Cheap Mr. Heater MH18B, Portable Propane Heater

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List Price: $214.88
Sale Price: $122.76
Today's Bonus: 43% Off

I was concerned when I purchased this unit. There are a number of highly negative reviews on it. However, on further research, I have discovered that the circumstances leading to those reviews could have been avoided.

When one uses this heater with a 20 lb propane bottle & accessory hose, it is imperative that you always shut the tank off first & let the heater run until it burns off all the fuel in the lines.

*** IT IS IMPERATIVE TO FOLLOW THIS PROCEDURE ***

If one simply turns the heater knob to the off position, it will trap trap 100 PSI of propane in the accessory hose. When high pressure propane sits in the rubber hose, it will chemically react with the rubber and leetch a light oil. The oil will build up and quickly work its way into the heater, clogging both the regulator & control valve.

Another very important recommendation is to purchase the gas line filter. This will catch the oily residue and protect the combustion components of the heater should one forget to follow the precautions above.

Keeping these precautions in mind, one will be able to enjoy a very well-build and flexible-use portable heater.

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I don't agree with some of the reviews. I don't see that it's a fire hazard at all. My Big Buddy was delivered last week. Here's what I found:

My elevation in Virginia, About 800 feet

Ambient temperature, 72.8 (in my house). Outside temp 29.0

1. Running on high on ONE Disposable Cylinder caused unit shutdown after 50 minutes. (Pilot started to flicker, cut out and then gas shut down). Single bottle was covered with ice (I assume that's bad...)

2. Running on TWO Disposable Cylinders got me the balance of three hours smoothly and well.

3. No fumes observed at all. Some moisture, but cracking the window an inch kept it under control.

4. A lot of heat. Too much for my wood floor. I had to put it on my brick mantle. This might scorch tile.

5. It kept my upstairs (1000 square feet) at 72.5. Only a loss of 0.3 degrees over three hours. Better than expected.

Suggestion: If you are trying to run on high with disposables, use two of them. This is not in the manual.

I don't know how it works with tanks, or whether you need to feed one or both inputs.

My unit did not come with the AC adapter. The batteries work.

If you bump it gently, it shuts off.

Conclusion:

For 139 bucks, it fits the bill well enough. It appears to be very well made, but the safety features make it tempermental. For my use as an emergency heat source, it's adequate.

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I've been fumbling, stumbling, and bumbling along trying to obtain the "right" combination of MR HEATER items to allow me to use their BIG BUDDY product. I strongly suggest that you decide on which heater you want, then go to and pull up the web page for that heater. Find the FAQ section for that heater. Read through the "problems" very closely. You will find there are valid reasons for those problems to occur. MR HEATER explains and provides solutions to those problems in the FAQ. One thing, in my humble opinion, is missing in the descriptions ~ If you are using larger than 20-lb tanks, you may need a "regulator" to control the pressure from the tank to your heater or other small appliance. Check with MR HEATER Tech Support before you run into problems. Be patient and be very clear about your setup. Everyone I have contacted has been very helpful and responsive to my questions. MR HEATER also provides information on the SAFETY RECALL situation with a possible solution on what to do with replacing a faulty heater.

Honest reviews on Mr. Heater MH18B, Portable Propane Heater

My heavily retro-insulated 1920 NH colonial is heated with base-board heat supplied by an oil fired water boiler. Living alone now, and seeing oil prices exceeding $4.25/gallon this summer, I decided to get creative with space heaters. After a lot of research, I bought a Big Buddy for my downstairs 12x24 office and a Delonghi TRD0715T oil-filled radiator for my upstairs, 12x12 bedroom. Both have proven to be excellent choices.

To fire my Big Buddy, I drilled a small hole in the wall to the outside, just large enough to sneak the 12' regulated propane hose (accessory) outside and into a barbeque grill size propane tank. I built a little, enclosed stand for the propane tank so I could reach out a window to turn it off and on rather than have to go outside to do it. I've been keeping the rest of the downstairs at 50 degrees as I don't use the other rooms except to walk through to get to my office. In the morning, I fire my Big Buddy up to the max 18,000 btu and in 20 minutes the room is at 60 degrees. Then I turn the heater down to 9,000 btu for a half hour or so until the room is up to 65 degrees, then down to 4,000 btu until the room is at 70 degrees, and for the rest of the day I vary between 4,000 btu and just a pilot light. At a local propane dealer, I can get a 20 lb. barbeque tank filled for $10. I keep two barbeque tanks, so when one runs out of propane, I have another ready to go. So far I go through a tank about every 10 days. No mess, no fumes, no headaches, no problems. Between this heater and the excellent Delonghi heater in my bedroom, I have so far used 1/8 tank of heating oil since August, where I would otherwise by now have used more near 3/4 of my 275 gallon oil tank. Even as heating oil has dropped considerably in price since August, that's still a huge savings.

One downside of my Big Buddy is the installed fan is not only noisy but pretty useless. To compensate for this, I have a six inch fan propped up behind and toward the top of the heater to blow the rising heat around the room. My Big Buddy isn't thermostat controlled, but who cares? When the room is up to the temperature I want, I get up out of my chair once every couple hours or so and turn the heat control up or down, and for that minor inconvenience I save a small fortune on heating oil.

If you buy the Big Buddy, be sure to turn off your propane source and let your Big Buddy pilot light go out before you turn off the unit. Otherwise, enjoy the relatively inexpensive heat from this excellent powerhouse.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Mr. Heater MH18B, Portable Propane Heater

Here's what you should know BEFORE you buy this thing. It is inefficient, expensive, and environmentally lousy with 1 lb disposable cylinders. If you are planning to use a 20lb propane tank, be aware that you can only get near the 220 hour (at low) performance by using 2 tanks. The heater has 2 regulators, 2 heating tiles, and 2 connections. At low and medium settings you will only use one of the `tiles'. On high, both tiles will burn brightly. The fan is noisy and sucks down D cell batteries, but really doesn't move much air. There is also the AC adapter option: Radio Shack sells it for about 18-20$. Mr. Heater Customer Service can provide the part numbers but cannot sell you the item. When you talk with them, you might as well order the fuel filters ($9.95 each) that you will need if you use 20 pound tanks. For 2 tanks, order 2 filters. The filters are a (moisture/impurity) trap that prevents the tiny holes in the heating tiles from filling up with junk. Propane may be equal at creation, but one never knows how it has been stored. Use the filters. If you use 20 lb tanks, you will also need hoses. Mr. Heater makes them in 5 and 12 foot lengths. Amazon seems to have the best price on these. You should expect to spend $100-$150 above the price of the heater for hoses, tanks, filters, AC adapter.

Feeding the rumor mill: There was a Consumer Product Safety Commission Recall of this item during the Winter 04/05. It impacted all heaters sold prior to about January 10, 2005. The problem concerned a potential malfunction of the regulator/control valve assemblies. My first heater was affected by the recall. I had no use of it for the winter of 04/05. My second heater works just fine.

Amazon Customer Service: EXTREMELY POOR as it relates to this purchase. I purchased my heater days before the recall was announced. Amazon refused to accept my return of this item even though it had not been used. They also took down product reviews alerting customers to the recall (and potential safety hazard) of this item. After numerous polite but fruitless conversations, I contacted the President of Amazon with my complaint. He has chosen to ignore it. I would probably buy this heater again despite the problems. I would never buy anything from Amazon again because of the problems.

Variations of this review have been deleted by Amazon 4 times.