Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I bought the Mr. Heater Hose with a regulator and quick disconnect fitting for the Big Buddy Heater. When it arrived, I discovered that I could not connect the fuel filter to the quick disconnect fitting. I called Mr. Heater, and they informed me that I didn't need the fuel filter if I was using a hose with an attached regulator. It would have been nice if Amazon had indicated this fact when I purchased the filter. But, none of the specifications for the product demonstrated this redundency. If you buy the hose with the regulator, then you don't need this filter.

Buyer beware! This item is NOT compatable with the quick disconnect hose & regulator (F271803) that Amazon suggests buying together as accessories for the mr. Heater. Shame on Amazon this time for recommending these together This filter is threaded.

I camp out all year long. I purchased a Mr Heater Portable Buddy heater to heat my tent/quad trailer this last year. The manufacturer recommended using the filter when using bulk propane tanks to fuel the heater. It worked so well on my heater (no fuel related problems in the last 12 months) that I also installed one on my Coleman two burner stove which I have hooked to a 20 lb tank also. For the small cost, it really saves you a lot of problems with propane contaminents and maintanence costs.

I bought my second fuel filter and I tore the first one apart to see what had collected inside. This unit is not a "filter" per se. It is actually just an empty chamber. The propane goes in the bottom, hits a baffle, and then goes out the top. This gives the oils a chance to separate from the gas and collect inside. Judging from the amount of accumulated oil in my filter after one tank of propane, this thing is probably good for 4 or 5 tanks.

First of all, the filter is unnecessary if you're using the hose with attached regulator; the regulator will remove any contaminants in the propane (Apparently the Amazon package unnecessarily included both the hose attached regulator AND the filter...)

Beyond that, if you're using a hose that does NOT have an attached regulator you absolutely must use the filer! I've been using Mr. Buddy Heaters for years and can attest that if you use a hose and don't use the filter, you'll end up tearing down your heater, buying new internal parts, and rebuilding it (or just throwing it out and buying a new heater, if they're on sale...)

The filter removes oily contaminants that are present to a greater or lesser degree in the all 5 gallon propane tanks (the degree of contamination depends on your source of propane). Mostly the contamination is the oderant (mercaptin oil) they add to the propane. Over time (maybe 5 to 15 tanks, depending on how bad your propane is contaminated), the oil will build up and clog up the heater's internal parts, rendering some useless and requiring cleaning of everything else.

It's impossible, by law, to buy propane refills that are mercaptin free; therefore you will ALWAYS have contaminants in your refillable propane tanks.

You can also get contamination if you're using the older style black hoses. They contain a plasticizer that will bleed out of the hose if you turn off the heater before shutting off the tank valve; the pressure builds up in the hose and forces the plasticizer out of the hose material and into the void of the hose. When you re-start your heater, all that stuff gets sucked right into your heater, and it seems that it's even more damaging than the oil in the propane. Even worse, it's my experience that the filters do not do a very good job of filtering the plasticizer; perhaps because the higher pressure in the hose when you first turn on your heater blows it right past the filter.

That means that, even if you're using a filter, if you're using the older-style black hose, you still have to turn off the tank before turning off the heater. If I'm using a black hose, I usually turn off the tank and just let the heater go out by itself.

But nowadays I usually use the Plasticizer-free Green Hose that Enerco sells, so I don't have the plasticizer problem. The advantage of the Green Hose is that since I no longer have to turn off the tank and then allow the heater to just go out, I can now leave the tank outside my tent trailer and just turn the heater on and off without bothering with the tank.

Some sources say that, with the Green Hose, you don't need to use the filter. I still use the filter though, due to the problems with contamination from propane mentioned above. It's still necessary to use the filter because your propane is still going to contain contaminants that will need to be filtered.

I have 3 heaters - I date my filters (using indelible markers) when I put them on a heater and change them out after a year. I've had no problems at all since I started this system.

