# Trying out a Texsport Propane Heater...



## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

Well I was walking through Academy Outdoors mulling down the isles when I saw this and it peaked my interest. It was a Texsport portable Propane Heater that's rated at 1000-3000 btu's and uses the little disposable 1 lbs propane bottles. Not a big fan of these types of powered devices but it looked like it might be a more compact and cheaper form of emergency heating and it might come in awful handy on a camp out if it was to turn unexpectedly nasty on you. Some of the specs on it are...

1. Stainless Steel burner with brass fittings.
2. Individual Regulator for on off and positions for 1000, 2000 and 3000 btu settings.
3. Auto Shut off valve should the flame on it go out unexpectedly.
4. Large paddle foot base of plastic to make it more stable when the disposable cylinder if placed in it.
5. Aluminum Safety Grill to prevent you from getting too close and getting burned.
6. Steel Carry Handle.

Cost was 29.99.









Setting it up was pretty easy and pretty idiot proof. For once I bought a product with pretty plain English instructions and even some pictures for those of us who work better with pictures...like me! Of course some assembly was required, yeah! Not. But it wasn't challenging. Followed the directions, checked for leaks of course and then...fired that baby up. Light us was so surprisingly easy I kind of felt cheated. I set it at the 1000 BTU setting and have it running, as I am kind of curious if it produces enough heat to knock the chill off my RV perchance it can be used as emergency heating (with a skylight cracked the same way I would if using a Kerosene Heater). Yes as added insurance I have two Carbon Monoxide detectors since the installed furnece, stove, hot water heater and fridge all use propane in my RV anyways (unfortunately they all require electricity to ignite them except for the stove). I even have a propane gas detector too just incase something decides to leak! I am also wondering how long one of these disposable cylinders will power this bad boy up on the low setting of 1000 BTU's since I have never used them and have no idea how long they last.

Its 30 degrees outside and we will drop to 24 degrees later tonight. Right now its a cozy 76 degrees inside my RV which is about 170 sq ft. I guess we will see if it can handle the pressure so to speak and keep it reasonable warm in here. If it doesn't work I guess I will relegate it to camping use only and go back to plan A which is a Kerosene Heater and just keep 10 gallons of Kerosene on hand.

I guess perhaps the next thing I might need to look for is do they make adapters to allow for the use of 20 lbs tanks? I am pretty sure they make adapters for refilling the "disposable" 1 lbs tanks and will have to look into that as a possibility.


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## rickkyw1720pf (Nov 17, 2012)

Amazon and Walmart sell an adapter hose I also suggest you get a filter when going with 20 lb cylinder.

Purchase the Coleman 5' Propane Hose and Adapter for less at Walmart.com. Save money. Live better.

Amazon.com - Mr. Heater Fuel Filter for Portable Buddy and Big Buddy Heaters #F273699


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## Go2ndAmend (Apr 5, 2013)

Funny you should start this thread. I have a Mr. Buddy portable propane heater that takes the 1 lb. bottles. I started out early to split firewood with my splitter but it was so cold I could barely turn it over. I got out my portable heater and placed it by the crank case for a half hour and it started right up.


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## pheniox17 (Dec 12, 2013)

question?? roughly on middle setting, how long will one of those gas bottles last?? a night, a few days?? a week???


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

Yeah, I am curious as to how long a bottle will last.


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## Montana Rancher (Mar 4, 2013)

Depending on the setting 1000-3000 it will last from 4-8 hours on a cylinder.

My only feedback is

Really 76 degrees?!

I live in the 45th parallel and keep my home at 55 degrees in the day with a slight bump to 61 degrees in the morning when we shower and in the evening eating dinner.

My suggestion is to teach your body to acclimate and you will burn a LOT less energy. Long johns, blankets on every chair, maybe a warm cup of tea at night. 

I heat my 2600 square foot home for $600 a year which includes hot water, gas stove and forced air furnace. I don't burn any wood as it doesn't make economic sense at this level of consumption.

BTW my home is 39 years old, I did replace the windows but it has 4" walls.


