Coleman Focus 5 heater

Does anyone know where I can get one of these units or at least a replacement burner? Coleman Propane Radiant Heater
Focus 5 Model 5440-751

as far as i know, coleman has sold out all of the burners. i did get one a few years back. a friend of mine tried last year to find one and coleman told him that they were all out of them and there wasn’t going to be any more. i only use mine in the deer stand now. hopefully i will get another 10 of so years out of it.

Hello:
I realize this is a 10 year old post im replying to but you can get your coleman focus burner rebuilt by myself.
I have been rebuilding the focus 5 burners for several years and they are rebuilt back onto your original burner tube assembly with a 3 layer high temp stainless steel mesh to add additional strength to the burner bulb for rough handling the original burners didn’t have.
There will still be small round hole in the back side of the burner bulb just like the factory original burners had that allows oxygen into the bulb for proper burn.
I have listed and sold these on ebay as well so if you saw the auction for a rebuild it was most likely myself eklb.
I repair the coleman focus 5 and 10 heaters for just about any and all issues including low dull burn patterns or even leaky on off lo hi regulator controls.
I have not all parts but quite few new parts and even some used good tested parts so as long as its not a crushed heat shield or carry handle or the main chassis itself I probably have what you need as of 1-12-2016 .
Inventory changes so even if you need a carry handle or chassis or heat shield it wouldn’t hurt to drop an email asking because I might have it .
Normaly its cheaper if you send just your burner and tube assembly since shipping should easily be covered at aprox 5 dollars to and another 5 back.
However if you don’t feel comfy disassembling and reassembling the focus 5 heater then by all means ship the entire heater and ill gladly do it for you myself but the aprox ship to and return runs aprox 15 dollars each way so your spending 30 dollars in shipping alone but if you mail just the burner tube assy at 5 each way youd spend 10 dollars rather than the 30 so save a 20 dollar bill if you can or like I mentioned mail the entire heater.
y fee for the rebuild of a focus 5 burner is 25 dollars plus return shipping of 5 dollars if tube assy otherwise if entire heater then 15 dollars.
I’m the fellow others have mentioned elsewhere on the internet from iowa rebuilding these burners and heaters.
I can email pictures of a 3 layer stainless rebuild if you email me at my email address to your email address.
These are profesionaly rebuilt and I have not seen anyone else as of today rebuild one as factory looking as I can.
Others have used stainless steel screen and a hose clamp but it normally doesn’t last and well honestly looks too tacky for my wants.

Ok the contact info ;
[email protected]
The name is Eric
Thank you for taking the time to read.

eklb

You just made me feel old.

Eric,

I attached a pic of one I picked up on Craigslist last Summer for $5. Looked brand new out of the box but I noticed a hole it the screen. Thought it was weird because it has so few hrs on it.

Is this the “factory hole” on the screen you are talking about with these heaters?? Man, these heaters are nice and I can see why guys like them so much.

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kwp wrote:

Eric,

I attached a pic of one I picked up on Craigslist last Summer for $5. Looked brand new out of the box but I noticed a hole it the screen. Thought it was weird because it has so few hrs on it.

Is this the “factory hole” on the screen you are talking about with these heaters?? Man, these heaters are nice and I can see why guys like them so much.

kwp- hole is normal I have on all 3 of mine, I was really bummed when Coleman stopped producing these.

I stocked up, have 3. Would take north of $200 to get one from me but even then not sure I would part with one. They are easily the best, most efficient and portable heater ever made.

Read up on the lawsuits and deaths attributed to this heater and you will easily see why they ceased production. I had one. Every time I went out with it I came home with headaches. Didn’t think anything of it at the time. Fast forward to a year ago I wanted to fix it up to give to my nephew who is getting into ice fishing. I realized I needed some parts so I did some searching and while I couldn’t find parts I found TONS of issues. I threw it away immediately.

Hello kwp
Yes that is the factory round oxygen hole needed for proper burn.
I bought out colemans remaining repair parts for the coleman focus 5 and 10 heaters aprox in 1990 since it was obvious to me back then it was going obsolete.
I do have several new parts for the coleman focus 5 and 10 heaters yet today including factory burners but as mentioned above they go so dang high on ebay when one shows up.
However I have successfully rebuilt the burner with a high temp stainless steel 3 layered mesh for factory burn results several years back and rebuild aprox 50 or so a year with no complaints but high praise.
Wish I had the know how to post a rebuild picture here as it will convince you just how profesionaly they are when compared to a factory burner.
I have already since just posting this yesterday received 3 requests for info and pics and do expect they will follow through with rebuilds.
[email protected]
Thank You
Eric

suzuki wrote:

You just made me feel old.

suzuki wrote:

You just made me feel old.

suzuki wrote:

You just made me feel old.

