Worried About Heater/Blankets

[barryra]

The last few nights we needed to turn the heater on & the blankets get close or touch the heater. I fall half asleep & wake up panicked that we are on fire. Should this be a concern or will it be fine as long as there's no flame touching the blankets.... just heat? Thanks

[Casita Greg]

Do not discount the effects of radiant heat. Even without direct flame impingement, anything combustible can eventually reach its ignition temperature. It is a very real concern, and could be deadly. Ever sit too close to a campfire and have your shoes start to smoke? As a retired Fire Marshal, I have had the misfortune of investigating many fires caused by a variety of heating appliances, some of them fatality fires. In general, the point of origin in just about all of them involved combustible materials too close to those heaters. You are correct to be concerned. Happy camping and stay safe.

[Steve Outlaw]

If the heater can get hot enough to make the blanket (or any nearby combustible substance) reach its kindling point it will catch on fire.

[Rob V]

We don't use our Little Buddy heater at night, but rather use the latest in technology, blankets. In mid March we awoke at the Illipah Reservoir Campground on US 50 in NV. It was 22°F in our Compact 2, and 16°F outside. Even our 5 month old Kitty was under the covers, and we were all warm as toast.

[floyd]

you don't say whether you have a little space heater or an original equipment furnace.
the latter has redundant safety features. read the operators manual to both educate yourself and put your mind at ease.

ours has a couple of plastic refrigerator magnets stuck to the grille which have survived many years without any ill effects.

[Byron Kinnaman]

I have the original Suburban furnace in my 2005 Scamp. I had some of the same concerns so I did a test with a calibrated temperature probe. I could not find any temperatures close to ignition temperatures at or near the grill. When I probed the upper right hand corner behind the grill one spot was closer, but still not at ignition temperatures. It's been quite a while ago so I don't remember the actual temperature or the published ignition temperatures of paper or other materials. It did relieve my concerns and the furnace runs many nights, some timee a nylon covering on a sleeping bag against the edge of the grill.

If you're concerned you can do a simple hand test, if you can touch it with your hand it's below ignition temperature. I do remember one temperature, 140°F is approximately the point where flesh will burn.

[Scouter Dave]

This was always a concern for me so I built a barrier.
If you are familiar with single, lower beds on board ship you may know that the mattress is usually kept in place by side boards. The outer board has a cut away so that you can set your arse on the edge of the bed without having a board under the back of your thighs.
The board is 10 inches high [you can make it higher] , at least a foot wider than the opening, full height for 24 inches on one end and 10 inches at the other. Cut-away is about 24 inches wide and cut down to just below mattress top level. Round out the cut-away, do not make right angles. Many years ago I had a piece of asbestos bolted to the furnace end but that stuff is hard to find nowadays.
On my Trillium 4500 I wedge the board between the cushions and the sides of the closet and counter, six inches on either side. It stores under the cushions when not in use. I am building a new one right now and when it is finished I will post a picture.
I hope this helps. Scouter Dave.

[honda03842]

Autoignition temperature - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[David Tilston]

It is my understanding that gravity furnaces are no longer available because of concerns about surface temperature.

[John Linck]

From Norm's link - Paper will ignight at 400 degrees. Forced air camper furnaces will never reach this temperature at the grill. I will check mine with an IR thermometer next trip but I will be surprised if the Suburban's grill gets to 200 degrees. I'm sure the Suburban engineers and lawyers have considered this.

OTOH, Other types of camper heaters (radiant) may be far higher in surface temps.

We use a down quilt overnight and the furnace is off unless outside temps fall below 40 - which is not infrequent.

I sleep worry free but do make sure the smoke alarm has fresh batteries.

John

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by John Linck

From Norm's link - Paper will ignight at 400 degrees. Forced air camper furnaces will never reach this temperature at the grill. I will check mine with an IR thermometer next trip but I will be surprised if the Suburban's grill gets to 200 degrees. I'm sure the Suburban engineers and lawyers have considered this.

