propane preheater

dave wrote:
I'm not planning on using it to preheat the cabin. I'm wondering how
this is any different than a red dragon or the large pre-heaters that
the FBO's use.

Dave

Stan Prevost wrote:
If this is blowing the warm combustion gases into the cabin, plenty of
drawback. The combustion products are primarily carbon dioxide and water
vapor. Lots of water vapor. The moisture can fog all the windows, or
create frost on the inside of the windows if it is below freezing. OK on
the engine, bad in the cabin.


"dave" wrote in message
. ..
Another thread made me think about using the portable propane heater I use
in my garage to preheat my airplane. It's the standard metal tube type
with the fan from Home Depot or Lowes. I've seen people simply attach a
flex duct to the end of this type heater and blow the hot air into the
cabin - poor man's red dragon. Any drawbacks?

Didn't snip -- all the info is needed...

"blow the hot hair into the cabin" read just like that - you were
attempting to heat the cabin and not the engine. IIUC, you are thinking
of using the duct to blow air into the air intakes of the engine?
That's all a Red Dragon is, without the paint job and logo.

I don't see anything wrong with running a duct into the cabin. My plane
(74 warrior) has the battery under the back seat and it must also be
preheated. I run warm air into the cabin from my Red Dragon and prop up
the bench seat so the air gets to it. By the time I've shut down the
heater, put it away, opened the door and got in, any CO buildup is
gone.

Electric heater would work great except for the fact that I don't have
a hangar or electricity available.


Blanche wrote:
dave wrote:
I'm not planning on using it to preheat the cabin. I'm wondering how
this is any different than a red dragon or the large pre-heaters that
the FBO's use.

Dave

Stan Prevost wrote:
If this is blowing the warm combustion gases into the cabin, plenty of
drawback. The combustion products are primarily carbon dioxide and water
vapor. Lots of water vapor. The moisture can fog all the windows, or
create frost on the inside of the windows if it is below freezing. OK on
the engine, bad in the cabin.


"dave" wrote in message
. ..
Another thread made me think about using the portable propane heater I use
in my garage to preheat my airplane. It's the standard metal tube type
with the fan from Home Depot or Lowes. I've seen people simply attach a
flex duct to the end of this type heater and blow the hot air into the
cabin - poor man's red dragon. Any drawbacks?

Didn't snip -- all the info is needed...

"blow the hot hair into the cabin" read just like that - you were
attempting to heat the cabin and not the engine. IIUC, you are thinking
of using the duct to blow air into the air intakes of the engine?
That's all a Red Dragon is, without the paint job and logo.

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve - KDMW ]
Posted At: Saturday, December 23, 2006 11:17 AM
Posted To: rec.aviation.owning
Conversation: propane preheater
Subject: propane preheater

I don't see anything wrong with running a duct into the cabin. My
plane
(74 warrior) has the battery under the back seat and it must also be
preheated. I run warm air into the cabin from my Red Dragon and prop
up
the bench seat so the air gets to it. By the time I've shut down the
heater, put it away, opened the door and got in, any CO buildup is
gone.


How do you keep the Carbon Monoxide detector from turning black? There
is enough CO in the heated air stream to trigger the detector -- or
don't you have one in the cockpit?

It's stuck on with Velcro in the cabin. I just take it off and stick it
in my pocket until I get in to go flying.



Jim Carter wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: Steve - KDMW ]
Posted At: Saturday, December 23, 2006 11:17 AM
Posted To: rec.aviation.owning
Conversation: propane preheater
Subject: propane preheater

I don't see anything wrong with running a duct into the cabin. My
plane
(74 warrior) has the battery under the back seat and it must also be
preheated. I run warm air into the cabin from my Red Dragon and prop
up
the bench seat so the air gets to it. By the time I've shut down the
heater, put it away, opened the door and got in, any CO buildup is
gone.


How do you keep the Carbon Monoxide detector from turning black? There
is enough CO in the heated air stream to trigger the detector -- or
don't you have one in the cockpit?

