I fully agree with your safety concerns.? My father was so worried when I used a catalytic heater in his RV decades ago (parking lot of Bachelor Butte Ski area).? ?Years later he bought an Olympic Wave catalytic heater and has it installed in the entryway.??
Perhaps the only people who should camp off grid in cold climates with an RV and plan to use a catalytic heater should first ask around among their friends as to whether they are mentally competent and responsible enough to use such a heater.? You must follow the safety procedures in the owner's manual and open low and high windows (and/or vents).? You must also have a CO monitor as per the manual (and requoted in the article on how I installed it).
So I am not encouraging everyone to run out and get one of these.? There are a lot of people in the A-frame community who likely should NEVER think of operating such a heater.? But guess what, when a breeze is blowing toward the street side wall it can blow the CO gas from the refrigerator into the RV is it does not have a fan system operating while the propane refrigerator is in the cooling mode.? This has been known to happen and set off a CO alarm for one owner of an Aliner.
People should likely not cook inside the Aliner if there is no exhaust fan operating.? My Aliner did not come with such a fan.? Even with the (added 13-speed) fan going the alarm has on several occasions triggered with the fan on a lower setting exhausting the inside air.? There are many dangers associated with our Aliners, and other AFTs.??
So please don't rush out and get a catalytic heater is you don't feel comfortable with your ability to remember to always follow the owner's manual and provide at least the minimum recommended venting.? I always use about twice what is recommended and also my Aliner leaks a LOT of air everywhere.
The article was only written for those who are in my same situation, wanted one of these Olympian heaters for off-grid camping in cold climates, responsible with venting, and just needed to know how to plumb it into the existing propane system.
I would recommend people buy a small $18 propane/natural gas leak detector.? After bubble testing everything I then used it to determine absolutely no leakage is occurring.? I plan to always take it along to check for any leakage when installing the heater for a camping trip.
Two days ago I decided to check my entire Natural gas system in my home.? Everything inside and out was fine with no detected leaks anywhere except for one area where I had 15 years ago put an elbow brass connector to the outlet port for the dryer.? The leak detector when on the highest sensitivity position alarmed.? I could not find any bubbles with a soap test.
Way back then I used white teflon tape and it apparently degraded.? You could not smell any propane or detect any bubbles.? I removed the part, used the yellow teflon tape and a thin layer of yellow sealant, put everything back together and no leakage was detected anymore.? The leak had to be very minor around that tiny brass elbow fitting, however, with the leak detector I could find it and replace the white teflon with the yellow teflon and sealant used for propane and natural gas.
I camp in very high altitude off-grid locations in Northern California, and it gets COLD at night.? I camp at Tahoe, Sierra Buttes, Lassen, Yosemite, Grayeagle, etc.? It is very helpful to have some form of heating that does not drain the battery when I camp at these types of places for one to two weeks at a stretch.
Here is a picture of the plumbing someone did for one of these heaters to tap into the propane system.? I don't think he tested for leaks with a leak detector or used the proper teflon tape and yellow sealant.? You can see the corrosion that the leakage is causing.?
Brian Hovander