Propane heater preventive maintenance, lesson learned.

Last winter was a cold one here at the secret lair, Mk I. I was (still am, lazy ass) in rather improvised quarters and got my heat where I could. For part of the winter I heated the barn's scriptorium with a small Mr. Heater, scavenging a hose from my campstove and connecting it to a 20-lb propane bottle. At the time I didn't give any thought to the advisability of doing this; it could be done, so I just went ahead and did it without reflecting that I get into the biggest problems when I do that.

This fall, just prior to the first good cold snap, I dragged out the Mr. Heater and found that it didn't work at all. Didn't even try; didn't behave as if propane or heat were in any way connected with its function of being a large, clumsy paperweight. Oh, dear.

A (very) little belated research pointed out the reason for this. In fact, it's right in the instructions which I didn't have but could have easily downloaded. It seems that the oil to be found in any propane bottle other than the little 1-lb "You won't get through the night with this" camping bottles chingers up the works of a Mr. Heater in fairly short order. Once it's had time to congeal nicely over the warm season, you're done.

So in connecting one of these handy space heaters to a remote propane bottle, you need more than the dedicated hose. You also need one of these filters. Learn from my expensive mistake.