work for one of my BILs when he was building a new house, heated the basement with two unvented propane heaters.. Every morning I had to dry and clean the rust and rusty moisture off of my tools and that was in a 30'x70' 2100 sq ft basement..

Don't know of any gas fired device that states safe operation can be achieved in small fully enclosed spaces without outside air exchange..

Personally, myself, just inhaling the combustion byproducts of unvented gas heaters gives me headaches and flairs my Asthma after a couple of hrs.

Use if you must at your own risk, but if you must, read and head operating instructions.

dumb question.... Where is this propane water coming from? The air?

ajriding wrote:
dumb question.... Where is this propane water coming from? The air?

propane is a hydrocarbon, (C3H8) . Burn it and the combustion yields H2O and CO2. Same as a NG furnace in your house, or the gas/diesel engine in your car.

C3H8+5O2= 3CO2 + 4H2O Carbon Dioxide + Water

Now in a trailer your furnace and water heater vent outside so no CO2 or H2O added to the air in the trailer. But with an unvented propane heater or your stove or oven, it gets vented into the air in the trailer.
And with incomplete combustion you can get CO (carbon MONoxide) instead of CO2,

Skibane wrote:

ktmrfs wrote:
Unvented propane appliances dump slightly less than a gallon of water into the air for every gallon of propane burned.

Operating on the 1500 BTU "low" heat setting, a catalytic heater would need to run 2.5 continuous days to consume a gallon of propane (and thus produce one gallon of water).

One person exhales that same amount of water in roughly 48 hours (not counting daily activities such as bathing, showering, washing dishes, etc.)

So - Yes, it contributes some additional moisture, but not a huge amount.

If your in a relatively dry climate, I agree as I mentioned earlier the additional moisture may not be an issue and may help bring the RH up to a more comfortable range. But if your in an area like we are where RH is already high, add to that body moisture, small enclosed space, and cool surfaces and it doesn't take much additional moisture to get surfaces below the dew point and end up with condensation and a RH that is uncomfortable.

And if your lucky enough that the low setting of 1500BTU is enough, great, but if you need 5000BTU or more, compounds the potential moisture issue.