Ok let’s talk heaters:
My wife and I are in the planning stages of a full rebuild on a 2002 Falcon. From the factory, it was optioned with an Atwood Hydroflame 16000 BTU forced air furnace. Why on earth was 16000BTU necessary? Total square footage is only about 52 square feet and total volume with our increased pop up height will be under 260 cubic feet. That many BTU’s would be enough for a mid sized travel trailer...
Anyways, we are thinking that heater technology and efficiency HAS to be better now than 18 years ago, so we are looking to use a new heating system. We will be living out of the camper for about 3 months at a time and seeing all weather conditions in varying regions and altitudes. We have settled on using a propane heater to keep the camper operating on a single fuel source along with our two burner stove. We aren’t keen on a diesel heater.
Right now we have three contenders.
1. Dometic DFSD16 forced air furnace. This is basically an updated version of our existing installation. 16k BTU
2. Camco Olympian Wave 3/6/8 catalytic heater. Still undecided on the size. 3k, 6k, and 8k BTU’s respectively.
3. Propex HS2000 blown air heater. 6483 BTU. Many vanlife folks have used these heaters successfully.
I know these three heaters have some slightly different operating principles with forced air vs catalytic. Obviously there are advantages and disadvantages to both. Can anyone provide some insight, advice, or real world experience with using these heaters? For those with factory heaters, are you happy with their performance, efficiency, and noise? Is the Propex better than factory? Are the Camco catalytics worth the sacrifice of no thermostat control as well as safety consideration and ventilation requirements?
Really just looking for some real world experience from those that have installed and used before. A cut sheet from the manufacturer only tells so much. Thank you in advance!
My wife and I are in the planning stages of a full rebuild on a 2002 Falcon. From the factory, it was optioned with an Atwood Hydroflame 16000 BTU forced air furnace. Why on earth was 16000BTU necessary? Total square footage is only about 52 square feet and total volume with our increased pop up height will be under 260 cubic feet. That many BTU’s would be enough for a mid sized travel trailer...
Anyways, we are thinking that heater technology and efficiency HAS to be better now than 18 years ago, so we are looking to use a new heating system. We will be living out of the camper for about 3 months at a time and seeing all weather conditions in varying regions and altitudes. We have settled on using a propane heater to keep the camper operating on a single fuel source along with our two burner stove. We aren’t keen on a diesel heater.
Right now we have three contenders.
1. Dometic DFSD16 forced air furnace. This is basically an updated version of our existing installation. 16k BTU
2. Camco Olympian Wave 3/6/8 catalytic heater. Still undecided on the size. 3k, 6k, and 8k BTU’s respectively.
3. Propex HS2000 blown air heater. 6483 BTU. Many vanlife folks have used these heaters successfully.
I know these three heaters have some slightly different operating principles with forced air vs catalytic. Obviously there are advantages and disadvantages to both. Can anyone provide some insight, advice, or real world experience with using these heaters? For those with factory heaters, are you happy with their performance, efficiency, and noise? Is the Propex better than factory? Are the Camco catalytics worth the sacrifice of no thermostat control as well as safety consideration and ventilation requirements?
Really just looking for some real world experience from those that have installed and used before. A cut sheet from the manufacturer only tells so much. Thank you in advance!