Big Buddy Mr. Heater

[riverview]

I am on my second year with a big buddy heater. Last year it was in my otter for almost 400 miles and it worked everytime. I didnt think it would take the beating a portable takes behind a snocat.

[CaptainMusky]

Off the top of my head, I can think of 5 people (not including myself) who bought the buddy heaters and either returned them, or tossed them in the trash after a trip or two.

That is the a completely ridiculous statement. You know people who would throw $120? OK, I believe that. Right!

I used my big buddy heater on Thursday, works awesome. There is no noise like sunflowers and other heaters. No headaches either have using it the entire day. We moved countless times, I never shut it off, just set it on my fish hours and drove to the new spot. The unit never blew out. Undoubtedly all the haters here have had experience with older units because this has been resolve.

[merkman]

problem I have had is when I change or disconnect my 20# tank it takes a long time to run the air out of the 6 foot hose. I think a lot of the problems people are having is related to this.

+1

The biggest problems behind that seem to be with the saftey features.

Yes I want a heater with a bump sensor so it shuts off when something falls on it.

Yes I want a heater with an O2 sensor that shuts it down when there is no Oxygen in the fish house. I had that problem just last week. The darn thing wouldn't light. I opened the door to get fresh air in the shack and it lit fine. Kept the door cracked the rest of the time I was out there and didn't have a problem. Closed the door tight as I was outside cleaning things up and of course the heater stopped. That is a good thing!!

I do wish they would make a "quick line bleeder" for those times when you are connecting and disconnecting the 6ft hose though.

[Northlander]

Captain musky please tone down your posts. He gave a statement and if you dont believe it thats fine. Just dont attack others for what they may say or post. Please read forum posting rules.

I myself have gone through 5 different buddy or Big Buddy's through out the years. All wound up returned. They just werent dependable heat for me. I cant afford to have a heater that doesnt work.

[booshy]

Per Hubcat,

Sounds like the issues I've had. Love it when it is lit but lighting can be frusterating for sure. I'm typically using a bulk tank with 6ft hose. Otherwise, I've had mine for 4+ yrs, never used a filter and love it. Works great behind my chairs in the flip over and the fan is a nice feature also.

Anybody know if any improvements or tips have been found to help bleed the air out any faster? Should I just leave the tank on and connected to the buddy or could this be a hazard?

Thanks

[Bulldoggr]

I have had great luck with the heaters new out of the Box. but I have found with the Buddy and The Big Buddy, they just don't seem to have endurance I am sending my Big Buddy in to get fixed. but because i have had it for 4 years i will have to pay for parts and labor. if it totals more then 119.00 bucks i may just throw it as well.

I do like the Big Buddy in my Otter lodge better then a Sunflower heater. But I will have to say i have never has a problem with the Sunflower that I could not fix. ( mainly I replaced a thermo coupler once)

So out of 5 stars I would give it 2 1/2 stars!

[CaptainMusky]

Northlander, returning them is one thing, throwing them away after "one or two uses" is a ridiculous statement. Sorry. I dont doubt that you or many others have RETURNED them after having trouble, but do throw them away? Come on. I dont believe that for a second. After several years of use I could understand it, I just dont believe for one second someone would try it out a couple times and throw it away.

I have read the forum rules and I don't see where this was breaking any of those rules, I was not personally attacking anyone, just not buying what was being said.

I know there have been problems, but to say that they have not resolved is wrong as well. This would be like telling someone to never buy a Toyota because the sudden acceleration, right? Did they all have the problem? Nope. There were millions of Camry's that never had a problem. Some did, most did not.

[CaptainMusky]

Per Hubcat,

Sounds like the issues I've had. Love it when it is lit but lighting can be frusterating for sure. I'm typically using a bulk tank with 6ft hose. Otherwise, I've had mine for 4+ yrs, never used a filter and love it. Works great behind my chairs in the flip over and the fan is a nice feature also.

Anybody know if any improvements or tips have been found to help bleed the air out any faster? Should I just leave the tank on and connected to the buddy or could this be a hazard?

Thanks

Booshy, one tip that was provided in a prior post for bleeing the line was to connect to the tank while not having the other end connected to heater. Turn on the tank and push something like into the needle valve into the hose to relieve the air in the line. THen hook up to the tank and light.

I tried this and it was a handy pointer. My buddy never disconnects his and never runs the gas out of the line when finished using it. His seems to light fairly quickly too. Peronally I like to close the valve at the tank each time and burn all fuel from the line, but that is just me so I will try continue to do the other tip because of this.

[quickfish6]

Yeah the thing about it is I dont want to mess around bleeding the line by sticking stuff in the propane hose, and take a risk breaking the hose. I just want to hook it up and go so i go with mr. heater. I would give the big buddy 1 star

[staresatice]

turn off heater and then tank and leave hose on the tank and take off hose from heater and the one way valve on the hose will capture the fuel in the line and when u hook back up no bleedin is required about 95% of the time if used frequently enough. though u must bleed the hose the first time and i have found pushin the one way vavle in helps and works great

[fishwater]

LOL. I was in the habit of leaving my quick connect hose on the tank for that reason. Had the tank take a roll the other day, wound up snapping the hose off at the regulator.

[grasshopper]

U can refill those small tanks. Caballa's has the conection to do this. My buddy heater works just find

[grasshopper]

Why did u by 5 and returned them? after 2 I would of quit buying them.

