DIY forced air propane heater?

[trae]

Hey folks, wondering if anyone's ever built or seen a home made forced air propane heater?

I came upon this on the local classifieds:




Not a great photo I know. What I could surmise:

- the hose on the right is attached to a small fan powered by the battery
- you can see the standard green propane bottle attached to a burner underneath the heat exchanger
- the hose on the left goes to your tent or whatever

The seller claims that a single bottle lasts about 7 hours and brings the temps up about 10c in his tent. No idea about the power consumption for the fan.

I know diesel heaters are all the rage now, but my vehicle is gasoline and I'd love to avoid another fuel source. I know about propex heaters (https://propexcanada.com/product/hs2000-blown-air-heater/) but that's a little much for me at this time.

Having said that,

- Has anyone built/seen something similar out there in the wild?

- Any thoughts on this design?

 

[Ozarker]

Looks like rocket science, let's make it simple, heat air with any heat source, turn on a fan and blow air past the heating source, bam!, forced air heating system.

Gat an ammo box, flex exhaust pipe, propane burner and tank along with a battery operated fan and put it all together.

 

[trae]

Looks like rocket science, let's make it simple, heat air with any heat source, turn on a fan and blow air past the heating source, bam!, forced air heating system.

Gat an ammo box, flex exhaust pipe, propane burner and tank along with a battery operated fan and put it all together.

Sounds simple enough

I would want the air traveling past the heat source to be fully isolated from the combustion so that I dont bring the results of said combustion into the tent.

 

[rruff]

The seller claims that a single bottle lasts about 7 hours and brings the temps up about 10c in his tent. No idea about the power consumption for the fan.

If you are cheap and therefore considering a janky furnace designed and built by someone else... get a good sleeping bag, and a nice fluffy down blanket to throw over the top. Your ~100W of resting body heat is sufficient with decent insulation. If you hate getting into a cold bag and waiting for it to warm up, then get a little electric blanket to warm your bag for 30 minutes or so before you get in.

 

[FlatlandYankee]

I’ll DIY or garagineer a *lot* of things. Combustion and sleeping space is not one of those things.

 

[trae]

I’ll DIY or garagineer a *lot* of things. Combustion and sleeping space is not one of those things.

Agreed, but I'm curious now.

Seems like there used to be a Zodi tent heater that got discontinued because if the fan died the unit melted.

Australians seem to have Companion Aeroheat which superficially looks like a new version of the Zodi:
Of course @rruff is 100% correct, in vast majority of the cases a sleeping bag is sufficient.

Anyway, needing out on gear here.

 

[rruff]

Anyway, needing out on gear here.

It's an affliction...

It's happy hour... have another swig or whatever spins your props, and scale it back a bit... just for fun. You are talking about a RTT which has ******** for insulation anyway... so the heat you add will mostly be wasted. Insulate your body and you will sleep well...

 

[ArkansasDon]

Mario @ AT Overland used to sell portable forced air heaters that had Proplex H2000 furnace that recirculated the warm air in the sleeping area. I've owned mine for several years & couldn't be any happier with the performance & reliability. It pulls 1.4 amps per hour for the igniter, thermostat, & fan, & the propane usage is very low do to on demand, when the temperature drop below the set temperature on the thermostat control in the 2nd photo next to the First Aid Kit, it purges the system to remove any un-burnt gases then ignites & runs until cabin temperature reaches the set temperature much like your household forced air heating system works. Very efficient system. The condensation is very low in the camper do to it recirculated the air removing the moisture.