Mr heater buddy heaters in tents overnight

[Mgyver1]

Get a 12 VDC electric heat throw blanket from Amazon and put it inside your sleeping bag. The one I have has a 30 and 45 min shutdown feature that I have never used at more than 30 minutes. It pre-heats the sleeping bag, Large 2 person, for the entire night at below 30 degree nights. I just wired a marine 12 VDC outlet to the top of my JK and plug it right in. I also have a Genesis dual battery set up. Using the throw for 30 mins at bedtime then 30 mins before getting up never took the accessory battery below 11.8 volts.
Just my 2 cents.......

This is supposed to be pretty efficient. Heated mattress pad that warms you up from the bottom so your covers help hold the heat in. It’s maximum current draw is 6.3a, but it says the average use is 3a. It has a 1-7 temp setting and it automatically regulates the temp based on the setting.

https://cozywinters.com/shop/ew-rvhmp.html

 

[Kevin108]

I gotta say, think about our litigious society. If there were any legitimate deaths from them, they wouldn't still be on the market. Yes, the risk is there just because of the nature of the product, but the instances of problems must be virtually nonexistent for these to still be available.

 

[MattJ]

I gotta say, think about our litigious society. If there were any legitimate deaths from them, they wouldn't still be on the market. Yes, the risk is there just because of the nature of the product, but the instances of problems must be virtually nonexistent for these to still be available.

Yes - I've moved past the carbon monoxide concerns. I set up my roof top tent with the lower annex for the first time, and realized that the tent has three huge windows, and the annex has three huge windows and a door. If I leave each of these open a few inches, there should be plenty of fresh air circulating. Plus, I plan to use carbon monoxide alarm and a USB-powered fan to circulate the warm air up from the annex to the roof top tent. I was really surprised at how large the annex is. It's tall enough to stand up in, and three people could sleep inside comfortably, with three more in the roof top tent.

 

[MattJ]

This is supposed to be pretty efficient. Heated mattress pad that warms you up from the bottom so your covers help hold the heat in. It's maximum current draw is 6.3a, but it says the average use is 3a. It has a 1-7 temp setting and it automatically regulates the temp based on the setting.

https://cozywinters.com/shop/ew-rvhmp.html

Thank for this idea - I have been looking for an expensive 12v electric blanket to test, but I could only find products at $40 and below. This looks like a more robust product, so I will give it a try. By the way, I found a very similar item on Amazon at a cheaper price. It looks almost identical (even has seven heating levels and the same 6.3a rating):

http://a.co/eI7tVlE

 

[chet6.7]

I bought the electrowarmth from Amzn,I haven't used it as I don't have my aux batteries installed yet. If I were to do it again,I would check out a low voltage electric blanket for home use.As I understand it,it converts 110 AC to low voltage 12 DC.
The electrowarmth warns against wrinkles,it needs to be secured to the mattress,I think a regular elect blanket may be more convenient if one is setting up the bed every night in cramped quarters.I have read the reviews of the low voltage elect blankets on amzn,they are mixed.


"The 12 volt mattress pad model has several cloth tabs sewn around its border with which you safety pin (pins are provided) the warmer to your mattress."
http://electrowarmth.com/faq/

 

[MattJ]

I bought the electrowarmth from Amzn,I haven't used it as I don't have my aux batteries installed yet. If I were to do it again,I would check out a low voltage electric blanket for home use.As I understand it,it converts 110 AC to low voltage 12 DC.
The electrowarmth warns against wrinkles,it needs to be secured to the mattress,I think a regular elect blanket may be more convenient if one is setting up the bed every night in cramped quarters.I have read the reviews of the low voltage elect blankets on amzn,they are mixed.


"The 12 volt mattress pad model has several cloth tabs sewn around its border with which you safety pin (pins are provided) the warmer to your mattress."
http://electrowarmth.com/faq/

My roof top tent comes with a wall-to-wall 3-inch foam mattress and custom fitted sheet (I think all roof top tents come with a similar feature). So I should be able to pin the heating pad right onto the mattress anywhere in the tent. Will report back here!

 

[Freebird]

At night I burn.....
Calories.
I love to eat, so this works for me. I adjust the number of covers and their insulating properties according to the temperatures.
ALSO, exercising very vigorously for a half-hour+ speeds up my/everyone's calorie burn for the next 12 hours, providing significant additional metabolic heat through the night. Planning way ahead by building muscle mass to help with the burning of calories is a real good tactic, too....

