Camco Olympian Catalyst heaters vs Mr Buddy

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by kootenaigirl

Lisa, just a note on the noise of the furnaces. If you are at all sensitive to noise I find them incredibly noisy. Durng the day you deal with it but overnight it makes us all jump up including the dog! I think partly its because of them going on and off repeatedly and also that you are in a really small space to start with.

LOL thats so true! But I have found over time, those who sleep in my trailer have actually gotten accustom to it and no longer jump or if they do its only the first time it kicks in of the first night out that they do. Having said that though its a rare occasion (mostly late fall and winter camping) that I need to leave the furnace on during the whole night - find turning it on just before going to bed and then again just before getting up in the mornings works well enough.

[Mike Magee]

RV furnaces wake me up every time they come on. The catalytic heater makes virtually no sound and puts out an even, consistent amount of heat the entire time it's on.

The RV furnace is safer. And it can be set to a temperature (within a few degrees variation between off and on cycles), whereas most catalytic heaters have no temp adjustment or thermostat... about all you can do if it gets too warm is open a window or turn off the cat.

Pluses and minuses go both ways.

[Christian in FL]

Thanks for your input everyone. I greatly appreciate the shared experiences and the oops. I much prefer learning from others mistakes instead of my own. LOL

Sent from my C6530N using Fiberglass RV mobile app

[Johnny M]

Thanks everyone for the great replies and information, this gave me a lot more to consider than what I was previously thinking about. I am redesigning the layout of our 13' Boler by turning the front bunks 90 degrees and loosing the kitchen sink/stove/refrigerator/furnace area so that we can put a shower & toiler where the front bunks originally were. We could put a furnace under the bottom bunk about where it was originally in 71' but not sure if we want that LP furnace under our son's bunk so we are thinking of putting one on the curb side towards the bottom near the wheel well area so that we can still have a refrigerator above it (other than the refrigerator & maybe a microwave or toaster oven our kitchen will be an outside camp kitchen). As long as there is room for the vent there without interfering with the wheel well area the only other problem I have is how to run the LP line for it.