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Buddy heaters


MN Angler

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Hey everyone, Last winter my sunflower went out on me, It was my dads which I kinda stole and I guess is over 20 years old. I have a yukon fish trap which often got very toasty with the sunflower heater even on low. Do you think a buddy heater will be sufficient enough to heat the shack even on a cold below zero day? Do you reccomend the basic buddy, double sided buddy, one with fan? or do you think I should stay with the sunnflower? Thanks

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I use a big buddy heater with a fan in my yukon and it works great. I have used it on a couple real cold days and it was plenty enough to keep me warm. In fact I rarely have it on high and it works fine.

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I chose the quick connect hose with the regulator so I didn't have to run a filter. I haven't had any issues so far. Thanks for the info airjer, very informative.

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I use the big buddy and have been very happy with it. I have a doublewide portable and it keeps it plenty warm on the coldest days. The nice thing about these heaters is that you can put them right against the canvas and not melt it.

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You can always take clothes off if you are hot, but if you are cold and don't have anymore clothes you are kinds screwed.

Big buddy vs Buddy heater is the same thing. You can always turn it down if you are too hot. But, if things are maxed out and you're still cold you are screwed.

Big Buddy all the way.

I have had problems with my big buddy in the past that would have not happened if I would have dropped the extra 10 bucks to get a filter.

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I would purchase the Big Buddy heater. I switched last year to a big buddy in my Yukon and the only time I ran it on high was in the first hour after that was able to turn it down to medium or low.

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Big Buddy all the way. Baught my first one last year for the Clam & Otter. Have had no problems with the filter. Cabelas has had them on sale in the fall, I got a reconditioned one for about $80 and they threw in i carry bag for free.

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I like the heat my big buddy puts out but it never worked good with the filters and a 20 pound tank so when I read Airjer's write up about the difference's in the hose's I realized I had the high pressure so I went and got the low pressure hose and took off the filter and my heater now runs like I always wanted it to. If you have the longer hose it helps to prime the hose before putting it into your heater.If you take a key or your forceps and press down on the center pin with your tank turned on it will get the air out and your gas to the end of the hose quicker before you attach it to your Big Buddy. With the low pressure hose it can take a couple of minutes before all the air is out and you have enough propane to keep your pilot lit.

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Jim, I have noticed that with the lower pressure hose, when you disconnect the tank to fill it the hose will remain primed so to speak. When you reinstall the hose on the tank the heater will fire up like normal and then flame out after a few seconds. Then it will restart and run fine. At least that is how mine has been working?

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I have a Yukon and a single buddy and it works great. I fished a ton this year and even fished in the -25 and below [PoorWordUsage] that we had this year and I was fine. Now I am a little warm blooded but I was never cold. The downfall to the smaller buddy is that if you don't keep the bottom of your house sealed up things can and do ice up in cold weather. I don't think you will regret the bigger model but the small one works fine for the Yukon model and smaller.

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I also have the big buddy heater, and it works great, but if it is windy out, the heater ceramics dont turn red and I just get blue flames coming out. So if I am going to fish out when it is really windy, I take the sunflower heater instead of the Big buddy heater.

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Big Buddy gives you a lot of flexility with the weather. If you also fish out of a one man portable it can be a little too bulky in such a small space IMO.

If you do a lot of fishing out of both, regular Buddy can work fine as long as it is not real windy or extreme cold - especially if you have a good pair of boots and ice fishing bibs.

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