Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Tent Heat Q

Does anyone know of a non-electric tent heater that won't kill you in your sleep...?

Mr buddy propane heaters work pretty well, have never killed me. They do produce water, so you'll need to deal with that.

I prefer a wood stove, but the mr buddy is convenient.

In a small tent a Coleman lantern will provide an amazing amount of heat. Not winter camping amounts but not so bad getting dressed during moose season amounts.

This fall while moose hunting I used a vented propane heater in a 12-man tipi. It was a very efficient design that I and my partner had worked on, so this was the maiden voyage. Designed it to have proper baffles, heat tubes, and a battery-driven forced air fan to distribute the heat inside of the tipi instead of having most of it escape up the stove pipe. The cat's ass. Instant heat in the morning, no screwing around with finding and cutting and splitting wood, and infinite adjustability. It was PLENTY cold this September where we were and we were very toasty and comfy. We had to have two Cub gear loads anyway and the propane bottles fit easily into our second load. If the bulk and weight of propane bottles (I used the ultra-lightweight fiberglass 18# bottles) fits into your logistical and financial budget it's an awfully nice way to go. Since this was the maiden voyage for this prototype I had a CO monitor on the table right beside the stove the whole 14 days we were hunting. Nary a beep. Next year it will be a titanium version with better valves and instead of weighing 11# it should be right around 7# (the stove by itself).

A better sleeping bag works, or an Arctic Oven tent that comes equipped with a pipe vent.

This looks like a modified NuWay stove? I've used one for quite some time with an 8 man tipi here in rainy SE, where firewood is a total chore. You're spot on about the joy of no screwing around, right now, heat. Like you, I say if a guy can haul the propane, they are a great way to go. I use mine for boat based camps so weight is less of a concern. I'm interested in the fan set up you were using. Can you tell us more?

pabucktail, it's not any relation to the NuWay stove. This thing was designed from the ground up as a propane stove and is not a wood stove that has had a propane burner put inside of it. 20000 BTU's at the burner tip is the same no matter what stove it's in (assuming the burner orifice is properly sized and the burner is operating efficiently with a nice blue flame). But the percentage of those 20000 BTU's that stay inside the structure instead of being wasted up the vent pipe is a function of how efficiently the stove captures and distributes the heat. We're still working on definitive testing, but if more of those BTU's stay in the tent/tipi and fewer of them are lost up the vent pipe we'll burn fewer pounds of propane for X-number of hours of heat. That's the idea anyway. Use of a fan depends on properly designing the interior baffles and heat exchanger tubes through which the forced air is blown, heated, and then expelled into the tent/tipi. The fan in this prototype is a cooling fan used in computers. I ran it for all the hours we burned the stove over 14 days using just one of these: https://www.anker.com/products/vari...cAe19hGX7mF_mFYJ85AmqgryPmwaAke6EALw_wcB

John, please keep us updated on the stove. Sounds awesome. I have avoided vented propane due to the inefficiency /fuel burn. Would much prefer to send the exhaust elsewhere, but have always been turned off by the fuel numbers.

John,
I have two of those cylinders here if you need to borrow next season.

Vern

I have heard of that before

great set-up and great photos, thanks...

I think the stove we used as kids in the ice-fishing shanty was called a Nuway, burned fuel oil, had to burn off the galvanization...sooty, nasty thing...

I had a small titanium wood stove for my Arctic Oven. Worked great. Nice dry heat and our clothes would dry out overnight inside the tent.
If the outside temperature was above 35 or so a dual mantle lantern worked great.

I have a Seek Outside Courthouse with their Titanium wood stove. It keeps the tent nice and warm when you burn good wood. It melts the snow in most of the tent.

Our moose hunt tent is an enormous Arctic Oven, 12x18, with a 6' vestibule. We run an ordinary woodstove in it and it will drive you out if thin-blooded folks run it.

The buddy heater works for me also. I have a Cabelas Instinct-6 Guide tent that's about 9' diameter. I run the Buddy Heater with just the pilot light during the night and then turn it up just before we get up in the morning. Can't run the Buddy Heater on high for very long because it gets too hot inside the tent.

People are right who say that a Coleman 2-burner lantern puts out lots of heat. That works also but you want to be able to turn out the lights at night. Then you shut off your heat source.

For my wall tent, I use a wood burning stove.

if i remember right [ ahem , cough] a lantern puts out about 8000 btus and a burner on the stove puts out 8500 btus while a little buddy heater claims 9000 btus.

i have little buddy heater -sometimes it runs all night in a tipi.

i have a big buddy heater in a 10x12 cabin that runs all night all the time.

They have propane.

http://nuwaystove.com/product-category/propane-stove/

Neat idea to heat tent with pipe and single log fire.

https://youtu.be/QeHGDr81XwM

thanks

The Nuway, propane stove works very well in a tent with a stove jack...the chimney vents the exhaust products and it really heats up an insulated tent very well... between -30 and -40C you start to lose pressure as the propane phase to gas slows down and at -40C and lower you might get very little heat even from a full bottle. Keeping the bottle full helps as does using a 30 pound bottle. After -30C moving to wood makes sense. The venting of the chimney makes accumulation of CO less likely and using a non vented heater is a bit more risky.

