You know that the forced air furnace in your RV just loves to drain your batteries. The Big Buddy Heater is a radiant heater with it's owninternal fan that can or cannot be used to heat your rig. Here is one way of plumbing it into your on board propane system.
Ray has a video on this project that's worth watching, if this idea appeals. Sorry, but I fail to accept that keeping the heater in the trailer with a green propane bottle attached is dangerous while adding multiple connectors and terminating the hose to a heater fitting is safe. In fact, the heater can be removed and stored when not in use or moving the rig, while the new hose and its fittings remain in place indefinitely.
Also a suggestion: I used these tools when adding a kerosene tank, tubing and bulkhead mounted furnace to our sailboat for European cruising. I found it very helpful to get some initial instruction on how to get a good flare and air-tight connections, and recommend the same thing for this project. There is a bit of technique involved. But I do like the idea, being based in Montana where a heater is often used a good deal.
We plumbed ours in about a year ago and have used almost every night to warm up the trailer. We always open a window and never use when we sleep. It really heats up the trailer fast even without the fan. There are no fumes that we can smell and the radiant heat is great.
For me it isn't about the safety of using the 1 lb green bottles but rather the convenience of not carrying additional propane bottles whether they be 1/5/20 lbs. Until I get my connection done I will be using the 1 lb bottles. Rv
Completely agree, Randy. It's about the utility of feeding the heater off the main RV supply. Selling the idea because it's "safer" isn't IMO a compelling argument.
I think the safety aspect of plumbing the Big Buddy heater into the RV LP gas low-pressure line is the pressure is only 1/2 PSI since it has been already been lowered by the outside tank regulator versus bottles of over 100 PSI. Leaks are not good at any time, but I'd rather have a 1/2 PSI leak in the RV than 100 PSI or more.
I am sure everyone already knows to keep a bottle hooked up to the side that is not connected to your RV tank. There have been a few fires from these heaters that use two bottles when only using one bottle. The fire seems to start on the side that doesn't have the second bottle hooked up. Just my 2 cents that is worth about 1/2 a penny now-a-days. I didn't watch the video as I'm not going to hook a heater up this way. So all this could be for nothing. :worry:
None that I know about. The videos I saw were uploaded by the people who's heaters had caught on fire. That is how I learned to make sure there was a bottle in the side not hooked up to the RV and how to prevent it.
Of the many Mr. Buddy heaters, I find the regular Mr. Buddy (that holds 1 canister of propane) is more than enough to heat my RV common area; and it's easier to store.
Nice topic given the arctic blast we're having now!