Hello Suzuki
Yeah im picking on you a bit here with 3 times qoate but hey im old too but ill bring up this :
Getting old is a benefit denied many so im HAPPY AS CRAPPED DEPENDS DIAPERS WITH A CANE CUZ YEAH STILL ALIVE ABOVE DIRT !
Laughing with you not at you friend
Eric

You guys piqued my interest. Now, I need to score one at a garage sale!

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

You guys piqued my interest. Now, I need to score one at a garage sale!

Here’s a picture of one…Coleman quite making them in the mid 90’s. New they were about $15 and now sell between $75 and $100 used (or more) on Craigslist or EBay. Super simple design and easy to use. Really kick out the heat too. Kind of a cult following in a way. If you are looking at garage sales try and get one with electronic ignition (red button on top like the pic below).

Here’s one on Craigslist for $100 right now. Some guy will pay it.

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/dak/spo/5401763770.html

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Hello:
Or consider having the electronic ignition added to your coleman focus 5 heater.
I do have the factory new components at this time to add electronic ignition to one with out.
Thank you.
Eric

Pretty sure I have a focus 5 sitting on the shelf that I haven’t used in about 7 years. Should probably put it on ebay.

John Schultz wrote:

Pretty sure I have a focus 5 sitting on the shelf that I haven’t used in about 7 years.

I’ll give you $5 for it.

The prices that people want for “vintage” Coleman stuff on Craigslist is so ridiculous! Seriously. I see lots of stoves and occasionally lanterns at garage sales for under $10.

Eric Tomlinson wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>suzuki wrote:</div>
You just made me feel old.

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>suzuki wrote:</div>
You just made me feel old.

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>suzuki wrote:</div>
You just made me feel old.

Hello Suzuki
Yeah im picking on you a bit here with 3 times qoate but hey im old too but ill bring up this :
Getting old is a benefit denied many so im HAPPY AS CRAPPED DEPENDS DIAPERS WITH A CANE CUZ YEAH STILL ALIVE ABOVE DIRT !
Laughing with you not at you friend
Eric

All good. I just couldnt believe how long ago I started this post. I was trying to help a friend find parts for his. He raved about it.

Hello;
Just had a email describing a burn issue with a coleman focus 5.
The gentleman in his words described the burn as a flame so sorta lead me to reply with my description as a mostly yellow lazy flame burning on bulb but raising up many times with a burn sounding extremely quiet and no sound of the pressured hissing burn normaly heard on a properly functioning focus heater.
His reply to the question was yes that’s exactly his burn pattern.
He was asking if it needed sent in for repair or if he could fix it himself.
Answer to that is yes you can fix that problem yourself and its not needed sent in to me for repair unless youd rather I did it.
Heres whats most likely happened and hes checking to confirm this is his cause of the bad burn pattern.
Now im assuming your burner bulb is in good shape as in no burnt thru screen with only a small round factory oxy hole in it which is normal.
Spiders are attracked big time to the odor of propane and if heater is stored in spider areas and or not stored in a garbage bag tied shut to keep spiders out the spider will enter into the case insides and go straight to the burner tube opening that rests on the regulators on off hi lo controls output fuel stub that inserts into the rear of the tube through two oxy ports that you will see these if youll look closely.
The spider after entering these oxy ports will build a sticky white egg sack that plugs the tubes insides to the burner which causes improper oxygen to fuel mixture while restricting the normal propane pressure thus producing the non hissing lazy lifting ball of flame.
You simply need to remove the burner tube and assy and with a wire for example pull the spider egg webb sack which in all my years of repairing these heaters has yet to be more than just a few inches into the tube and easily seen and never yet have I run into one so far into the tube you couldn’t see it.
Don’t try blowing compressed air into the end of the tube to clear as this will blow the webb sack further into the tube down into the difuser which youll be able to see inside the burner bulb if you look through small factory oxy hole in bulb or look through the screen.
If you blow the webb sack into the diffuser then it will be next to impossible to clear even with a torch flame in attempt to burn it clear as this will normaly heat burner screen and burn a hole through trying to clear it.
So do pull it out the back manualy and reassemble and test and youll see the factory proper burn pattern restored.
Tp disassemble heater take the burner heat shields wire guard off then remove the screw holding the on off hi lo knob off the shaft and watch for the spring under the knob so you don’t lose it.
Then you will see a large smooth knurled retaining nut that you unscrew releasing the on of hi lo control regulator.
Now be warned the burner bulb if factory will be fragile since its been fired up and used so only grab the burner tube and while pulling down the on off hi lo reg control into the inside of the heaters case wiggle and pull the burner out through the front of the heat shield while pulling down on the on off hi lo regulator control so you can look inside the tube for the webb sack.
After doing so if your still wondering if its clear = Plug the two oxy ports on the rear of the tube with your fingers and put tube in your lips and with a very gentle amount of breath blow through the tube and you should feel no air restriction and easily blow through tube with pretty much no force needed to do so.
If you found a webb sack then rest assured that’s more than likely your problem and clear the tube reassemble and test and be prepared for a proper burn pattern once again.
If still a bad burn pattern then you probably need to consider sending it to me for a on off hi lo reg repair to correct burn pattern.
If this turns out to be the case then consider mailing only the burn tube assy and reg on off hi lo control to save on shipping costs as those will be the only items ill need to do repair and test before mailing back.
Have a great day and even better one tomorrow
Eric [email protected]

