Review on Texsport Sportsmate Portable Propane Heater for Efficient Outdoor Heating by Shawn Tolbert

I used it twice for camping but it stopped working properly so I returned it. For those looking to buy this and wondering how it works, it's pretty straightforward. First you hold the valve open to allow the propane to flow into the heater and light it yourself with a lighter. After a minute or so, a small heat pipe connected to a thermocouple inserted into the heater should be hot enough to hold the valve open so you don't have to hold it any longer. The problem occurs when it's very cold outside so you have to leave it on for 10 minutes or 1 or 2 minutes instead. Also, it's not very wind friendly and when the heat goes out it loses heat quickly and you have to start over. After several uses, my thermocouple stopped working. Even after holding and injuring my fingers because the manual button has a very stiff spring, trying to hold the manual valve button for several minutes still didn't hold the valve open by itself. I even moved the lighter to the other side of the heat pipe to "encourage" the valve to stay open. Vain. Sent it back and got a Little Buddy heater.