Heaters

[fish..fear..me]

Just wondering what everyone uses for heaters? I have a Fish Trap Yukon and thinking about going to a Buddy Heater by Mr. Heater. I am currently using a sunflower heater and wondering if the budddy heater will due the job (only having a max of 9,000 BTU) The sunflower works great but I am concerned about my little boy getting too close.

[caseymcq]

I have both a Mr. Heater Cooker and a Mr. Heater Buddy. The Buddy is OK. On mild days it keeps my Eskimo Quick Flip II warm, but on cold days it just takes the chill off the air.

I also have a Clam 5600. Three years ago my wife and I were trout fishing when it was about 15 below 0. The Buddy just didn't cut it in the Clam.

The Mr. Heater Cooker keeps both the Clam and the Eskimo pretty toasty no matter what it is like outside. I bought a hose and I use either a 10lb or 20lb propane cylinder with the Cooker and I love it.

The Buddy comes in handy on the Mild days, though, when the Cooker would be a little too much.

[buzbunni]

ffm:

Just to second what caseymcq said..

I have the Yukon as well. I started with the Buddy last season, and just bought the Mr. Heater Sunflower/cooker for this year. I also have the 5600, and the Buddy was definitely lacking in that unit on colder nights. Heck even on average nights.

In the yukon, I will most likely be using the Buddy for most days. I tuck myself in pretty good (drafts can be a bit of a problem with the buddy), and that helps. But for that really cold fishin' fever, the sunflower is the way to go. I believe you can use 1lb tanks on both units. I like that because I can carry less with me (I'm usually not out all day sittin' on one spot).

Finally. You can get a burn from either one if you touch the wrong spot, but I believe the Buddy to be safer in this regard as the BTU's are lower, and the heating element seems more difficult to access. The Sunflower can really heat up.

Pick one and try it, and then decide from there.

[Big Paulie]

Paulin 3500 heater cooker keeps us toasty while on the ice.

[glendam]

I have an otter cabin and use the small buddy heater, and it does the job for the most part. you wont have to worry about getting too hot, but you also won't be freezing.

[Lazy Mike]

Also consider the Big Buddy Heater. It hold two 1lb. tanks or you can hook up a larger tank if desired. Reeds has them for $99.99.

[CNY Tim]

In my pro I like the Coleman Focus III heater and on super cold days I use a stove top burner, nice to have a hot lunch on the ice and the burner does a nice job heating up a can of Chunky soup.

[schweady]

I used my Mr Heater Cooker in my Otter Cabin last Sunday night. It was around 3 Deg F and a bit of a wind, and it kept it quite comfortable set on medium. Got a bit chillier in there near the end, and was tempted to turn up to high for a bit, but I think it was just running out of gas in the 1 lb'er. Nice unit. Glad my partner convinced me to go with it vs. the Big Buddy. I was originally worried about having to be a lot more careful about it burning up stuff, but it's no problem. Nice and compact.

[Tripleplay]

I've got a Fishtrap Guide and the Buddy works great. I keep it in the sled between the seats and fish without my coat on most of the time (I use the 1# disposables usually ice fishing so I don't have to lug around the tank and hose but I have that option as well). Your Yukon is bigger but I can't remember the last time I even had mine on the high setting so I would assume it would cover your needs. I also like the heater out of the way since my son managed to melt his line a couple of times when the heater was out in front of his like a sunflower or cooker would be.

My son also cooked the rearend of his snowpants something fierce last year while visiting and fishing with Holehopper and he uses a sunflower.

Honest truth is I got a new deer stand (4' by 8' and 8' high) this year and the Buddy was not sufficient when it got real cold on the second weekend unless you were in the middle seat. I'm already "greasing the skids" with the boss at home about upgrading to a Big Buddy for hunting! A bit easier when leveraging that my daughter might be getting cold while hunting instead of just me.

[Deephole57]

I bought a "Big Buddy" two weeks ago at Northern Tool in hope it would push good heat in a 3-man polar sport.

$129.00 I paid so that Reeds deal is pretty attractive.

I also bought the 12' hose and filter for an additional fuel supply ($35)

Hope this thing works well, $$$$ is adding up in a hurry

and I've yet to find a LX-3 on sale for a upgrade, or get the new ltc.

I missed out on that Reeds sale of them a couple weeks back at $279. Within a hour of my call they sold out

[Jeremy airjer W]

This will be my second year using the Big Buddy in my Otter Lodge. I have no complaints as of yet. 18,000 btu's, which is more that the sunflower or cooker, will keep you warm!

[tweeder]

I have a fish trap guide maybe, heck can't remember which one, can you tell I haven't had it out yet, anyways it has two seats. I use a setup similar to what someone else mentioned earlier, I keep it in my sled behind me between the seats. It gives off enough heat but dosen't get to hot. If you can back in a good snow base it will do you good. I have had terrible expierence with the sunflower both with kids and adults. My buddy started his bids and part of his house on fire last year when he wasn't paying attention. I have had plenty of kids around the Buddy with no issues. I also bought the 5' hose and run the Buddy off of a 20lb tank that I keep outside the house. You can just keep it cookin on high for a very very long time!

