Buy Camco 57331 Olympian Wave-3 3000 BTU LP Gas Catalytic HeaterCamco 57331 Olympian Wave-3 3000 BTU LP Gas Catalytic Heater Product Description:
- An ideal primary or secondary heating source
- Wave-3 heaters operate on low pressure LP gas, and can be wall mounted or used as a portable
- Equipped with a safety shut-off valve to help prevent accidental non-ignition fuel discharge
- Adjustable from 1600 to 3000 BTUs per hour
- No electrical drain or battery connection
Product Description
The Camco Olympian RV Wave-3 LP Gas Catalytic Safety Heater is an ideal primary or secondary heating source. The heater operates on low pressure LP gas and can be wall mounted or used as a portable. It is equipped with a 100% safety shut-off valve to prevent accidental non-ignitions fuel discharge. The built-in automatic Piezo electric spark starter will last for 20,000 starts. There is no electrical drain or battery connection. The Wave 3 is adjustable from 1600 to 3000 BTUs. Catalytic heating is 99.98% efficient (flame type heaters waste up to 45% of all heat produced), resulting in a more efficient and low-cost heat.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
58 of 58 people found the following review helpful.
By T. Miller
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 fan in these forced air furnaces are noisy, use alot of 12 volt battery power, and the furnaces use 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 [...] ) 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", 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!UPDATE: Dec 2012We're still using the Wave 6 heater after 6 seasons. Still love the thing. It still runs all night long, while we sleep. I wound up making "thumb screws" that allow me to take the feet on and off faster. I install the feet at the beginning of each camp trip, and take them off on the final day of the trip, and the heater just sits out of the way on the counter during the day. The thumb screws are just 5mm allen head "bolts" that I threaded into 5mm wing nuts. I tightend the allen head bolts really tight into the wing nuts, so the wing nuts make it easy to spin the bolts through the legs and up into the heater's threaded lugs. Hope that makes sense.To give an idea of how little propane these heaters use, we had an 8 day camp trip this year, and only used 3.8 gallons of propane. That included about 10 days of running the refrigerator, and 8 days of cooking 2 meals per day on the 3 burner carry-out stove, and using the Wave 6 from about 8pm each night, until around 6am the next morning.
55 of 56 people found the following review helpful.
By lb311
My little travel trailer came without an LP Furnace. I originally thought this would be a huge drawback and prevent me from dry camping...until I discovered the Olympian Wave 3! What a fantastic little unit! It's every bit as powerful as a forced air 12000BTU LP furnace, however it has some big advantages-- 1. it's completely silent. No loud blower motors to wake you up every time they turn on; 2. it doesn't require any battery power (an LP furnace won't run if your battery dies); 3. it's smaller, lighter, and portable than an LP furnace; and 4. With a hose and leg accessories, you can move the heater around to wherever you need it.The only disadvantage is that there's no thermostat control-- you only have two heat settings (low and high) that stay on as long as the unit is on. But since it's more consistent radiant heat, once it warms the interior, you can maintain a consistent temp inside by just adjusting your windows or roof vent.Unlike cheaper catalytic heaters such as the "buddy" series or the Coleman "cats", this one uses much less LP per hour (since it uses low pressure LP rather than high). It also works in higher elevations (where the others can't operate above 5000 feet or so).Highly recommended product that will last you for years!
49 of 53 people found the following review helpful.
By Beady Gal
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.
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