Sorry about that I should have explained my intentions more clearly.
But as I said I have seen people use them to warm their cabins. I'm
thinking about using this only at my hanger where I can also use a
ceramic heater for the cabin.

Dave
1960 M35

Stan Prevost wrote:
"dave" wrote in message
. ..
I'm not planning on using it to preheat the cabin. I'm wondering how this
is any different than a red dragon or the large pre-heaters that the FBO's
use.


OK. You said "and blow the hot air into the cabin ", so it sounded like you
wanted to use it to preheat the cabin.

Steve,
How long do you need to run the red dragon to heat up your engine if
it's around 10F outside? I guess when you're home you can run it off
your car battery. Have you had much experience running it off your
airplane battery?

I'm glad to hear that it works for you to heat the cabin.

Thanks
Dave
1960 M35


Steve - KDMW wrote:
I don't see anything wrong with running a duct into the cabin. My plane
(74 warrior) has the battery under the back seat and it must also be
preheated. I run warm air into the cabin from my Red Dragon and prop up
the bench seat so the air gets to it. By the time I've shut down the
heater, put it away, opened the door and got in, any CO buildup is
gone.

Electric heater would work great except for the fact that I don't have
a hangar or electricity available.


Blanche wrote:
dave wrote:
I'm not planning on using it to preheat the cabin. I'm wondering how
this is any different than a red dragon or the large pre-heaters that
the FBO's use.

Dave

Stan Prevost wrote:
If this is blowing the warm combustion gases into the cabin, plenty of
drawback. The combustion products are primarily carbon dioxide and water
vapor. Lots of water vapor. The moisture can fog all the windows, or
create frost on the inside of the windows if it is below freezing. OK on
the engine, bad in the cabin.


"dave" wrote in message
. ..
Another thread made me think about using the portable propane heater I use
in my garage to preheat my airplane. It's the standard metal tube type
with the fan from Home Depot or Lowes. I've seen people simply attach a
flex duct to the end of this type heater and blow the hot air into the
cabin - poor man's red dragon. Any drawbacks?
Didn't snip -- all the info is needed...

"blow the hot hair into the cabin" read just like that - you were
attempting to heat the cabin and not the engine. IIUC, you are thinking
of using the duct to blow air into the air intakes of the engine?
That's all a Red Dragon is, without the paint job and logo.

In article ,
dave wrote:

I guess when you're home you can run it off
your car battery. Have you had much experience running it off your
airplane battery?

I've used a motorcycle battery to run the red dragon fan.

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate

The book says it should take about 15 minutes, but I usually run it
around 25-30 while I do my briefing and whatnot. The thing puts out a
ton of heat, so 15 minutes would probably be enough. I crank my
regulator down to almost as low as it will go without putting the flame
out and it still puts out serious heat.

It puts almost no drain on the battery. I have it mounted to a 2x4
piece of plywood that I put in the bed of my truck and plug it into the
cigarette lighter through the back window. I've known folks that have
been using the same standalone car battery for years.

Steve

dave wrote:
Steve,
How long do you need to run the red dragon to heat up your engine if
it's around 10F outside? I guess when you're home you can run it off
your car battery. Have you had much experience running it off your
airplane battery?

I'm glad to hear that it works for you to heat the cabin.

Thanks
Dave
1960 M35


Steve - KDMW wrote:
I don't see anything wrong with running a duct into the cabin. My plane
(74 warrior) has the battery under the back seat and it must also be
preheated. I run warm air into the cabin from my Red Dragon and prop up
the bench seat so the air gets to it. By the time I've shut down the
heater, put it away, opened the door and got in, any CO buildup is
gone.

Electric heater would work great except for the fact that I don't have
a hangar or electricity available.


Blanche wrote:
dave wrote:
I'm not planning on using it to preheat the cabin. I'm wondering how
this is any different than a red dragon or the large pre-heaters that
the FBO's use.

Dave

Stan Prevost wrote:
If this is blowing the warm combustion gases into the cabin, plenty of
drawback. The combustion products are primarily carbon dioxide and water
vapor. Lots of water vapor. The moisture can fog all the windows, or
create frost on the inside of the windows if it is below freezing. OK on
the engine, bad in the cabin.


