Portable heater

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NotGumby

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More for tent use, you might want to look at the ‘Lil Buddy or Mr. Buddy portable heater.
 

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I’ll 2nd the Little Buddy suggestion. We use ours quite often and it does a great job. We set it up down below in the annex of our RTT and we stay toasty warm, even when the temps get down to 11f.
 

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Downside is that you have the exhaust gases in your tent or what ever you heat.

Diesel heaters blow warm dry air and the exhaust stays outside, yes they are louder and need 12V from your vehicle.
You get roughly 8 hours full power heat out of 1gal diesel but you probably don't need more than 50% overnight to keep you warm. That gets you about 2 nights from one tank in the typical size ;-)
 

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The diesel heaters seem to be the new hotness, but I am trying something new. Granted this won't put out as much heat as the diesel heaters (it's hard to get around the physics of energy density in fuel) but I find it to be simpler, safe and reliable.

I put in a crazy LiFePO4 battery setup in my LR4, so I have been trying purely electric heating. I use the following.
  • RoadPro BlackCanyon Outfitters RPHB-110DB 12-Volt Polar Fleece Heated Travel Blanket 55w
    • It's 12v, has no modes or auto shutoff timer, but its also not crazy hot so its nice to just be able to put it under my sleeping bag and feel warmth. Its the perfect amount of heat and really does make a huge difference.
  • Lasko MyHeat Personal Mini Space Heater for Home with Single Speed, 6 Inches, Black, 200W
    • This little heater is 110v so less efficient but puts out a decent amount of dry heat.
Those plus my crazy battery setup which is 4,200 watt hours means I can run the blanket and heater continuously all night and still have a majority of my battery capacity left. Plus I often use a Claymore fan (Battery) to keep air moving around. (This is all for sleeping inside my LR4, so pretty small space. It would be less effective for a big tent or something, but probably great for a roof top tent.

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Mathes

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Depending on what you're calling in, we've got a slide in camper, we've used a little buddy, which is amazing and also used candles, which heat the play up just as well. Nothing beats a warm blanket though
 

Kent R

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We used the little buddy for many years and it worked well, but now we are trying electric to get away from the condensation of propane heat and to reduce our propane consumption.
This is an ongoing experiment mostly with power storage but it seems to work out well.
I will report back once I get it a little more fine tuned.

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Programmable Thermostat Controller Wireless Thermostat
 
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smritte

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RoadPro BlackCanyon Outfitters RPHB-110DB 12-Volt Polar Fleece Heated Travel Blanket 55w
  • It's 12v, has no modes or auto shutoff timer, but its also not crazy hot so its nice to just be able to put it under my sleeping bag and feel warmth. Its the perfect amount of heat and really does make a huge difference.
How long have you had the blanket. I like using them but the ones I bought seem to burn out after a few trips.
 

Mike W

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RoadPro BlackCanyon Outfitters RPHB-110DB 12-Volt Polar Fleece Heated Travel Blanket 55w
  • It's 12v, has no modes or auto shutoff timer, but its also not crazy hot so its nice to just be able to put it under my sleeping bag and feel warmth. Its the perfect amount of heat and really does make a huge difference.
How long have you had the blanket. I like using them but the ones I bought seem to burn out after a few trips.
I’ve only had it for a little over a year I think. I will keep an eye on it. I would imagine the heating elements can break. I’m hoping this one does well. but time will tell. Part of why I chose this one was it isn’t a chinese amazon thing, it’s from the over the road trucker type application. Most of the 110v options seem like junk.
 

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Look at the Chinese diesel heaters, they have lots of social media coverage, are cheap and work mostly really well.
I've used the Lil Buddy for quite a while but only use it to warm the tent in the evening and in the morning. No issues with carbon monoxide but condensation is an issue.
I'm currently building a diesel heater in a Harbor Freight Apache case.
 
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Would you be interested in a human powered green version?

I've nearly completed a heater that runs on your breath, and enables you to completely close up your sleeping bag. Like a snorkel. But the hot air you exhale gets dried, and routed into your bag, while you inhale fresh outside air. No fuel, no noise. No mosquitos. No exposure, even in a bivvy sac.
 

Mike W

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Would you be interested in a human powered green version?

I've nearly completed a heater that runs on your breath, and enables you to completely close up your sleeping bag. Like a snorkel. But the hot air you exhale gets dried, and routed into your bag, while you inhale fresh outside air. No fuel, no noise. No mosquitos. No exposure, even in a bivvy sac.
Kudos for being creative and I am curious what this is, but on first read I have to admit this sounds absolutely horrible to me. lol. Even if its below freezing I need fresh air movement and room to move around. I know mummy bags are better for heat retention but I can't stand that style of sleeping.

I need like multiple full sized pillows, a full width sleeping pad and nice large rectangular sleeping bag to roll around in. (basically my bed from home is ideal.. ha!)

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