I've got a couple of catalytic heaters. One I use with 1 pound bottles hunting. It's more to warm up fingers and toes than to stay warm. I think it's about 1200 BTU max. It will run about 5 or 6 hours on a pound of propane.
The other is a Mr Heater Buddy portable heater. It's 4000-9000 BTU, runs on either 1 pound bottles or on a bulk propane tank adapter (sort of like a propane grill). It has an internal regulator, so won't work on a RV low pressure quick disconnect.
The smaller one does not have an oxygen sensor and for that reason I would not consider it for "indoor use in an RV". The "Buddy heater" does have an oxygen sensor, but not a carbon monoxide sensor, so I prefer not to use it in the RV when we're not "right there watching it"... I WOULD NEVER GO TO SLEEP WITH EITHER IN OPERATION INSIDE AN RV.....
That said, there is the "Olympian heater series" that's been around for ages, was OEM in Airstream trailers and in Alaskan truck campers before the "forced air furnaces" became standard equipment in RV's. I believe CAMCO bought out Olympian, so no idea whether they might have changed the products or worse, changed the quality.
There are three sized Olympian, a 3000, 6000 and 8000 BTU size. All have essentially the same construction, safety equipment and operation. They are basically the same, just get larger as the BTU output increases.
We had an Olympian 3000 in our Airstream and it would heat the entire trailer in 30F temperatures. With a window cracked and a roof vent cracked, there was very little condensation, but even with that, we were reluctant to trust it enough to go to sleep with it heating the trailer. I'd guess we had 400 or so hours of use and the CO monitor in the trailer never alarmed, so in my experience, the Olympian never produced a significant amount of carbon monoxide.
I can't say the same for the Buddy heater. I set it up in our Springdale with a couple of 1 pound bottles and within an hour, the CO monitor in the trailer was chirping, but the heater's oxygen sensor thought nothing wrong and the heater kept burning oxygen while the trailer system was saying there's too much carbon monoxide in the air....
IMO, I wouldn't trust a propane heater to safely monitor the oxygen content in the room and trust it to shut off when CO levels are too high and from my experience, even when CO levels get too high, the heater doesn't monitor that, just oxygen, so there's no "fail-safe system" to protect against both depletion of oxygen and rising carbon monoxide....
I wouldn't close my eyes with any flame or catalytic device burning in the trailer.
That said, the Mr Heater Buddy heater is a "hot little devil" and it'll heat the area around my workbench in the pole barn enough that I can sit there in a sweater and work comfortably even in 0F outside temps. Step away from the workbench and you can definitely tell where the heater is helping.
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John
2015 F250 6.7l 4x4
2014 Cougar X Lite 27RKS
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