Following the pre bed time vigorous exercise, it is all good to stimulate your metabolism further with some high-intensity mattress dancing.

 

[MattJ]

OK - here are the results from my testing of the Electrowarmth mattress heater.

1) Drained my auxiliary battery from 12.6v to just 12.0v over 9 hours when set at 3 of 7 on the heating dial.
2) Wasn't very warm at all. I had to press my hand onto the pad very hard to feel just a tiny bit of heat in the coil. But I think this is how the product is designed to work.
3) The next morning I turned it up to 7 of 7 on the heating dial, and it drained the auxiliary battery from 12.0v to 11.5v in two hours. Didn't feel much warmer to the touch.
4) There are some interesting instructions to consider. See photos below.

Overall, I'm going to keep the product and field test it. I know that the heating dial is a "thermostat" per the instructions, so I am interested to see how that works in a cold roof top tent. I also know that the pad cycles on and off, so maybe that is why it doesn't feel warm to the touch. But I'm not sure what to do about the sleeping bag warning (below).

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

Although I did mention it, no one seemed to of noticed or commented on it, but if you want a safe and efficient, go the way of a Propex HS2000 heater. Power consumption is relatively low (2A), combustion happens outside of the tent, so no worries of fire or the lack of oxygen.

As of this year, my new addition is a gasoline Webasto AirTop 2000 heater. Fuel and power consumption specs seem very similar, but I don't have to worry about fuel pressure from cold temperatures, and I have a much larger reserve. I've used it for 3 consecutive nights, all night, on a single regular cheap (new) Canadian Tire Eliminator deep cycle battery with no problems. I need to do more testing and check the voltage drop on the battery per night, but I wasn't setup for it this year. It was more just learning and testing the unit. I did want and look into catalyst heaters for a long time, but I just couldn't do it. I find the only downfall on the Propex/Webasto setup is the cost and a little less portable, but solves the problems of safety (oxygen/fire) and power consumption. It look me a long time, but I saved up to be able to get it, and I find it's worth every penny, for the comfort and to be dry. I've tested it down to 0*C so far with great success, and hoping to get one more even colder night in to test it before the trailer and tent get put away for the season.

 

[MattJ]

Although I did mention it, no one seemed to of noticed or commented on it, but if you want a safe and efficient, go the way of a Propex HS2000 heater. Power consumption is relatively low (2A), combustion happens outside of the tent, so no worries of fire or the lack of oxygen.

I did see your post and did some research on the Propex option. But I couldn't figure out these two questions. Maybe you can help!

1) How could I use it without a permanent installation? I'd like to just pack it for cold weather trips and otherwise leave it at home. When in use, can it just sit on the ground outside the vehicle? That would require an extension cable from the auxiliary battery under my hood, but that should be easy to build, right?

2) How do you keep the 20lb propane tank warm enough to deliver sufficient pressure? Per my experiments above, I couldn't get the Mr. Heater Buddy to light off a 20lb tank at 20F. Only 1lb tanks work at that temperature. And the tank heater blanket for a 20lb tank draws too much power from my auxiliary battery.

 

[john61ct]

HS2211 would be my preferred propex.

Cold weather you need bigger or dual propane tanks (surface area) and keep them full.

Or keep them in exhaust air path from the warm living space? Electric tank warming is a temporary, emergency-only option.

But even better, love the idea of Webasto/Espar though, especially the remote start and HWS / hydronics / block heater options.

Maybe both, and put the HW exchange tank in with the propane?

 

[john61ct]

Any of these could be made somewhat portable building into a big ammo box or pelican case.

 

[lqdchkn]

How did we go from the topic "using Mr Heater Buddy heaters in tents" to "use X,Y,Z products instead" ?? ******** Talk about derailed

 

[MattJ]

How did we go from the topic "using Mr Heater Buddy heaters in tents" to "use X,Y,Z products instead" ?? ******** Talk about derailed

Yes - I thought about starting a new thread entitled "Ways to Heat a Tent: Pros/Cons of Each" but this seems to be the thread that has the most people pitching in with suggestions and ideas. So I decided to just keep posting here. This is a GREAT community of people to learn from, that's for sure! After some cold weather camping and field testing of several options, I'll start a new thread to clean up the loose ends and focus the discussion a bit more.

 

[Herbie]

How did we go from the topic "using Mr Heater Buddy heaters in tents" to "use X,Y,Z products instead" ?? ******** Talk about derailed

I think this topic was destined to end up as "use X,Y,Z products instead" simply because the topic, as stated, is generally contraindicated for being dangerous to the user.