Mr Heater MH18B Portable "Big Buddy" Heater
by Mr. Heater
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List Price: Our Price: $99.99 You Save: $84.89 (40%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $98.99 (click here) Category: Home See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Mr Heater MH18B Portable "Big Buddy" Heater
Customer Review: READ THIS!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
If you read reviews...you will learn......
This unit works AWSOME...when used correctly. Pay attention.
I hate long wordy reviews so this is to the point.
Don't use the 1lb disposable propane tanks, for many reasons: they don't last long, enviorment, they freeze up (on high), they freeze the internal regulators.
So, you need a 20# tank. Got a gas grill? That is a 20# tank......go get it filled.
Hose: Do NOT get the plain hose and filter...again, many reasons: no pressure regulation creates oil, clogs unit, unsafe....
So, get the hose with regulator...safe, no filter needed, unit wont clog.
Yes, it is an added expense so plan on it. You need the unit, a 20# tank and the hose WITH regulator.
PLUS: hose with regulator has the quick release....nice!
C'mon, you have never hooked up a gas grill to a propane tank without a regulator. This is no different.
Once you have these three correct items...this thing is great!
Fan/blower: kind of crappy. I'm glad it has it and I'm glad I can use batteries in a jam. But you either need the A/C adapter for $20 OR any other fan....Just something to move the heat around. This unit produces a LOT of heat. It rises straight up. The blower moves it around and heats areas more quickly. For $20 and free shipping, I just bought it. I'm not bringing a fan everywhere I use this.
If you follow these simple things you will be very pleased.
Personally: I use this primarily to heat my basement (approx 800sq.ft). Bought a pellet stove to heat house a few years back and since the FHW heating isn't running the basement stays cool as no hot water running through pipes. I used to get "free" heat in basement.
Right now it is 11 degrees outside and 65 down here (man town, my office, kids game area).
Unit is on high, no shut off, no freezing, no problem. Running for 2 hours straight now....on high.
You can use the 1 lb tanks and this can go camping and everywhere else. But if you plan on using at home or someplace constant, you need the 20# tank, or larger, and the Hose WITH regulator.
If nothing else, this unit could keep your pipes from freezing in an outage during winter. HUGE savings there alone. Then use it all over until/if that happens.
For under $200 I bought the Big Buddy, the correct hose with regulator and the A/C adapter. Free shipping and here in 2 days.
You can't get this kind of heat for indoor use from another heater this safely (low o2 sensor and tipover sensor).
Customer Review: Best thing I've ever bought!
Summary: 5 Stars
My heavily retro-insulated 1920 NH colonial is heated with base-board heat supplied by an oil fired water boiler. Living alone now, and seeing oil prices exceeding $4.25/gallon this summer, I decided to get creative with space heaters. After a lot of research, I bought a Big Buddy for my downstairs 12x24 office and a Delonghi TRD0715T oil-filled radiator for my upstairs, 12x12 bedroom. Both have proven to be excellent choices.
To fire my Big Buddy, I drilled a small hole in the wall to the outside, just large enough to sneak the 12' regulated propane hose (accessory) outside and into a barbeque grill size propane tank. I built a little, enclosed stand for the propane tank so I could reach out a window to turn it off and on rather than have to go outside to do it. I've been keeping the rest of the downstairs at 50 degrees as I don't use the other rooms except to walk through to get to my office. In the morning, I fire my Big Buddy up to the max 18,000 btu and in 20 minutes the room is at 60 degrees. Then I turn the heater down to 9,000 btu for a half hour or so until the room is up to 65 degrees, then down to 4,000 btu until the room is at 70 degrees, and for the rest of the day I vary between 4,000 btu and just a pilot light. At a local propane dealer, I can get a 20 lb. barbeque tank filled for $10. I keep two barbeque tanks, so when one runs out of propane, I have another ready to go. So far I go through a tank about every 10 days. No mess, no fumes, no headaches, no problems. Between this heater and the excellent Delonghi heater in my bedroom, I have so far used 1/8 tank of heating oil since August, where I would otherwise by now have used more near 3/4 of my 275 gallon oil tank. Even as heating oil has dropped considerably in price since August, that's still a huge savings.
One downside of my Big Buddy is the installed fan is not only noisy but pretty useless. To compensate for this, I have a six inch fan propped up behind and toward the top of the heater to blow the rising heat around the room. My Big Buddy isn't thermostat controlled, but who cares? When the room is up to the temperature I want, I get up out of my chair once every couple hours or so and turn the heat control up or down, and for that minor inconvenience I save a small fortune on heating oil.
If you buy the Big Buddy, be sure to turn off your propane source and let your Big Buddy pilot light go out before you turn off the unit. Otherwise, enjoy the relatively inexpensive heat from this excellent powerhouse.
Customer Review: Excellent portable heater!
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this heater for an Arizona camping trip in mid-February. I knew it was going to get below 40F and it did. The ground outside my tent froze, but I was warm within. Now I must say that staying warm had it's caveats. I have an elevated air mattress, so I had to position the heater atop a chair and it sat there firmly (I did not feel that it would fall as this unit is solid if not exactly heavy). I then had to place the chair within a few inches of my bed in order to feel the heat. This is due to the fan within the unit being somewhat weak. Now if you are simply heating the space itself, anywhere would be fine, but I needed the heat specifically on me.
