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Alaska

How to Keep Warm Camping with a Tent Heater

A 10″ snowfall that got me thinking

The first couple weeks of April we have had some pretty warm weather up here and all our snow was melted, roads were being swept, and plans for clean up were being made. Yesterday, we woke up to about 6″ of snow. “No problem” I thought, “It will be melted soon.” Sure enough, by evening there was only about an inch left at our house and nothing in town.

This morning we woke up to this…

Snowy deck

I had to measure this dump of snow!

measuring 10" snowfall

WHAT?! 10″ is the most snowfall we have had at one time all winter. And it is still snowing! Aaargh!

Keeping warm in a tent with a tent heater

I am not sure why, but this got me thinking about camping this summer. Hopefully we will be able to start at the end of May. Last summer we were able to get out a few times but not as many as I would have liked. We are tent campers. Toward the end of the summer the evenings were getting a little chilly (in the 40’s) through a cold night (in all honesty though, I hate waking up to the cold and will stay under the warm covers until a fire is lit). But, I was concerned about our 6 month old, 1 year old who wouldn’t stay under blankets and the 4 and 5 year old who wouldn’t stay in sleeping bags. So, at the end of the summer we didn’t camp very much.

Then, I heard some friend talking about how they stayed warm in their tents. A TENT HEATER! What!? I had never heard of such a thing. I tucked that bit of info away and guess what, it resurfaced today! Let’s look into how to keep warm camping with a tent heater.

Exploring Tent Heaters

In my research I found that there are three kinds of tent heaters, gas, electric and wood.

There are some great websites comparing some of the different options.

Things to consider when purchasing a tent heater.

1) What type of heater do you need

  • Gas (Propane or Butane)–The most popular type for camping.
  • Electric–Great if you will always have access to an electrical outlet. This is the safest option.
  • Wood–This is only for large canvas tents designed to be use with a wood stove with very good ventilation.

2) The size of tent or area you are heating

Heaters come in different sizes. From small personal heaters (1,500 BTU’s) to ones that will heat a massive tent or area (60,000 BTU’s). Knowing how many BTU’s (the amount of heat the unit produces) you will need to heat your tent can be figured out with this handy, dandy BTU Calculator.

2) Where you will put the heater

  • Will the heater be in the tent or outside
  • Do you have proper ventilation?
  • Will the heater be in danger of being knocked over?
  • Do you have a stable surface to set heater upon?
  • Are you able to keep all things flammable (sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, pads, clothes, towels, chairs, people etc.) away from the heater even while asleep if you choose to let it run through the night (it is NOT recommended to run a tent heater while asleep on unattended).

3) Safety features of the heater

  • Is it rated for indoor use? If not, move on to another heater. This is of ultimate importance!
  • Does it have an anti-tip automatic shut off?
  • Is the fuel clean burning?
  • Does it have a low oxygen/carbon monoxide detector and shut off automatically if necessary?
  • What is covering the heat source?

4) Other features to consider

  • Weight
  • Ease of turning on and off
  • Size
  • Does it shut off at certain altitudes?
  • Fuel efficiency
  • Size of fuel source (small green cans or large white containers)
  • Can you control heat output? Different heat settings?

What heaters will work for us

Fuel type: Since none of the places we camp have hook-ups electric was automatically out. Wood isn’t safe for our tent. So, propane it is.

Tent size: We have a large family tent, an REI Kingdom 8. It took us a long to find the right tent but we love this one. Our tent has a floor space of 104 sq ft and an overall 600 cubic ft. According to the BTU calculator we need a heater with around 3000 BTU’s to keep our tent about 15 degrees warmer than outside.

Heater placement: Since we have a lot of flammable stuff and children who could easily knock it over inside our tent is probably not the safest. We are thinking that we will open up the inside door a bit and set the heater on a stable surface just outside. It will still be technically inside under the rain fly but should be safer.

Important features to us:

  • Anti-tip automatic shut-off
  • Low oxygen/carbon monoxide auto shut-off
  • Clean burning
  • Size and weight
  • Ease of turning on and off
  • Fuel source/efficiency
  • Different heating options

Heaters we are considering

Mr Heater buddy portable tent heater
Mr. Heater Buddy Portable Heater
Mr Heater portable tent heater
Mr. Heater Portable Heater
Mr Heater little buddy tent heater
Mr. Heater Little Buddy

I am leaning toward the Mr. Heater Buddy. It seems a nice middle of the road. It should probably be ordered soon so that we can start camping in a month or so.

Once we try it out and see how it works I will update this post with my opinions. I can’t wait to see if it helps us to stay warm camping in our tent.

Have you used a tent heater? What other tips do you have for keeping warm in a tent? Let me know in the comments below!

Happy travels to you…until we meet again!

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