Mr. Heater Buddy use question!

Bobbo wrote:
I would be trouble shooting why the furnace stopped working. That is a real problem.

If it was just that it ran your battery down, you have it set too high. The furnace fan takes a LOT of power. When we camped in Yellowstone in Sept 2011, we QUICKLY learned to turn the furnace down to 55 at night and sleep under a lot of quilts. First thing in the AM, we would turn the furnace back up and stay under the covers until the RV warmed up.

/\ This. Got frozen out good on 9/11/14 on the Madison River below Quake lake, temp was 17F that morning. All water pipes were frozen. Waited for sun to come up, to give me 5 amps of solar going in to the battery, and the thermostat and heater got turned on pronto, while I waited under the down comforter for 15 or 20 more minutes. Honda generator was blowing out steam for exhaust in eco mode, it was so cold.

You know you can by a CO detector at WalMart or other places and they are a good second safety defence against CO. I have used my buddy heater in a canvas tent and the CO detector went along with it. I now keep the CO detector in the trailer in case I ever have to pull out the Buddy Heater.

It's a personal risk factor. Yes, people use them safely. Yes, people use them and things go wrong. You determine your own comfort factor in using them and do what works best for you - others will determine their own comfort factor and do what works best for them. There's no reason to get melodramatic or blase about it.

I couldn't imagine rving without our Mr. Heater. I read the reviews, the warnings and the Mr. Heater advice. They've been in business since 1955 so they have somewhat of a track record.

We used ours last summer in April/May on our northwest U.S./Canada trip where we stayed at elevations up to 8000 ft and temps as low as -5C. This winter in the mountain snows in Durango, Mexico at -9C. The Mr. Heater worked beautifully.

A little education and common sense goes a long way. We cracked a kitchen window (front of rv), a living room window (middle of rv) and the roof vent in the bedroom. We tested the CO2 alarm and LP gas alarm everyday, used the low heat setting. Our LP has a connection inside the rv so the shortest hose possible is used. The slightest movement to the heater and it shuts down. As LP tank empties the low pressure shuts down the heater (no low flame burning).

From the Mr. Heater FAQ:

WHY CAN THE BUDDY HEATERS BE USED INDOORS SAFELY?

There are a couple of required safety features needed for ventfree heaters to be used indoors safely. A BURNER that is 99.9% efficient at burning all the gas it consumes so that very little CO or carbon monoxide is emitted. The heater also requires a ODS or Oxygen Depletion System that will shut off the heater if the Oxygen level drops to a still safe 18%. Because these heaters are portable, they also require a TIP SWITCH so if they are knocked over the gas flow stops shutting off the flame and gas. Last there is a FLAME SENSOR safety shut-off system that will shut off all gas flow if the flame goes out.

Nothing in life is 100%. Use any appliance with caution. If I had a near-death experience in a car crash or a plane crash would I stop driving or flying?

Safe, inexpensive to purchase, uses much less LP, environmentally friendly. Rv furnaces exhaust so much heat to the outside they are wasteful and inefficient.

Hi,

I would not run the propane stove for 12 hours to simmer. I would use a crock pot or an induction cook top with a dutch oven.

Some inventive folks even use "engine cooking".

Go ahead--make my day and use your buddy heater. Don't blame me when you have serious health issues in the future.

Tom_M wrote:
Whenever the topic of propane heaters come up, there are always dire warnings about the dangers of using them. They are no more dangerous then using the typical cooktop in most RVs. My cooktop is not vented to the outside and that is true of many others. The Buddy heater has tilt and an oxygen sensor to shut it down if it tips over or the oxygen level drops below a certain level. It will also shut the gas off if the pilot flame goes out. The typical cooktop is much more dangerous than the Buddy and I don't see warnings about the dangers of cooking.

