Story by Alex Embry |

February 6, 2020 |

Hey everybody! Welcome back to Wayfarer Vans HQ where it is our job to eliminate all confusion about up fitting your van.

And, today we’re going to talk about heat and what we do to keep warm in the cold so stay tuned.

All right, so we have recommended the Mr. Buddy Heater in the past and we definitely want to pay tribute to that unit. It is a great little guy to kind get you off and gone as kind of a starter accessory.

However, if you’re ready to take your winter camping or your cold camping in the next level we want to recommend the Olympian Wave3 Heater.

So, why do we recommend the Olympian Wave3 over the Mr. Buddy Heater? Well, most importantly this thing is much more efficient than the Mr. Buddy Heater.

It gives off more of a radiant sort of ambient temperature rather than Mr. Buddy is kind of a flame heat so it’s super intense and the consumption in propane and oxygen.

So, we can run this thing all night long knowing that we’re not gonna run out of propane and then also knowing that we’re not gonna run out of oxygen either, which we want to make sure we were waking up in the morning.

But, anyways, this keeps it nice and warm, we can wake up, be comfortable, or just keep it warm in the van if it’s pretty cold out.

Let’s talk about performance since the Olympian Wave3 gives off more of a radiant, ambient heat you can expect it to keep the van about 28 to 36 degrees warmer on the inside of the van versus what’s happening on the outside.

For example, we went off on a ski trip and woke up it was two degrees in the morning but about 36 degrees on the inside of the van so for those of you who are kind of used to you know putting on a sweatshirt and being out there in the cold.

That difference makes a huge impact on your camping out in the cold. Also, keep in mind most of you are probably not going to want to go out camping in two-degree weather.

So, if you think you know thirty-four or maybe just above freezing is your absolute baseline, then this thing’s gonna keep it nice and cozy in here for you.

So, let’s just briefly talk about the components you need to get this thing set up for yourself. Of course, the Olympian Wave3, that can be wall-mounted which is really nice because you can mount it just directly to the boot box here.

And then you have a simple 22-inch propane hose or LP hose with the regulator on it, and we picked up a great little 5-pound propane tank from Ace Hardware and that thing full, which is I think a gallon and a half of propane, will last you three full nights with this thing blasted on high.

So, of course, you don’t have to go with this but this is just how we have set up and it’ll get you rolling. Okay, so two more components that you should consider in order to really kind of contain that heat inside your van that the Olympian Wave3 is putting off.

The first is this insulated partition that we make and sell here in-house.

And second, is these insulated panels that go right over the windows of the passenger and driver side doors, also for the front window.

It’s made by WeatherTech and they peel off nice and easy here, so anything that you can do to keep cold from permeating through the glass is muy bien.

So, we hope you enjoyed that video on heat and what we do to elevate our camping experience in the cold and make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Because we’ll be coming out with other gear reviews, product reviews, and things that we do, tips and tricks, you name it. So, stay tuned and we’ll see you on the next go-around.