I am biased.  I use the Power Cat and I like it.  I used it while camping in
Minnesota on 25-degree nights (it was still warm in late October) and use it
on 15-degree mornings to quickly warm up the interior.   Mine is placed
between the front seats and faces front for driving and augmenting the
heater, while it faces the rear for camping.  I average what seems about 6
hours of heat per bottle of gas on medium gas setting.  The heat output
seems more than adequate for my use and the built in-fan makes the most of
it by circulating the heated air.

Oh.. and I do have a carbon monoxide detector in the Westy.

Chris.

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
Of Michael Sheridan
Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2001 9:36 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Power Cat versus Buddy Heater

Dear Friends

I've read the archives, done a lot of additional reading and am now trying
to decide between getting the Coleman's Power Cat heater or Mr. Heater's
Buddy Heater.

The Power Cat is 3000btu with fan, the Buddy heater is up to 9000btu with
no fan.

I am interested in anyone's experience with these two heaters.  Do you
think the fan does more than the xtra BTUs?

The additional benefit of the Buddy Heater is that it can be connected to
the Vanagon propane tank.  Does anyone have experience with actually doing
this?

I live in the Northeast, USA, and expect typical camping temps to be in the
teens.

Thanks for your input and Happy New Year,
Michael