Reviews > Health & Safety > Emergency and Survival Gear > Coleman Exponent XtremeCat Heater > Jodi Cornelius > Field Report

Date: December 10, 2005

My Background: I have been backpacking for 3 years now and before that I car camped quite a bit. I consider myself somewhat new to backpacking and am on my way towards becoming a lightweight packer. I tend to use a Hennessey Hammock since my only tent is a bivy tent. I prefer the hammock to a tent as the hammock leaves me swinging gently in the breeze with no hard spot from rocks on the ground. Nor do I need to dig troughs for my hips and shoulders (side sleeper) so I can practice LNT (Leave No Trace) much better.

Field Testing: For more in-depth description of this heater, please check out my Initial Report. To date I haven't been able to use the heater very much due to hunting season. I have been lighting it and testing to see if the catalytic action part of the heater starts working the way customer service said it would.. So far, I still notice that one side is hotter than the other side but it still puts out a nice amount of heat so I'm hoping that by the time I am able to get back out again, it will have evened out. But even if it doesn't, I think this heater is working well enough to generate warmth as needed and stated by Coleman.

At this time, I have lit the heater approximately 15 times, leaving it to run anywhere from a half hour to just over 2 hours and it appears to be working okay. Sometimes, I find I still need to hold the knob for longer than the 10 seconds that the manual states. These times seem to be diminishing, though, and it is my hope that before too long, this "defect" will disappear all together.

Also, after all this time, there is still some fuel left in the original canister which pleases me immensely! The burn times that I have had at this time are close approximations to what I will be doing out in the field. The only thing that will be different (and I expect it to make some difference but not a huge one) is the heater wasn't in the cold during this time. That could, I suppose, cause it to burn more fuel. However, I am not conversant on how catalytic heaters work in this regard and have read nothing to tell me. As a consumer, however, I do not need to know how it works in order to know that it does.

Continuing Test Plan: Temps from now on are going to be in the low 30s F (-1 C) to possible lows of -5 F (-21 C). This heater will be used in altitudes ranging from 1640 ft (500 m) to 2480 ft (756 m). The testing time will see a range of weather from nice sunny days to almost blizzard conditions. There will be wet, heavy snows along with light, fluffy snow. I am hoping to be able to get out in all types of conditions in order to give this a good testing. I am expecting to get out at least 4 more weekends for overnighters before the end of this test and am planning on taking these trips when these conditions are met - otherwise, I'll get out as I can at different overnight temperatures.

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Reviews > Health & Safety > Emergency and Survival Gear > Coleman Exponent XtremeCat Heater > Jodi Cornelius > Field Report