Mr. Heater

GrandpaKip wrote:
...I am curious as to how many people realize that this is not a good idea without enough ventilation....

I imagine everyone that has read the manual knows. Maybe your FIL should have read the manual. I know, I know, REAL MEN don't read manuals! :B

We have the small Mr Buddy and mainly use it to take the chill off on cold mornings. We don't camp w/o elec below freezing. We did find out however that above 6000' it won't start. We were camping at East Lake in central Oregon a few years ago and never could get the Buddy to run. I'm guessing the higher El was the culprit since we never had trouble after that.

I do like the fan on the big buddy, circulates the warm air well.

Love ours. We boondock and I can't stand the sound of the Suburban furnace not to mention its ability to maintain a decent temperature even with thermostat adjustments (A lot has to do with its location).

We plumbed a line into the rv with a gas outlet, works great on very cold nights. We vent well and helps to keep the moisture down as well as good air circulation.

For us it was one of the best mods we have ever made. Saves a lot on propane too.

Found a picture of big buddy all hooked up.... Good heat source but does cause a lot of moisture.

I have used catalytic heaters in all of my rv's because 99% of my rving is boondocking. The furnace rapes battery power. I tried the big buddy heaters (I have two) with the hookup to a large propane bottle... Works okay but it seems to create more moisture or alot more moisture than the catalytic... Kept the trailer toasty down to -5 nights during hunting season. The 18,000 btu double ceramic plates warms the trailer fast when you get back from whatever.

Yes, you have to crack a window front and rear but what's wrong with that.

This is the way I do it.... Portable, not attached.

We used the MR BUDDY heaters back in the tent camping days and they worked fine for us but tents are vented to the outside pretty good..

I still have the Mr Buddy single LP canister model here for my backup heat in my OFF-ROAD POPUP setup. I have a top shelf that is situated just under the ceiling mounted FANTASTIC Fan which I open up a tad to vent out the generated fumes as well as probably alot of heat. I also have to open a flap on the other side of the tent trailer to replenish the burned up oxygen inside the trailer as well.

About the only thing we do safety wise is not ever leave it on when we are asleep. We use electric bed covers running off our INVERTER SETUP for sleeping.

About the only safe propane setup that I would sleep with is the Vented CAT PROPANE heater.


We hate our propane furnace big time. It is way too much heat for our OFF-ROAD TRAILER setup (runs us out) and it is also has a very LOUD 12VDC fan setup. This fan to me sounds like sitting in the back row seats of MD80 aircraft. a Real loud GRRRRRR sound. Wakes us up everytime it kicks in. The 12VDC fan is also a big battery drain item (6-8AMps)

We are thinking about yanking out the Propane fired furnace and installing a hydronic water heater system using the spot the old furnace was located for the heat register.

This concept:


The heat register install might look like this google search install.. This also supports hot water baseboard heat registers..


Have no idea if this concept saves any energy cost as BTUs are BTUs whether it comes from propane gas or hot water heated with propane gas or electric. It would be VERY QUIET in operation for sure...

This could be supplemented with the CAT PROPANE heater setup for us if needed.

Always changing something here trying to conserve battery energy when camping off the power grid...

Roy Ken

I have used them in ice shanty's for many years. I agree you have to have a vent open, just like when you use your gas stove. Also don't sleep with unit running. Be safe.

I thought that the Buddy had a built in oxygen sensor that turned off the heater if inadequate ventilation? It is the depletion of oxygen that is dangerous, not the more common carbon monoxide issue with some other combustion heaters.