Propane Tent Heater

[greekspeedoman]

Being from the Northwest, I am more interested in heat than air conditioning. I have looked through the forum and haven't been able to find a thread on propane tent heaters. I like the idea of propane since I plan to use the teardrop in back country situations. This could be good for taking the nip out of the air just before going to bed.

Has anyone used them?

Any design ideas for one?

Here is what the one I saw looks like:

[mikeschn]

At first blush that looks good. The bad fumes are exhausted to the outside, and the good air goes inside.

I don't think you'd have much luck controlling the temp. though, especially if you wanted to let it run while you sleep.

And of course, you wouldn't park it under your window.

Mike...

[Miriam C.]

Looks good if you can find a place for it. I wonder if you can hook it up to a bigger tank.

[Classic Finn]

If it was me I wouldnt pipe any of them gas driven heaters inside a tent.

Classic Finn

[Mark McD]

I'm with Finn. I used to service and install gas and propane appliances and products and it just seems to me that using any gas or lp in such a confined space could easily lead to tragedy. Even with the new appliances that have tip over shutoffs, low oxygen shut offs ,etc, the really, really small cabin of a tear or tent leaves little margin for error.There's a reason many lp/gas heaters cannot be installed in bedrooms and mobile homes.
Go electric.

[jackdaw]

I gotta agree with being very cautious when it comes to using LP heaters in a small space.
However if the heater in the photo is used outside the tent or trailer, and has a heat exchanger above the burner, and a 12 volt fan to blow the clean heated air into the tent or trailer, It should be safe.
I haven't seen a heater like it before, but i can see the 12v leads and I assume that's the way it works.

I personally would go for electric, even if it was a 12v electric blanket. It takes the immediate chill off when getting in bed. Because of the size of most cabins, they don't take long to warm up.

Dave.

[brian_bp]

That's the Zodi Hot Vent High Performance Tent Heater (delete the "High Performance", and you have the single-burner version). The two burners put out 20,000 BTU/hr, each... I suspect that for most camping weather, a single is probably lots for a teardrop, although it is intended to blast very hot air for a short time, rather than being a continuously running device.

...However if the heater in the photo is used outside the tent or trailer, and has a heat exchanger above the burner, and a 12 volt fan to blow the clean heated air into the tent or trailer, It should be safe.
I haven't seen a heater like it before, but i can see the 12v leads and I assume that's the way it works...

That's exactly how it works.

I agree that it makes sense to keep propane and the exhaust from burning it outside of the enclosed space... but that's the point of this design:

Sealed heat exchanger keeps dangerous gases outside tent.

The heater is mounted outside; air from the "tent" (i.e. trailer) is pulled in through a flexible duct, heated in the unit as with any traditional furnace, and pushed back inside by a 12V fan. In a teardrop, ducting and the fan could be built into the trailer body, and linked to the heater by short duct sections; I assume that it would be packed away in a carrying case between uses, and mounted only when needed.

Unfortunately, this is also listed for these units (both sizes):

No longer available at this time

When I first saw this in April 2008, I asked Zodi this:

All three of the Hot Vent tent heaters show a "No longer available at this time" message... have they been discontinued?

and the answer was

Hello Brian,

Zodi is working on the 4th generation Hot Vent HP and first generation Hot Vent X-40 Outfitter Heaters. These products are not available at this time and expected to be released at an unspecified future date. A press release will announce the availability of the products. If you would like an email notification when the Zodi Hot Vent HP and Hot Vent X-40 Outfitter heaters are available, please reply with the email address to send the notification to.

Thank you,
Customer Service
Zodi Outback Gear
Ph: 800-589-2849
Int'l Ph: 801-255-6418
website: www.zodi.com

No news so far. I assume that if anyone is actually selling these, they have had them in their inventory for a while.


At 10,000 BTU/hr, the little propane cylinders will have a problem maintaining vapour pressure in continuous use (due to evaporative chilling), and will not last very long. Both factors would make the bigger tank attractive, and the Zodi site shows a "Bulk Propane Kit", with the appropriate hose set and a bracket to hold the heater over the tank; I assume that it could be used with a custom bracket and longer hose, or even any random bulk tank to appliance (needle valve) hose (it doesn't look there's anything special in the plumbing) if that suits the trailer installation better.

