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We use it a night and in the early morning to warm the tent for our young son.  Hence my previous question.  I want a thermostatic one that works as I won't leave it on all night full blast.

The ones I have tried just keep heating the tent to about 25 degrees and beyond

Bear in mind as well that it is a trailer tent with the cabin door zipped up and lined curtains and roof linings etc so it is a lot warmer than a polyester tunnel for example

No, I don't leave the heater on whilst in bed in my tent just as I dont leave my central heating on at home when in bed. The heater is there just to take the chill off the tent at night when sitting reading or whatever. It goes off when asleep because there's no need to keep it on if your bedding is good enough and also I wouldn't feel happy with it running all that time without supervision. By the way, my electric consumption is far less when camping than it would be if I'd stayed at home.

Helen

Quote: Originally posted by vti2007 on 29/3/2010

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Without meaning to hijack this thread has anyone got a fan heater with a thermostat that actually works.

We are on our third one and it still doesn't work properly. Just keeps heating until you wake up cooked!!

Any recommendations gratefully recieved!

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I have a 2400w fan heater (not for camping) purchased from Argos and the thermostat doesn't seem to work at all. I use it for quick heating at home

I bought a 2000w fan heater (for camping) from Homebase...a cheap one £9.99 or something and the thermostat works properly at home. I have not tried it camping yet. It is the type that stands upright with a cut-out switch on the base. It is much quieter than the 2400w one as well.

The way to operate the thermostat (just in case some people may be doing it wrongly) is to have the heater on full with the thermostat on full. Then when the room is the desired temperature slowly turn the thermostat knob back until the heater just cuts out. In theory the heater should then switch back on when the room drops below that temperature.

Quote: Originally posted by xtinexoop on 29/3/2010

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People with fan heaters - do you use them when you go to bed? If so do you take them into the inner with you, or just continue to heat the air in the tent outside the inner (iyswim)? Curious to this because I do hate the idea of running a heater in a tent all night - its a bit like King Canute trying to keep back the tide, and I would think if you ran it in the inner you would boil?

My main gripe is that its not good practice long term from an environmental point of view, which I would have hoped most campers would be more concerned about than the average 'man in the street' as we like getting back to nature?

or is it just a cheap holiday and really you'd rather be in a centrally heated hotel room, but camping is cheaper?

I take exception to the view that its no-one elses business - if people are running heaters all night then they are using the planets resources in a very inefficient way and increasing the cost of electricity to the campsite owner who will inturn recoup that cost from your fellow campers, who incidentally may not want to listen to your fan heater droning all night!

I can see that its a 'nice to have' so that you can enjoy a slightly longer season and sit in the evening/early morning and read or whatever, its the running it all night when in theory you should be in a suitably warm sleeping bag that seems wasteful.

Christine

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I have only just bought a fan heater for camping and not used it yet. Previously I had a convector heater which I only bought last November so that I could extend my camping into the winter months. I think I have used it on 3 or 4 trips.

The tent I used it with initially didn't have a SIG so it would obviously be a total waste of time trying to heat the living area of that with a cold draught billowing under the flysheet, so to answer your question...yes I took it into the inner with me and had it on thermostat on low heat all night. You don't boil because you set the thermostat to kick in only when it gets brass monkeys.

From an environmental point of view if I was home my electric storage heaters would be switched on all night on economy 7 as would my emersion heater (on thermostat) so I think by going camping and using just one small heater I am doing my bit to save the world. Of course, I could dispense with the heater and risk dying of hyperthermia which would save the government having to pay me a pension but then I have already paid for my pension so I would at least like some of it back before I pop my clogs...but yes...if I could afford a centrally heated hotel room every weekend I would prefer that.

Incidentally, I can't afford several sleeping bags for all seasons and all temperatures and there is not much point buying an arctic one then sweating all summer, so I have a good general purpose one which seems to keep me warm most of the year and a heater for when it doesn't...nice when you need to get up in the night too which as you get older you need to do more often (or so they tell me)...and if anyone can hear a neighbours fan heater droning all night they are pitched too close! I've never heard somebody elses yet, and I snore anyway so that would drown out any noise from a fan heater.  

Quote: Originally posted by xtinexoop on 29/3/2010

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or is it just a cheap holiday and really you'd rather be in a centrally heated hotel room, but camping is cheaper?

Interesting question:  well?

For myself, I stay in hotels with my other half because she "doesn't "do" camping and have come to quite enjoy it but I like my camping (which I enjoy much more than hotels) to be like camping which for me, precludes heaters!

Take care

R

Take care

R