For a non vented source ensuring clean burning and making sure you aren't cooling down the flame with a big pot of cold water helps a non vented heat source like a coleman stove be a bit safer but always a risk. I used a coleman stove in Nunavut for a lot of years but wouldn't do it again. Too risky. CO can kill you.

I made a video on vented sources if you really want to geek out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgoP9_Fj26w

Took my little 9" X 9.5" X 12" wood stove I have for my Artic Oven have never used it. Outside temp 6 F fired it up. 580 F should work.

That will run you out of an ao10 at 15 degrees ambient. Great litte stove.

Double post

seen a few different versions of those, kinda neat

I believe in good bags. A good bag will keep you warm all night.

Therefore I only need heat before going to bed & while getting up & getting dressed

A peak 1 mini lantern works well in an arctic oven for these needs. Provide you vent some.

Anything from a snow peak itsy bitsy stove

To wood burning stove depending upon size & makeup of your shelter

Burning all night long ? I don’t see the point. 🤷🏻‍♂️ Use enough gun, but use enough bag too.

i think many adopt that philosophy

I like John Havards idea of propane stove with a USB fan. I use a little 80mm 3-speed USB fan in the tent with a small Ti woodstove. I don't use his Anker battery pack, but I have a bunch of Milwaukee M-18 cordless tools and batteries. They make a little USB power adapter for those... I leave the fan run all night, even when the fire dies out. A little air movement really keeps the condensation down, along with drying wet clothes a lot faster. One battery will run that little fan all night, every night on a 5 day hunt. I've never tried to see just how many hours total, it will go.....

Don, we had 3 full days of "weather" when we were tipi-bound all day. Probably ran the little fan for 8 hours or so each of those three days. Then another 11 days where we ran the fan about 1 hour while we coffee'd up and in the evening about 2 hours while we ate and had a toddy. Over the 14-day hunt that Anser battery ran the fan for at least 30 hours.

John
How noisy are the propane jets?

kkalaska:
Whose Ti stove is that in your picture?

iron bender, the propane stove and fan were almost noiseless. You could hear the "whoomp" when the burner lit but the system was very quiet. This prototype had two 20,000 BTU burners/valve assemblies but we never even thought about lighting the second burner. Next year's titanium propane stove will only have one 20KBTU burner.

Increasing "residence time" of the heat in the body of the stove and then using the heat exchanger tubes and fan to drive that heat into the tent/tipi just makes too much sense and really increases the amount of heat you get into your structure per pound of propane. I have a very nice custom-designed titanium wood stove that I had Don Kevilus build for me, but wood stoves cannot have as tortuous of a path since they have to draw adequately to exhaust properly.

John, your developments are very interesting to me. I like the benefits of the propane stove but it's efficiency issues are noted. I put a damper in my stove pipe and use a small battery operated fan attached to the top of the tipi pole. These efforts helped, but your improvements are very interesting. Please keep us informed!

Docbill bought my Artic Oven used stove was with it , no markings on the stove it looks like lightweight steel as there is surface rust. Probably stove sold by Alaska Tent and tarp. Non folding nice little stove.

https://www.airframesalaska.com/category-s/2023.htm

Thanks, John.
I have a 2-burner propane forge and it roars.

That's pretty much how I do it. I don't use or need heat when I sleep. My bag is rated for 0* F and I have been comfortable in it at slightly colder temps. I wear long johnsns, wool socks, and a wool beanie when I sleep in the cold. I only need heat when I initially wake up and start crawling out of the bag to get dressed.

I use a Brunton isobutane backpacker lantern for that. Just stick an arm out the bag, turn on the fuel, hit the ignition button and in a couple minutes the tent is comfortable. I have doors on both sides so I crack a zipper on the bottom on one side and the crack the top on the other creating a cross draft.

I agree with "take enough bag", yet a few minutes of toasty morning and evening feels pretty good. The older I get, the colder I seem to get.

If I heat the tent, I can get the wife and kid to moose camp for 10 days. Probably not happening if we rely on good sleeping bags. I must confess, I don't hate it either.

I ordered this tent to try with the half enclosed side. Going to try it in our winter weather with my small stove. Pomoly TP style tent free shipping including Alaska

https://www.pomoly.com/HEX-Plus-Camping-Hot-Tent-with-Wood-Stove-Jack-4-6-Person-p379436.html

Tired of our wet fall weather and no way to dry out if I am tent camping I want dry heat. Many years ago my bud did not show up with tent heater in mid-September, froze early lots of stranded hunter's, lakes froze. My boots froze, could not put them on lived in my hip boots just to stay warm.

Precisely why I take a bucket potty with a special tiny tent ... well played!

Kurt I want to see your review of this.

I'll take the stove in the cook tent to warm up as we cook and relax.

I've never felt the need, like you, for heat in the sleeping tent. Doesn't make much sense to me, but I've not been below zero in a tent so far. Good bags make it sleep very well. I think the heat would not allow for great sleep personally. When its above freezing at night, I'm almost hot in the tent.