Mr Heater MH18B Portable "Big Buddy" Heater
by Mr. Heater
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Mr Heater MH18B Portable "Big Buddy" Heater
Customer Review: Not bad, but need to work on assembly quality
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this unit to heat my 480 sq/ft insulated garage with 10ft ceilings so that I could work on my car during the winter. Technically the unit might be a little undersized for such a space, but then again I'm not looking for 70 degrees, just to get it bearable. I bought the unit with the quick connect low pressure hose to connect to a 20lb LP tank.
Setting up the unit is very easy, especially with the quick connect. It takes a minute or two to purge the air out of the lines, after that the ignition should be able to light the pilot, which it did. Unfortunately, despite holding the pilot down for over a minute to make sure the thermocouple was up to temperature, the pilot would immediately go out. I figured the thermocouple was working, so by process of elimination I determined that the tilt switch was either bad or disconnected.
To get to the tilt switch you have to completely disassemble the unit. Start by removing the 4 screws from the back cover, push the cover straight up to disconnect the hooks at the top and then pop it off. Remove the 3 screws securing the back of the handle. Remove the screw holding the handle to the left side piece (looking from the back), remove the left screw holding the metal face, remove the left screw holding the 2 plastic pieces together, remove the left screw holding the bottom of the metal face to the plastic side. The side piece will them rotate off from back to front. From there you should have clear access to the tilt switch, which I could immediately see was disconnected. An attempt had been made to hold it with silicon from the factory, but the silicon was not correctly applied or not given time to set. Reconnected the switch and did a test lighting in the partially disassembled state and all was good. Shut the unit off before it gets warm and reassemble.
Now that my unit was actually working I could fire it up and put it to the test. It throws off a good amount of radiant heat on high, you don't want to stand too close for too long. It got my garage that was around 40 degrees up to around 60 degrees in about an hour on a 25 degree day. I'm happy with that performance. I'm running the fan with batteries for now, but will probably get an AC adapter.
Customer Review: Good short-term supplemental heat. Less good long term.
Summary: 4 Stars
This Winter, WHEN the main heat goes down (it happens several times each year) I will be grabbing this heater first, as opposed to my big Kerosun Omni. Here's why:
1. The Mr. Heater Big Buddy (MHBB) weighs less than 1/2 what the Kerosun Omni (KO) does. It is also a lot less bulky. So while both are portable, technically speaking, the MHBB FEELS a whole lot more portable than the KO, which can be pretty awkward to move around.
2. The MHBB also lights a lot more easily than the KO, particularly since the Auto-Ignite coil on the KO keeps going bad, needing replacement. This necessitates that you use a BBQ style butane lighter. There is a lot of stooping and crawling around involved.
3. Properly maintained neither the KO or MHBB has much of a smell while burning. But the KO stinks on initial startup and especially when burning out. As a matter of fact, I won't light OR shut the KO down anywhere in my living space because of the smell. By comparison, the hint of fumes from the MHBB is nothing.
4. The MHBB gets to its maximum heating temperature pretty quick. The big KO gets hotter but you have got to wait a while for it to get going.
5. The MHBB has three easily adjustable heat settings, whereas for all intents & purposes the KO is either "On" or "Off".
6. Last but not least, Kerosene is a mess and if you spill even a few drops it stinks. The portable butane tanks that the MHBB uses are a whole lot less trouble.
However - and it is for this reason I rate the MHBB as four stars rather than five - the MHBB is not so good as the big KO for a long term heating solution. If the lights aren't on again once I have burned off a pair of the 1 Lb propane bottles, the big KO is the way to go:
1. The big KO puts out more heat and has never failed to keep my well insulated split level ranch warm.
2. It is a lot cheaper to heat with the KO than with the propane fuel. Two of the 1 Lb bottles will run the heater on high for about 3 hours, no more. If you buy the Mr. Heater accessory adapter to refill the 1 lb. tanks you can save some money but you will still pay more than using Kerosene.
Customer Review: Small and Lightweight
Summary: 5 Stars
I was half expecting this heater to be larger and heavier than it is. However, I was surprised with how light it is even with two 1 pound tanks attached. The fan is a nice feature but it has only one setting, and to me its a little slow. Note the fan blows air out the top not through the burners themselves. If you want to power your fan from an outlet you will need to buy and adaptor. The heater itself is great on the output. If you run it on low (medium if your pushing it) the 1 pound tanks should be fine. However if you run it on high, I would recommend a 20 pound tank. It will burn through a one pounder very quickly, and cost you a bundle unless you refill them. On Low and Medium the left heating element operates. On high the right element turns on.
