big buddy heater ?

[FLOODJET]

My old heater finally died yesterday and looking at new ones. My question is, does the big buddy need bateries to work or can you run it without.

[aug495fish]

You can run it without the batteries.

[deja vu]

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...does the big buddy need bateries to work...?

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The heater has a built-in 6 volt fan, which is powered by 4 "D" batteries in series.. a real mickey mouse arrangement. The fan is noisy, and the batteries discharge in only a few hours... There is a micro plug-in, if you have a 120 volt electric line in your portable... Or, you can find a plug-in connector and rig up a connection using 6 volt lantern batteries...

OR, you can pick up a small noiseless tent fan, or something similar, and never use the wretchedly-designed fan in your big buddy heater.

Incidentally, this fan is entirely unconnected with the propane heater part of the unit.

Good luck.

[FLOODJET]

Thanks for the replys, I didn,t want a heater that relied on batteries to run.

[zamboni]

The fan in my Mr Buddy is quiet. It really doesn't help too much though, and is rarely on, and the high on them is like a furnace, so it is usually on medium.

[Borch]

Quote:

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Quote:

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...does the big buddy need bateries to work...?

---

The heater has a built-in 6 volt fan, which is powered by 4 "D" batteries in series.. a real mickey mouse arrangement. The fan is noisy, and the batteries discharge in only a few hours... There is a micro plug-in, if you have a 120 volt electric line in your portable... Or, you can find a plug-in connector and rig up a connection using 6 volt lantern batteries...

OR, you can pick up a small noiseless tent fan, or something similar, and never use the wretchedly-designed fan in your big buddy heater.

Incidentally, this fan is entirely unconnected with the propane heater part of the unit.

Good luck.

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Funny,

I used one set of D Cell for the entire season. I suppose I ran the fan for 12-15 hours total as most of the time it just was not needed in my Otter Lodge even on sub zero days with a lot of wind. Mine is actually pretty quiet as well. Maybe there was something wrong with yours.

[deja vu]

Quote:

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I used one set of D Cell for the entire season. I suppose I ran the fan for 12-15 hours total as most of the time it just was not needed in my Otter Lodge even on sub zero days with a lot of wind. Mine is actually pretty quiet as well. Maybe there was something wrong with yours.

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A small fan breaks up the temperature stratification that always seems to develop in a small shelter with an ice floor. In really cold weather, I run a fan continuously...

My inexpensive Coleman tent fan operates for about 7-8 hours on a single "D" cell. The four "D" cells in my Big Buddy battery fan lasted 4 hours in the only trial I ever conducted.

The Coleman tent fan is almost noiseless, as are all the other battery fans I've used over the years. The Big Buddy fan makes enough noise to compete with my furnace fan at home, yet it's not quite as effective as the Coleman tent fan at breaking up the stratification in the shelter.

If I put an insulated floor in my portable shelter, I probably wouldn't even need a fan...

[JBrobeck]

You don't need to use the Fan on the heater but it really helps the temp stay consistant. My fan is nice and quiet, you can definately hear it, but its still more quiet than my Vexilar! Maybe there is a quality control issue with these heaters because I have seen a few valid complaints on them. Mine must have been built on a wednesday, it works great in every aspect!

Another advantage to running the fan is that it tends to pull a little draft on the pilot flame and actually pulls in into the thermocouple more, not sure if its designed that way, but the thermocouple will get a cherry tip on it which really helps keep it lit. I can set my heater on the ice with no coverage and as long as its not facing the wind,it stays lit no problem, other say they can blow theirs out with a puff of their breath from 10 ft away?, I've never had that problem.

Edited to add, I'm not sure about battery life, but I am at about 5-6 hours on my standard eveready batteries, I think thats pretty sufficient, I think if you wanted to , you could probably rig some form of a transformer to step down your Vexilar battery voltage and just have a nice 3-4 ft pigtail coming out of the vexilar case that could plug into your heater if you can't/won't afford the batteries.

Josh