Mr Buddy Heater Yes/No

[Berkshires]

Great little heater. Just bought one a couple of months ago and really like it. It does create a lot of moisture...A LOT! Also, the CO sensor on it works very well. It kept going out and I thought it was faulty. Kept swapping propane bottles and after getting a headache, realized we didn't vent good in the camper and it was shutting off. Its basically smarter than I am.... :(

I don’t think Mr. Buddy has a CO detector, it does have a low O2 and tip sensor. If you do you use it in your tent while sleeping, make sure you buy a good CO detector and keep it near where you sleep.

 

[BlueRidge150]

I got one last week (buddy heater) off facebook marketplace or one of the selling apps, can't remember. Couldn't pass it up at the asking price.
Used it last night. My two and a half year old son and I camped in the backyard.

I turned it on when he was first going to bed, and then maybe around 2 or 3 am. I felt perfectly fine in my sleeping bag, and his felt warm inside, but turned on just to be sure since the air was pretty cold.

I did have a lot of water on the walls when we woke up, but maybe I should have ventilated better??? Would that have helped?

 

[Berkshires]

I got one last week (buddy heater) off facebook marketplace or one of the selling apps, can't remember. Couldn't pass it up at the asking price.
Used it last night. My two and a half year old son and I camped in the backyard.

I turned it on when he was first going to bed, and then maybe around 2 or 3 am. I felt perfectly fine in my sleeping bag, and his felt warm inside, but turned on just to be sure since the air was pretty cold.

I did have a lot of water on the walls when we woke up, but maybe I should have ventilated better??? Would that have helped?

Condensation is a big problem with those propane heaters, even with lots of ventilation, which lets more cold in, and two people breathing you get a lot of moisture in a tent. But more ventilation will certainly help.

 

[lostbutneverstuck]

We use are Buddy heater all the time in the winter and it works great

 

[mv213]

Hey guys, I have something that should work as a base/holder for the little buddy heater or anything that mounts to a 1-pound cylinder, actually. I used two of these on my chuckbox to hold the cylinder then a hose to attach to my Stansport stove. Works great and the cylinder will not fall out accidentally. I’m using two of these clamps. Mounting brackets for 1-pound propane cylinder. No good for a tent probably but for a little trailer, or camper it’s great.

 

[sabjku]

For my RTT I've found the little buddy 3800 BTU was plenty to knock the chill off. It has safety features that shuts it off if it falls over or low oxygen but I don't trust it enough to sleep with it on. The base it comes with isn't very sturdy so I invested another $8.00 to get a Stansport base.

Thanks for posting this Dave. I’m going to pick up one of those Stansport bases. That’s the one thing that constantly frustrated me with the Little Buddy-the ineffective base it comes with! This looks like it’ll solve that issue!

 

[Matt Hixson]

Love our buddy heater. We only run it below in the annex and let the heat rise up into the rtt and it works out perfect. We run it off a 20lb tank and it provides plenty of heat.

View attachment 90423View attachment 90424

This is exactly what I'm wanting to do for my CVT Mt. Shasta. Which model of Mr. Heater do you have? And do you have problems with condensation?

 

[Wallygator]

I am voting no on this one. Not exposing myself or my family to elevated levels of CO even if those levels are deemed safe enough to not kill us. It can't be healthy long term.

 

[Jeff Lloyd]

I am voting no on this one. Not exposing myself or my family to elevated levels of CO2 even if those levels are deemed safe enough to not kill us. It can't be healthy long term.

Catalytic heaters do not produce carbon monoxide. This is because they are not creating any gasses. While they can use natural gas or propane, catalytic heaters only speed up their chemical process rather than combust it. Since there is no molecular change to the gas inside of the catalytic heater, no carbon monoxide is created. They will however consume small amounts of oxygen and could use up oxygen in a very tightly sealed small space.
I do not use mine while I am sleeping, not because of carbon monoxide or an oygen risk but a fire hazard if I rolled over in the middle of the night and pushed my sleeping bag up against it

 

[kdarney]

Sweeet idea!

Yes it is. Planar brand diesel heater commonly use in semi truck and boat, they are very expensive but you can get the knock-off brand from $120'ish for hard mount and $210'ish for portable one.
They're so many to choose from. 2KW, 5KW, 8KW, dial control, digital control, remote control, silencer exhaust, split vent, etc....
Recently "van life" crowd start using it in their van build and I'm going to try to use it in the RTT.
Just youtube search "chinese diesel air heater"

View attachment 88286 View attachment 88287

 

[Wallygator]

Catalytic heaters do not produce carbon monoxide. This is because they are not creating any gasses. While they can use natural gas or propane, catalytic heaters only speed up their chemical process rather than combust it. Since there is no molecular change to the gas inside of the catalytic heater, no carbon monoxide is created. They will however consume small amounts of oxygen and could use up oxygen in a very tightly sealed small space.
I do not use mine while I am sleeping, not because of carbon monoxide or an oygen risk but a fire hazard if I rolled over in the middle of the night and pushed my sleeping bag up against it

Senseless killer -- Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine -- August 2001

RV Catalytic Heaters: Yes, They Can Be Used Safely While RVing | The RVing Guide

I read a few articles that say they don't produce any like you mentioned. Crazy how mixed the info is out there on the inter webs but they do produce CO. However, it's in small amounts and the catalytic heaters burn O2 like you mentioned. An I still won't be using one as there are other ways of staying warm. I currently sleep on top of a 12V heated blanket since heat rises and also dress appropriately while using good bedding. YMMV.

