Wall Tent Heater help wood/pellet/propane?

Joined
May 22, 2021
Messages
16
Finally getting a wall tent this year and have been researching heat sources. There's so many choices and conflicting information, hoping I could get some more helpful information and direction here.
Needs to meet criteria:
-The tent is 12x12 canvas
-Mostly used at 10-11k
-Ran when outside temps are -20-30 degrees
-Sometimes in a no fire zone
Less important criteria:
-Usually a low quantity/quality firewood
-Would be nice to have it run 6-8 hours without human intervention

The best option I could find for propane was the Nuway (I think that's what it's called) but there's a lot of people saying they are disappointed, and I'm not sure about propane at elevation. I'm a little curious about rv/home heaters but again, not sure about elevation

Pellet stoves sounded like a good idea, but one of the manufacturers state on their website they cannot be used over 8k. Another manufacturer states they can run at 10k. Anyone have experience with this? Brand recommendations?

Classic wood stove is pretty straight forward. The big drawbacks are the lack of quality woods and if there's a fire restriction, I assume you're not allowed to run it?
 

11boo

WKR
Joined
Feb 24, 2016
Messages
2,313
Location
Grand Jct, CO
I have spent a lot of time in colo in a canvas wall tent, always a wood stove. Never had a fire ban during my seasons, and always had good luck with the firewood we collected. Always dead dry wood.
I did get lazy one year and decided to heat with a propane catalytic heater. Lots of rain that hunt too. The propane sucked due to the fact that it generates a lot of moisture when burned. My wet clothes hung in the tent to dry never really dried.
if I ever revisit propane heat again, it’ll be from a propane burner in my wood stove.
 
Joined
May 13, 2015
Messages
3,714
From your criteria, considering performance and moisture reduction, you should be looking at a pellet stove. The hopper can always be extended to increase holding volume, or it would not be difficult to make a custom hopper with a little skill if you needed to increase the holding volume.
 

5MilesBack

"DADDY"
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Messages
15,610
Location
Colorado Springs
I use a 30k BTU two burner tank top propane heater in my 14x16 wall tent at up to 11k feet. It's great, and will have the tent in shorts temps within 5 minutes when temps are upper 20's and up. The problem is when it gets real cold, like the teens and below.......it just seems that the propane doesn't flow as well so doesn't heat as well. You can see a difference in the burners between higher temps and lower temps. I'm thinking about putting together an insulating blanket system for the 40lb tank this year. It certainly couldn't hurt. But I never run the heater except a bit before bed if needed and then to warm the tent in the morning. I'd never use it all night, that's what my sleeping bag is for.

I used this heater during our 2013 September monsoon when we got over 15" of rain, and it worked great for drying my clothes every night before bed, and then first thing in the morning before heading out again. I hang them from the ridge pole above the heater where most the heat goes. I've used wood stoves before, but for archery season they just don't make as much sense when I'm getting back after dark and ready for bed soon after. For some of the later rifle seasons when it's dark by 5pm, a wood stove makes a lot more sense.
 

samwe

FNG
Joined
Dec 29, 2021
Messages
1
Finally getting a wall tent this year and have been researching heat sources. There's so many choices and conflicting information, hoping I could get some more helpful information and direction here.
Needs to meet criteria:
-The tent is 12x12 canvas
-Mostly used at 10-11k
-Ran when outside temps are -20-30 degrees
-Sometimes in a no fire zone
Less important criteria:
-Usually a low quantity/quality firewood
-Would be nice to have it run 6-8 hours without human intervention

The best option I could find for propane was the Nuway (I think that's what it's called) but there's a lot of people saying they are disappointed, and I'm not sure about propane at elevation. I'm a little curious about rv/home heaters but again, not sure about elevation

Pellet stoves sounded like a good idea, but one of the manufacturers state on their website they cannot be used over 8k. Another manufacturer states they can run at 10k. Anyone have experience with this? Brand recommendations?

Classic wood stove is pretty straight forward. The big drawbacks are the lack of quality woods and if there's a fire restriction, I assume you're not allowed to run it?
I used a Nu-Way in ~150sf Arctic Oven in temps between 0-10f. It was super easy to use and kept the tent cleaner than wood. It was plenty warm, but used about a 20lb tank per day. I think the Arctic Oven retains heat better than a regular canvas wall tent.

I am planning to build a gravity feed pellet burner as I think pellets will be cheaper than propane.
 
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