Coleman 5053A751 ProCat Perfectemp Catalytic Propane Heater with Instastart Technology

I purchased this catalytic propane heater to heat my tent for winter camping with my son for his Cub Scout winter camps. I tried the heater out on a three night camp out the last week of October, 2006 at 7,000 feet in the San Bernardino Mountains. Those nights dipped in the high 20's. The heater worked very well with only a few concerns, which were easily overcome. I placed the lit heater in my tent well in advance of retiring for the evening and 6 hours later replaced the emptied propane cylinder right away and re-started the heater for the remainder of the morning. My son and I were nice and warm when we went to bed and stayed warm all the night through. Sure is nice to be able to stand up and dress in a warm tent in the morning. Next we will be trying the heater out at a snow camp in February with temps expected to be in the low teens.

Reading the directions dismissed any apprehensions of opertion. And yes, as another reviewer commented... the unit does throw out a small fire ball when first lit. YIKES! However, should you read the instructions BEFORE USE... you are forewarned about this and the reader is instructed NOT to light the heater facing anyone/pets/tent or indoors because of this issue. Instructions are not placed with the item for looks you know, you have to read them! OK, it spits out a small fire ball at first. Big deal... nothing too intense that an average human can not adapt to.

As for the "hot oil smell," noted by another reviewer... yes, there is a "smell," that emits from the operating unit. How one describes that smell will vary. Each individual person's sensitivity to that smell will also vary. To me the "smell" was simply like sightly hot metal, as with any other heater, and faint enough that it did not bother me at all. However, should one be rather sensitive to the "smell" it may prove uncomfortable.

The battery operated fan that blows the heated air away from the unit is awesome. The fan does not blow the volume of air like a fan on your desk or counter top might. The fan is much smaller, yet it does greatly aid in the ciculation of the heat. Without the fan on, the heat is simply radiated out and the heat is not evenly distributed throughout the tent. One huge issue with the fan... it eats batteries like a child eats candy. Two "D" batteries will run the fan for one full night. That's it, no more. Recharable batteries are strongly recommended to keep the battery budget in check, because the fan really needs to be used.

Some advise... 1.) Light the heater OUTSIDE of your tent (remember there will be small fire ball emiting from the heater when it is lit). 2.) Start the unit and place in your tent at least one full hour before going to bed. That way your tent will be nice and warm when you go to bed. 3.) Keep a replacement propane cylinder close by for replacement in the early morning hours. Should you allow the tent to cool before replacing the propane cylinder and re-igniting the heater it will take a very, very long time to warm the tent up. Remeber... nights are coldest the hours just before dawn (usally) which is much colder than when you started to warm your tent up the previous evening. Also, the larger the tent (or area being heated) the longer it will take to bring up and maintain the temp. I am going to buy a second heater for my large three room tent. This way I can start one heater well before going to bed to heat the tent, and then 6 hours before I plan to wake up I can start the second heater. With two heaters operating at the same time in my large tent the heat will be easily maintained (hopfully even with winds) but also the first heater will will run out of fuel and shut off in the night and the second heater will continue heating maintaining the temp without me getting up to change out the propane cylinder. 4.) Place the heater in an area of your tent in which nothing will come in contact with it. The heater grid gets very hot and will burn you or any other item that contacts it.

All in all, this ProCat Catalytic Propane Heater is a great heater. It is larger than others on the market (the heating head is larger in diameter), including other Coleman brand heaters. It appears to be the only one with a fan to assist in heat distribution. It puts out a good amount of heart. The only serious failing on this ProCat heater is that the output can not be regulated. The heater is either on full blast or completly off.

Please note though, the more ventilated your tent the less effective any heater will be in heating such a tent, let alone this particular heater. Thus, should you have a "summer family camping tent" that is very well ventilated either consider purchasing two heaters to heat your tent, or in addition to this heater purchase a tent that is designed for cold weather (which is less vented than summer family tents).

