My Little Buddy Grill & Fan Mod

[Fishog 215]

I have had my original Little Buddy heater for many years and it still works perfectly. Used it for ice fishing inside my Clam Nanook fish hut mainly.

Over the years I have seen videos of guys adding a grill so they could cook or warm up food. So I had a old BBQ basket for veggies that I never use and decided to use the top part for the grill on the little buddy heater. It fit great with a little snip on the side to have slip over the heater grill. Tried it out in the house first and it actually boiled water in 25 minutes. Decided to get a fireplace fan from Amazon to add to it. Gave that a try outside today with the cold temps and the heater warmed up the Nannk in no time. 

Here is the basket I converted.

 

And a short video showing it in action.

 

 

 

[Fishog 215]

Also made a little shelf to hold beverages. It kind of locks into place. When the weather warms up I might redo it but working outdoors during this cold snap is hard on the fingers and toes. 

 

[Dirty Sanchenz 58]

Awesome ideas, I use a paint bucket screen on my Big buddy, just slip it under the handles and it locks into place. I never really bothered with my fan. Just started doing over nighters in my Otter Cabin and its nice to be able to cook. Had my Big Buddy for 10 years or so of abuse and it still works great. The board is a smart idea, some dollar store rubber mats and it would be much warmer, i only use them if i'm over night but works well too. Fishog, do you find the fan makes much of a difference? I never use mine.

[Fishog 215]

Really have not tested it to much but it does seem to direct the heat towards you if thats what you want. When my hut heats up it is always much hotter near the top so any directed heat below feels good.  I cannot sleep in my Clam Nanook LOL its only big enough for two people to just get out of the wind. I use it to just warm up mostly. 

The shelf I got the idea from some youtube video I watched. Tried searching google for a set of plans but seems everyone has there own way of making one. I think I will do some fine tuning on the one I made and when I am satisfied with the end product I will get some better wood. The piece I used is pretty weather checked so it might not last to long LOL

[Dirty Sanchenz 58]

Lots of good ideas on U Tube. Some are extremely inventive.

[Fishog 215]

On 2/4/2023 at 7:23 PM, Dirty Sanchenz said:

Lots of good ideas on U Tube. Some are extremely inventive.

I used to use a small 5 or 6 gal. tank with my little buddy but over the years no one would fill it up any more. Since then I have bought one of those adaptors to refill the one pound bottles but I was wondering what you use? I have heard that some hoses will plug up your heater small lines with oil causing it hard to start or even not starting. 

[naden 136]

1 hour ago, Fishog said:

I used to use a small 5 or 6 gal. tank with my little buddy but over the years no one would fill it up any more. Since then I have bought one of those adaptors to refill the one pound bottles but I was wondering what you use? I have heard that some hoses will plug up your heater small lines with oil causing it hard to start or even not starting. 

Petro can on arthur used to fill up my 5 lb tanks, not sure if they still do. I used to fill up the 1 lb tanks myself as well, once I figured out to pull on the pressure relief valve I was able to get them heavier than the store bought

[Dirty Sanchenz 58]

On 2/6/2023 at 4:02 PM, Fishog said:

I used to use a small 5 or 6 gal. tank with my little buddy but over the years no one would fill it up any more. Since then I have bought one of those adaptors to refill the one pound bottles but I was wondering what you use? I have heard that some hoses will plug up your heater small lines with oil causing it hard to start or even not starting. 

 

I mostly use 1 litre bottles but I had a 5 or 10 pounder that I used for a couple of years. Anyway I never had issues with either except for the 1 litres getting too frozen.  On my 5-10 lb tank I had a 10 foot hose. I was looking at filling my own after I bought my last 3 litre package at Canadian Tire. I use the heater a lot, ice fishing in winter and spring and fall hunting/fishing, pilot switch is great no issues. My friend has a clogging issue with his and he used big tanks a lot, so maybe??

[Fishog 215]

Oh my god the site is really acting up tonight. Way to long for posts to load.

There are youtube videos on the problem of the lines getting plugged up and how to solve the problem. Most say to buy hoses from the people who make the Buddy heaters. They say if you buy a hose not from them you will get a oil build up in the solid lines inside the heater causing hard starts. The videos I watched they explain how to take apart the heater to get to the line that plugs up and how to blow it out with air. 

[PajamaSquirrel 20]

To avoid contamination clogging up the Buddy heaters when you use a hose and an external 5, 11 or 20 lb tank, you are supposed to use a filter which threads onto the regulator in the heater like the 1 lb bottles.  These are readily available from Mr. Heater and retailers like Cdn Tire.  The issue seems to be that the propane is at high pressure travelling through the hose causing the plasticizers or oil or whatever to be drawn from the hose and mixed with the propane which can contaminate the Buddy heater lines.  Its not "dirty" propane, rather the high pressure that is the problem.  From what I've researched, if you buy a hose that has a regulator where it threads onto your 20 lb tank (or whatever size), then it is already low pressure propane flowing through the hose and you should not have any issues.  I've just bought mine so I can't really comment from experience yet, but it makes sense to me.  Lots of info out there on YouTube, but lots of uninformed as well - so check around.

Cheers!

[Snag??? 173]

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