Official Test Results: Five Ways to Heat a Tent

Bobzdar

Observer
I went wood, coupled with long burn logs for night time burn means I can get 5+ hours of uninterrupted sleep before having to add anything. Would require being used with an annex and a stove jack but they're easy to install. I used gorilla glue and high temp RTV to seal mine, works great (not done yet in the picture below, that was the initial use and I just tacked the corners to see how things would work and make sure the tent wouldn't suffer any damage). The stove is the large winnerwell, which would be overkill for any RTT+annex. The medium or small would be fine. I have a crua loj which is quite large (but insulated) and even in teens temps it stays mostly damped down. In the pic the intake is pretty much closed. The oven is a great heat sink (rather than the heat going out the chimney) and makes it super easy to heat stuff up as it's always hot. I had thought about running pellets with forced air - I have a biolite fire pit which has an adjustable battery powered fan (also doubles as a power bank) that could be made to easily fit the air intake on the winnerwell. The air rails from the stove could actually be retrofitted if one were really ambitious. You'd just need a way to feed pellets in, which could be done via the port on the cook top. The chimney fits inside the stove and the legs and shelves fold, so it's quite compact, especially if you don't use the oven. I tried a mr buddy heater just to take the chill out in the morning but the condensation was extreme.

Long burn logs (for night time)

Stove jack

75282227_3563547660323853_5106457703941668864_o.jpg
 

Life_in_4Lo

Explorer
I just got one of these Kovea heaters and it's fantastic. Packs small in its own hardcase.
Perfect to warm up the tent at night and in the mornings, when you don't want to get out of the sleeping bag
I have to give gtfo a plug- they were great to deal with and very fast (faster shipping than amazon!)

I use a small Kovea heater on a wooden board (for stability) in my RTT. I put a small fan over the heater to circulate the air. Otherwise all the heat will get trapped at the top of the tent. The tent heats up very quickly.



 

bemerritt

Member
Building a propex portable heater for the winter. Does anyone have a link to some good, waterproof heater ducting? Not too concerned about diameter, as i can adapt to anything from 2.5" to 4".
 

MANUCHAO

Aventurero
Building a propex portable heater for the winter. Does anyone have a link to some good, waterproof heater ducting?


 

Scoutn79

Adventurer
Building a propex portable heater for the winter. Does anyone have a link to some good, waterproof heater ducting? Not too concerned about diameter, as i can adapt to anything from 2.5" to 4".

If you want something very flexible, durable and thick enough to have some insulating properties look into SCAT tubing. It's pricey but would last a lifetime.

Darrell
 

bemerritt

Member


Thanks, that last one was exactly what i was looking for.
 

dcg141

Adventurer
I use one of these and a 2000 watt generator. Patron Heater Its will heat my RTT and annex fast and heat all thru the tent. I put on the floor of the annex and let the heat rise.
 

MattJ

Adventurer
Here's everything I tried:

y4mDmYP87HJlBS2NNxFWCjJpdxDRNRoDRt1jUtX1gZkX_H-IZqxWNIDRBm3yI18UwvxTOhJRl7Aide4fPiXQSwSfMo9ZiH1mfyHkXu0wd65Ug0W52_efluZlfjkCseqMG2zLFSPvupmTfeC7IKLzO7499C01P_JQDn2HrY3nUdcLz59_l1d-itHZL-qyazxzDqv


Here's what I ended up with:

y4mHXLMKJmG4p3zrJ6CX20BCxa7g3nwuyp6VHHqiKs4kAcWAgBVVh2n_KhePoFsTvfE830tp96W_hVNF_fMyUC44DU55xrmGGHn26tWvBeKy1Y5CM6Lm3SdJvu-PM8fHdru3jflrDT5ET-EFWPzge8-r8WPZWEOHRVGtyqHSN7XoEdGSaQ8Ef3EVj9raaJ_Iwc0


y4m4ZIm08Bj77NUe4B5JQj9pFZVN5JEBo9D0ZcEgF1oocsA68MhPf2DcVzDzFKGPDhdeEsPzPSCZjdC1e6LlHJYmu_mQPoy--fkqCbZztB6JmJJIXJ-w1kQhKLSKsK-5hnD6LDC_6tgRC5wWAxsEOLvMylVntoMkJWb9znkmme75dB2m72LekqaIrRM2rTA9EjV
 

JCS2179

Member
Hey guys,
This has been an interesting 18-page read-a-thon, plus countless detours to links (good and the dreaded "404-errors" too!) to learn a lot in a short period of time. I'm glad I found the OCD-Therapy group. I'm finally at home! ;)
I guess my main question is this: are we totally against these??


They seem very portable, and provided you bench test them (and possibly tinker with them before you really need them!), I think they are a very decent option. It's suspect to me they were not really proposed, so I'm wondering if I'm missing the obvious "Duh-moment"

Thoughts??
 

john61ct

Adventurer
Heck even in South Australia in long cold August weeks, we were miserable living that way.

Kids happily got up at five to start the campfire and make breakfast, but rainy days cramped that style

if you're spending all day cooped up together in a tiny space reading playing cards whatever a bit more comfort is well worth the investment if you aren't literally third-world poor - which we were at the time, pretty much on par with the local aboriginal communities we were visiting.
 

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