[SFC]

Well u cant say he didnt give the product a fair chance. Northlander how long ago was this? I have the buddy heater 2nd year now using a 20 pounder with a 8 ft. hose & filter, after reconnecting hose lights after 10 seconds. Why does everyone have the my product is best because I own it attitude. Maybe everyone should just tell how the product is working for them.

[Random guy]

Ya know I was pretty proud of my Big Buddy Tough heater until yesterday. I bought the unit late last season and it is now in the dump. First off I fully understand I put a ton of miles on daily with the heater in my sled but I figured I would get at least a full season out of it. What happened is the vibration from travel caused the plates to move around and they got loose, I figured this was no big deal until the paper gasket behind them blew out. Lots of popping and lots of fire where it shouldnt be. So my new heater is junk as I never figured that would happen and why spend 80% of the cost to fix it to get anothert month out of it. It was a nice heater that was quite and I didn't have to worry about half of my gear getting melted or dying from fumes, just couln't handle the moving. Back to searching for a decent heater; somebody has to make somthing that will hold up and not melt off my beard or freeze me out.

[candiru]

You can turn down the output of your sunflower heaters. Carefully pry of the high/med/low knob off. Underneath that is an allen head slot. Turn that allen head to adjust the output. It takes a little trial and error. They can be turned down so they are not so hot.

[NoWiser]

That is the a completely ridiculous statement. You know people who would throw $120? OK, I believe that. Right!

I used my big buddy heater on Thursday, works awesome. There is no noise like sunflowers and other heaters. No headaches either have using it the entire day. We moved countless times, I never shut it off, just set it on my fish hours and drove to the new spot. The unit never blew out. Undoubtedly all the haters here have had experience with older units because this has been resolve.

Call me a liar if you want, it doesn't hurt my feelings any. I have no reason to bash the Buddy Heaters other than they have never worked for me, or anyone I know. And yes, I know of more than a couple people that tried them for a trip or two, switched back to a sunflower, and eventually tossed them after they collected dust for too long. Sorry I seamed to strike a nerve with you. Not my intention. Someone asked for people's experience with the Buddy Heaters, so I gave my honest experience....take it or leave it.

[BartmanMN]

Ya know I was pretty proud of my Big Buddy Tough heater until yesterday. I bought the unit late last season and it is now in the dump. First off I fully understand I put a ton of miles on daily with the heater in my sled but I figured I would get at least a full season out of it. What happened is the vibration from travel caused the plates to move around and they got loose, I figured this was no big deal until the paper gasket behind them blew out. Lots of popping and lots of fire where it shouldnt be. So my new heater is junk as I never figured that would happen and why spend 80% of the cost to fix it to get anothert month out of it. It was a nice heater that was quite and I didn't have to worry about half of my gear getting melted or dying from fumes, just couln't handle the moving. Back to searching for a decent heater; somebody has to make somthing that will hold up and not melt off my beard or freeze me out.

Mr.Heater sells replacement parts for the big buddy. Why don't you just repair it and purchase the padded carrying case.

[Random guy]

Trouble is I am hammerring out 9-15 miles a day across the ice so its not going to last even if I fix it or put it in the case as it was bedded in foam already. I often times loose reel handles, have the screws shake out of the portable poles and even have ice skimmers rattle apart. I need something built for war. I did buy my grandfather a Buddy Heater and he loves it but of course the usage is much gentler. I have been searching for something tough and not so noisy and to be honest I have yet to find anything.

[Random guy]

You can turn down the output of your sunflower heaters. Carefully pry of the high/med/low knob off. Underneath that is an allen head slot. Turn that allen head to adjust the output. It takes a little trial and error. They can be turned down so they are not so hot.

I am going to try this as I have a bunch of those around. 4,500 BTU for me would be perfect if I can land on it.

[merkman]

I have been searching for something tough and not so noisy and to be honest I have yet to find anything.

[Random guy]

Perfect!

[grasshopper]

What beard? If u had one, u wouldn't be cold. Anyway if u move so much, u don't need heat. I'm out in tennis shoe and evryone say how can i do it. Feet stay dry and hands stay dry, I stay warm.

[luckydog25]

Jonny, I know you are a very sharp fella, so don't take this the wrong way. My father in law had the same thing happen with the popping and open flame....pretty big flame. I told him NO WAY as that is all we run and have for years in our sleepers and portables. Must be something dumped in there or some weird thing. He insisted it was an issue with the unit. I asked him if he threw it away or not...he said he still had it. Now keep in mind he MR.SAFTEY which is a good thing... but I asked if he would check the connection on the heater side and try it again. Turns out the quick connect(hand tighten) on the heater side was loose from bouncing around, that was the problem. It was the tough buddy also. He has been using it for a couple weeks without issue. I do agree with you that they are not built to be bouncing around the way you would use it though...Good Luck and see ya on the lake!!

[Random guy]

Mine would have flames coming out around the cermaic plates. Of course once I seen flames my first thought was to stick my hand in there and mess with it. I could push the plates back tight against the manifold with my needle nose and it would stop until my hand got hot. It was alot like a caveman discovering fire in my shack at that time. I even tried wedging hooks and quarters in it to keep it tight to get by for the night. Later investigation showed me the seals where toast. Like I said its an awesome heater and my grandfather loves his but for me it just doesn't have enough iron.