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## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

inceptor said:


> Yeah, I am curious as to how long a bottle will last.


I ran it for four hours tonight on the 1000 BTU setting. Then shut it off with some still left in the bottle. How much Im not sure. Warmed the RV up to 79 degrees and its 26 degrees outside. Im kinda thinking it might pass the test, if there is a power outage here and the temps are below 32.


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## Ripon (Dec 22, 2012)

That looks like a winner. I was walking through Home Depot last week and they had a "bigger" version (probably different brand) for a shop at $79.99. It was funny they had it on 100lb cylinder and it kind of made me smile - bet that' would last a while?


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## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

Did a check of the 1 lbs can and my "calibrated arm" estimates about an hour or slightly less remains in the tank. If I can find a "tree" and adapters to connect it to a larger 4.25 lbs tank this might actually be a fairly cost effective alternative heating method in a power outage. Granted the 20 lbs tanks are much cheaper but I am not really sure I want a 20 lbs tank inside the RV in the event there is a "malfunction"! The 4.25 lbs tank should give me about 16-18 hours of run time. I don't know a small Kerosene heater still might be the way to go and potentially a little safer to operate.


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

Montana Rancher said:


> My only feedback is
> 
> Really 76 degrees?!
> 
> I live in the 45th parallel and keep my home at 55 degrees in the day with a slight bump to 61 degrees in the morning when we shower and in the evening eating dinner.


This is Texas. It rarely gets cold here. In fact normally we have 2 seasons, summer and ............... almost summer. :lol:


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

I will tell ya though, right now it's 25 outside. I mostly live in my garage. I smoke and I can't and don't smoke in the house. I can't find my laser thermometer right now but it's probably in the low 50's here inside. Here I have cable, my computer and ham radio so I'm set. I do have a very small space heater pointed at my feet.

Not being a morning person, I have the coffee set to go off 30 min before I get up. I get my coffee, stumble out to the garage, watch the news, surf here some and try to get my act together somewhat before I have to get ready to go to work.


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## pheniox17 (Dec 12, 2013)

inceptor said:


> I smoke and I can't and don't smoke in the house. here some and try to get my act together somewhat before I have to get ready to go to work.


and people think I'm weird for not smoking inside


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

pheniox17 said:


> and people think I'm weird for not smoking inside


I haven't smoked in the house for over 30 years. Besides that, I wouldn't be able to stay married if I did try to smoke in the house. :lol:


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## pheniox17 (Dec 12, 2013)

what gets me, going to visit a smoker that smokes in.their house.... I'm almost gagging


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

pheniox17 said:


> what gets me, going to visit a smoker that smokes in.their house.... I'm almost gagging


That's the truth. I do smoke in my truck but not when the wife is ridding with me. I married a non smoker.


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## Rigged for Quiet (Mar 3, 2013)

Lemme take a wild guess at why yer lookin' fer alternative heat in a power outage:lol: We lost power about midnight when all that crap was in full swing. 

I had plenty of firewood, but I immediately went into search mode since who really keeps a cord of wood in the Dallas 'burbs? I've pretty much settled on a Big Buddy with an adapter hose to run off of a 20 lb bottle. 400 sq feet of heating for 220 hours. baby. It also has a low O2 sensor for shut off.

That being said, one of those is about $150 before the adapter and hose, which is perfect for the living room but doesn't do much for anywhere else. I think I'll add an Academy stop and check these out.

Oh, and while I'm sure they avaialble locally somewhere, you can get the adapter to refill your 1 lb bottle from your larger bottles for around $12 shipped on eBay.


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

inceptor said:


> Yeah, I am curious as to how long a bottle will last.


My Mr Buddy heater set on high will run on a 1lb bottle for nearly 5 hours if I run it continuously. I usually crank it up just to cut the chill or use it in the garage or basement shop for a few minutes at a time. Get the adapter hose to run it off a larger tank, much cheaper.

Lunatic,
I like the Texsport. Good price and perfect for a tent or RV.


