Mr Buddy Heater Yes/No

[Inthewoods]

I got this Mr Buddy Heater to try it out. My sleeping bag is good to 15 degrees but when I poke my head out of the bag I can see my breath. My thoughts were if it was warm in the camper I can sit down and watch TV and not in the bag keeping warm. So I Got one. It works great. I have just a Snug Top Camper nothing big so I been using it in a small space. I turn it on just before getting in the camper to warm it up and I turn it off to sleep but in the morning I turn it on again to warm up the camper to get dress. I have not noticed any fumes of carbon monoxide, but did get a smell of the new burning off but after that it was good and it did warn you it that. The 1 pound propane bottle last about 3.5 hours on high and about 6 hours on low but the way I have been turning it on has lasted about 3 days per bottle. Cranking it up, uses it up. I found the Mr heater Buddy priced around $99.00 but I got this one at Walmart for $74.00 maybe that after winter sale. My dogs love it they found a new place to lay by, the heater. Any one using another type of heater for in the camper?

 

[SubeeBen]

I have the same one & these heaters rock. Actually used it in the house when I ran out of firewood with a c02 detector right above it & never went off. I have seen a lot of videos where people use them in their rooftop tents or regular tents. My thoughts are use common sense ( which is hard to find nowadays ) :) keep a window/ vent cracked. Co2 is heavier than oxygen so it will sink to bottom of floor if that makes sense. Good score & ive been stoked with mine. Good luck.

 

[JCWages]

I bought one during a fall overlanding trip to keep my pup from freezing to death in my RTT. The heater worked very well, actually too well. It put out way more heat than I needed in the tent and ran out of propane too quickly because you can't turn it down low enough. It also produced a ton of moisture such that the tent walls iced up and I had pools of ice at the bottom of the tent base which later melted so I had to air out the tent at hime before packing it away.

IMO a smaller unit but with the same stable square shape would be great for smaller areas. The little buddy or whatever it's called is shaped differently and doesn't look stable at all.

 

[sabjku]

Good score on the Buddy heater! They really do work well. I have the Little Buddy, and I agree with what JC said....it's definitely not very stable, at all. I always pay extra caution to how I position it when using it. But it does throw out some heat.

 

[Berkshires]

Since we are talking safety, two corrections to some info above. People often write CO2 when they mean CO / Carbon Monoxide - that is the one that kills you and bonds to hemogloblin. Also CO is lighter than air, but only slightly so it evenly diffuses across enclosed spaces.

 

[Overland_Serenity]

If you want a smaller unit try the kovea cupid....

 

[canadianoverlanders]

We use it. We actually keep it in our vehicle all the times. The only caveat is this: we use it in the morning to warm up the tent. We keep a window partially open just in case, plus you want air movement to prevent moisture accumulation, you will develope condensation if you don’t have air circulation. Just our experience, I found keeping cross ventilation open a little bit, keeps the moisture down.
We don’t use it over night because it gets too hot in the tent and we can’t sleep.
We have a Kakadu Bushranger 200XT which is huge when the tent is set up.
We used it in the Arctic this past summer on our trip to Tuktoyuktuk NWT. We were so grateful we had it!!!
I’m a big proponent of “smoothing it”..... any idiot can be uncomfortable.
Just use your common sense and stay comfortable.

 

[Ichibahn]

I got my Big Buddy heater from Walmart, regular price was $120'ish and they mark down for $60. Take it to the cashier and it scanned for $32....[emoji1]
With the high humidity Georgia mountain and camping next to the creek, Buddy heater create a lot of condensation inside the RTT and annex room. Running a fan and cross ventilation from both window it does not help.
I'm going to replace it with diesel fuel heater this weekend and hopefully I can try the new heating system next week.

 

[Inthewoods]

Ichibahn, diesel heater? like the one they use in the semi trucks? those are cool, they come with a temp control dial.

 

[Ichibahn]

Ichibahn, diesel heater? like the one they use in the semi trucks? those are cool, they come with a temp control dial.

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"

 

[ArkansasDon]

I use the Proplex H2000 furnace for my RTT. It makes cold weather camping a reality. This compact unit work in the same fashion as a house hold forced air furnace. The heater produces 6500 BTUs of propane-fired, externally-vented heat, thermostatically controlled & is duct into the RTT while the unit sits outside. It's extremely quiet, compact (about the size of a small hand held tool box. HS2000 unit features self-diagnostics & only pulls 1.9 amps. When the tent reaches the set temperature the unit shuts down, fires up automatically when the tent drops below the set temperature.

 

[MunsterGeo Overland]

Since we are talking safety, two corrections to some info above. People often write CO2 when they mean CO / Carbon Monoxide - that is the one that kills you and bonds to hemogloblin. Also CO is lighter than air, but only slightly so it evenly diffuses across enclosed spaces.

As well as all of the above being 100% correct, its worth mentioning that its an odorless and tasteless gas so a person will never know its being produced until they don't wake up in the worst case...

A concentration of 12,800ppm (parts per million) will cause immediate loss of consciousness and death within 1 to 3 minutes.

A concentration of 3,200ppm can cause a loss of consciousness in 10 - 15 minutes and possible death.

A concentration of 1,600ppm for 2 hours can cause a loss of consciousness and possibility of death.

Treatment in the "outdoor" environment will simply be fresh air.

Symptoms can include: nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, dizziness, headache, feeling tired and confused, shortness of breath, flu like symptoms.

Exposure to high levels of Carbon Monoxide can result in more severe symptoms including: intoxication like behaviour and changes to personality, vertigo, ataxia (loss of physical coordination), breathlessness, high heart rate >100bpm, chest pain, seizures, loss of conciousness.

Another indicator of exposure to Carbon Monoxide can be pink fingernail beds.

Again, the treatment would be fresh air immediately and follow up immediately with professional medical advice.

A pulseoximeter is NOT useful in cases of suspected Carbon Monoxide poisoning and may in fact mislead you.

 

[TacomaDave]

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.

 

[Glenn]

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.

 

[Caddis]

Just picked up a Mr. Buddy Heater (the larger model) yesterday for our camp trip to the Sierras this weekend. This is going to be our first overnight winter camp trip in cold weather nighttime will be around 27*. We are supposed to have snow and rain all weekend. Could be interesting. I'll let you know how it works out.

 

[BlueLineOverland]

The greatest investment ever for winter camping!!!!! I have used mine in my RTT and ground tents with ZERO issues.

 

[Inthewoods]

I found this heater works great and I don't leave mine on all night either. I turn it on to just knock out that chill. I am looking into a 5 gallon propane bottle now that I can use for my stove and that heater. Bring back the winter I'm ready now. Lol. It isn't really a stable heater but I going to make a wooden base for it when I find out where to put and mount it. I currently have it tied to the side of my truck bed to keep it from rolling around.

 

[Caddis]

Hands down, Mr. Heater is awesome. This unit kept us warm in our tent all night long. It puts out a lot of heat. I kept it on low for about 30min and it made the tent cozy. I turned it on again about 3 am for 20min to make the tent cozy again. Very safe. If you barely bump the heater it shuts off. Mr. Heater is our new friend. well worth the purchase.

 

[Jeff Lloyd]

Little buddy heater is the best thing for winter camping.

 

[grubworm]

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.... :(