Now on to hoses. If your going to attach the heater to a tank larger than the one pounders, and many people do, you will need to use a rubber hose. You have a few choices at this point. First buy a rubber hose with a filter, second buy a hose with a regulator, or third buy a green hose. The first choice is by far the most common. You attach the hose to the fuel tank then to the filter and finally the filter to the heater, in that order. The traditional rubber hoses produce an oily substance when under pressure that can gum up the heater. Hence the filter is needed to catch that stuff. Remember to replace your filter annually, especially if you use the heater a lot. The second uses a regulator that is attached to the tank then to the hose and finally the hose to the heater, in this case via the quick connect on the left side. Because a regulator is used, the hose is not subject to the pressures that option one is and wont produce the oily substance, hence no filter. The final one is the newest, the green hose. It so new I really can't give insight into it. From what it is described the hose is made without the chemicals that produce the oily substance in option one. This however causes it to be a lot stiffer than the traditional hoses, especially in colder weather. This option does not need a filter or regulator to use.
Will try to post pictures of the heater when able.
Customer Review: Exactly what I wanted and more
Summary: 5 Stars
Bought my Big Buddy just over a year ago mainly for emergency heat in case of power outages during our extremely cold winters here in the upper plains. Fortunately I haven't had to use it for that purpose. In the past week I have used it twice in the garage, once when putting together a new table saw and again on Thanksgiving morning when I was smoking a turkey and deep frying another one. Set my cookers up OUTSIDE the garage door(a SAFE distance away) in order to monitor them through the garage door window(out of the wind). Set the BB up inside, attached to a 20lb tank with the 12 ft hose with regulator and cranked it up. The garage is an old detached two car unit with a large attic space and is neither airtight or insulated. I didn't expect the BB to heat the entire space and it didn't. I place it facing my monitoring position about 5 ft away and turned on the fan. It put out plenty of heat and kept me very comfortable despite the low single digit ambient air temperatures outside. I ran it for 6 hours. It wasn't nearly as cold when I assembled the saw. I started out using a single 1 lb tank and it worked just as well, while it lasted (about an hour). That's when I hooked it up to the 20 lb tank and continued the assembly. I am planning on getting the AC to DC converter for use in the garage, but the fan is still running well on the used batteries I first put in it.
Because of these "test" runs, I am extremely confident that BB will perform well when put to emergency use. I'll keep a couple of 1 lb tanks on hand, but I'll also be able to place the 20 lb tank (I keep 2 filled ones on hand)on the porch (safety again) and run the hose inside to the BB and keep our closed off LR, DR and kitchen tolerable. I wouldn't recommend testing the low oxygen shutoff feature, so be sure to crack a window an inch or two (I'm still thinking safety here folks).
As for which hose, filter, connectors, etc. work together, that has already been well covered. It would be a HUGE help if Mr. Heater could lay it all out concisely on their website. I did spend many hours researching this before I figured it out.
Customer Review: Great heater
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this heater for tent camping. It puts out a ton of heat. When it was about 40 degrees out, I used this heater on low and I had to partially unzip the windows and door of my three person tent in order to stay comfortable. Even then, I was only half covered by a blanket. I bought the Big Buddy in anticipation of using a big tent in the future. I'll update this when I get to try the heater in the bigger tent.
If I remember correctly, the heater will last about 1 and 1/3 nights on low with two 1 pound bottles. Keep that in mind so you don't end up waking up freezing like I did. Don't try using one full bottle and a bottle you've used for one night either - you'll still wake up cold! I also bought the hose with a built in regulator so I can use big tanks. I should get to try it out in a couple of months.
This is a great heater that puts out tons of heat. Keep an eye on the price. I bought it for $110 off here last year.
UPDATE:
I have since used this heater in the Coleman 8 person instant tent (amazing tent) along with the extension hose for using a big tank. The temperatures at night got slightly below freezing, and I was pretty comfortable with the heater on high with a couple blankets over me.
One issue I experienced was the heater flickering out. This could have been two problems. At first, I kept the large propane tank outside my tent. The cold could have made the regulator stick, or so I have been told. Another explanation could be that the low oxygen sensor could have been kicking in, since I had the heater on high.
Next time I will try using the fan. It just seems like a waste of batteries to me, but I figure I should give it a try.