Pros: There are two ceramic plates that heat up in the unit. They glow a bright orange when lit (are silver when unlit). This allows you to go full bore on the heat using both plates, or be more economical, depending on what best suits your needs. The pilot light is a small flame which stays lit near the bottom/center of the device. If you nudge the heater or bump it, the security safeguards will cut off the flow of gas to the pilot light requiring you to relight it. I had to do this a few time, but I didn't mind. It's all for safety. It's also fairly lightweight (at least to me) and the handle at the top was very strong. I felt very comfortable moving the unit even when the pilot light was lit. The unit was also VERY quiet, even with the fan on!
Cons: I really didn't have any, but if you have sensitive or weak hands, you may find it difficult to pry open the sides where the containers go. The clips are pretty tight.
I would definitely use two cannisters instead of one. Using one cannister will result in the unit drawing so much fuel that the can will freeze and the flow will stop. Using two cannisters, I was able to keep the unit lit all night at the highest temperature-VERY comfortable! You do have the option by using a specific hose adapter (NOT included) of attaching a 20lb tank. This would extend the heating time tremendously.
All in all, this unit performed EXACTLY as I wished and was perfect for me. I've also used it twice in my living room about a foot or two away from my feet and it feels great. If you need something with more fan power, I'd suggest lining up a stronger fan behind it blowing through it. I thoroughly recommend this unit.
Customer Review: Small and Lightweight
Summary: 5 Stars
I was half expecting this heater to be larger and heavier than it is. However, I was surprised with how light it is even with two 1 pound tanks attached. The fan is a nice feature but it has only one setting, and to me its a little slow. Note the fan blows air out the top not through the burners themselves. If you want to power your fan from an outlet you will need to buy and adaptor. The heater itself is great on the output. If you run it on low (medium if your pushing it) the 1 pound tanks should be fine. However if you run it on high, I would recommend a 20 pound tank. It will burn through a one pounder very quickly, and cost you a bundle unless you refill them. On Low and Medium the left heating element operates. On high the right element turns on.
Now on to hoses. If your going to attach the heater to a tank larger than the one pounders, and many people do, you will need to use a rubber hose. You have a few choices at this point. First buy a rubber hose with a filter, second buy a hose with a regulator, or third buy a green hose. The first choice is by far the most common. You attach the hose to the fuel tank then to the filter and finally the filter to the heater, in that order. The traditional rubber hoses produce an oily substance when under pressure that can gum up the heater. Hence the filter is needed to catch that stuff. Remember to replace your filter annually, especially if you use the heater a lot. The second uses a regulator that is attached to the tank then to the hose and finally the hose to the heater, in this case via the quick connect on the left side. Because a regulator is used, the hose is not subject to the pressures that option one is and wont produce the oily substance, hence no filter. The final one is the newest, the green hose. It so new I really can't give insight into it. From what it is described the hose is made without the chemicals that produce the oily substance in option one. This however causes it to be a lot stiffer than the traditional hoses, especially in colder weather. This option does not need a filter or regulator to use.
Will try to post pictures of the heater when able.
Customer Review: Exactly what I wanted and more
Summary: 5 Stars
Bought my Big Buddy just over a year ago mainly for emergency heat in case of power outages during our extremely cold winters here in the upper plains. Fortunately I haven't had to use it for that purpose. In the past week I have used it twice in the garage, once when putting together a new table saw and again on Thanksgiving morning when I was smoking a turkey and deep frying another one. Set my cookers up OUTSIDE the garage door(a SAFE distance away) in order to monitor them through the garage door window(out of the wind). Set the BB up inside, attached to a 20lb tank with the 12 ft hose with regulator and cranked it up. The garage is an old detached two car unit with a large attic space and is neither airtight or insulated. I didn't expect the BB to heat the entire space and it didn't. I place it facing my monitoring position about 5 ft away and turned on the fan. It put out plenty of heat and kept me very comfortable despite the low single digit ambient air temperatures outside. I ran it for 6 hours. It wasn't nearly as cold when I assembled the saw. I started out using a single 1 lb tank and it worked just as well, while it lasted (about an hour). That's when I hooked it up to the 20 lb tank and continued the assembly. I am planning on getting the AC to DC converter for use in the garage, but the fan is still running well on the used batteries I first put in it.
Because of these "test" runs, I am extremely confident that BB will perform well when put to emergency use. I'll keep a couple of 1 lb tanks on hand, but I'll also be able to place the 20 lb tank (I keep 2 filled ones on hand)on the porch (safety again) and run the hose inside to the BB and keep our closed off LR, DR and kitchen tolerable. I wouldn't recommend testing the low oxygen shutoff feature, so be sure to crack a window an inch or two (I'm still thinking safety here folks).
As for which hose, filter, connectors, etc. work together, that has already been well covered. It would be a HUGE help if Mr. Heater could lay it all out concisely on their website. I did spend many hours researching this before I figured it out.