I agree that control is an issue... it does not appear to have any provision for thermostatic or remote control, although the heat output is adjustable at the propane control valve at the base of the burner. The description page includes

10,000 BTU will heat 4-6 person tent in under 10 minutes

and the instruction manual safety warnings include

Hot Vent is NOT intended to be operated during sleeping periods.

and

Do not operate unattended. Hot Vent designed for temporary heating only. Do not sleep with Hot Vent operating.

which suggest to me that they intend for you to warm up your tent/trailer, then shut it off and go to sleep; the final page of instructions confirms that. I assume that if it gets too cold for comfort, the user is expected to get up and fire the heater for a few more minutes, then turn it off and resume sleeping. I believe that this is the general recommendation for all portable propane heaters, regardless of their safety features.

Zodi's instructions page show a model 5148 which looks different, and for which "instructions will be available soon", which suggests to me that it might be the new replacement model.

[luluyug]

i have used the zodi heater for a few years. it works fine as long as the wind is under 5 mph.... the fan looks like a boat motor compartement venting fan. lots of noise but it push s a lot of cold air into a chamber over the burner. burner control is almost non existent you need to run the fan before you light up the burner and stop the fan after you shut the burner off. you can keep noise at minimum if you take outside air heat it and force it inside. in sub zero temps the non insulated ducting needs to be very short for the air to stay warm, you absolutly need to take the air inside and reheat. at -5 celcius it takes about 10 minutes to heat my 5 by 6 feet sleeping area to 20 celcius. i used to heat mine true two holes in the galley area, used a power supply for the fan and a 20 pounds tank with a coleman distribution post for the propane supply. hope this help s bye

[greekspeedoman]

Thank-you all for your advice.

As far as the gas in a closed space issue, that isn't really relevant here because the propane heat section & the heated air line are physically separated. This works like a gas fireplace insert in that regard. Thus, if the unit is out away from the teardrop in an open area, safe heat can be blown into the trailer.

Thank-you brian_bp for your through analysis of this product. I agree with you that it would be good for short term use. My initial post indicated that, if I were to use one, it would be to take the nip out of the air just before bed.

Thanks luluyug for the advice & experienced word. I'm going to look into this more.

[Micro469]

Just bring along a Woman....... Things will heat up in no time.......

[firemaniac]

I have been thinking about these for my build, looks like a miniature version of the gas furnace at home, gas burns outside the tear and vents outside of the tear. clean air is taken from the tear heated in the exchanger and clean warmed air is returned to the tear.

I haven't been able to look at any in person yet, but I am planing on adding ducting for a setup similar to this

Any real world experience out there?

[Senior Ninja]

Hi,
For what it's worth, I have four inches of insulation under a four inch thick mattress with an inch of foam insulation in both the walls and ceiling. We use an opened sleeping bag as a blanket and have never been cold. Usually I kick off the sleeping bag and open a window. You may need the heater for a few minutes to warm up the interior, but I can't believe you'll need it all night. Well insulated tears are warm and cozy, especially when ocupied by two loving individuals.
Steve

[wlooper89]

We tried a propane catalytic heater in the attached screen room tent, but I was not comfortable putting it in the trailer because of the CO concern. We then got an electric heater, up to 1500W, that works great. Also we put in outlets for an electric blanket. I realize that electric hookup is not always available, but I prefer to be really cautious about burning propane in or near the sleeping area.

Bill

[bobhenry]

Hi,
For what it's worth, I have four inches of insulation under a four inch thick mattress with an inch of foam insulation in both the walls and ceiling. We use an opened sleeping bag as a blanket and have never been cold. Usually I kick off the sleeping bag and open a window. You may need the heater for a few minutes to warm up the interior, but I can't believe you'll need it all night. Well insulated tears are warm and cozy, especially when ocupied by two loving individuals.
Steve

Our tear has 3/4" of ridged foam in the walls and 1 1/2" in the floor and we also use a sleeping bag as the outermost blanket and yes you can have a need for a continuious heat source just maybe not in california.



Reported windchills are in the box for our shivaree 13 above to 14 below
winds were in excess of 35 MPH at times.



But we had a good time !

[xrover]

I plan to go electric. The guidelines say you need 1 watt per cubic ft of space to maintain room temperature (this is a loose interpretation of building codes). For a 4x8 tears, that works out to less than 100 watts. Therefore I plan to go with an electric blanket (about 200 watts) or the thermal heated bedpads posted elsewhere on the board. The smallest baseboard heater I have seen and use is a 300 watt which we use in our pump house. As long as you have a deep cycle battery hook up in place, I have to believe electric is the easiest and cheapest. Using something that pumps 20,000btu into a TD would be overkill. It reminds of the time in the 70's when my dad put a 90,000btu oil burner in our 600sq ft cottage. Just turning it on the lowest setting when it was -40 outside, still got the cottage up to 80!

Remember 1 watt per cubic ft and you'll be fine.