Camco 57341 Olympian RV Wave-6 6000 BTU LP Gas Catalytic Heater

I purchased the Olympian Wave 6 Catalytic Heater during the summer of 2007, for use in our 1987 Starcraft Nova Popup Camper. The camper has an 11' box, so it's a fairly large camper when opened up. I had already installed an OEM Duo-Therm forced air furnace. It worked great, but the blower fans in these furnaces are noisey, use alot of 12 volt battery power, and the furnace itself uses quite a bit of propane. Every time that furnace turned on, it would wake us up. Then we'd lay there listening to the blower run for 10-15min. When it finally shut off, instead of being able to go back to sleep, we'd still be awake, anticipating the next cycle.

The Wave 6 Heater is an amazing heat source and fits the use in this camper perfectly. I purchased the feet for it, as well as the available protective cover for storage (I highly recommend you buy the cover because you must keep the platinum catalytic mat clean). I had a 10' flexible rubber propane hose made and T'd that into the existing fitting under the fold down sink cabinet. A small brass ball valve is located at the T in order to turn off/on propane flow into the flexible hose to the heater. At the other end of the 10' hose is a propane quick coupler (purchased from www.mbsturgis.com) and this allows the hose to quickly be "snapped" on to the male fitting that I installed on the heater. A quick note about these propane quick couplers. There are several versions made; a low pressure and a high pressure. The Wave heaters use your low pressure system in your camper/RV/MH/TT/5er, but you can use either the low pressure quick coupler set up, or the high pressure. Some campers/RV's/etc. use these quick couplers from the factory, so if you're having trouble matching an existing coupler, it may be because you're trying to mate a low pressure with a high pressure, or vise-versa. Call the folks at mbsturgis and they can help.

When not in use, the heater stowes under the dinette seat. It takes just a few minutes to get the heater out before going to bed, and set it up. Per the manufacturer's instructions, I open the roof vent about 1/2-1", and the lower panel of the screen door the same amount. Sometimes I'll unzip just a few inches of the upper corner, of the side bunk windows, but not always. We never have a condensation problem.

The heater lights quickly and in about 5-10min. is fully "cooking." Set on medium, it will keep the camper 71*F inside at an outside tempurature of 51*F. I leave it run all night and it keeps us toasty warm.

A word of advice on using heaters in campers; do your homework if you're worried about carbon monoxide poisoning. By that, I mean call the manufacturer and get your information straight from their technical support, or even their engineers. That way, you have actual data, instead of all the story telling that is so common on many RV website forums.

Bottom line: This is an outstanding product that's extremely well designed and built. It's easy to use, super efficient, quiet, and just cranks out the heat!

We bought this heater for our travel trailer. We enjoy "dry camping" (no power or water) in the the desert during the winter and needed a heat source that does not run down our batteries. The heater is ideal from that respect. It does not require a blower and it does not use power to control the flame.

It worked well for us at first. After a month or so of regular use we noticed that it started to smell and then our carbon monoxide detector alarm sounded in the middle of the night warning of carbon monoxide levels high enough to kill. (Wouldn't you know it, it was the coldest night we ever experienced in the desert, -18 degrees!!)

Camping often means dusty conditions. It is not stated in the on-line specifications or mentioned in the reviews or in the manufactures description that this heater is not suitable for dusty conditions. Only by careful reading of the operation manual can this be discovered. We went ahead and installed the heater hoping that we could keep the dust down. Although we thought we were being careful by keeping it covered when not in use and practiced good housekeeping, the heater failed because the catalyst got "poisoned". Once it failed we found that the warranty does not cover catalyst poisoning and it was too late to return it. We now have a heater that we cannot use because of high carbon monoxide levels.

Be aware that this heater can be deadly. In a dust-free environment the heater will probably give years of use, but if you plan to use this heater, or any catalytic heater for camping, be aware of the limitations, check the operation manual before you buy it and use a CO detector.

Great heater for my application which is providing both heat and maintaining heat within my Pop Up camper. Like a previous reviewer I recommend the accessories such as the Camco 57701 RV Black Wave Heater Leg Stand - Pack of 2and Camco 57713 RV Wave Heater Dust Cover. This allows your Wave 6 to stand on it's own and the cover protects it when not in use. I've used this heater in 26 degree Fahrenheit. Granted at 26 degrees It was getting help from my OEM propane furnace, but I used the Wave 6 to maintain the heat so as to lengthen the duration between the furnace running as it uses so much more propane and drains the batteries. The Wave 6 sips propane and requires no electricity. During cool weather and cold weather camping we either keep it running on low or activate it as the sun sets and set it to low, medium or high depending. As stated it heats up pretty quickly, but do not start it when your camper is in the 30's and expect it to heat it up. Won't happen, at least not quick enough. This comes from a very unpleasant experience. Funny now, but not then! Best to activate it when the camper is comfortable or just starting to chill and you'll be pleased with the results. Another accessory I found essential is Camco Manufacturing 57633 3/8" Elbow Swivel. This is available on Amazon, but I could not get a link for this review. Last and most important is make sure you get the needed length of hose and fittings. The heater will not do you much good if you can't connect it. Again from experience. I tried to get a 1/4" male quick connect fitting that would fit the existing female quick connect fitting on my camper while on the road, only to discover that the fittings are not of standard design so one manufacturer's quarter inch male quick connect fitting does not mate with a different manufacturer's quarter inch female quick connect fitting, even though they are both quarter inch gas fittings. It was very frustrating, took a lot of unscheduled stops and detours and about a month to finally get what I needed. I strongly recommend getting this done several weeks in advance of any planned trips. All that said, if you own a Pop UP, Tag Along, Fifth Wheel or Motor Home, you'll love this heater if you are a serious dry camper. It also comes in the smaller Wave 3 and the larger Wave 8.

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