Despite our mostly mild climate in Southern California, we do have opportunities to experience the cold in the winter time.  Our local mountains get snow in the winter and our desert temperatures can drop to freezing during the night and early morning.

One of the challenges I have found with camping and kids is cold weather.  The particular challenge comes after sitting around a roaring campfire on a cold and windy winter night.  We will be all bundled up and warm in our jackets, gloves, and head beanies and no one wants to go to bed.  Because bed time means changing out of our camp clothes in a cold tent and getting into fresh pajamas before slipping into a yet to be warmed sleeping bag.

To help make the transition of getting everyone's clothes changed and snuggled into a sleeping bag a little easier, I had started using a tent heater.

In talking with other tent campers, I have found that there can be strong opinions about tent heaters and their safety.  I personally have never had an issue with using my tent heater and I have yet to meet someone that has had a negative experience with a tent heater.

So, I decided to conduct a non-scientific experiment with my tent heater.

But first, I want to make clear that when using my tent heater, I only run it for approximately 15 to 20 minutes.  This short amount of time is sufficient to warm my six man tent on a cold and windy night, get the kids changed from their camp clothes and into pajamas, and stuffed into their sleeping bags.

My tent heater is the Mr. Heater Buddy model with two heat settings: 4,000 and 9,000 BTU.  The high setting helps warm our large tent quickly, and then turning it back to the low setting helps maintain a nice temperature for the duration of bed time activities.

Start up of the heater is fairly easy, but can require a few tries.  I have used a lighter to help the process along sometimes; seems in colder temperatures it can be more fussy, which is ironic.  Perhaps oxygen levels are lower in colder weather, which challenges the starting process. I don't know.

I also use a one inch thick piece of plywood underneath my tent heater for added stability and safety in case of a tip over.

I have heard specific concerns about tent heaters, one is carbon monoxide poisoning and the other is a fire in the case of a tip over.

The Mr. Heater Buddy heaters do have a "low oxygen" shut off safety feature. 

But, to help support this test,  I purchased a Kidde Carbon Monoxide sensor to get a measurement from my tent heater running on the high setting in my tent.

The Mr. Heater Buddy also has a "tip over" safety shut off feature.  And at the end of this test, I also did a tip over test.

After my Mr. Heater Buddy was lit and warming, I turned it up to the high setting for fifteen minutes.  And in that short amount of time, the inside tent temperature climbed to 100 degrees.

By this point, I was sweating and determined it was ready to test for carbon monoxide.

Here is the anti-climatic carbon monoxide measurement in my tent after fifteen minutes of the heater being on the high setting and the temperature reaching 100 degrees.

Just to ensure this was an accurate measurement, I hit the reset on the carbon monoxide sensor and waited for another reading of... 0 PPM (parts per million).  So, there is no concern here whatsoever.

Again, this is not a scientific test and heaters will differ and have different "ideal burn" (combination of oxygen and propane) rates.

For the second part of this test, I bumped my Mr. Heater Buddy forward so that it would tip over.  It does not tip over easily, particularly when it is sitting on the plywood board, but nevertheless, I bumped it hard enough to tip and did my best to catch an action photo of it falling forward.

The heater immediately shut off at tip over and everything stopped.

Here my Mr. Heater Buddy rests on its face, still in the hi position, but with no fuel flowing and no heat being produced.

While this is not a scientific test, it does confirm my choice to use a tent heater on those blistery cold nights and when waking up in the mornings of course.

With proper use, which for me is:
-Being present while the unit is running
-Making sure the heater is on a solid flat surface
-Running heater for a limited amount of time (approximately 20 minutes)
-Never sleeping with the heater running (if you have a proper sleeping bag, you do not need a heater to remain warm while sleeping).
And in this case I feel completely safe using my tent heater.  I will also continue to test and monitor the carbon monoxide levels, but my feeling is that I will continue to get a 0 PPM reading.

Hope you find this helpful and that your winter camping is pleasantly warm.

Guy line tensioners are those pesky little plastic pieces that are needed for staking out your tent to prevent it from blowing away in heavy wind or to just keep your rainfly from flapping wildly in the wind while you're trying to get some sleep.

There are a variety of different guy line tensioners available, from those simple tensioners that come with a purchased tent to fancy (and pricey) aftermarket tensioners.

Half of the challenge is knowing how to correctly use a tensioner for tightly tying out your guy lines.  And we recommend practicing your skills at home so that when you are at camp pitching your tent, you can guy line like a pro.

Here are a few examples of guy line tensioners.  The black tensioner on the left is the "Nite Ize  Figure 9".  The yellow tensioner on the right is a typical unit that is included with the purchase of a variety of tents.

You can see in the image below, the complexity of the Nite Ize tensioner.  If you are not camping every other weekend and worried that you may forget how to guide your guy line in, out, over, and around this Nite Ize tensioner, then you may want to remain loyal to the traditional three-hole tensioner.
The traditional three-hole tensioner also seems to hold tightest during heavy winds, compared to other aftermarket options that might allow your guy line to slip loose.

Aftermarket options are going to cost you more money, can be complex to use, and can potentially allow slack in your guy lines.
Overall, we like the simplicity of the traditional three-hole guy line tensioner that comes with most tents.  They are easy to use, they are not an extra expense, and are effective at keeping your guy lines tight.