Propane Vs Butane heaters - Who wins?

[Chuckles]

Hey all,


I'm trying to get myself all set up with the proper and comfortable equipment for ice fishing. I've got my hut, my floater suit, and so on. My next purchases will be a heater for my hut, and a vexilar.

My dilema is, I've been shopping for a while now for a heater, 3000 btu's and up. Haven't found too many above 3000. The one's that I have found are from not so known company and uses butane instead of propane. I don't want to name any company's or manufacturers, but you get my drift. I want to go with the 5000 btu's, but I'm a little iffy about the butane. Some comments or suggestions will be appreciated.

THX

Chuck

[CharlieD]

I got a propane one from walmart and it works pretty good even out in the open....uses those little propane tanks, gets about 10 hours on one tank...forget how many btu's but it is worth like $80...hope this helps

[soggy bottom boy]

I had a radiant heater that ran off a 20 lb. propane tank until my shack was broken in to last winter on the Rideau. It did heat up the 8' x 4'1/2 space pretty well, but was bulky to handle. I was also using a Coleman lantern which gave off alot of heat.

This year I've acquired a Mr. Heater (small model) that runs off 1 lb. propane canisters or larger with an adapter hose. Not cheap, but small and easily portable (my hut will remain empty when I'm not there) and I've used it RVing, in a duck blind, etc.

Soggy.

[Sluggo]

I would strongly suggest staying away from butane. My experience with it is that it will not work in the cold. Just leave a lighter in the cold then try to use it. We also had one of those butane stoves out at our shack a couple years ago and it was essentially useless until the shack and the butane were well above freezing. Propane always seems to work fine.

[Tip-up]

Hey Chuck....

You used our Mr. Heater on Sunday.....How did ya like it? On those cold days with temps dippin below teens, I strongly suggest the portable buddy. It has a 4000 and 9000btu setting. The heater warms up the shack on low in minutes..Princess auto 124.99
-Andrew

[Suddsy]

Hey Tip Up where is Princess Auto located I was looking at some propane heaters in the Smith Falls Canadian Tire last night and I think they were $124 also but seemed like you needed to keep the door of the shed open to be safe when using it. I think these were 9,000 to 18,000 BTU depending on the setting. Does anyone know if you can buy adapters for the heaters set up for the old style propane tanks I had a 10 lb tank hooked up to my old heater but they changed the connection to the propane tanks a couple ofyears ago and you can no longer get the old tanks re-filled.

[fatluke]

Suddsy... If you are not in a big rush for a Mr. Heater, I would suggest watching eBay.. I got mine for 97 bucks...

[OntarioRider]

where is Princess Auto located

It is located at 1301 Ages Drive.
South of Walkley at the corner of Hawthorne and Ages Drive.

[Tip-up]

A reminder, the shack we are heating is a 4' by 6' portable....If you intend on warming up a ''Ice Shack'', a wood stove or ''Sunflower style heater may be more suitable....

-Andrew

[nighttroller]

I love my MR. Heater portable buddy. As said, it has a 4,000 or 9,000 btu setting and you can get an adaptor for a bigger tank if you don't want to use the 1 lb canisters.

[fatluke]

nighttroller.... is the adapter a general propane adapter item that could be purchased at CTC for example, or is it Mr. heater specific?

[bucketmouth]

Chuck, you didn't mention how big the hut was and if it's a portable or hardside.

If it's a portable, anything from 3000btu's and up is fine, personally I use a propane lantern in my 4X6 CLAM and it's fine to keep from seeing your breath and you can fish without gloves. Mr. Buddy seems to be the choice of today's ice fisherman. Portable and compact.

If it's a wooden shack you're talking about you'd have to go to much bigger depending on dimensions. Woodstove or a propane radiant for sure, over 10000 btu's IMO.

Take care
bucket

[Tip-up]

Bucket...

Chuckles pulls an Eskimo 2-man flip....Our dad bought the Blackcat 3000btu heater by coleman from CTC..It took about 10 min tp warm up and another 10 to warm up the clam Brought it back and paided the extra for the buddy.Glad we did

-Andrew

[Chuckles]

Thankx to all for the replies. As tip up said, I have a eskimo 2 person flip portable.
I loved the mr.heater on sunday, made everything very toasty in the shack, especialy with my new floater/survival suit. I think I'm leaning more towards the mr.heater after seeing it in action on sunday. I can just imagine how warm it keeps the shack in -20 to -30 with wind. It was pretty comfortable on sunday, so didn't need it too much.

Thanks for he help guys.

Chuck.

[Suddsy]

Thanks CC, for the info on Princess Auto and to you too fatluke for the e-bay suggestion - good idea