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91 of 92 people found the following review helpful:
Thee best tent heater on the market.... period !
I purchased this catalytic propane heater to heat my tent for winter camping with my son for his Cub Scout winter camps. I tried the heater out on a three night camp out the last week of October, 2006 at 7,000 feet in the San Bernardino Mountains. Those nights dipped in the high 20's. The heater worked very well with only a few concerns, which were easily overcome. I...
Published on December 19, 2006 by Paul Cochran
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Set off my CO detector
I bought this for use in a camper van for snow trips. Supposedly safe for use indoors, but it set off my carbon monoxide detector after about an hour. I'm not comfortable at all using this inside. It would be a decent foot-warmer for off-season patio occasions though.
If you get a catalytic heater like this, get a CO detector so you don't wake up dead...
Published 20 months ago by Jim K
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91 of 92 people found the following review helpful:
Thee best tent heater on the market.... period !, December 19, 2006
This review is from: Coleman 5053A751 ProCat Perfectemp Catalytic Propane Heater with Instastart Technology (Sports)
I purchased this catalytic propane heater to heat my tent for winter camping with my son for his Cub Scout winter camps. I tried the heater out on a three night camp out the last week of October, 2006 at 7,000 feet in the San Bernardino Mountains. Those nights dipped in the high 20's. The heater worked very well with only a few concerns, which were easily overcome. I placed the lit heater in my tent well in advance of retiring for the evening and 6 hours later replaced the emptied propane cylinder right away and re-started the heater for the remainder of the morning. My son and I were nice and warm when we went to bed and stayed warm all the night through. Sure is nice to be able to stand up and dress in a warm tent in the morning. Next we will be trying the heater out at a snow camp in February with temps expected to be in the low teens.
Reading the directions dismissed any apprehensions of opertion. And yes, as another reviewer commented... the unit does throw out a small fire ball when first lit. YIKES! However, should you read the instructions BEFORE USE... you are forewarned about this and the reader is instructed NOT to light the heater facing anyone/pets/tent or indoors because of this issue. Instructions are not placed with the item for looks you know, you have to read them! OK, it spits out a small fire ball at first. Big deal... nothing too intense that an average human can not adapt to.
As for the "hot oil smell," noted by another reviewer... yes, there is a "smell," that emits from the operating unit. How one describes that smell will vary. Each individual person's sensitivity to that smell will also vary. To me the "smell" was simply like sightly hot metal, as with any other heater, and faint enough that it did not bother me at all. However, should one be rather sensitive to the "smell" it may prove uncomfortable.
The battery operated fan that blows the heated air away from the unit is awesome. The fan does not blow the volume of air like a fan on your desk or counter top might. The fan is much smaller, yet it does greatly aid in the ciculation of the heat. Without the fan on, the heat is simply radiated out and the heat is not evenly distributed throughout the tent. One huge issue with the fan... it eats batteries like a child eats candy. Two "D" batteries will run the fan for one full night. That's it, no more. Recharable batteries are strongly recommended to keep the battery budget in check, because the fan really needs to be used.
Some advise... 1.) Light the heater OUTSIDE of your tent (remember there will be small fire ball emiting from the heater when it is lit). 2.) Start the unit and place in your tent at least one full hour before going to bed. That way your tent will be nice and warm when you go to bed. 3.) Keep a replacement propane cylinder close by for replacement in the early morning hours. Should you allow the tent to cool before replacing the propane cylinder and re-igniting the heater it will take a very, very long time to warm the tent up. Remeber... nights are coldest the hours just before dawn (usally) which is much colder than when you started to warm your tent up the previous evening. Also, the larger the tent (or area being heated) the longer it will take to bring up and maintain the temp. I am going to buy a second heater for my large three room tent. This way I can start one heater well before going to bed to heat the tent, and then 6 hours before I plan to wake up I can start the second heater. With two heaters operating at the same time in my large tent the heat will be easily maintained (hopfully even with winds) but also the first heater will will run out of fuel and shut off in the night and the second heater will continue heating maintaining the temp without me getting up to change out the propane cylinder. 4.) Place the heater in an area of your tent in which nothing will come in contact with it. The heater grid gets very hot and will burn you or any other item that contacts it.
