I had one of these too and I would say they don't quickly warm up the van.
I would maybe an hour and you would probably want to turn it down, but from
say 10 degrees to 55 seems like it took a while.  Someone jump in if your
experience was different, I never actually did any kind of measured
experiment but that is how I remember it.

I bought a hose and an external tank so it never ran out on me.  I would
have been satisfied but they don't work above about 8k feet which is where I
use on Colorado ski trips.

>From: Mark Tuovinen <mst@AK.NET>
>Reply-To: Mark Tuovinen <mst@AK.NET>
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Subject: Re: Coleman SportCat - Poor man's Propex?
>Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2007 12:03:22 -0900
>
>Mike do you have one of these?  if so how well does it work to quickly warm
>up the van and in what type of temperature/climate ranges?  I am in Alaska
>and looking for something that I can use to make my van a mobile warm up
>shack for when we are skiing, sledding, etc, without running the engine.
>
>Mark in AK
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Mike Rouby <mikerouby@YAHOO.COM>
>Date: Sunday, January 7, 2007 7:53 am
>Subject: Re: Coleman SportCat - Poor man's Propex?
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>
> > Here's my solution- Mr. Buddy Heater - see the link and pic for
> > details:
> > http://forum.80-90.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=14494
> >
> > Edward Maglott <emaglott@BUNCOMBE.MAIN.NC.US> wrote: Is that really
> > only 1500btu?  I have a couple unvented catalytic
> > heaters.  One is portable 7000 BTU, the other is meant to be
> > mounted and
> > plumbed in and is 3000btu.  the 3000 BTU one didn't put out enough
> > heat to
> > be worth much to me.  I do take the 7000btu one with me if I'm
> > going to be
> > camping off grid in winter.  It does warm you up.  As was said, it
> > heatspeople a lot more than air with its radiant heat.  It has only
> > onespeed.  On a recent trip i found that I wanted to turn it down
> > once I got
> > warm, but I just had to turn it off and wait until I got cold.  I
> > find that
> > opening the skylight an inch or so, and opening the vents in the front
> > doors gives a good air circulation to let the fumes/moisture out
> > withoutlosing too much heat.
> >
> > Edward
> >
> > At 09:06 PM 1/3/2007, Michael Diehr wrote:
> > >Santa left me a Coleman sportcat heater, the basic 1500btu
> > >model. :-)  Anyone use these while vanagon camping and care to share
> > >tips?   How long does it take to heat up a cold van in the morning?
> > >What sort of temperature differential can they handle before you
> > >drown in humidity or die of CO poisoning?   Would it be possible to
> > >mount one of these near the stove or fridge, and tie it into the
> > >van's LP system?  Might make a really cheap alternative to a built-in
> > >heater?
> >
> >
> > __________________________________________________
> > Do You Yahoo!?
> > Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> > http://mail.yahoo.com
> >

_________________________________________________________________
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