Coleman catalytic heater

[Jaketheone46]

Hello to all hope all is going well, I have recently picked up 3 Coleman heaters off eBay. First I picked up a 5000btu and it’s used but very little, works great, I love it so far. These babies put off no deadly fumes but do remove the oxygen, So using them I just make sure I have a window in my van cracked very little. No problems and I’ve spent hours in my van with this heater going. Even with the windows up my conversion van seems to have plenty of oxygen I guess due to little insulation in the factory conversion. 
Anyway I picked up 2 more after I liked the first one so much, first a 3000btu and then a new never lit adjustable 3,000/5,000btu. Well my favorite of the 3 which is the adjustable being never lit I wanted to put it up and not use it being it’s brand new. Well there’s one problem, the metal screen that covers the catylist is rusting. I don’t know what the best fix would be for this. If I try to sand it off the dust would probably ruin the catylist. Or I am wondering if running it would cure the issue and if so should I do this now or put it up hoping it doesn’t get worse?? Any suggestions??

 

[highdesertranger]

anything you paint it with will burn off. I would take it off and clean it, then oil it and heat it up. the trick here is to bake the oil on, you don't want to get it hot enough to burn the oil off. kinda like what you do for cast iron cookware. I would do all of this when it's not mounted on the heater. this will stop the rust until you use it. if you keep using it the rust will not be a problem but as soon as you stop using it daily it will start rusting again. is it the white gas version or propane? highdesertranger

 

[eDJ_]

Why don't you look around for a broken one that looks like it has a good screen (for sale as parts only) and trade out the screens.   As winter draws to a close you may find some more deals on cat heaters like the ones you have.

It may cost less than heat proof paint and cleaning solvents and take less time than repainting the screen.

 

[Van on 66]

Hello to all hope all is going well, I have recently picked up 3 Coleman heaters off eBay. First I picked up a 5000btu and it’s used but very little, works great, I love it so far. These babies put off no deadly fumes but do remove the oxygen, So using them I just make sure I have a window in my van cracked very little. No problems and I’ve spent hours in my van with this heater going. Even with the windows up my conversion van seems to have plenty of oxygen I guess due to little insulation in the factory conversion. 
Anyway I picked up 2 more after I liked the first one so much, first a 3000btu and then a new never lit adjustable 3,000/5,000btu. Well my favorite of the 3 which is the adjustable being never lit I wanted to put it up and not use it being it’s brand new. Well there’s one problem, the metal screen that covers the catylist is rusting. I don’t know what the best fix would be for this. If I try to sand it off the dust would probably ruin the catylist. Or I am wondering if running it would cure the issue and if so should I do this now or put it up hoping it doesn’t get worse?? Any suggestions??

Hi Jake - I am looking into using a Coleman catalytic heater for my van so I was curious which ones you have and what you like and don't like about them if you still have them.

 

[highdesertranger]

Jake hasn't been on the forum in over 2 years, so I doubt he will answer. perhaps you need to ask the question to all the forum members here in a new thread. highdesertranger