Buddy heater burn times

[satchamo]

Hey guys -

Planning for my WY archery hunt this year. I picked up a 10x10 kodiak flexbow. My plan was to take a me buddy heater and run it occasionally onto take off the edge as needed. I’m curious for those who have done this in the past is how many of the small tanks it used on a 7 day hunt? This is my first time so I have no idea what to expect. But those tanks are cheap so I’m ok to have too many. Just looking for a ballpark.

And yes - I am bringing an carbon monoxide detector.

 

[satchamo]

It’s probably worth noting we’ll be at the 9000 ft range

 

[sasquatch]

Depends on how you wanna run it

Non stop all night, you’ll get around 3 nights on two bottles

High, closer to two bottles a night

Just an hr in morning to warm up, many nights.

It’s def worth bringing a regular propane bottle with the hose attachment and not have to worry about it.
This way you also won’t have to worry about leaving it on for comfort if you want to. This same bottle and hose would run a stove too, I have a setup with a Y fitting and two hoses. One goes to my stove and the other to my buddy heater

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Tanner W]

like Sasquatch said, running it on high all night you’ll use 2 bottles a night. 20lb tank with hose is the way to go. Going with a big tank, You won’t have to worry about lugging all the empty small bottles with you home as well.

 

[WeiserBucks]

My big buddy heater is a fuel hog, it'll burn through two small bottles in about 6 hours on low at 5000' elevation.

 

[GunsAreFun]

Highly recommend getting a 20lb tank (not filled at propane exchange because they only do 75% capacity) and the Mr Buddy heater brand hose. You’ll be able to run it as long and hot as you want and will have much mess trash.

Don’t quote me on this, but in my deer blind, I got about 8ish hours mostly on low from the small bottles. This season will have a 20lb tank so I can let it rip.

 

[boom]

We ran a small green bottle all night. It was good for 7 hours if I remember correctly. I can’t remember at what level we set the heat. It wasn’t on high.

 

[Wmmichael20]

I only get around 5 hours on low from the small one pound bottles,like the rest mentioned I get the hose kit and a filter and hook up to a 20lb grill tank that you can fill for 10 bucks and not worry about running out.

 

[Whitetaildown215]

Like said before, get a 20lb tank and go that route. I used just over 1 20lb tank for deer season a couple years ago. Ran my big buddy on medium all night for 10 days plus some in the mid day when back at camp. Night time temps were in the teens.

 

[satchamo]

20 lb tank it is!

 

[Timberdawg1985]

IF you can carry a 20 LB bottle, definitely would do that.

 

[JRMiller]

Mine average 2-3 bottles per night if run all night.
big tank is a must

 

[saltfork]

Last November, I truck camped in Colorado 3rd season. I have a camper shell on and slept in the back of the truck. I used a big buddy heater with a 30lb bottle, and brought an extra 40lb just in case as I didn't know what the temps would be or how long it would last. A couple nights it got down towards single digits. I would put the heater on low until I was ready for bed, then I would turn it off and crawl in my bag and be good for the night. It got way too hot in there if I ran it all night even on low. First thing in the morning, crank it up again while I got dressed. Over 8 days I only used about half of that 30lb bottle. Sorry for the long winded first post. lol

 

[Newtosavage]

Hey guys -

Planning for my WY archery hunt this year. I picked up a 10x10 kodiak flexbow. My plan was to take a me buddy heater and run it occasionally onto take off the edge as needed. I’m curious for those who have done this in the past is how many of the small tanks it used on a 7 day hunt? This is my first time so I have no idea what to expect. But those tanks are cheap so I’m ok to have too many. Just looking for a ballpark.

And yes - I am bringing an carbon monoxide detector.

I have almost the same setup - 10x10 Kodiak Canvas w/ Buddy Heater to take the edge off, as you say. I bought the hose to connect to the propane bottle. The bottle sits outside the tent in a milk crate, and the hose runs in to feed the buddy heater. Great system.

I can't answer your question because I've never run my buddy heater off the green bottles. If you plan to camp for more than 3-4 days, I'd definitely get the hose and run it off a larger propane bottle though. Its pretty easy to set up and you don't have to worry about it running out in the middle of the night and trying to screw on another bottle in the dark when it's 14 degrees inside the tent.

I ran my heater on low most nights, with the top corners of the screen windows unzipped for ventilation. It kept the tent about 40-45 degrees, I'd guess.

In the morning, I'd fire up my coleman stove for coffee and the northstar lantern, and within about 60 seconds, the top half of my tent would be about 70 degrees. Very easy getting up to that, as opposed to what I was used to for so many years. It really makes camping in cold weather bearable.

 

[Timberdawg1985]

Last November, I truck camped in Colorado 3rd season. I have a camper shell on and slept in the back of the truck. I used a big buddy heater with a 30lb bottle, and brought an extra 40lb just in case as I didn't know what the temps would be or how long it would last. A couple nights it got down towards single digits. I would put the heater on low until I was ready for bed, then I would turn it off and crawl in my bag and be good for the night. It got way too hot in there if I ran it all night even on low. First thing in the morning, crank it up again while I got dressed. Over 8 days I only used about half of that 30lb bottle. Sorry for the long winded first post. lol

Thanks for the info.

 

[NJDiverDan]

One thing to realize is that burning propane creates water vapor. For every molecule of propane you burn, you consume 5 molecules of oxygen and you produce 4 molecules of water & 3 molecules of carbon dioxide. So from a 20 pound tank of propane you would produce 32 pounds of water (if I did my math correctly).

This water produced will increase any condensation issues. In a canvas tent, it is not that apparent, but it pretty much makes it rain in my ice fishing tent.

 

[NDGuy]

How worried are you guys about not waking up using these? I have used mine before but it does give a guy the heeby jeebies thinking about it.

 

[saltfork]

I was a little worried at first, so kept a window cracked. And with the condensation, I needed ventilation anyways. There is a walkout door on my camper shell, so just kept it partially shut against the latch with a tarp strap. Everything seemed to work fine.

 

[satchamo]

How worried are you guys about not waking up using these? I have used mine before but it does give a guy the heeby jeebies thinking about it.

Yeah I plan to bring a battery powered carbon monoxide detector for this reason. I think the buddy heaters have a safety shut off when the 02 gets low but I might be making that up?

I looked at a vented propane stove another user had posted about here but I don’t think it’s in the cards this year tho it’s a great idea.

 

[NDGuy]

I looked at a vented propane stove another user had posted about here

Got a link?