Thanks for the info Eric…I think I will store mine in a bag now to prevent spiders from taking refuge in it.

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

You guys piqued my interest. Now, I need to score one at a garage sale!

Hello Ralph:
yes you do need to score a coleman focus 5 heater as you will be impressed.
Also took interest in your avatar picture
YOU ALSO NEED A GIRL FRIEND !
Fish are great but ?????
Obviously funning with ya here so laughin with you not at you.
Eric

LOL. Married with two kids, Eric.

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

LOL. Married with two kids, Eric.

Doesn’t mean you still can’t use a girlfriend Ryan.
DT

Hello
Deer tracker you done gonna done get Ralph boy hurt with that idea.
His wife the 5 star general chief in commander of the war dept gonna will get him hurt with that option.
But yeah still want girl friend just cant reach an agreement my general will sign – I know cuz I been workin on it for 38 years now and she wont budge not even negotiate
Shes stubborn you know just like that kim yung un dude over in north korea and I told her so.
I got about six more weeks of healing but im getting better
Eric

Hello:
Just an update.
I have had requests for just the burner rebuild for backup fix it on the spot.
Ok heres what I came up with.
I CANT bend the burner tube assy as its an odd size tubing that I have not found to even try bending the tube which was why I wanted the original factory tube to rebuild the 3 layer screen design im now today doing for more robust durability for rough handling which was superior in strength compared to the factory single screen build.
Im now offering a single screen high temp stainless steel burner screen built on a 3/8 inch pipe bushing that after you remove your old burner and hub and inner diffuser screen you simply thread back on over the old threads that will be ruined since they will be dang near welded on due to high temp use but the ruined threads are no issue as the bushing will recut new threads as you thread it back on.
Or go ahead and cut new threads with a 3/8 inch pipe threader to make it even easier but its not necessary if you don’t have a threader.
Id consider using a hacksaw to cut two saw cuts in the hub to just short of the tube assy and split the hub leaving threads as pristine as possible.
But be aware if you cut factory hub off I can not rebuild it as factory looking as hub is gone and your now stuck with bushing rethread build type from here on out but not a problem here for future down the road rebuild if by chance it needed it years down the road.
I personaly like the clean looks of my rebuild on the factory tube but the bushing design isn’t bad looking and if you want a standby emergency repair burner that you can put on yourself right away without mailing me your tube assy then heres my option for your consideration.
I have in earlier years built this same single screen design and I have yet to have one come back for rebuild in over 10 years so its good too but 3 layer is much tougher robust in strength but bushing is larger in diameter so single screen works out with a cleaner cosmetic look but if your not concerned I believe I could do a bushing 3 screen build but itll look odd due to thicker screen on bushing making it larger in diameter at hub area which ill need to check that the heaters with electronic ignition wont get out of alignment for electrode to screen arc for spark ignition.
If 3 screen on bushing is too thick and its needed to bend electronic ignigtor to clear the thicker 3 screen design on a bushing then its possible youll have too far gap opening to arc the burner screen and that in my mind might be the problem with electronic ignition models that match light models wouldn’t have the issue since match lit anyway.
But I can check it out if you don’t mind bulkier looks but consider the single screen bushing build if electronic ignition as I do have proven 10 years plus on the single screen design.
So for a standby emergency do it yourself repair part it a good option.
I do have picture of the bushing design and i can email anyone interested.
Ill do a bushing single screen rebuild for 25 dollars plus shipping which id qeuss would be 2 dollars to most so call it 27 total.
If someone could help me out with posting my pictures by accepting my email pics and putting them up here so I can explain the designs id greatly appreciate it.
Im admittingly not the best at computer skills but dang good at electronics repair/licensed masters electrician/ licensed HVAC repair tech and obviously mechanical repairs and so forth.
But computers seem to dislike me and I hate my computer but it works just need to get used to it.
Thank you for reading my misspelled mess
Eric [email protected]

CaptainMusky wrote:

Every time I went out with it I came home with headaches. Didn’t think anything of it at the time.

I have one and love it… but do be smart. These things are not safe in a tightly enclosed area. Need plenty of ventilation.

