Tent Heaters

Anyone use a tent heater overnight while car camping? My wife would like to try winter camping with Me, and I want to start her out on a car camping trip and use a SportCat heater if it gets too cold (for her). My bags are 0 degree and My tent is a Mountain 25 by TNF, well ventilated.

..., well ventilated

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That's probably the best advice. People have died from the fumes of tent heaters and stoves...Safety First.

I have used a Coleman tent BlackCat Portable Catalytic Heater. We have used it just to warm up the tent before goining to sleep and in the morning when waking up. We never left it on over night ... always affraid of hitting it and melting gear or turning us all into flaming hikers. Works great to get the tent warm enough to take the "bite" out of the cold.

Be EXTREMELY careful with any kind of heat source in a tent. Besides the fume problem that NH_Mtn_hiker mentioned, tents tend to be really flammable and if they light you're in a world of hurt trying to get out.

Black Cat heater

I bought one of these a year ago. As an experiment I placed it lit in a small 1/2 bath, ~3'x5', with a carbon monoxide detector and the door closed. The detector did not go off after 1/2 hour or so. The bathroom was quite toasty.

I have also used it car camping in my van overnight with the windows cracked without a problem. My biggest worry using one in a tent would be the danger of melting something or catching the tent on fire like others have mentioned, not from CO poisoning.

BTW, a small propane cylinder will not last all night. Many hardware and sporting goods stores sell hoses to attach to a standard 20# propane cylinder. A full cylinder should last quite a few nights. Good thing to have if you are car camping and a lot cheaper than buying a lot of little cylinders.

teejay

If you ventilate a winter tent, you're losing alot of it's benefit, which may equal what the heater puts out. Informal tests in my tent have shown about 10 degrees warmer in the tent, in it's winter configuration. I'd be more tempted to bring an extra blanket or fleece bag liners and skip the heater.

How effective would a battery operated Co2 detector work in a tent? I think if you are car camping and using a propane or any fuel heater, you could always pack a battery operated Co2 detector and use that as a safety device..

Jay

A heater will definitely steer someone who has not winter camped before, but some how you should tell her that it WILL be cold no matter what. You don't want to have to pack up early and go home etc.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but one of the issues with space heaters, especially the propane fired ones is not carbon monoxide (CO), but the fact that the combustion depletes the oxygen in a tight space.

Wouldn't it be easier to toss couple hot water bottles or hand warmers in your sleeping bag?

Bluethroatedone said:

Wouldn't it be easier to toss couple hot water bottles or hand warmers in your sleeping bag?

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Or just use an adequate (or somewhat extra warm) bag and pad.

Pick a night that is not expected to get too cold--say not below 20F.

Doug

HI Kevcon, when I introduced my wife to winter camping in bitter upstate NY cold, we camped about 1/4 mile from the car to make it easy to get back to, but not too easy to make her want to ditch everything and run for a warm car.

I brought my winter down bags plus 2 3-season down bags and she made a nice little nest on top of 2 sleeping pads. I also brought a full thermos or cocoa and amaretto, and her favorite magazines. I then got everything set up, we had dinner and then I took off for a night snowshoe leaving her for a couple of hours to make herself at home.

When I got back around 9PM, she had her headlamp going and was buried deep in the sleeping bags eating chocolates and drinking hot cocoa. She declared she loved winter camping more than summer.

She has been absolutely enjoying "winter camping" since then. however, while it has been easy to get her out, it has not been so easy to break her of these comfy habits or get her (and her gear) more than a mile into the woods.
In any event, I found if I could make it enjoyable to her, on her terms she would make my life more enjoyable.

Fitz said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but one of the issues with space heaters, especially the propane fired ones is not carbon monoxide (CO), but the fact that the combustion depletes the oxygen in a tight space.

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And the result is that the burner dies before you do.

teejay

I have also used a Black Cat while car camping, and it does help. We put it on our camping box, which doubles to hold the coleman stove in the morning (coffee before getting out of bed!), and it worked well, but we didn't leave it going all night. No headaches or anything of the sort, but I was cautious about not running it too long. I did have a much larger tent than you mentioned, so I'm not sure of how you'd set it up inside.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like heating a tent is just not a good way to keep warm; the R-value (insulation) of tent walls seems like it would be really really poor. If you could improve that somehow... but it seems like it's just easier to carry a thicker sleeping bag.

woodstoves

Probably not what a backpacker wants, but this tent www.empirecanvasworks.com will heat to 70 degrees in -20 weather with a 10 x 10 x18 woodstove manufactured by the Fourdog stove company. Whole set up weights 24 lbs for the four person tent and the woodstove. Pat and I will haul it in a few miles, then ski an area in confort where a day triip would be quite strenuous.

yardsale said:

Probably not what a backpacker wants, but this tent www.empirecanvasworks.com will heat to 70 degrees in -20 weather with a 10 x 10 x18 woodstove manufactured by the Fourdog stove company. Whole set up weights 24 lbs for the four person tent and the woodstove. Pat and I will haul it in a few miles, then ski an area in confort where a day triip would be quite strenuous.

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That's pretty cool, yardsale. Those stoves would be great in a semi-permanent base camp tent or tarp-walled lean-to.
I'm starting to re-think my winter tent and -40 bag set-up.

Oxygen depletion sensor...

Well, I was partially wrong. The issue is the oxygen is consumed in a tight space and carbon monoxide production increases due to incomplete combustion. Newer units shut down when O2 is depleted.

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml02/02179.html

Chip will you be bringing that heated tent to 8.5?
Nice Avatar, By the way, I think I tracked and spotted one of those in a tree once

Kifaru tipis

yardsale said:

Probably not what a backpacker wants, but this tent www.empirecanvasworks.com will heat to 70 degrees in -20 weather with a 10 x 10 x18 woodstove manufactured by the Fourdog stove company. Whole set up weights 24 lbs for the four person tent and the woodstove. Pat and I will haul it in a few miles, then ski an area in confort where a day triip would be quite strenuous.

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Another type of winter tent with a stove can be seen here:

http://www.kifaru.net/TIPI.HTM

I don't own one but have dreamed about using one some time. They seem like they could be perfect base camp for a sled-in trip.