"dave" wrote in message
. ..
Another thread made me think about using the portable propane heater I use
in my garage to preheat my airplane. It's the standard metal tube type
with the fan from Home Depot or Lowes. I've seen people simply attach a
flex duct to the end of this type heater and blow the hot air into the
cabin - poor man's red dragon. Any drawbacks?
Didn't snip -- all the info is needed...

"blow the hot hair into the cabin" read just like that - you were
attempting to heat the cabin and not the engine. IIUC, you are thinking
of using the duct to blow air into the air intakes of the engine?
That's all a Red Dragon is, without the paint job and logo.

Thanks. I may just get the red dragon and not mess around with the
garage heater.
Dave




Steve - KDMW wrote:
The book says it should take about 15 minutes, but I usually run it
around 25-30 while I do my briefing and whatnot. The thing puts out a
ton of heat, so 15 minutes would probably be enough. I crank my
regulator down to almost as low as it will go without putting the flame
out and it still puts out serious heat.

It puts almost no drain on the battery. I have it mounted to a 2x4
piece of plywood that I put in the bed of my truck and plug it into the
cigarette lighter through the back window. I've known folks that have
been using the same standalone car battery for years.

Steve

dave wrote:
Steve,
How long do you need to run the red dragon to heat up your engine if
it's around 10F outside? I guess when you're home you can run it off
your car battery. Have you had much experience running it off your
airplane battery?

I'm glad to hear that it works for you to heat the cabin.

Thanks
Dave
1960 M35


Steve - KDMW wrote:
I don't see anything wrong with running a duct into the cabin. My plane
(74 warrior) has the battery under the back seat and it must also be
preheated. I run warm air into the cabin from my Red Dragon and prop up
the bench seat so the air gets to it. By the time I've shut down the
heater, put it away, opened the door and got in, any CO buildup is
gone.

Electric heater would work great except for the fact that I don't have
a hangar or electricity available.


Blanche wrote:
dave wrote:
I'm not planning on using it to preheat the cabin. I'm wondering how
this is any different than a red dragon or the large pre-heaters that
the FBO's use.

Dave

Stan Prevost wrote:
If this is blowing the warm combustion gases into the cabin, plenty of
drawback. The combustion products are primarily carbon dioxide and water
vapor. Lots of water vapor. The moisture can fog all the windows, or
create frost on the inside of the windows if it is below freezing. OK on
the engine, bad in the cabin.


"dave" wrote in message
. ..
Another thread made me think about using the portable propane heater I use
in my garage to preheat my airplane. It's the standard metal tube type
with the fan from Home Depot or Lowes. I've seen people simply attach a
flex duct to the end of this type heater and blow the hot air into the
cabin - poor man's red dragon. Any drawbacks?
Didn't snip -- all the info is needed...

"blow the hot hair into the cabin" read just like that - you were
attempting to heat the cabin and not the engine. IIUC, you are thinking
of using the duct to blow air into the air intakes of the engine?
That's all a Red Dragon is, without the paint job and logo.

No drawbacks at all. I've done it as you described. I took an old battery,
put it in a plastic battery case from WalMart, and bought a $20 inverter to
hook to the battery. The propane heater I used ran on 120v, and we have
little access to electricity. Since the heater only needed 120v for a
little fan, the current draw was low, and the battery-inverter thing worked
great. I got a little propane bottle, and a thing called "barbeque saver"
which allows you to refill the little bottle from a standard size tank. I
put the battery box and little propane bottle on an old folding luggage
cart, and had a portable preheater.

"dave" wrote in message
. ..
Another thread made me think about using the portable propane heater I use
in my garage to preheat my airplane. It's the standard metal tube type
with the fan from Home Depot or Lowes. I've seen people simply attach a
flex duct to the end of this type heater and blow the hot air into the
cabin - poor man's red dragon. Any drawbacks?
Thanks
Dave