Dyna-Glo RA18LPDG 18,000 BTU Cabinet Heater, Black

I've had the heater for a few days now, and it has been working great for me, kicking out plenty of heat.The heater has three adjoining burners, each rated at 6000 BTU. Each burner is either on or off, and each is controlled by the gas valve on top of the cabinet. Low setting is the center burner only. Medium is the left and center burners together, and high is all three on at once. Each burner has a ceramic element with many small holes that the gas flows through as it burns, heating the ceramic bright orange hot and putting out a lot of radiant infrared heat rays. Of course there is also hot air rising from the burners too, and that contributes to warming a room. The radiant heat feels great, especially when you come in from the cold and want to warm your hands.Some reviewers reported difficulty keeping the "pilot" lit. The pilot is actually an oxygen depletion sensor or ODS. It is designed and tuned so that if the oxygen in the room falls below a safe level the flame will go out, triggering the gas control to shut off the gas to the burners. The heater is not designed for outdoor use, and in fact the manual says it's for indoor use only. If used outdoors, any breeze will blow out the exposed pilot, aka ODS.The user manual describes this as a "construction heater." There is a disclaimer in the manual saying the heater is not suitable for residential use. I regard both of those as coming from the manufacturer's legal department. But I can think of at least two reasons why it could be dangerous to use for home heating. First, the heater is unvented, so although it burns cleanly with a blue flame and negligible carbon monoxide when it is new and clean and perfectly adjusted, eventually partially clogged air inlets on the burners could result in carbon monoxide release. I would not use this heater indoors without a CO alarm in the room to monitor it.A second reason it's not for residential use is that it runs from a common 20 lb. propane bottle of the kind used for gas BBQ grills, and those tanks are not safe for indoor use or even storage. The tank sits mostly inside the open back of the metal cabinet. Of course people do use them in residences, and usually there is no problem, as long as all of the gas fittings are tight and the flex hose is in good condition. But eventually you could have a propane leak that could lead to a fire or explosion. That's why the user manual says to always turn off the gas at the tank valve whenever you turn the heater off, because that eliminates most of the potential sources of leaks. But what happens if your house is on fire and there's a 5-gallon tank of propane inside? The tank won't explode and rupture because it has a safety pressure relief valve to prevent that, but it will release a lot of propane in a hurry, and inside a burning house that's not a good thing.There are multiple safety features engineered into the heater. One is a tipover or bump sensor located inside the top of the cabinet next to the gas control. If you bump the heater medium hard while it is operating it will immediately shut off. There is also another sensor in the propane regulator that attaches to your propane tank. The manual says to connect it to the tank so that the flatter side of the regulator is up. I missed that when I first hooked it up, and couldn't get the pilot to light. I reviewed the setup instructions, saw what was wrong and corrected it. The manual says never use any other regulator with the heater than the one it is supplied with, and that's because it has this tip-over regulator built into it. Since fixing the regulator orientation it has worked perfectly every time.After the heater has been used for a while, eventually house dust, cobwebs or woolie boogers drawn in with air will partly block the air inlets of the main burners and/or the pilot ODS. The manual goes into this and tells you to clean it with a vacuum cleaner or compressed air. The ODS is sensitive by design. Its job is to prevent the heater from burning in a closed room until it has used up enough oxygen to start producing carbon monoxide. Of course you should never use the heater without adequate ventilation, and the manual tells you so.Another safety feature is a chrome reflector panel extending forward from the bottom of the burners. It keeps the floor directly in front of the heater from getting too hot. But there are no similar reflectors to limit radiant heat going to the sides, so you will need to be careful not to have anything flammable close to the side and slightly in front of the heater. The metal cabinet of the heater does not get very hot, largely because of the open back.The wheels make it easy to roll the heater from place to place, and two of them have locking brakes to keep it from rolling if the floor isn't level, and to keep the heater from being moved or re-aimed due to an accidental bump.I'm very pleased with this heater as a supplemental or backup heater for an unheated work room in my house. If I start it up on high, it warms the roughly 500 sq. ft. room pretty quickly, and I turn it down to low to hold the temperature. I'm conscious of the potential dangers, and use the heater carefully, making sure to close the tank valve every time when not in use, and checking that the ODS and main burner flames are clean and blue.This is not a fully automatic idiot-proof appliance. It could kill you, but that's also true of your car and a good many other things that we must use with care. This heater has many safety features, but in the end you have to use the one built into you -- your brain.

The media could not be loaded. I wanted to have something efficient and safe to use in the house. Running off 20lb propane tanks is great. I didn't even know they were an option. Seeing how I have several grills, I always have an extra on hand.There is a stop feature when turning the dial from off to pilot to the 3 heat levels. I demonstrated that in the video. You can't just turn it from one end to the other. In order to turn the dial you need to push it in. Going from 1 to 3 is easy and can be done while holding down the dial. However, It seemed to require extra effort. Not in difficulty. Meaning, if you just turn it, it will stop at the next level. You have to put attention to hold down the dial constantly in order to go from 1 to 3.When I talk about efficiency, I don't know how long it will last as I have not used it for a short bit. But I do know propane lasts awhile. Seeing how it's a large 20lb tank, it should last and last. We went into a cold spell and my neighbor doesn't have reliable heat so I lent it to her. She has been using it for several weeks and has told me several times it's a life saver. I won't be buying another one. Why? Because I bought in anticipation of not having power for several months after Helene hit and we had power in several weeks, plenty of time before the cold weather came. I do suggest purchasing one. I was rather please and excited to see it work so well, to emit as much heat as it did. Do be mindful of the space you are expecting to heat. My guess is a 12x12'ish could be kept quite cozy.The wheels are normal and I feel very safe when the wheels are locked. I feel that it is super stable and won't knock over without effort and purpose. The main reason being the locking bar that holds the propane in place.

I just bought a second one for a friend. First one is 3 years old and works like a champ. Run times are correct 72,48,24. People who reported a problem with the pilot light not staying lit need to look on YouTube. There are a lot of videos on how to fix this issue. Its a problem with the tilt sensor. Easy to fix on this model. An allen wrench and a paper clip will do the trick. Look for the white wires. This heater puts out a lot of heat. Mine will heat my whole house when its 30deg outside (Florida). Cheaper to operate than your electric heat, tank refill is about $20.

worked like a charm the only issue is hose connection for propane tank does not fit on regular propane tank. I had to replace with another hose connection easy fix

The Dyna glo does a great job of quietly heating a space.Proper care and spacing is important.