Hi guys. We bought our new-to-us Puck just before Christmas 2019. Parked it in the drive, covered it up and there it has stood ever since. Wet weather, floods and a pandemic put paid to all our plans.

Mustn’t grumble, I caught Covic19 and spent 8 days in intensive care and caught bilateral pneumonia to boot. For an old, fat, asthmatic it could have killed me so I am grateful to have things like the caravan to worry about.

We plan to use the little van all year around as we do Viking re-enactment, I decided to purchase a Carver 1800s from FleaBay and finally fitted it last week. Lock down and working from home has its advantages. Please don’t panic, I am an agricultural engineer with C&G qualifications and lecture on health and safety, so think I know how to install a calor gas heater without blowing myself up.

Anyway, having placed sandbags around the caravan, put blast tape on the house windows and made the wife and dog duck in their foxhole, I lit the heater. It worked perfectly first click. Plenty of heat, no funny smells and the CO meter detected nothing.

BUT, the base of the heater got hot after 20 minutes, With the pressed steel cover removed I could not keep my hand on it. Is this normal? There is no carpet under the heater but I did leave the original vinyl floor covering in place under the heater. I am maybe being over cautious, but I am not sure how hot the base should get. Have had similar heaters in other caravans over the years but never removed the cover and felt the temperature of the base.

Any help or observations very welcome.

Steve

Thanks Randa France, read that with interest. I am very conscious of the risks of Propane. For twenty years I owned a sailing boat and the horror stories of gas collecting in the bilges until one day the whole boat blows up. A similar boat to mine did just that in Scotland, if I remember correctly a family of four were killed outright. In a caravan I suspect fire is a bigger risk (Plenty of holes for heavier than air gas to escape) , hence my concern about the temperature of the heater base

Thank you. Good idea, a thermal barrier, just the job. Probably overkill but think that’s the way to go maybe.