All in all, this ProCat Catalytic Propane Heater is a great heater. It is larger than others on the market (the heating head is larger in diameter), including other Coleman brand heaters. It appears to be the only one with a fan to assist in heat distribution. It puts out a good amount of heart. The only serious failing on this ProCat heater is that the output can not be regulated. The heater is either on full blast or completly off.
Please note though, the more ventilated your tent the less effective any heater will be in heating such a tent, let alone this particular heater. Thus, should you have a "summer family camping tent" that is very well ventilated either consider purchasing two heaters to heat your tent, or in addition to this heater purchase a tent that is designed for cold weather (which is less vented than summer family tents).
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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
Coleman Heater, November 9, 2006
This review is from: Coleman 5053A751 ProCat Perfectemp Catalytic Propane Heater with Instastart Technology (Sports)
This is a wonderful heater to own and operate. It is larger than it appears in the listing--about half the height and all the width of an airline carry-on bag. I bought one for myself and liked it so well my friends purchased one, also. We have taken it as high as 8000 feet elevation with no difficulty in performance. The lowest temperature in which it operated was 25 degrees. The unit is easy to operate. Simply screw in a 1 pound can of propane into the back, turn the knob to "on" for a few seconds and hit the ignition switch (being VERY careful to face the front of the furnace away from yourself or any other person). The heater lights instantly with a small burst of flame from the front grill. The flame immediately subsides and the heat is on. Camping becomes much more comfortable. The only drawback to this heater, and it is not even the heater's fault, is that 1 can of propane only lasts about 6 hours. So, obviously, a second can should be taken into the tent and/or camper to be changed at night. You could probably set an alarm but I personally just let the cold wake me up before I get up to change it. It's also best to start the heater up about an hour before you retire to allow time for the tent to warm up. My friends and I have no regrets in this purchase and we all highly recommend it.
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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
Great tent heater, October 28, 2006
This review is from: Coleman 5053A751 ProCat Perfectemp Catalytic Propane Heater with Instastart Technology (Sports)
I do most of my camping up in the High Uinta mountains of Utah starting about the first of June. I camp at the snowline starting at about 6,000 feet and follow it up to the 10,000 foot level later in the summer so the nights are always cold usually in the high 20's to low 30's.
2 years ago I ran across this little heater and decided to give it a try to see if it would help keep me warmer. What a difference it made. I have a Coleman 8' X 8' dome tent that has the large screened sides that makes it difficult to seal and hold the heat in. I have to keep the rainfly collapsed at night to try to hold what heat I have in. Even so, I have found that if I run this heater for about an hour before I go to bed it will heat my tent to about 75-80 degrees. If I open my sleeping bag and point the heater at it with the fan going it will blow the hot air into the bag and make for a nice warm bed to climb into. They claim that you can run these all night with about a 4" opening to let the oxygen in but I usually shut it down when I go to bed. If during the night the temperatures drop to the uncomfortable point, it doesn't take much to reach over and fire it up again for a little while. When morning comes I fire it up again and when I get out of bed to get dressed it's nice and warm. Shucks, I don't have it this good at home.
The heater has a piezoelectric start which usually fires up right away. It puts out a fair sized fireball when it starts which can startle you if your are not ready for it. It takes about 3 minutes to warm up and really start radiating the heat but once it gets going it puts out quite a bit of heat. It is a flame less heat and although it will not catch anything on fire the heat is hot enough to melt synthetic items that get too close.
The only con I have with this unit is that you have to be very careful when you screw in the propane bottle, and that you don't cross thread it and ruin the threads on the heater.