Heater puts off a burning oil odor. I called Coleman for assistance they were NOT helpful. The person at Coleman said they have received calls regarding a hot oil smell from the heater and said it was do to oil used in the manufacturing and I should run it in my garage for an hour to see if it would discontinue putting of an odor. I followed his instructions and it made no difference so I let it go for another hour still no change.

Unfortunately I first used it in my house for about 15 minutes. It made our whole house smell like burning oil (and still does 8 hours later) and it left our eyes irritated just like if we burned oil while cooking, hopefully this isn't toxic.

Maybe we got a bad heater, no other reviews complained of a smell. But I would definitely advise that you test it outside or in your garage before using it in your house.

I work retail and don't want to come across as a whiner but our experience with this heater really sucked!

This is a wonderful heater to own and operate. It is larger than it appears in the listing--about half the height and all the width of an airline carry-on bag. I bought one for myself and liked it so well my friends purchased one, also. We have taken it as high as 8000 feet elevation with no difficulty in performance. The lowest temperature in which it operated was 25 degrees. The unit is easy to operate. Simply screw in a 1 pound can of propane into the back, turn the knob to "on" for a few seconds and hit the ignition switch (being VERY careful to face the front of the furnace away from yourself or any other person). The heater lights instantly with a small burst of flame from the front grill. The flame immediately subsides and the heat is on. Camping becomes much more comfortable. The only drawback to this heater, and it is not even the heater's fault, is that 1 can of propane only lasts about 6 hours. So, obviously, a second can should be taken into the tent and/or camper to be changed at night. You could probably set an alarm but I personally just let the cold wake me up before I get up to change it. It's also best to start the heater up about an hour before you retire to allow time for the tent to warm up. My friends and I have no regrets in this purchase and we all highly recommend it.

I bought this item for camping purpose. Ofcourse for cold night, I did have an experience once (when I camped at Shenandoah Valley in September 2006). The temperature was dropped to 35 some degree. The Procat has chance to test, I did, at first, a little bit confuse when start, but it turned out good, my tent was warm as I expected. Good one if you can afford.

I do most of my camping up in the High Uinta mountains of Utah starting about the first of June. I camp at the snowline starting at about 6,000 feet and follow it up to the 10,000 foot level later in the summer so the nights are always cold usually in the high 20's to low 30's.

2 years ago I ran across this little heater and decided to give it a try to see if it would help keep me warmer. What a difference it made. I have a Coleman 8' X 8' dome tent that has the large screened sides that makes it difficult to seal and hold the heat in. I have to keep the rainfly collapsed at night to try to hold what heat I have in. Even so, I have found that if I run this heater for about an hour before I go to bed it will heat my tent to about 75-80 degrees. If I open my sleeping bag and point the heater at it with the fan going it will blow the hot air into the bag and make for a nice warm bed to climb into. They claim that you can run these all night with about a 4" opening to let the oxygen in but I usually shut it down when I go to bed. If during the night the temperatures drop to the uncomfortable point, it doesn't take much to reach over and fire it up again for a little while. When morning comes I fire it up again and when I get out of bed to get dressed it's nice and warm. Shucks, I don't have it this good at home.

The heater has a piezoelectric start which usually fires up right away. It puts out a fair sized fireball when it starts which can startle you if your are not ready for it. It takes about 3 minutes to warm up and really start radiating the heat but once it gets going it puts out quite a bit of heat. It is a flame less heat and although it will not catch anything on fire the heat is hot enough to melt synthetic items that get too close.

The only con I have with this unit is that you have to be very careful when you screw in the propane bottle, and that you don't cross thread it and ruin the threads on the heater.

It is supposed to run for about 8 hours on a tank of propane but I with the way I use it, it's hard to tell but I would say that's about right. A 16.4 oz tank will usually last me about 3 weekends of camping.
The fan is what sold me on this catalytic heater. It moves quite a bit of air and it will heat an area about 4 times faster than without it. In a tent environment that means it will circulate the air and the lower levels will be about as warm as the upper. The batteries have a pretty long life span and I usually change them out after 4 or 5 weekends just to make sure they don't go out on me in the middle of the night.

All in all these are great little heaters for small spaces or as an emergency heater.