The Best Portable Propane Heater I Ever Found

[nomad297]

I have tried all sorts of portable propane heaters for camping, work and home. Some were good, some were ok and some just sucked.

I have finally found what I believe to be the best portable propane heater ever for all of my purposes. It is the DeWALT DXH70CFAV.



https://www.dewalt.com/products/stor...ater/dxh70cfav

This thing connects to a propane bottle/tank and the fan is powered with either a battery or 120VAC — your choice. It’s odd, though, that DeWALT does not brag about this hybrid form of power source on their website — they only mention that it is cordless — but on the back of the unit are two prongs to connect a power cord to. It will blow out up to 68,000 Btu/hr and is adjustable down to 27,000 Btu/hr. You can do the math on how long it will last on a bottle of propane, but it’s a long time. A 20lb bottle of propane contains 432,804 BTU.

Since DeWALT doesn’t show any specs for the 120VAC power source or even indicate it as an option, here is a picture of the tag on my heater:



The warning does state that it is not for home or recreational vehicle use, so that needs to be taken into consideration for how you use it. Common sense should prevail, though.

I have never seen mention of this heater here, so I thought I would share.

Bruce

[5picker]

My site neighbor last year had one of these that he used to heat his outdoor patio awning enclosure.

I too was amazed how well it worked.
Kudos to Dewalt.

[ppine]

Made for construction sites. Not good in a closed space.

[5picker]

Originally Posted by ppine

Made for construction sites. Not good in a closed space.

Not really.

This is a small heater that almost looked like a toy (photo deceiving) when I first seen it. Nowhere near the size of the larger salamander 'construction heaters.'

It did produce nice heat and was relatively quiet and made sitting in their patio enclosure quite comfortable.

[TitanMike]

How noisy is it? My Son used one similar to heat the garages he was installing new doors on and it was like working next to a jet engine being run up for tests.

[nomad297]

Originally Posted by TitanMike

How noisy is it? My Son used one similar to heat the garages he was installing new doors on and it was like working next to a jet engine being run up for tests.

It is quite quiet, but I don’t know what I should compare it to. I think my wife’s hair dryer is “noisier” and actually louder due to its high-pitched sound. The sound produced by this thing is a very low-pitched torch-sort of sound. At full blast with it right beside me and my friend, we were having a normal conversation without needing to speak louder. It is many, many times quieter than the standard salamander heaters I believe you are talking about and it produces enough heat to warm the top floor of an insulated 1,800 square foot barn with a cathedral ceiling to where it is comfortable working in a tee shirt when it is 28 degrees outside. This scenario is where I first saw this thing — it was in the upstairs church area of my Amish friends barn, running at about 1/2 throttle. Of course it was being powered by a battery since my friend has no electricity.

It is 17” long, 17” tall and weighs less than 10 pounds without a battery.

Bruce

[jwfrede]

Originally Posted by ppine

Made for construction sites. Not good in a closed space.

I have a kero/diesel version for heating my garage. It usually hangs around 35-40 or so as long as the low/high is in the 20/35 range or better. Two windows with a southern exposure help a lot. The heater is 80000 btu and will heat things up fast. I give it some time to heat up all the stuff to maybe 65, usually a couple of hours. Then open the garage door for just a minute to clear out the exhaust. Then I'm ready to do some painting, etc. Anything over about 25000 btu is considered not safe in a closed space, not sure of the size of that space requirement.

[Swampy]

Originally Posted by nomad297

I have tried all sorts of portable propane heaters for camping, work and home. Some were good, some were ok and some just sucked.

I have finally found what I believe to be the best portable propane heater ever for all of my purposes. It is the DeWALT DXH70CFAV.

