Heaters....who uses them and a bonus review.

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.284

New member
So, I went hunting yesterday in lower Michigan........cold cold and fairly stiff wind. When I got to the pop up (a half an hour or so before daylight) it was 14 degrees. I took for its maiden voyage the Mr. Heater Little Buddy. Here's a review of what I like and don't like about this unit and some general comments about heaters. First, it throws out 3800 BTU's and that's enough to take a serious edge off even with open windows. The unit is probably the quietest portable heater I've ever used and I have had a few (ice fishing). The specs say 5 1/2 hrs on a 1lb. tank and that is pretty close.

Now for what I don't like. The ignition is a push of a button that makes a snap spark and would be a bit loud in calm or light wind conditions. It can be hauled in a back pack but isn't that "little" for its name sake. Finally, and this is a bit nit picky, right at the last 15 minutes of shooting light the blind will get the heater glow of the burner or the ting tings of the cooling heater if you shut it down.

Anyone else have some experience that they would care to share? How many of you guys need and use the heat where you hunt?
 

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I hunt in stands that look like blinds or home made guard towers. the small propane bottle with heater attachment works fine. noise is pointless when turned on or off because of the noise I made getting there....
 
I used the Buddy for several years with no complaints. Last year I got the Base Camp model and it's smaller and puts out more than enough heat. I can carry it and three bottles in a small Home Depot tool bag with a shoulder strap and it's more convenient to carry.
 
Sounds a little goofy but i've used the odor-free buffet gel canisters from time to time. They stay lit for all of six-eight hours and are the size of a couple hockey pucks.
 
.284

Live in Eaton Rapids, (just south of Lansing) and bought my Dad one exactly like yours this year and he LOVES it! He's 80 and still going strong getting out to deer camp and hunting with his boys and grandsons.

It's been windy and blistering cold here (you know all about it) and I could easily put up with a "tink-tink" shutting it down not to be miserable in a blind. I sat with him and might just get one for myself!

:D

Birch
 
Have a Little Buddy for our tower blind attached to a 20lb propane cylinder .....pretty much a necessity if you're hunting with kids.

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ChasingWhitetail91, not goofy at all. That is a great idea. I might have try that.

BirchOrr, you know I know how cold it is. I was leaning towards glow and not tink tink. It was my son's call, he was the shooter (we sat together). The thing about Michigan is that even though we have teens this week, it could be fifties next week.
 
60 miles from the Canadian border Without something you freeze. Use to use Sun spot heaters. Unbelievably noisy those things are. My enclosed stands are now fully insulated, top, sides, and including their bottoms. Carpeted too. {So that helps when the LP gas runs out an hour before dark on opening day:o.} Otherwise 2- Mr. Heater Big Buddy's running either on low or medium all the time with freshly filled 20 lb tanks. Usually last 2-plus years. When not using in stands we leave their pilot lights burning and close the windows. So those heaters are ready to fire up as soon as we touch their dial/s. Been thinking lately. I got two full 100 lb cylinders of LP in the Bone Castle's garage. Have no use for them. Maybe pour a pad or better yet_ "out of site out of mind"_ and bury them below the stand/s and only expose their valves some. But,~~ maybe not.:( _ Meth makers are known to inhabit enclosed hunter stands up this way and finding a 100lb of gas for their use. I'd have to get the sheriff and his brother too to get them bum's to leave by next Fall._Or?_:rolleyes: I got lots of left over hunting ammo & a new pointed shovel. Yup!!
As far as the heater goes. I shut mine down a 1/2 hr. before dark and tough out the cold for a while with the stands windows partially opened. {I know where the deer usually enter the field out front.} So there's no need for me to have fully opened windows. As far a the heaters glow? Not much anyone can do about that other than turn their heater to face the wall and hope that BIG buck doesn't look up at em.:eek:
 
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