"Portable Buddy" heater report February 16, 2003, 11:55:58 am Yahoo Message Number: 19042I woke up this morning to weather reports predicting twelve to twenty inche= s (!) of snow between this afternoon and tomorrow evening. Some places south = of here are getting it already--Washington, D.C.'s airport is already close= d. I live in an all-electric apartment, and if the power went off for an extende= d period, I'd be in an uncomfortable position. (I might even have to go sit i= n Gertie to get warm! ;-) So before the snow started falling, I drove to a ne= arby Lowe's, where they had the "Portable Buddy" heaters for $89.99, and picked =one up. The Buddy heater uses a finely perforated ceramic element, so there is no visible flame except the pilot. But there's plenty of heat--both radiant he= at and a fair amount of hot air coming off the top. I tried it out briefly when I = got home. It seems very well made and is specifically labeled as being for inside use= . Nine square inches of venting are required to supply oxygen, similar to the= catalytic heaters. (In practice that means you crack one of your roof vents=open by an inch and you're fine.) It has a tipover shutoff, a thermocouple flameout shutoff and an oxygen depletion shutoff, so it should be pretty safe. The ceramic heating element= , which is protected by a metal grille, does get red hot, so you want to keep= this away from your floor-length drapes. ;-) A one-pound propane cylinder runs it for about 6 hours on low (4,000 BTU-- more than Gertie's catalytic heater produces on high) and 3 hours on high (9,000 BTU--more than Olympian's largest cat heater). The 1-pound cylinders=are $2 apiece, so the operating cost is 35¢-65¢ an hour. Of course, it would be much less expensive when running from a refillable 2= 0- pound tank, and you'd get far longer operating times. I have on order a 5' = hose that allows the Buddy heater to be connected to one of those. I may or= may not ever do that, but I figured it'd be good to have the option. All in all, I'm quite impressed--it seems well engineered and it works grea= t! I recommend this highly as an inexpensive auxiliary heat source. By the way, I also got a pair of the best earmuffs I've ever had...which ju= st happened to be hanging on the rack next to the portable propane heaters. They're called "EarGrips." I don't normally wear earmuffs because the old steel-band type just don't work very well for me, but these go behind your = head and completely cover your ears and seal out cold air really well, than= ks to a clever spring wire arangement inside. They're extremely comfortable. Also they twist/fold (almost like my windshield sunshield) into a small, fl= at disc when not in use. I plan to go back and buy several more pairs (one each for= home, car and Gertie) next week. I love them! You can see them at www.eargrips.com/>. The site lists them at $19.99, but I paid $11.93 at Lowe's. I like Lowe's! :-)Andy Baird :-)
Topic: "Portable Buddy" heater report (Read 6 times)
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Topic: "Portable Buddy" heater report (Read 6 times)
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