Attachment 246461

https://www.dewalt.com/products/stor...ater/dxh70cfav

This thing connects to a propane bottle/tank and the fan is powered with either a battery or 120VAC — your choice. It’s odd, though, that DeWALT does not brag about this hybrid form of power source on their website — they only mention that it is cordless — but on the back of the unit are two prongs to connect a power cord to. It will blow out up to 68,000 Btu/hr and is adjustable down to 27,000 Btu/hr. You can do the math on how long it will last on a bottle of propane, but it’s a long time. A 20lb bottle of propane contains 432,804 BTU.

Since DeWALT doesn’t show any specs for the 120VAC power source or even indicate it as an option, here is a picture of the tag on my heater:

Attachment 246462

The warning does state that it is not for home or recreational vehicle use, so that needs to be taken into consideration for how you use it. Common sense should prevail, though.

I have never seen mention of this heater here, so I thought I would share.

Bruce

Looking at the label, it clearly states 120VAC 1Amp or 20VDC 0.6Amp that translates to 120Watts AC or 12Watts DC ... i suspect the difference is in the rectifier circuitry as a loss converting the 120V AC to 20V DC to drive the DC blower motor.

[robertrfletcher]

I went in search of the 20V heater and NO ONE has it in stock that I could find. Still looking.

[nomad297]

Originally Posted by robertrfletcher

I went in search of the 20V heater and NO ONE has it in stock that I could find. Still looking.

That’s the beauty of Amish hardware stores. You can find any brand of every type of battery-powered tool known to man in stock, and always for less money than you would pay anywhere else — even online or at Walmart. The other advantage is, the Amish hardware stores rule over the cordless tool vendors and will take anything back with no questions asked if they break or wear out. Even the batteries. The place where I bought my heater will take your old and dead tool battery, throw it in the pile with all of the other bad ones and just hand you a new battery. The tool vendors are so well controlled by the Amish that they take every one of those dead batteries and replace them with new ones.

Bruce

[gkehman]

And if they don't have electricity, How do they recharge the batteries?

[AlaskaErik]

Originally Posted by gkehman

And if they don't have electricity, How do they recharge the batteries?

Solar?

[nomad297]

Originally Posted by gkehman

And if they don't have electricity, How do they recharge the batteries?

The Amish are the Masters of solar power. Some even utilize wind and water, but not many. I have always told people if they want to learn about solar power, make friends with an Amish farmer.

Bruce

[TowPro]

Keep in mind when you burn 1 gallon of propane you will produce .81 gallons of water

[SLU2]

We installed a Mr Heater 18000 BTU propane heater on our porch(2012 FR Surveyor 311 trailer is stationary in a campground). It has no fan but kicks out the heat. With a adjustable thermostat that means it cycles and not constantly on, Works great on a cold day. Can be wall mounted or attach the feet to sit it on the floor. We wall mounted it. Works great, available at Amazon. Battery igniter and its vent less also....

[robertrfletcher]

Originally Posted by nomad297

That’s the beauty of Amish hardware stores. You can find any brand of every type of battery-powered tool known to man in stock, and always for less money than you would pay anywhere else — even online or at Walmart. The other advantage is, the Amish hardware stores rule over the cordless tool vendors and will take anything back with no questions asked if they break or wear out. Even the batteries. The place where I bought my heater will take your old and dead tool battery, throw it in the pile with all of the other bad ones and just hand you a new battery. The tool vendors are so well controlled by the Amish that they take every one of those dead batteries and replace them with new ones.

Bruce

Do you have a link Bruce ?

[nomad297]

Originally Posted by robertrfletcher

Do you have a link Bruce ?

I’m not laughing at you, but what you just asked for would be funny to anybody who is familiar with the Amish. Most of the Amish survive without needing to use the internet, and very few, if any of the Amish businesses in the area I frequent have a website. Some may have an “English” person setup a facebook page for them, but that’s about it. Phones are another thing. This hardware store does have a phone, but they only answer it (if they do answer it) during two different one-hour time-frames per business day, but they are usually returning voicemails during this time and don’t have time to answer. If you want to do business with them, you need to go there and you better bring cash or a checkbook (but they are in the process of getting permission from their Church to accept plastic). They will take a check from anybody, no matter where they are from because they have faith in all people (and they like money), but if that check turns out to be bad, be prepared for it to be put on display in this store (and most others) until it is made good.