Not necessary when the proper hose is ordered. Do not order this item if you order the hose Mr. Heater Hose with Regulator and Quick Disconnect for Big Buddy Heater #F271803with regulator. It does not fit.Mr Heater MH18B Portable "Big Buddy" Heater

If you're thinking about hooking up a 20# propane tank to your Mr. Heater, you should use this filter. You don't want to get rust or contaminants in your Mr. Heater and foul the orifice up.

This gadget is worth its weight in gold but my reasons, and perhaps ironically so, are not for the purpose for which the gadget was initially intended, viz., "fuel filtering" but rather to get the Mr. Heater a new lease on life, so to speak, because the original Mr. Heater cylinder 'threads' receptacle simply "refused" [after daily and multiple 1.02 pound propane cylinder usage] to accept further 1.02 pound cylinders without, how to put it, hissing at me because it absolutely would not screw in properly!

To explain -- it got so that just about every other cylinder simply would not go into the Mr. Heater threaded cylinder receptacle no matter how I fiddled with it [** the 'inner' thread receptacle on the Mr. Heater started to wear with repeated and heavy 1.02 pound cylinder usage] and this became quite vexing sooooo I bought the Mr. Heater "fuel filter" where all I have to do is get the business end of the fuel filter gizmo into the Mr. Heater receptacle 'once' and, voila, the 'other end' of the fuel filter essentially gives me a new set of threads for those 1.02 pound cylinders!

It worked! One drawback tho' even if you buy this gizmo solely for the "fuel filter" reason, once installed, the Mr. Heater is no longer 'flush' with the floor or whatever you have the heater sitting on [** unless you hang the heater up on the wall] because the Mr. Heater is designed so that a 1.02 pound standard propane cylinder 'by itself' makes the thing flush at the bottom but once that 4" [or so] fuel filter is added in the line, so to speak, the Mr. Heater is then lop-sided because the propane cylinder then 'extends' itself due to the fuel filter placement! I get around this by using a square box to sit the heater on it so that the now extended cylinder can stick out on an angle over the box support but be aware that with the filter, you do lose the bottom flush of the heater. On the other hand, with the filter [and thus new cylinder threads], I can at least 'use' the heater versus having just another useless paper-weight! This too! Watch out for those extended hoses which may work into a 20 pound propane tank but will NOT work if you try to use the extended hose with a 1.02 pound cylinder -- the threading is different! And with a 20 pound tank, you may require a regulator as well. In that case, where you only want the extended hose for a 1.02 pound cylinder [for whatever reasons] a trip to a hardware store may be in order for adapting propane-type pipe thread 'reducing' mechanisms.

Doc Tony


REVIEW ADDENDUM: A friend read my review and asked "why would a person use an extended hose if they were using 1.02 pound propane cylinders?" and the answer is this: On the back of the Mr. Heater there are two protruding metal off-sets where with the help of two mounting screws the Mr. Heater can be 'wall mounted' but because putting in these 1.02 pound cylinders can be a little tricky [when the Mr. Heater is wall mounted] or avoiding the step-stool thing to take the heater off the wall and then fiddle with the 1.02 pound cylinder, the extended hose was purchased so that the 1.02 pound cylinder could be easily inserted without touching the heater itself ==but== those extended hoses DO NOT fit 1.02 pound cylinders and are made to go into 20 pound propane tanks where the threading is much larger! Not to mention regulator issues if a 20 pound tank cylinder is used. I have the extended hose myself but I noticed that while one end fits perfectly into the Mr. Heater, the other end of the propane hose was 'too big' for the 1.02 pound cylinder and is made specifically for the 20 pound propane tank. If anyone knows what adapter piece can be fitted on the 'extended hose' to fit the 1.02 pound cylinders, please advise!

since we got the filter it has made the life of our Mr heater and Big Buddy last longer this isn't the first filter we have bought. They are great.

I didn't know from the product ads that you had to buy this filter in order to use the heater with a bulk propane tank. If you don't use this filter it will take you forever to tear down and clean the heater's fueling system. A bit expensive but, again, it is necessary.