On Sun, 23 May 2004, Robert Keezer wrote:

>  Gee- why is this?  A gas heater is like an engine
>  without pistons- and it uses way less gas than your
>  engine.

Or, alternatively, it's a lot like a home oil furnace except that it burns
gasoline instead. ;)

I used to have a Stewart Warner South Wind gas heater in my '75 bus --
which, incidentally, has fewer safety features than the BA-6.  I never had
a problem with it, and the instant heat in cold weather was wonderful.  I
realize there's a superstition that these things are potential bombs, but
that's just not true.  The fire is all contained in a combustion chamber,
the chamber is exhausted to the outside, and the combustion stops as soon
as the fuel solenoid cuts off.  There are safety switches to prevent
overheating and (on the BA-6) excessive fuel build-up.

I've never heard any horror stories about these heaters.  The worst I've
heard of was a heat exchanger failure that caused exhaust smoke from the
heater to blow into the cabin.

David Brodbeck, N8SRE
'86 Volvo 240DL wagon
'82 VW Vanagon Westfalia Diesel