As far as the use of technology and public utilities go with the Amish, it all depends on what the Bishop of their church allows them to do. Amish communities are broken-down into many different “districts” (with only a hundred or so) members each) which are their particular Churches, and an Amish Church is not a building — they have no church buildings like we are all familiar with. There can be dozens to hundreds of churches within one county alone. Church service is conducted every other Sunday at one of the Church Members’ homes — this is why my friend has such a large second floor on his barn — and it is an almost all-day event — services, then food, then socialization. They must arrive at Church on foot, foot-powered scooter, or by horse or horse-driven carriage. No bicycles. They cannot be driven there by an “English” person and dropped-off. But again, the Bishop of the Church may allow them to do otherwise due to special circumstances. Most Bishops have allowed their Members to use cell phones for certain business needs. My friend who I was speaking about above has a cell phone because he owns a roofing business and he must have a way to communicate with non-Amish (”English”) people to do business, so his Bishop has allowed this, but that’s all he uses it for. He doesn’t surf the web and make personal calls with it. He even owns trucks for his business, but he and all of his Amish employees are not allowed to drive them. They must hire “English” drivers to get them around.

If you send me a PM requesting information, I will give you the name, phone number and location of this hardware store, but I think you will get very frustrated trying to get any information from them due to what I mentioned above.

I am enamored by the Amish. They are very simple and genuine people for the most part, yet they are also very complicated when viewed from an outsider’s perspective. I have yet to meet an Amish person I wouldn’t trust.

EDIT: Just an interesting tidbit: all Amish cookbooks have two versions of the same recipe — there is the family-sized recipe and the Church-sized recipe.

Bruce

[pdqparalegal1]

Confused about the Amish, whom I know little about. But if they shun electricity, as in power lines into the house, how do they make an exception for solar/battery or wind electricity??
Confused??

[jwfrede]

Originally Posted by pdqparalegal1

Confused about the Amish, whom I know little about. But if they shun electricity, as in power lines into the house, how do they make an exception for solar/battery or wind electricity??
Confused??

Depending on the bishop, they can have electricity at a business, even cell phones and laptops. The buggies around here, Centre County, PA, all have lights that run on batteries. And most now have very bright lights, probably LED. I think they have electric running into the homes also around here, not sure.

BTW, don't confuse the Amish with the Mennonites. Generally the Mennonite bishops are much more liberal than the Amish. Many Mennonite groups can have cars. I don't think any Amish groups have cars. My mother had different Mennonite women come to do cleaning on a regular basis. Some came in a car, others my mother had to go pick up since they only had buggies. She lived one county east, Union Co.

[5picker]

We find within the Amish/Mennonite communities here in Western PA, it's not so much they are against electricity or battery power, their beliefs won't allow them to be tied to "the grid" as that would connect them to 'the outside world.'

A lot have their own generating systems or solar banks contained solely on their property. No phone lines either. Back before cell phones, no phone lines to the house but it was common to see a phone in a wooden box on a pole at the edge of their property. Now with 'wireless' cell phones, most just use those.

Most of their tractors/buggies still have steel wheels or steel wheels with tire tread bolted to them as I've been told by a few 'riding on air' disconnects them with the earth and their Maker.

As with every other culture, things are changing somewhat for them to be able to live and communicate in today's world. Many have relaxed some traditions. There are still some sects that hang on to the old ways and have little contact with the outside world other than their own.

The church manages their money and they seem to do well for themselves. I've bought/sold several things and provided services with several and it was always cash, no questions asked.

In our locale, there are as many Amish/Mennonite families/farms as there are those who are not.