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## GTGallop (Nov 11, 2012)

Question.... Do you not have to worry about Carbon Monoxide / Dioxide build up when you use one of these propane fueled catalytic heaters indoors?


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

GTGallop said:


> Question.... Do you not have to worry about Carbon Monoxide / Dioxide build up when you use one of these propane fueled catalytic heaters indoors?


Some Propane heaters are rated for Indoor Use. Even though mine is rated for Indoor Use, I only use it inside my house or tent for short periods to cut the chill. I have used it for a few hours out in my screened porch but it is obviously vented well.
FYI this may help.
Bringing a Propane Heater Indoors? Here are Some Safety Tips | Propane.Pro


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## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

GTGallop said:


> Question.... Do you not have to worry about Carbon Monoxide / Dioxide build up when you use one of these propane fueled catalytic heaters indoors?


In a previous post I wrote that I have 2 Carbon Monoxide detectors and a propane detector and that like Kerosene I cracked a skylight for added good measure. I think I got that aspect pretty well covered. But its definitely something to consider no doubt about that. Additionally if I were to run it I would only run it while awake and up and about doing stuff. Even in Japan when Kerosene was the primary heating source I never ran it while I was asleep. Just too risky!


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

I worry more about the poisonous gas leaking from Washington DC,


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## Seneca (Nov 16, 2012)

The small LP bottle heaters are a pretty good deal for short term use. Mine is a Buddy with the ceramic plate. I also have a Mr. Heater with two elements on a 5 gallon tank. That I use for heating the garage when working on vehicles or larger projects.

I'd also suggest getting the LP bottle lantern and stove to round out the deal. Together the three take up little (some) space and should the worst happen, having heat, light and a way to cook can be a real moral booster.

Around here the bottles go on sale every once in a while, I'll assume it's the same in your area as well, and that's the time to stock up.


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## Seneca (Nov 16, 2012)

inceptor said:


> Yeah, I am curious as to how long a bottle will last.


It goes with out saying a persons mileage varies. I have a tendency to figure time frames on the minimum. I have yet to get less than four hours out of a bottle and have gotten as much as 8 hours of use out of a bottle. So my average is about 6 hours. Yet when it comes to buying a supply of bottles I figure 4 hours per. That way I have a bit of room and if I err it's on the side of caution.

In continuous use the bottles last a lot longer on a lantern, in comparison the stoves/heaters go through them fairly quickly. Again it depends, also I'd recommend marking partially used bottles with a permanent marker so they can be distinguished at a glance from an unused bottle.


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## MI.oldguy (Apr 18, 2013)

We have a coleman blackcat ourselves,runs 8 hours on a small cyl.it will screw directly to a 20#er with a small adapter we bought.nice for the ice shack.we also have one of those double burner catalytic heaters like all the stores sell (I cant remember the brand)it will attach and run on a 20# for about 20hrs on low and it will run you out of anyplace because, even on low its too hot.we have used it in conjunction with our bbq to keep warm when we grill on the deck in winter.


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## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

inceptor said:


> This is Texas. It rarely gets cold here. In fact normally we have 2 seasons, summer and ............... almost summer. :lol:


OMG! That's so hilarious and so true Inceptor!


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## pheniox17 (Dec 12, 2013)

inceptor said:


> This is Texas. It rarely gets cold here. In fact normally we have 2 seasons, summer and ............... almost summer. :lol:


lol here in qld, we have f'in hot, or f'in hot and f'in wet


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

One problem I found using Propane Heaters , Moisture they then to put a lot of water in the air. Now a small tank like that may not be a big deal but the long you burn the stuff the more that collects.
I have a couple real nice Propane Heater sitting unused for that reason. I had tried the in The old bike room.
After awhile it darn near stating raining.
K1 for emergence heat for me, Once wood/coal stove get warmed up it takes over.