OTOH, Other types of camper heaters (radiant) may be far higher in surface temps.

We use a down quilt overnight and the furnace is off unless outside temps fall below 40 - which is not infrequent.

I sleep worry free but do make sure the smoke alarm has fresh batteries.

John

John some precautions about inexpensive IR thermometers. They work pretty good when the air temperature is 72°F. Away from that the accuracy drops off quite a bit.

When I measured the temperatures around by furnace I use a contact probe and air probe that had recently been calibrated.

You're right about the temperature of the grill below 200°F, I believe the hottest temperature I measures was about 135°F. Not quite hot enough to burn flesh, uncomfortable to keep a finger on for very long.

[John Linck]

Originally Posted by Byron Kinnaman

John some precautions about inexpensive IR thermometers. They work pretty good when the air temperature is 72°F. Away from that the accuracy drops off quite a bit.

When I measured the temperatures around by furnace I use a contact probe and air probe that had recently been calibrated.

Byron. You probably don't realize that I invested huge amounts of time (about 5 minutes) in online product research and a massive number of dollars ( $19.95) when I purchased my IR thermometer. It's made by some famous Asian brand, that I can't pronounce. Therefore it's accuracy is no doubt terrific. Right?

Thanks for your always sensible posts.

John

[Bob Miller]

Originally Posted by John Linck

Byron. You probably don't realize that I invested huge amounts of time (about 5 minutes) in online product research and a massive number of dollars ( $19.95) when I purchased my IR thermometer. It's made by some famous Asian brand, that I can't pronounce. Therefore it's accuracy is no doubt terrific. Right?

Thanks for your always sensible posts.

John

Hmmmmm.... That sounds a lot like the one that I saw in the Dollar Store last week.... made by that famous Mfg. Laka Monee.... LOL

[Roger C H]

Fahrenheit 451.

We use an oil heater which does not have any hot coils exposed to the environment like almost all other heaters. It is virtually silent, also.

[Bob Miller]

Yep, those oil heaters are the best..... I have a couple at my house as well as one that we used in the Lil'Bigfoot.
But size can be a problem for storage.
When not being used we would wrap it in a blanket and just lay it on it's side in the hottub. LOL

[floyd]

When we have shore power, and need heat, we use the heat strip in the A/C. The blankets never get near it!

I carry around 8-16 gallons of gasoline, pump it through lines which run close to hot exhaust then explode it less than two feet from my legs, while traveling over a mile-a-minute down the road with other vehicles whizzing past in the other direction just three or four feet away!
All this modern technology sounds dangerous , then you hear how Great Uncle Clem got kicked in the head by a mule and died as a result!

[WaltP]

The ducted furnace in my Bigfoot has no surfaces exposed in the cabin, unlike my previous Casitas and Parkliner. If shore power is available, I've always preferred to use my small ceramic heater, because it's so much quieter, but when boondocking would use the furnace only before going to bed and just before getting up in cold weather. Otherwise I just rely on fleece blankets(1,...2,...3) to stay toasty overnight.

Walt


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[Casita Greg]

In my original post I assumed that they were using a portable space heater. If it is a portable space heater, then what I said holds true. If it is indeed an installed RV furnace, then you are probably safe from creating a hot enough surface to reach ignition temperature.

Incidentally, the ignition temperature for paper is actually 451 degrees F, and also served as the name of the old Ray Bradberry Sci-Fi movie (the one where the fire trucks actually went around burning up piles of books,) which was appropriately named "Farenheit 451". Just a little bit of trivia...

[dbir]

The gravity furnace in my trillium has extremely high surface temperatures and its location relative to the bed is less than ideal. I'm more comfortable running a space heater that swings side to side and has a much better thermostat built in.

[WaltP]

I guess I don't know what a gravity furnace is. I gather it's not the propane furnace commonly used in RVs these days.

Walt