It is supposed to run for about 8 hours on a tank of propane but I with the way I use it, it's hard to tell but I would say that's about right. A 16.4 oz tank will usually last me about 3 weekends of camping.
The fan is what sold me on this catalytic heater. It moves quite a bit of air and it will heat an area about 4 times faster than without it. In a tent environment that means it will circulate the air and the lower levels will be about as warm as the upper. The batteries have a pretty long life span and I usually change them out after 4 or 5 weekends just to make sure they don't go out on me in the middle of the night.
All in all these are great little heaters for small spaces or as an emergency heater.
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
High elevation heat, September 7, 2006
This review is from: Coleman 5053A751 ProCat Perfectemp Catalytic Propane Heater with Instastart Technology (Sports)
We live at about 6800 ft elevation, so when we go camping it's usually over 7000 ft. We bought this because the Mr. Buddy heater doesn't function over 7000 ft. We've used it twice and each night was in the mid 30s. The first night we didn't know what we were doing so we just fired it up at bedtime. It was already cold at that point and the heater couldn't heat up the air space in our two room tent very much. The next night we started it while it was still warm and we were able to stay ahead of the cold temp. However, the propane canister emptied and the heater fan blew cold air for who knows how long before we woke up to change it. Then we were in the same boat as the night before. Next time we'll probably pack an alarm clock and plan on waking up to change canisters to stay on top of the temperature. We are very pleased with the performance and now we know to just plan ahead. (It would be nice if it could run off a bigger propane tank, I don't know if there is an adapter kit available.)
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
Results from October Camping in the Midwest, October 31, 2007
This review is from: Coleman 5053A751 ProCat Perfectemp Catalytic Propane Heater with Instastart Technology (Sports)
I've had this heater for about two years, and just got back from a tent camping trip in the upper Midwest. We were camping in a Eureka! 8 person three season tent. Temps during the days reached the mid 50s, and nighttime temps were in the low 40s to upper 30s. We could see our breaths in the air before we went to bed.
There was a recent event in our area where a family died in their travel trailer due to CO poisoning. Hence, my wife was a little bit scared when I told her that we would be bringing the heater for this trip. We've used the heater several times before without incident.
Due to the CO concerns, I purchased a battery operated CO detector from Kidde and brought along a temperature sensor we had at home. The detector would ensure that we would be alerted in case of any unsafe CO levels.
Our tent was vented by leaving some of the flaps partially open, the "always open" vents in the top of the Eureka! tent, and by having a tent fan hung from the center top of the tent running. Please read any safety manuals from your tent or heater manufacture before deciding to run a heater in a tent.
Here's some of the results and observations from the recent trip:
-We observed temperatures in the tent from about 57 to 63 degrees in tent when we went to bed, went to the bathroom during the night, or when we woke up in the morning. Temps out side were predicted to be in the low 40s or high 30s, but we did not have a temperature gauge outside to measure. We slept in average sleeping bags with an extra blanket, and everyone slept well and was warm enough.
-Start the heater about 30 to 60 minutes before you go to bed. It takes a little while for the heater to raise the temp in the tent, and its nicer to go to sleep in an already warm tent instead of one that is cold and slowly warming up.
-A propane cylinder will probably not last for a full 8 hours of sleep, especially if you start the heater before you go to bed. Have spare cylinders and batteries available. I started a cylinder 30-60 min before the kids went to sleep, then put in a fresh cylinder when I went to bed, and changed cylinders when invariably one of us had to get up in the early morning hours to go to the bathroom.
-The propane cylinder iced up on the bottom after several hours of operation. Have some gloves handy or be prepared to deal with the ice while changing a cylinder.
-The CO detector never alarmed during our trip. The maximum CO level detected was 11 PPM, which is apparently well below any harmful levels.
