- Camping

My Review of the Century "Sunflower" Propane Heater

Well after finding out that my Coleman Blackcat heater won’t stand up to the cold inside my portable ice shack, I had to invest in something that would heat my ice shelter up. So now I bought a “sunflower” radiant heater that screws onto a propane tank. Now I’m glad I did because this heater works great!

Over the years me and my friends have used the sunflower heater in ice shacks and it always worked good. Depending on the BTUs you get, they pump out a lot of heat. I don’t know why I didn’t buy one right off the bat but sometimes I like to try new things and The Coleman Blackcat was something new to try I guess. I’ll keep it in my camping box for the camper and tents but that’s about all it will be used for.

So I bought a Century sunflower radiant heater that screws on top of a propane tank. I also bought a small 10lb propane bottle so I don’t have to lug around a 20lb tank in my sleigh. So after setting up my ice shelter, me and my wife decided to try this heater out. It was around -15 C outside so it didn’t take long to get a chill going. The heater fit’s nicely inside my storage box, which protects it from the elements of snow and ice from the quad pulling the sleigh. This heater has a range from 10,000 BTUs to 13,000 BTUs. After lighting it up, I turned it up to the max. I would say after zipping the door shut, in about 15 minutes you could take your jacket off and just sit in your Ski-Doo pants. It made the ice shelter very toasty inside and after awhile I had to turn it down to low because it was getting to hot inside. Even when the sun set, it got a little more colder out but this heater keep us warm!

So all in all, this heater worked perfectly! It kept us warm all afternoon and into the evening. The only dislike I have is the back of the heater gets hot to the touch so you have to be careful when you handle it, so not to burn yourself or in my case, the side of the portable ice shelter. Also you should shut it down early enough to cool it off, before you pack it up. By the time I take down the ice shelter and load my sleigh, it’s cold enough to put away in the storage box!