While hot tenting may sound like a youthful euphemism, it means using a heater in a tent intended for camping. While some may point out that cold temperatures are easily handled by a correctly rated sleeping bag and sleeping pad, what they might forget to mention is that this method becomes less comfortable the colder it gets. That is especially true with lightweight mummy bags and small inflatable sleeping pads and even more the case for people who toss and turn. If through any point in the night any part of your body is uncovered by the bag or uninsulated from the ground you will soon know it. Often, people don’t have sleeping gear rated for colder temperatures. Further, pets, children, or inexperienced campers struggle with the sleeping bag method even more.

I want to make clear, however, that camping with a heater can be dangerous and you must research and accept the potential issues for yourself. If you’re in a campground with electric, you are probably safer with an electric heater. Even then, you can catch your surroundings on fire. Having a nylon tent that will melt instead of burn is ideal along with keeping your items and bedding well away from the heater. You might consider having a knife in your tent to cut yourself out quickly if necessary. Heaters that run off of propane, wood, or other forms of combustion have further issues such as carbon monoxide poisoning and asphyxiation.

When choosing your tent for hot tenting, you should choose one larger than normal to provide space for your heater and a safety buffer around it. Of course, tent manufacturers are famous for overestimating the number of people that can fit in their tents. On the other hand, the bigger the tent and, especially, the higher the ceiling the harder it will be to heat. I like using cheap tents from Walmart for this purpose and these lower the barrier to entry when you’re not certain what will work for you and reduce the loss if you melt a hole in your tent. I’ve used both the teepee tent and the cabin tent labeled under Ozark Trails. The main advantage of these tents is they are relatively large, have sturdy poles, and the roof shape sheds snow. The disadvantage of these tents is that the shape of the roof/walls gives up a fair amount of space and collects heat near the pointy roof. Dome tents provide more headspace, but I would expect the Walmart’s versions to quickly collapse in the snow or poor weather.

For Veteran’s Day weekend, I drove up across the Mackinac Bridge camping a few nights. The advantage of hot tenting became clear. On a holiday weekend, I was the only one camping a free campground on a stream a couple hundred yards from Lake Michigan. Yet, I was plenty comfortable in 30-40 degree weather. I chose to use a cot in my tent with egg crate type padding and a foam insulating pad along with my wool blankets and a standard pillow. I lay some sleeping bags on the ground for my dog to sleep on. The heater I used was a ‘Buddy’ heater. While this heater is more expensive that shop type models, it has additional safety features such as low oxygen shut off and shuts off readily when shaken or tipped. I kept the heater on ‘low’ the whole time but for very low temperatures a ‘high’ setting is available.

You can run these heaters on 1 lb propane tanks but they will likely run out through the night. Instead, a 20 lb grill tank lasted me two 8 hour nights with probably a night or two to spare. The propane tank should be left outside so that way a leak won’t lead to propane collecting inside the tent and exploding. These hoses are available in sporting goods sections and you can run them through the electric cable port found on many tents. If this port isn’t available, you can zip the door closed all the way except for the final inch and run the hose through the door. The picture below shows the hose running through both options.

As an additional failsafe, I left my front window entirely open. Generally, both CO poisoning and asphyxiation happen due to reduced air flow. To be honest, however, my cabin is way more airtight than any tent and I heat this with both wood and a propane heater without issue. Further, many tents are essentially screens with a rain fly above them allowing air through all around. But considering that the weather was relatively warm and the tent is a very confined space, I didn’t take any chances. Again, you should make your own safety decisions based on your own research and your own judgement. Other tricks include using a fan inside the tent which both increases air flow and makes the heat more even. The teepee tent is especially susceptible to the heat gathering near the top and I’ve found through experimentation that pointing a fan downward on low setting leads to a higher temperature lift from the heater than the high speed setting. Finally, using smaller tents on dry days, you could consider putting a spare blanket over the top of the tent for more warmth with less fuel burned.

Hot tenting has great advantages and I’ve done it on trips in Michigan, Wyoming, and Alaska. You save money on hotels and stay closer to nature while providing more comfort to yourself, pets, and others. You can generally keep a tent designed for the summer pretty warm with a propane heater achieving room temperature or above. I’ve found that even in the bitter cold you can take the edge off the weather and make yourself much more comfortable using additional blankets or sleeping bags even if you can’t achieve toasty room temperatures.