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent device - not really a "tent" heater, December 10, 2007
This review is from: Coleman 5053A751 ProCat Perfectemp Catalytic Propane Heater with Instastart Technology (Sports)
I've owned one of these for more than five years. It is dependable, tough and a good value for the price.
This Catalytic heater is intended to keep you warm in your duck blind, not your tent. During operation the face of the heater is a hot metal screen that will melt Nylon/Rayon/Dacron tent/sail material upon contact - it's not likely to set the material on fire, but melting a big hole in your tent is decidedly a bad idea (and, the residue on the heater would be difficult to remove). The heater works well in unheated camper shells, houseboats, cabins, small watercraft, and as an emergency home backup if you have a power failure.
The prior reviews state "ball of fire" and "smell" - well, there is an ignition flash over the face of the catalytic material when you start the heater. You have to expect to have a little flash when starting one of these devices. The starting mechanism is a piezoelectric sparker and the spark generated by pushing the red plunger eventually ignites the propane in the presence of atmospheric O2. Once the thermal flash takes place the oxidation of the propane (burning) occurs within the catalyst (a grey, fibrous mat behind the screen) and, the only combustion products are H2O and CO2 - that's the beauty of a "catalytic" heater. Obviously, do not start one of these in an atmosphere that could ignite and, keep it away from your car, boat, atv gas tank!
Several reviews remark about the smell - and I am aware of two sources of "smell" that are given off by this device:
(1) When the device is new the metal screen and other parts that become hot "gas out" or "burn off" manufacturing residue. Oils, varnishes, lubricants - the very thin remnants of the processes of shaping, forming and assembling the device will aerosolize with the first 10-20 hours of use. If it is a concern (and, it should be if you aren't using the device in a "well ventilated" area (such as a duck blind)) then, set it up in your yard, drive or on a deck and run three or four whole bottles of propane through it at full temp WITHOUT using the fan. In a day or two you will have a perfectly broken-in heater with no smell from heater parts.
(2) The second smell that you may experience is the result of an odorant (a mercaptan) added to the colorless, odorless, tasteless Propane as a safety measure to allow a human to "smell" a Propane leak. The odorant smell is quite noticeable at the ignition stage (because not all of the Propane released is ignited when you start the heater - you may have waited longer than necessary before depressing the plunger or it is just the amount of Propane that escapes prior to normal ignition). The odorant is essentially consumed at the catalyst - but some bottles of Propane seem to have slightly different amounts of odorant and an odd, but minor smell from burned odorant can be detected. Pay attention to the brand of Propane that you buy and buy a case or two of the bottles that you perceive as having the least odor.
That said, I've used the device for well over a thousand hours with excellent results - including leaving it running in a home without power due to an ice storm - placing it in the basement kept pipes from freezing until power was restored.
One additional note about the fan feature - there is a (somewhat noisy) 3-volt fan in this heater. It does run on two "D" cell batteries - but there is a 1/8" phono-plug socket located next to the fan permitting the addition of an accessory power source. For a few bucks you can purchase a two-conductor phono-plug and a battery case at any electronics shop. Wire your power brick with eight or ten "D" cells in two parallel blocks to give 3 volts and you have a week's power for the fan (yes, you can use rechargeable batteries). Folks with a little electronics experience can buy a small 6-volt gel-cell and use a simple voltage divider circuit to drop the output to 3-volts (or, use a voltage regulator and zener diode to drop the voltage and prolong the life of the gel-cell's charge - a divider does draw current the regulator is a more efficient circuit).
OR, you could just use it without the fan.....
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Set off my CO detector, December 20, 2008
This review is from: Coleman 5053A751 ProCat Perfectemp Catalytic Propane Heater with Instastart Technology (Sports)
I bought this for use in a camper van for snow trips. Supposedly safe for use indoors, but it set off my carbon monoxide detector after about an hour. I'm not comfortable at all using this inside. It would be a decent foot-warmer for off-season patio occasions though.
If you get a catalytic heater like this, get a CO detector so you don't wake up dead.
