Anyone ever run into problems with Mr. Heater/ Mr. Buddy LP hose???

[aamescua]

About two years ago I purchased a Mr. Buddy heater and a 12' hose to connect directly to my 5 gal tank...never had a problem...until now.  The hose appeared to have been blocked, not clogged when I was testing last week - wouldn't even allowing a squeak of air to pass through.  So I purchased a NEW 12' hose for a trip this past weekend - and it worked as should for about 2 minutes, then BAM...the flame withered down until it died out.  I tested on two NEW, full tanks and still no success.  Yet I was able to use the same tanks to run my stove and water heater still.  So "X-out" the LP tanks and Buddy heater.

Fortunately I had a few small disposable bottles to get me through the weekend nights, so it shouldn't be the heater, right?

What could this be?? Defective hoses?? Any suggestions?
THANKS!!!

[DadofThree]

wow, I'm on hold right now trying to find one of these.  I'm very interested in this thread.  I have heard that a filter would help.  maybe something is in  the line in the buddy.

[bcrewcaptain]

what were you running the heater on? any filter inline?
They say to use the filters inline as they can have moisture problems especially when running on high to combat the rapid cooling of the tanks. I ran 2 nearly all weekend off 20lbs tanks, both had filters, but I had no issues at all, one heater also had a 15ft ext. hose as well, I would suspect you're seeing the line clog more than anything at this point.

[DadofThree]

If I run it through this:




Would I need a filter??

[aamescua]

No filter - I never ran one on the line before but I can see how this could help considering how much moisture builds up.  I still don't see this being the cause of the line to block the gas completely.

[rabird]

Love the Buddy Heater

There's a couple of folks at the above discussion that operate their Portable Buddy from their RV's low pressure system.
The bigger Tough Buddy has this capability with a quick disconnect from Mr. Heater.

Mr. Heater says to use the filter when connected to a 20 lb cylinder, it is not needed when connecting the Tough Buddy via low pressure quick disconnect.

I believe I saw once that Mr. Heater has a special hose that can be used with cylinder pressure that does not require the filter.

Portable Buddy manual
"(NOTE: Do not operate without the fuel filter as fuel contamination
may damage the heater.) Or use green F273704 Buddy series hose. Fuel filter not required."

[aamescua]

I was determined to hook up my heater to the trailer's quick disconnect lines so I went to Camping World thinking they would have all the appropriate fittings to convert it - no dice. 
I'm stumped.  Guess I'll make an exchange and see what happens.

[whitewa327]

Had the problem. Here was my solution.

I wasn't using a filter so I got one. I blew out the line by hooking it  up to my 20# tank and slowly opened the valve until fresh propane spewed out. Hooked it up to the heater and had the same problem as before - would start then fizzle out.

Hooked up a small 1# ? canister to the heater - lit it and it burned fine. I let it burn a few minutes, hooked up the line to the 20# tank and it worked fine.

Also, very important - The manual states that when hooked up to a large tank, to close off the tank valve and let the heater burn itself out. Do this instead of turning off the heater itself. When it burns out THEN turn off the heater.

Good luck,

Beck

[Tom-TC]

...Also, very important - The manual states that when hooked up to a large tank, to close off the tank valve and let the heater burn itself out. Do this instead of turning off the heater itself. When it burns out THEN turn off the heater....

I've not owned any of these heaters, but I suppose this procedure is a safety procedure, so the escaping gas from the still pressurized hose is not ignited by the hot heater.

[Tukee44]

If the hose is defective, your rig should have been in flame.

[DadofThree]

Got the hose needed last night and plumbed it into the filter on the Big Buddy.  I was out there till 1am working in the camper and very comfortable.  I put a CO monitor about 3 feet to the left of the heater and it never went off.  Had the flaps unzipped on some corners to allow air, but was also in and out of the trailer many times which helped the oxygen.  Interestingly (or not), when I put the High setting of 18,000 BTU, it set off the smoke/fire detector almost immediately (immediately = less than 1 minute).

I'm pleased with how it performed and how it heated the camper. 

2 things to note:

Alot of heat coming from the top, so don't put it under any cabinetry and a fan to circulate the heat is almost necessary in my book.  I walked in to the camper w/o the fan on, and the heat was OBVIOUSLY trapped near the ceiling.  I turned the big buddy fan on, and never had the thick heat again.  I also turned on the a/c fan to spread it out, but I thought that was a little too much air and noise.

Love this heater.
Dave

[bcrewcaptain]

Got the hose needed last night and plumbed it into the filter on the Big Buddy.  I was out there till 1am working in the camper and very comfortable.  I put a CO monitor about 3 feet to the left of the heater and it never went off.  Had the flaps unzipped on some corners to allow air, but was also in and out of the trailer many times which helped the oxygen.  Interestingly (or not), when I put the High setting of 18,000 BTU, it set off the smoke/fire detector almost immediately (immediately = less than 1 minute).

I'm pleased with how it performed and how it heated the camper. 

2 things to note:

Alot of heat coming from the top, so don't put it under any cabinetry and a fan to circulate the heat is almost necessary in my book.  I walked in to the camper w/o the fan on, and the heat was OBVIOUSLY trapped near the ceiling.  I turned the big buddy fan on, and never had the thick heat again.  I also turned on the a/c fan to spread it out, but I thought that was a little too much air and noise.

Love this heater.
Dave

I found the fan was pretty useless on mine as well, I made a clamp on bracket that mounts to the handle and have a 5"computer fan mounted to it..moves a decent amount of air and is 12V so can be run off the camper battery for ages...

[DadofThree]

I think I'll do something like that too.  The fan did help though.

One thing that I did which made the DW happy, was to put Reflectix under the heater and have it stick forward of the heater about 3 or 4 inches.  This was so it didn't warm up the counter top.

[D-mo]

to the origional poster:

this is a problem with your heater.  Buddy heaters are not to be run on larger holding tanks unless you install an inline filter.  The inline filter, filters out impurities in the liquid propane - not water, which are in the propane available at "fill stations".  The one lb. bottles are all pre-filtered from the factory.

d-mo

[akflyer]

No one seemed to mention here, unless I'm wrong...the fuel filter can only be used with the hose assembly that screws into the small bottle fittings. If you use the quick connect setup with the built in regulator, you can't use the filter (in fact, they say you don't need it with the regulator!) Personally I think the filter should be used whenever you use bulk tanks and a filter should be designed for the quick connect setup. I'm thinking about biting the bullet and going with the other hose assembly just so I can use the filter with it (even though I haven't had any problems with the quick connect yet.)