Dickinson P9000 or P12000--reviews?

kerry · Oct 28, 2020

Anyone use one in a pop up truck camper in cold weather, say around 10 degrees? Was it adequate?

Rando · Oct 29, 2020

I have not used one of these, but the larger p12000 on high is only 5500 BTU/h which is ~1600W in reasonable units. This is about the same as the 1500W ceramic space heater you tested in the other thread. That seemed marginal, so this will also be marginal. It seems like a lot of money for something that will only barely be able to keep your camper warm at the temperatures you are planning for.

As a point of reference, Four Wheel Camper installs 12000 BTU/h or 3500 W propane furnace in their campers, and on cold (10F) and breezy nights I have had mine run more than half the time to keep the camper at 55F even with the thermal pack. Pop up campers are poorly insulated and require a lot of heat when it is cold.

kerry · Oct 29, 2020

I’ve been pretty happy with the 1500w electric heater. 50 degrees inside when 15 outside seems roughly adequate What’s the conversion formula btu to watts?

Rando · Oct 29, 2020

Maybe I am soft, but at 10F you would be looking at 45F inside temperature with it on full, which would be a bit too chilly for comfortably hanging out. For $1500 I would want to be able to get it up to ~60F and have some reserve to account for colder than forecast temps, or wind.

1 BTU/h = 0.29W
1W = 3.4 BTU/h

Chorky · Nov 8, 2020

I installed the 9000 in August in my 18' travel trailer - my full time home the last 4 years. Today it is 24 and snowing. Last month we had a weeks worth of below zero with a few days worth of -10. It works good. My original idea behind it was not to provide full heat, since it's only 5500 btu on max, but rather to reduce the frequency of the furnace cycling - and provide some visuals as lame as that sounds. It works exactly as desired. Although I wouldn't be upset if it had a higher btu rating. RV furnaces are LOUD, annoying, and eat up propane. My issues was ther furnace waking me up at night - all night long. The 9000 has cut the cycle time in less than half! So although i still wake up at night, I sleep much better. It was expensive... and looking back I might have gone a different route if I had ability to store wood. It has been on the last 48 hours straight. I think it was a wise investment for me - although I also have a large propane tank. If I was in a camper, I would probably pass and opt for a fully diesel setup instead.

In a small space - i would imagine the 12000 would heat it up plenty.. even in sub zero temps. But I wouldnt' count fully on that and instead consider it a primary heat option with the furnace being the secondary to just keep temps up to desired numbers. Also, if you modified the exhaust some and fabricated a heat robber you would take advantage of a lot of heat lost. It's amazing how much heat waste goes up the chimney. Pretty insane. My next project this summer...

dnorrell · Nov 9, 2020

Chorky said:
It was expensive... and looking back I might have gone a different route if I had ability to store wood. It has been on the last 48 hours straight.

I'm curious, what would you have chosen if you could store wood? I know Dickinson has a small solid fuel stove as well - and I've wondered about that for our Airstream, I just can't sort out where we would mount it.

BTW, that Muir quote -- "I am losing precious days..." -- that was written on the inside of my pocket notebook cover I carried around until we found a way to travel full time. It was one of my best motivators, and I still love it after 5+ years on the road!

Chorky · Nov 9, 2020

dnorrell said:
I'm curious, what would you have chosen if you could store wood? I know Dickinson has a small solid fuel stove as well - and I've wondered about that for our Airstream, I just can't sort out where we would mount it.

BTW, that Muir quote -- "I am losing precious days..." -- that was written on the inside of my pocket notebook cover I carried around until we found a way to travel full time. It was one of my best motivators, and I still love it after 5+ years on the road!

one of the cubic mini stoves - probably the Griz - larger size. And make a heat robbing system to extract more 'wasted' heat from the chimney. It's well known wood provides much more BTU than propane. And, if you are wiling, it is essentially free - well short of a cutting permit from a local national forest, which are pretty cheap - but remember my 18' trailer is my home, so a bit of a different story. I am currently considering switching to a camper as a home to get rid of this darn rent garbage and live on the road - with all the compromises that brings, to hopefully save enough for a small plot of land. Since I have a diesel truck I would consider dickenson's diesel stove, paired with a diesel heater from wabesto or one of those companies. It provides way more heat at a fraction of the usage than propane - still requires electricity though. That is a serious consideration to take. Even those X-overlander guys put in a diesel air heater of their habitat for the winter arctic circle trip and I think their tank was less than 5 gallons. The benifit to wood is super cheap, great heat, and requires no electricity - at the cost of having to get up and stoke the fire since the firebox is so small.