It's also larger than I thought-- the element is about 8 inches across. It's hard to tell from the picture, but that might matter to you if you plan on traveling with it.
Running the first bottle of fuel through it outside got rid of the first-time fire-up smell.
The build quality is rather poor. I had to remove the chrome ring and re-seat the element because it was not aligned with the chassis properly. The propane bottle presses against the plastic body.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Good Heater..., May 13, 2007
This review is from: Coleman 5053A751 ProCat Perfectemp Catalytic Propane Heater with Instastart Technology (Sports)
This heater was a little bigger in person than I thought it was going to be, but is still fine for my needs. Not recommended for a hiking trip... I used this in an 18' X 10' 9 person tent in 30-40 degree weather and was pleased with it's performance. It will run several hours on one 16oz propane tank. The battery powered fan seems to require batteries more often than the propane tank needs to be replaced, but the heater still operates even without batteries. This heater creates an unpleasant odor that bothered my wife a little bit, but did not bother me at all. I'd much rather be warm and put up with a little smell than be freezing and miserable in my tent! I'd say that this heater was able to keep the inside of my 180 sq ft tent about 25 degrees warmer than it would have been without it. I figure it would be much more efficient in a smaller tent. A must have for tent camping in cold weather!!!
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Good Emergency Heater, May 22, 2008
This review is from: Coleman 5053A751 ProCat Perfectemp Catalytic Propane Heater with Instastart Technology (Sports)
I just bought this heater for camping and emergency purposes. Out of the box it is nice, compact and lightweight. Has a nice handle and base. When first trying to start it I had a hard time getting the "insta-light" to work. The owners manual says 10 clicks it took me more than 40. It did smoke a little and smelled alot but I burned it outdoors for 30 min like the manual said to and now there is no smoke or odor after lighting for the 3rd time. It is still hard to light but I am going to leave it on for a min or two and let the gas build up and see if that works better. It gives off really good heat! It has no up or down so it is hot all the time, but for what I need it for that is ok. I have a VW Pop Top Camper that it warms up quite nicely in about 3-5 min. The heater really needs a good case to protect it. I bought the soft-sided case that Coleman has for it but was not impressed. It will do but...it is too big for the heater. There is 2 propane bottle holders inside but the heater is not snug inside therefore the bottles may actually damage the heater. Also the base does not have a holder so it just goes in the bag and may also get damaged by the heavy bottles. If you are going to use the carry bag I would suggest packing it all in nicely with cardboard and packing material of some kind like bubble wrap so it all fits better. Coleman should have made a hard sided case for this heater.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Coleman ProCat, June 13, 2009
This review is from: Coleman 5053A751 ProCat Perfectemp Catalytic Propane Heater with Instastart Technology (Sports)
We recently purchased a large tent (15x12) and needed a propane heater that could stand up to the task of keeping the inside of the tent comfortable on cold nights. We purchased two of the Coleman ProCats for this purpose and they worked absolutely beautifully! I was skeptical at first, preferring to keep warm with multiple sleeping layers, but gave in when my partner insisted. Now that we've used them, we won't camp again without having them with us. The battery operated fan made all the difference in the world when it came to dispersing the heat throughout the entire tent, even though the roof was completely mesh (with the fly elevated about 6" above it). Our heaters ran constantly on high for over 8 hours without giving up. Two hours before turning in for the night, my partner turned them on. By the time we went to bed around 11:00, temperatures outside were in the 30s, while inside the tent, it was comfortable enough to wear t-shirts. By morning, it was a little cooler, but still warm enough to not see your breath - an oddity in the Colorado mountains at 5:00 in the morning, for sure!
As is common sense, ALWAYS light the heaters outdoors or, at the very least, well away from the sides of tents or other flammable material, as they do emit a flame when first ignited.
Simply the best! We love you, Coleman! I've posted a photo from inside our tent.
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