Has this ever happened to you?

[stinkycat]

Just wondering if this has ever happened to any of you guys. I was out last Saturday in a 4x6 nylon Cabela's portable fish house kit. It was a friend of mines portable. Both him and his son put it together a few years back. They basically build the plywood bottom and then attach the nylon tent top. We were fishing for an hour or so with the wind blowing at least 15-18mph. If we were not sitting in the shack I think it would have blow away. We were using your typical Mr. Heater on a 20lbs propane tank. After a while my buddy seems like he is short of breath and brushes it off as getting older and out of shape even though he works hard and has no fat what so ever. Then a little while later when he mentions it again I feel like I am a little short of breath also. I couldn't catch my breath after telling a good fish story. I thought about it for a couple of minutes and decided to open the top zipper to let some fresh air in. Immediately we both felt a ton better. Now I have heard of problems with none vented heaters in hard sided shacks but never in a nylon type tent shack. After that we kept the zipper opened about 6 inches for the rest of the day. Kind of spooky! Makes a guy slow down and think!

By the way we caught 5 small but good eater pike and one nice crappie @12.5"

[Lundexp]

You guys were extremely lucky. Most huts have either zippers or velcro flaps along the top to let out the carbon monoxide. I'm suprised that hut didn't have one. If not, i'd continue to keep the zipper open a bit to keep it ventilated.

[Crappie Kid]

The problem is not just carbon monoxide but oxygen deprevation. You were closed up for a long time burning fuel.

Remember Apollo 13?

[Hollis Uled]

That's right the buddy Heater used up most of the O2 but not enough to shut off the flame to the thermocouple safety switch. I have a very tight work shed and sometime I leave this heater going in it if its been very cold and I plan on working in it later. At times it has gone out because of no O2. I used to go in not thinking about it and soon learned you don't function very long w/o O2. I would be breathless in in a few minutes. Now I open the door for a while, it lets some heat out but the mass of the stuff in the shed holds the heat pretty well so its fine.
Yea, always allow the Buddy heater some air.