Bob, you were here way before me and contributed a lot on a variety of things. I just have that on area I know something about, but thanks.
In my experience the infrared heaters do give off a small amount of odor, but you have to remember those portable jobs are designed for temporary heating situations, not a permanent installation. Any you should have a little bit of airflow (like cracking a window open) to make sure they have plenty of combustion air, and will minimize any odor. The catalytic style heaters have no noticeable odor, but are a bit more expensive. The best unit of course is a full on rv furnace, but they are more expensive and more complicated to install. And require electricity to operate. So it is all a trade off, how much to spend, how much work to put it in, and do you need power free operation.
akat- you should consider an adapter hose to run your heater from a 20# cylinder. you are paying $2.50 per pound for those throwaway tanks, and if you figure $15 to fill a 20# tank that is $.75 per pound. So you would spend $50 for the same propane that costs $15 in a 20# tank. You can pay for the hose and a tank in about 2 fills, less if you can come up with good deal on a used tank. My buddy uses that same heater in his race trailer and is quite happy. He puts the tank outside and runs the hose in through a cable hatch when he is using it.
Also that frosting of the tank is because the heater is using the propane faster than the small tank can produce vapor propane from the liquid inside. Eventually the pressure will drop to where the heater performance will drop, and you will also notice more odor when that happens, and you won't get all the gas out of the tank unless you shut the heater down and wait for the tank to warm back up and repressurize. The larger tank will cure that as well.
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