The dickenson solid fuel heater is cool and if I remember right you can use wood, compressed logs, or coal even - but the issue I see is its expensive, it has a smaller burn chamber, no fire bricks or steel so less BTU output, and no glass window. The window serves 2 purposes, 1) awesome visuals, which you cannot deny just 'feel' good, and 2) you can see how the fire is doing rather than guessing, or having to open the burn chamber. I would not use a dickenson solid fuel heater IMO.

Yeah that Muir quote is awesome! Even living in MT I now feel that way - it is getting way too citiezed here now, in my opinion.

dnorrell · Nov 9, 2020

We also live in our travel trailer, though ours is a bit longer now since we moved up from our 17' Casita to the 26' Airstream. As a small family of 3 + dog, the extra space (and bathroom - we lived almost 2 years without one of those!) has really spoiled us. We just spent the past 7 months in Montana and are headed south now. I would absolutely love an alternative source of heat in our home as the propane furnace really eats through power, and due to the position of the furnace doesn't really propagate well throughout the Airstream; my daughter's room in the back ends up being 5-10 degrees cooler. We try to keep the thermostat set to 53-55 at night, give or take just how cold it is outside. When it's single digits, that thing is running a lot. I'd really like to have a solid fuel heat source to help dry out the cabin a bit too. Airstreams are great for many things, but cold weather is not one of them.

beneng_jr · Feb 9, 2021

I like how everyone gave you everything BUT a review of the P9000/12000...

I did talk to some with an OVRLND camper that he insulated, as well as made a thermal liner for. With a P9000 he said that he was able to keep the inside at 60f while it was 10f outside in the winter, looks like he does a lot of ski trips with it. It gave me confidence to order one for my OVRLND. It just showed up today, I'll let you when I get around to installing it.

kerry · Feb 9, 2021

I have a P12000 arriving this week.

kerry · Feb 26, 2021

I've installed the P12000. I don't have exact data yet but I've had it on in 20 degree weather. It is a quantum leap above a Wave 3 and with the blower running it pushes a lot of hot air, I'd say approaching the power of the OE forced air furnace when on high. My impression is that we are going to be very happy with it. There is a significant difference between forced air heat and radiant head from a fireplace. I mounted it north of the refrigerator across from the dinette in our Northstar TS1000 (temporary mount, it comes off when not in use). So even if the average temperature per square inch in the camper is cool, the radiation coming from the heater feels hot when sitting at the dinette. Not to mention the aesthetics of the flame.

dirtnsmores · Nov 17, 2024

beneng_jr said:
I like how everyone gave you everything BUT a review of the P9000/12000...

I did talk to some with an OVRLND camper that he insulated, as well as made a thermal liner for. With a P9000 he said that he was able to keep the inside at 60f while it was 10f outside in the winter, looks like he does a lot of ski trips with it. It gave me confidence to order one for my OVRLND. It just showed up today, I'll let you when I get around to installing it.

Did you ever get this installed. I have an OVRLND as well and considering this option.

Flyelk1 · Nov 17, 2024

I have the Dickinson in my Alu-Cabin. When I ice fish it can’t keep up at night (10-15 F). Diesel heater solved all those problems, quickly. I don’t even use the Dickinson any longer.

Dave in AZ · Nov 17, 2024

I have many reports of people saying dickinson can't keep up, and ending up with $150 chinese diesel and ripping out their $3000 dickinson. I dont want to search up links, but at least 3 good reliable posters.

Ok here are some good posts

Dave in AZ · Nov 18, 2024

There are 2 guys on Tune forum also that installed Dickinson 9000, then removed it for a diesel when they found it couldn't keep up for ski season use.

Dickinson P9000 or P12000--reviews?

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