[RatherBfishN]

Sun Flower is the way to go.....with a tank.....if you need heat and control get a sunfolwer

[Blue Kayak]

There have been lots of posts about safety and thin ice, but I haven't seen any posts on heaters and asphyxiation. The 2005 MN Fishing Regulations devote pages 68 and 69 to, "Heating Fishhouses Safely." This is a direct quote, "Sunflower type heaters (figure 4) are not recommended for use in fishhouses. Most are approved for outdoor use only, and have no safety systems to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning. Use outdoors only!"

[76k20]

I see what youre saying and definately would never heat a perm with a mr heater or any ventless heat source for that matter, you should even be careful with gas lanterns in well banked well sealed fish houses. but I think for heating a portable canvas fish house the sunflower is a good choice, I think all of the portable models now come with vents for this reason. + if you go to jig for a few minutes you can drag it outside with you without it blowing out. My dad has a big buddy and I like it I may buy one this year but even this heater is not co safe.

for a perm direct vented is the only way to go.

[marine_man]

I was out fishing with iffwalleyes this past weekend in his otter magnum lodge and he's got a big buddy with the hose to connect to a larger propane tank.

It was right around 0 on Saturday where we were fishing and we were easily comfortable, and this was without the fan on (since we forgot the batteries), which I think would have made a big difference.

The thing that I realy like about the big buddy is you can put the case right up against the canvas of the house and not worry about melting / burning anything...

The other thing is it's got some CO safety... as long as you don't adjust the pilot light... as the amount of available oxygen goes down the pilot light burns lower, once it gets too low it trips the thermocouple which shuts the gas off... not 100% fool proof, but better than the sunflower. It's also got a tip over switch that cuts the gas if you tip, or bump the heater.

I've got a Mr Heater Cooker which works great, but the big buddy's got 4,000 more BTU's than the cooker on high and is adjustable to lower than the cooker, which is nice on warmer days - with the cooker on the warmer days I'm constanly lighting the heater, getting too hot, shutting it off, waiting a little while, then repeating the whole process over again.

My next heater will be a big buddy... I'm sure of that.

marine_man

[Wobbler]

I have the Yukon as well. I have used the smaller buddy heater and the sunflower type. The smaller buddy works great on warm days above 0 degrees. The sunflower works great on colder days. The one problem I have always had with the sunflower heaters is my eyes really dried out and once in awhile I had a headache. This year I upgraded to the big buddy heater. It throws off just as much heat or more than the sunflower and my eyes don't hurt after sitting in the house all day. I went to Cabelas to buy one $129 plus a soft heater bag for it and told them what Reed's was selling them for (I printed off the ad) and I got the heater for $99 and the cover that goes over it to protect it (Cabelas makes them) for nothing.

[Dotch]

Anyone put a CO detector in their permanent fish house as a precaution? Just curious...

[maj330]

I was worried about CO levels in my canvas portable so I initially purchased a Big Buddy heater. I tested it my garage over the weekend (with the LP tank outside the garage) and had decent results with it for a few hours on Saturday. On Sunday, I couldn't get it to stay on. Every time I tried to change the setting from Lo to Med the pilot would eventually go out. I could not make it go to Hi for anything. I tried a different tank of gas thinking that OPD valve on my new 11 lb cyclinder was bad but had similar results with the 20 lb tank. I could actually here gas coming from the extension hose when I manually opened the needle valve on the end that connects to the Heater regulator for both tanks. I was able to operate my gas grill with the 11 lb tank as well. All of these lead me to believe the neither the tanks or the hose were defective. Also, my garage is 3 cars so I am not inclined to believe that there was a CO build up as I opened the main door and closed it before trying the experiment. I decided to try a Mr. Heater/Cooker. The new heater performed admirably with either tank as well as with the Big-Buddy-recommended in line disposable fuel filter. I decided to return the Big Buddy and bring a battery operated CO meter with me a few times to monitor the CO level in my house with the Heater/Cooker. Wish I could have made the Big Buddy work but I am not sure I want to trust it if it performs so erraticaly in a controlled environment like the garage.

[Bulldoggr]

I bought the little buddy a few years ago. when they first came out. i thought it would be perfect for my Fish trap.

I was very dissatified.

1. does not put out enough heat.(9,000 btu)

2. the thing kept blowing out. a get a breeze on it and it would go out.

The second year I went to use it. it wouldn't fire up.

I have never had a problem with a sunflower heater. You have choices on how to go from the 16 oz. bottles that screw on . A 20 pound bottle or smaller attached directly to the heater. or a hose off a tank to the heater.

[Ryan Berger]

hot spot reddy heater

allmost too hot

[krats]

LDB,

Is that just outdoor carpeting that you have on the ice? It looks heavier than the cheap stuff I have seen at the home centers. Did you use you auger blade guard as a template to cut the holes?

[hanson]

krats-

That there is honest-to-god astroturf from the Metrodome in the Twin Cities. LundDuckBoy talked about it in another post. Apparently, it works very well for him.

I wish I had a little conversation piece like that in my shack.

[hawkeye43]

Hanson, I know the guy that's has rolls of the turf in Norwood How big of conversation piece would you need?? I could see what I could do.

[hanson]

Hmmm...

Maybe a 7x12' chunk for the floor of my sleeper. Game striping is alright and a logo or numbers would be even better.

Not sure if I'm that big of a Vikings fan but a guy needs carpet for the shack, eh?