So, who sleeps in their portable?

[oil painter]

I have been sleeping in my 6800 since I got it!! 2 of us on cots with a buddy heater in the middle and good sleepingbags with a belly full of beer and sirinara!!Clamp a 5600 to the 6800 and you have a ponderosa shack for the weekend. It helps to have back up heat like lanterns sotves, sunflowers etc. when she really gets cold.. -35 on LOW 3 years ago.Survived and thrived!! went thru a lot of propane though..

[Powerstroke]

The best advice is to plan for the sleepover as if you werent using your heater. If your heat does go out you have to make a decision whether to pack up and leave, drive off and come back for your gear in the morning, or just roll over and go back to sleep cause you're in a heavy sleeping bag with the proper clothing and didn't need a heater anyway.

Another note about the Buddy heater. A low-oxygen sensor works when the O2 is displaced by soemthing else. That means that enough o2 has to be used up before that happens. If you're on a cot and your buddy is on the floor then you are higher up than your heater and will have less oxygen then your heater if you don't have ventilation. You will die.

Secondly, low O2 isn't your enemy, its the Carbon Monoxide (CO). If the air (only 21% oxygen) gets just 1% CO then you will likely die or suffer brain damage. 1%CO is 10,000 ppm of CO, as a firefighter, we wear our SCBA masks and are on air is there is more than 35-50ppm. As you can see, it takes just a little CO to wreck your day. Don't rely on some stupid sensor to protect you. A Buddy Heater can operate with a little less O2, but you can't live with more CO. Permanant damage.

[Powerstroke]

Now that thats out of the way, staying on the ice in a portable is easy to do if you plan right. The idea of placing your cot diagonally will give you the most room in any house unless its much longer in one direction like a 4x8. Use a foam pad under you or you will lose more heat through your back as you compress the insulation in your sleeping bag. Bring warm clothes, sleep in light but warm, breathable layers. Wear a hat to bed and eat well. Digesting food will keep you warm during the night. If you have to pee during the night DO IT. Your body wastes a lot of energy keeping urine warm. If you relieve yourself that energy goes to heating your body instead. I bring a large mouth gatorade bottle to bed and use that so I don't have to get out in the cold. Be careful and cap it. Drink lots of fluids because being dehydrated will only make it harder to stay warm and alert. I know I never drink enough water when I'm out fishing.

[Fishing_Rookie_123_]

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The buddy portbale heaters claim to be safe for indoor or outdoor use and have a low oxygen level kill switch. Sounds like they are reasonably safe for use in this situation.

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Low oxygen switch they may have. But I am more concerned about high Carbon Monoxide levels.

So, does the low oxygen shut of switch truly make this thing safe?

Can anybody comment on this?

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The Buddy heaters and the Coleman Powercat are catalytic style heaters which mean that the byproduct of combustion is not carbon monoxide (the stuff that comes out of your car exhaust), but carbon dioxide (the stuff you exhale) which will not make you sick or kill you. You still need a small vent, but nothing compared to a sunflower. I, personally, would NEVER sleep with a sunflower in the shelter, but I have gotten carbon monoxide poisoning from those things before.

If you are worried about carbon monoxide use a catalytic style heater and you will NEVER get carbon monoxide poisoning.

[Powerstroke]

I can find no info that the Buddy Heaters are a catalytic heater. After trying to do some research, I cannot find any claim that the Buddy qualifies as a catalytic. The only ones that are claimed as catalytic and safe for use in tents etc are the "cat" series from COleman like the SPortcat, golfcat and blackCat heater.

I'm in no place to say how much CO a buddy heater gives off, but in general, its probably not a good idea to run a heater all night of any brand. Sensors and switches fail all the time. I wouldn't trust my life to it.

The safest way to stay warm sleeping in the cold is to dress warm and bring the proper sleeping gear. If you don't have that you will be miserable when innevitably (sp?) the gas runs out, your thermocouple fails, gas line freezes, etc. I guess thats all I'm trying to say.

[Sonicrunch]

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The safest way to stay warm sleeping in the cold is to dress warm and bring the proper sleeping gear. If you don't have that you will be miserable when innevitably (sp?) the gas runs out, your thermocouple fails, gas line freezes, etc. I guess thats all I'm trying to say.

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This would be the advice that I will follow.

[Crusty old Swede]

And a few more tips ! covering the up wind sides and roof with a blue tarp will add 10 or 30 degrees inside and will also cut down on the "rain". Sunflower heaters are ok just bring a CO2 monitor with fresh batterys be sure to keep the monitor warm they don't work when cold. Another idea is to make a snorkle for the sunflower - use some of that white dryer duct to run air from outside your house up to the back of the heater where the orifice is located. You probably drove out on the lake so bring a deep cycle battery for lights and fish fans. Fish fans are made from 12 volt muffin fans and more dryer duct they are used to move the hot air near the roof down to the floor. They can be used to keep holes open or if you put an old blanket over your cot then your sleeping bag on top of the blanket you can put an end of the fish fan under neath and sleep on a bubble of warm air. An added bonus is anything like boots and jackets put under your cot will be much warmer than if left out.

[Sutty]

OK I have read your post a few times and have a few questions. Do you just run the dryer duct stuff under the floor like maybe a partial drilled hole under the side? and than leave it lay on the ice? I am a little lost on the warm bubble of air part. Are you just rigging the fan to blow the air down to the floor or trapping it somehow?

Thanks

Sutty

[Crusty old Swede]

We hang the dryer duct down the corner of the house so the end is 4 or 5 inches from the water. If the top of your hole starts getting to big move the end up some more until the ice stops melting. For the air bubble make sure the blanket reaches the floor all the way around your cot then tuck the end of the dryer duct under the blanket so that the warm air is captured under the cot.

[Powerstroke]

Now thats a good idea!!

[Boar]

Hey powerstroke, I have a sleeper camper with a vent free heater, I keep the roof vent open an inch, and a side window craked by my feet enough to feel a draft, I also have a muffin fan afixed to a tube going out the wall 6" off the floor with an elbow on the outside to face away from any wind and three 12V fans up near the ceiling to push air down. I also have a carbon monoxide detector near the floor cause carbon monoxide is heavier than oxygen right? Although I dont like a vent free heater I feel I'm pretty much coverd. do ya have any advise in this set up? you seem pretty versed in this area. Boar

[Sutty]

I am not an expert but I remember reading that carbon monoxide disperses evenly so I am not sure the floor placement is necessary but would work the same if I read correctly.

[Powerstroke]

Sutty is correct that CO is almost neutral to air in specific gravity and can be anywhere. Having the CO alarm is the best thing you can do.

As far as all the ventilation, its a bit overkill but you're the one paying for the gas. I'm not super familiar with all the vented, vent-free heater info so I can't comment on those, but I would say that with a roof vent cracked you're pretty safe. Its more about getting fresh air in than letting exhaust out.