Heating a tent
- Thread starter Mike313
- Start date
-
Come along to the amazing Summer Moot (21st July - 2nd August), a festival of bushcrafting and camping in a beautiful woodland PLEASE CLICK HERE for more information.
2l pop bottle filled with hot (not boiling) water is wonderful, a real camping indulgence 
Plus you still have warm water for a fast brew in the morning. For heating a big tent I use several methods, Coleman/Vapalux lantern, Heatpal alcohol heater/stove or just light a stove...just ensure ventilation.
Plus you still have warm water for a fast brew in the morning. For heating a big tent I use several methods, Coleman/Vapalux lantern, Heatpal alcohol heater/stove or just light a stove...just ensure ventilation.
Hot rocks and water bottles are a real life saver when you dont have your shelter + sleep system combination quite right for the local conditions and over on Youtube "Reallybigmonkey1" has documeted his tent heating experiments worth a watch for inspiration.
If your tent is big enough buy a Frontier Stove, I have just bought one from Anevay for £240 that includes water heater as well, there are also other attachements if you want the flue pipe to go through the roof of your tent.
The first time I used one of these was when my wife and I stayed in a Yurt the amount of heat the stove gave was over-powering too hot and that was on a large Yurt, other than that if I was wild Camping and it was cold I would fill up an alluminium drinks bottle with hot water and put it in a couple of socks and put it in the sleeping bag about half an hour before bed, that should keep you nice and snug for the night! leave it in the bag and keep it at your feet and if your feet are warm so will the rest of your body, it always works for me.
My preference for heating a shelter is a UL backpackable woodstove. Really it's the only thing that will add substantial heat and is sustainable in the field IMHO. I do trust candle lanterns to some degree in certain tents but not vented flame within a zipped up shelter can be a risky proposition. My mini candle lantern doing it's thing during a late winter outing.
An osprey bottle filled with boiling water, wrapped in a towel is still pretty warm the following morning.
I have a frontier stove.
It's ok but there are a few design faults.
the main one is that the door goes up too high on the front and the smoke has a choice of the flue or the door to escape. When starting the fire , it's easier to go out the door. Not good. The draw isn't helped by the narrow flue, which needs cleaning far more often than other stoves.
better than an open fire.
It's ok but there are a few design faults.
the main one is that the door goes up too high on the front and the smoke has a choice of the flue or the door to escape. When starting the fire , it's easier to go out the door. Not good. The draw isn't helped by the narrow flue, which needs cleaning far more often than other stoves.
better than an open fire.
+1 for the ultralight packable SS/Ti stoves (Kifaru/Seekoutside/TiGoat etc). In a good tent with proper stove jack these will keep you warm, dry wet/damp clothes, work as a cooking stove, and only add 3lb or so to your packout, including the roll-up chimney.
I have always found that one or two candles (one in a lantern, the other in a secure holder but open) to be entirely adequate for taking the chill off the inside of a smallish tent, although not for use while sleeping. The inside of my tent will invariably be damp when I wake up, mainly from condensation, and using the candles pretty much eliminates that problem by the time I'm ready to roll out for good. Besides, the candles are necessary for light.