 

[Jokern2002]

Ichibahn, How do you like your Planar? I am considering a Planar diesel heater or a Propex propane heater. Just not sure which way I want to go yet. Currently I am using a Mr. Buddy heater but like you the condensation is a major problem for me.

 

[DrivingTacoLoco]

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[DrivingTacoLoco]

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www.kxly.com

 

[KRomer]

I have a Mr Buddy I use in my RTT when it gets cold. I warm up the tent and then get situated in my sleeping bag and shut it off. In the AM I fire it up before I get out of the bag. It doesnt have a real low setting and it will get real warm if you run it all night and the fuel lasts about 6 hours on low

 

[HIALT2D]

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There's a couple of follow up stories to this original one and apparently the guy & his dog died using a different type of heater, one that does produce carbon monoxide, not the Mr. Buddy shown it the photo. Like Wallygator said, there's a lot if miss-information out there and it can be confusing. That being said, this certainly wouldn't be the first time a news agency got their story wrong or used the wrong photo.

I have both the Mr. Buddy & the Little Buddy and use them quite a bit in the van, in the garage, when I can't have a fire and in the bathroom at our place in Baja (cinderblock homes get quite cold over night during the winter). I've found that the condensation can be controlled a little bit by cracking a window ever so slightly, although that does let a bit of heat out. They both have a sensor that shuts the unit off if tipped and I can't hardly move them without it shutting down. I think the biggest danger is making sure nothing flammable comes in contact with the heating element.

 

[DrivingTacoLoco]

Just wan't You'all to be safe. Sometimes seeing an article about a Darwin award winner makes people think twice and not be stupid.

 

[Inthewoods]

I have used the heater in a snug top camper in the winter. I use it to warm up my space when going to bed and back on when getting up in the morning not during sleeping. I don't want to tip it over.
The heater has a shut off when oxygen levels get low or tips over.
I have tried to start the heater when oxygen levels were low. I was in high elevation and the heater would shut off right away and would not start. Makes me wonder if this has a elevation limit.
This article was about someone cooking inside a enclosed place which should not be done.
We here on OB we could share our experiences and pass on tried methods and hope that it answers some ones question out there. Thanks to those highly educated people on the info of co2 h2o, ?, it helps me.

 

[Downs]

I have the little buddy heater. I use the inside of my Jeep as a tent which works well for me since i'm a shorter guy. I've done a few test runs with it at the house in cold for our area weather (just below freezing) in the back of the Jeep. In about 10 minutes of operation it has the Jeep uncomfortably warm, I kept it on for another 10 minutes past that just to see what the CO levels would get to. I keep a CO detector in the back of the Jeep on the spare tire mount.

The highest levels I saw during the testing was about 10ppm. I see higher levels than that when first starting the Jeep in the morning with the cargo hatch open loading my work gear. Much higher haha.

I figure the safety precautions I'll take with it will be to not run the heater when actually sleeping. I'll fire it up to get some heat in the Jeep then get the kids bedded down then shutdown the heater when getting into my bag. I'll keep the CO monitor in the back as well......I mean it's always back there anyway. If we wake up too cold at night I'll fire the heater back up to rewarm then shutdown again when we get warm enough.

Honestly I'm not real worried about O2 depletion or CO poisoning with these units. I'm more concerned with the fire hazard of an unattended heat source.

 

[SinisterJK]

I have a buddy heater we've been using for about a year on our ground tent without any issues. We did notice some condensation but if you think about it, the same thing happens at home when you got the heater on and you go near the window they're sweating. At least in Florida they do, so I kinda just figured it was normal. I have recently acquired an Offgrid Voyager Raptor Series RTT and I'm trying how to figure out what to do to use my heater. Normally I had a ground tent so we always had a little area for it and other than the condensate left around the bottle from it sweating it was easy peasy. We would run the heater all night no issues on low and it would keep the tent cozy under the blanket and air mattress. Now with the RTT there's no ANNEX for it so we can let the heat rise and I'm afraid of leaving it on the floor of the RTT while we sleep. I definitely recommend it to anyone its super simple to use and if used properly they got plenty of failsafes to operate properly. Any thoughts on how to use on on a RTT with no annex would be greatly appreciated.