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## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

Well I have had a chance to play around with this unit for a while. I am pretty satisfied with it and its performance thus far and it seems to be durable enough. I bought an 8 ft hose and an adapter unit that will allow me to run it off 4.5 lbs and 20 lbs refillable bottles. Here propane is about a buck a pound so its a lot more economical than Kerosene and that's a hell of a lot cheaper and more convienent than the disposable 1 lbs bottles. While I could buy and adapter and refill the "disposable" 1 lbs bottles, that just doesn't give me a warm fuzzy doing on a regular basis since those bottles weren't designed for extended use. As such I will buy a couple of the 4.5 lbs bottles at a cost of about 45 bucks each. I still have a couple of good 20 lbs tanks on hand in addition to a 40 lbs tank if worse comes to worse and Im really in a jam for an extended period of time. Since I am averaging right at about 5 hours per a pound of propane, this arrangement should leave me sitting well and these refillable tanks should prove to be a very safe way to store and use large amounts of fuel giving me a considerable amount of run time. Ive been a full time RVer for about 10 years now and used propane tanks on my boat for about 7 years while living on it and have yet to have a problem with leaking or malfunctioning tanks.

All in all, I am going to give this little exercise a passing grade. If your heating a fairly small space the unit I have will work well enough to pick up the check. If you need to heat a space larger than about 170-200 sqft, I would suggest the much larger model capable of 10,000 BTU's or another similar sized model that can function both as a stove and as a heater. To keep it more economical, I would also suggest the larger refillable bottles, adapter and the 8ft hose extension. The extension tree might also be another worth while accessory as well. Since propane when it leaks will sink to the lowest point this will get the ignition source well above the floor where the leaking fuel/gas will pool. I would also highly recommend that you also use a propane gas detector and mount it low to the floor so that if there is a leak you get an alarm in time to shut off all ignition sources while you ventilate the space. I would also recommend a low oxygen sensor if you can obtain one in addition to cracking a window or skylight. Again in the interest of safety, I would most highly recommend running such devices when you are awake and up and about and not while you are sleeping!!!

*One word of caution...

Not all of these type devices are built to handle the higher operating pressures of Bulk Tanks long term. So before connecting and operating with a bulk tank please consult the manufacture before doing so to make sure your propane accessory will.* I will be contacting Texsport Monday to see if this one will before hooking up. If not I will try the larger sized one that's specifically designed for this purpose even though its larger than what I need.


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## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

Well for those that wanna know...

I ran the last of the remaining propane out of the 1 lbs bottle. Total run time on the low setting of about 1000 btu's was between 7 and 8 hours. For $2.40 a 1 lbs bottle here locally, it looks like it might be reasonably feasible for use during a power outage to stay warm.

We got another cold snap again and once again the RV was getting a little too cold for my comfort level despite wearing sweats around the home stead, so I fired it back up after previously running it for 4 hours. I got another 3 plus hours out of whats was left in the bottle. Yeah I could have just plugged in a space heater and accomplished the same thing, but with them threatening rolling black outs due to the high demand on the grid, its nice to know if I needed to I could use this to keep from becoming a popcicle. Seemed like this was a good excuse to see just how well it works.

I am think that come next season I may just spring for the larger 3,000-10,000 BTU model that's designed to hook up directly to a 20 lbs propane bottle and just go that route since it would be a bit more economical to use and refill the 20 pound bottles. Ill just reside the smaller model to the truck where it will be handy for camping or if I get stranded out in the middle of no where and have to wait for help to arrive.

My final thoughts on this? If you need to heat a 12 x 12 room of the house so you can tough out a power outage for a few days until power can be restored its a winner. The fact that it doubles as camping gear, is just an added bonus for those that do cold weather camping. For a 22 ft RV, it is kind of pushing the limits. It works but I would like a little more BTU's and running off a bulk tank is a good bit cheaper than the 1 pound bottles.


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## hayden (Apr 30, 2012)

I have the Mr Buddy heater, 4000/9000 bought the adaptor and hose for my 2 20# tanks. Did a test on low and it was 76 in my living room in minutes. Plus my camp stove can run off this set up also. The heater was about 80 bucks. Forgot to mention a I added a filter also.


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