Mr Heater F274800 Portable "Big Buddy" Heater

The big buddy is basically useless with the small cylinders, since at full heat they quickly freeze-up and shut the unit off. With 20-lb cylinders it works good, but be aware that if used indoors, if the hose leaks, bye-bye house. I have used mine for two years in Connecticut winters with pretty good luck, however both regulators have now shut down and I will throw the unit away. The question is, at two years use at $150.00 is the heater worth it? Probably yes. The fuel filter is probably a necessity, since I think dirt probably killed the regulators.

I bought this heater a couple of weeks ago only to find out that they are about to do a recall and Mr. Heater advises that you don't use it. Mr. Heater customer service is horrible and they won't try to help you fix the problem, they're waiting until someone forces them to fix the problem. Mine only stays running for about 10 minutes and then goes out when using portable cylinders, as do 2 of my friends. Don't wait for Mr. Heater to help you as it will be too late, my suggestion is to return this cheap, shoddy piece of junk

You can't count on this Buddy to keep you warm! This heater has been a huge disapointment! If it is cold it will not run on one disposable or one 20lb tank. It keeps shutting down. Customer service has been terrible. You are lucky if they call you back a week later. First they told me I need to buy the filters which was very hard to find. They will not help this problem I can gaurantee. Then they told me to buy yet another $28 hose and hook both 20lb tanks up. That seemed to work but have not tested it in real cold weather. I use it to heat an ice fishing trailer in Minnesota and it gets cold here. I called them back and told them that idea sucks because I have to worry about always having two full 20lb tanks available otherwise it will shut down. They told me for all my hassle they would send me a quick connect hose for free and that would cure all of the problems of it shutting down because using the quick connect bypasses the 20lb of minimum pressure required to keep the safety valve open in the heater. I waited for two weeks and it never came. I called and they told me to stop using the heater because there is a safety concern and they wont know anymore untill Feb.1st. That is all they would tell me and they never sent the hose. I spent over $80 dollars in hoses and filters for this worthless heater you can definitely NOT count on to keep you warm. As far as the fire hazard talked about in other reviews it did act weird quite a few times with real small explosions. Avoid the headache and buy two of the small ones if you need the extra heat. I have never had a problem with the little buddy.

UPDATED REVIEW:
HEADLINE: CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISION ISSUES STOP USE ORDER FOR THIS ITEM. THE MANUFACTURER IS COOPERATING WITH THE CPSC BUT ALL USE OF THIS HEATER SHOULD STOP. CONTACT MR HEATER CUSTOMER SERVICE @ 800 251 0001. IF YOU KNOW ANY ONE WHO IS USING ONE OF THESE HEATERS ADVISE THEM TO STOP NOW. ENERCO EXPECTS A COMPLETE ADVISORY BY FEBRUARY 1, 2005.

I bought this heater a month ago to heat my garage 20x32 just over 600 sq ft well insulated. So far i have gone through about two 20# cylnders running the heat at least every night for 2-3 hours and on weekends 6-7 hours a day. The temp in the garage has never dropped below 35 deg, and from there it warms up to 50-55 degrees in about an hour running on high makes it warm enough to work. I have an ac adapter from radio shack pretty inexpensive less than $10.

All in all i would highly recommend the Big Buddy heater it works great with throw aways although you throw away more than empty cylnders compared to a 20# cylnder. I last bought a 40# cylnder, if that gets me through a month that is reasonable enough to get through the winter.