It looks like Tom opened a can of worms but I agree with him. Consider if someone posted a recipe in Camps Cooks that required simmering on the top of the range for 12 hours and recommended overnight cooking. Replies would be commenting on spices, etc. etc, and everything about cooking but I'd bet no one would post a warning about the cook dying in his sleep. Some folks will not accept the fact that modern heating has evolved from the killer kerosene heaters. I'm at the age where I believe little of what I see and less of what I hear or read so when I got our Blue Flame Ventless Heater I didn't believe the ads. I turned on the heater on high, closed all vents and let it cook for about 4 hours. When I opened the door it was hot inside but the CO detector didn't go off and the heater was still on high. I am a believer. I leave it on overnight on low to keep the chill down but of course as per directions keep prescribed square inch ventilation open. No one can deny my opinion that the heaters are safe. I'm here posting aren't I? :)

Tom_M wrote:
Whenever the topic of propane heaters come up, there are always dire warnings about the dangers of using them. They are no more dangerous then using the typical cooktop in most RVs. My cooktop is not vented to the outside and that is true of many others. The Buddy heater has tilt and an oxygen sensor to shut it down if it tips over or the oxygen level drops below a certain level. It will also shut the gas off if the pilot flame goes out. The typical cooktop is much more dangerous than the Buddy and I don't see warnings about the dangers of cooking.

Wotta laugh, right?

In -20C weather I used to cook a 8kg turkey in the oven with all the windows shut and the heater never had to fire off. Compared to a Mr. Buddy (never mind a non vented catalytic "Olympus" heater) none of the CO alarms ever triggered. This ALL changes if the flame of the device changes to yellow. A VENTED heater with a combustion chamber wall breach with a yellow flame will kill everyone inside within minutes if a CO alarm fails to do its duty. A cat heater or a Mr. Buddy I can see the emitter, with a ducted original equipment heater the flame is hidden.

So the issue isn't not as black and white as it may seem.

I do strongly recommend places three CO alarms throughout a rig. One in the bedroom right on top of a ducted heater vent.

pianotuna wrote:
Hi Tom,

So you use your stove top 8 hours at a time? Sleep with it running? No, I did not think so.

Not 8 hours, but I do use my stove for a few hours at times. I don't have an oven but many people do, and I'm sure at times they use it for several hours at a time.

I spend winters in Florida and boondock 100%. I use the Buddy heater to conserve battery power and propane. And since there is no fan, it is silent. I take the normal precautions and crack a window and the roof vent. I don't use the heater while sleeping. I also have a CO detector that has a readout which reads zero with the heater running.

It's always wise to be cautious, but I think the dangers are greatly blown out of proportion.

First and foremost, I'd get the furnace fixed, or replace it with a vented Platinum Cat, as suggested previously. Combustion gases belong on the outside of your rig, and not where you breathe them.

Yes, a Buddy heater is a decent heat source. I used one when tent camping. It worked well, and because of the large rainfly, which made it fairly drafty, ventilation wasn't a problem, and it sat on an aluminum table, so a fire hazard was minimized.

There are four important caveats with a Buddy heater:

1: Even though the backside and bottom side are cool, the front and above it can get hot. In a RV, it really needs to be combined with a fan blowing above it (not directly on the heater, since it would blow the pilot out, but above it to circulate the warm air.) The Big Buddy heater has a fan built in, and that can use batteries or with an adapter, A/C power. At the front, it can easily catch bedding on fire if stuff comes in contact.

2: If you use the 1 pound propane bottles, you will wake up in the middle of the night freezing when they run out. Learned this firsthand. Low setting lasts about 4-6 hours, high, about 2-3, and the regular sized Buddy will need to be run on high to keep a typical RV warm.

You can hook the Buddy heater to a propane hose. Now comes the tough choice. Some people are able to tee off their RV's propane system safely and have the Buddy heater use that. However, this should be done by an expert, since it does require a fuel petcock (so one can disconnect the Buddy heater and still use the stove, fridge, water heater, etc.) You can also run a propane hose directly to a bigger propane cylinder. However, one has to find a way to locate the cylinder outside for safety's sake.

3: Burning propane makes a lot of water vapor. In a closed RV, this can cause problems over time, maybe even water damage.

4: There is the issue of ventilation. This is a tough one because too little ventilation is dangerous, too much can wind up venting the precious warm air outside.

There is nothing dangerous about a Buddy heater if basic guidelines (which are spelled out in its owner's manual) are followed. I keep one, but it is something used as a last resort, where my propane furnace, and a generator and electric heater are either broken or can't be used (out of fuel.)

Hi Tom,

So you use your stove top 8 hours at a time? Sleep with it running? No, I did not think so.

My daughter is a Carbon Monoxide survivor. I won't take the risk of running an unvented combustion heater just to save a few bucks over one that is vented.