Chuck Melcher wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
Every time I went out with it I came home with headaches. Didn’t think anything of it at the time.

I have one and love it… but do be smart. These things are not safe in a tightly enclosed area. Need plenty of ventilation.

Hello:
Agree with you 100 percent on your posted info.
But just adding that any and all gas fired heating units whether it be a coleman focus or mr heater ect needs well ventilated enclosures to be on the safe side.
So just my opinion that im in the belief a coleman focus is yet today the best simple design to be had over other heaters.
For example take a mr heater and let the wind blow on it with the clam shack open to do whatever it was you wanted to only find the wind had blown out the pilot flame on the thermo coupler and no heat which is an all too common complaint that the focus 5 doesn’t do.
Or take a oxygen sensitive heater high up in the mountain on a cold heat needed day only to find the heater doesn’t work well or many times wont work due to lower cold oxygen situations – you don’t have that issue with a coleman focus heater .
The coleman focus heater does have its draw backs but others experience the same issues given the same conditions and an example would be lower heat output when the 1 pound propane bottle frosts over from high demand use that causes chilly propane which in turn doesn’t expand as fast as it did when first put on heater but that too can be overcome and solved by converting over to a 10 pound pancake propane bottle or even a 20 pound bottle by giving the propane additional area to expand even though slower into thus providing the needed fuel to still heat up to specs on those colder days a 1 pound bottle fails to provide.
But that’s true for all high performance heaters too so its equal in that respect.
There is another draw back that being if you accidently kick over the focus five heater then raw liq propane can enter into the burner and flame up rather viciously since liq and not metered vapor.
Most heaters do not have a anti liq flow safety device to prevent this but some do and obviously the coleman focus 5 does not have one.
In my testing of purposely turning a coleman focus 5 upside down to cause the liq flame I found the 5k metering orfice to be small in size that it actualy helped quite a bit in controlling the flame out to the point that if you kept your cool you could easily set it back up and it normaly corrected the flame back to a normal burn and that’s assuming it didn’t start anything on fire of course.
But do that upside down liq burn test on a coleman focus 10 heater that puts out 10 thousand btus over the focus 5 heaters 5 thousand btus and yopu have a rather nasty flame that’s out of control and probably best to vacate the area as that flame is not a good outcome to deal with.
You can still turn heater back upright to solve it but its a flame youd best be looking at safely if that’s even an option to flip it back upright and its probably going to certainly start canvas burning now with the flame a focus 10 puts out in my testing.
Might even consider etching this into the grey matter for future kicked over heaters.
Its been noted that if you kick one over and immediately set it back up that many times the liq hasn’t reached the burner yet but will eventualy but you’ve already uprighted it and backed away and pointed the burner in a safe direction to hopefully prevent and fires with the most certainly coming flame but itll be much smaller an issue since you reacted immediately with no hesitation.
Not recommending this option to everyone but those of you with cool thinking heads heck yeah go for youll prevent a bigger issue.
But one advantage a focus heater has is its base is a pretty decent foot print to keep it upright .
But you can eliminate the accidental kick over a heaters liq flame potential by simply having a converted fuel line on the focus heater and then attach that to a squatty 11 pound pancake refillable bottle that’s so short and bigger around that youd actualy have to personaly pick it up and turn upside down to get the lig fuel issue and with todays anti liq fuel valves required by law you still cant get liq into the fuel line as the liq anti flow valve will shut down preventing this and what little liq might get by will simply evaporate in a 10 ft fuel line so no liq flame = problem eliminated.
But as wisely mentioned above do make sure you have some ventilation or at least know that if your eyes start to water or feel iritated or your feeling drowsy or even for you guys and gals with copd or other heart breathing issues that if you start feeling short of breath you need to step outside freeze yer butt off get some fresh air now then get some badly needed ventilation in the shelter and go back to fishing and now be on double guard for symptoms just in case you didn’t get enough ventilation into the shack.
I need you people alive to keep these heaters up and running so use a lot of common sense with this and youll be returning home everytime complaining or boasting bout the days outcome on the fishing
As stated above if you have an issue with a coleman focus 5 or 10 im likely to have your answer and or repair you need.
So do feel free to contact me if only for info as im perfectly fine with giving any and all info if itll help you fix it yourserlf.
Be aware I bought out colemans focus 5 and 10 parts when they advised they were discontinuing them and being discarded per the liability issues in the near future so I jumped on it and bought the parts so I just might be the best supply of parts and options for repair youll come across.
And certainly the best rebuild option that im aware as of this posting.
Im not in this repair mode on focus 5 or 10 heaters to make a big profit its more of a hobby and like to help out when and where I can.
Simple as that.
Thank You
Eric [email protected]

Hello
Still repairing and rebuilding coleman focus 3 / 5 / and 10 burners.
Email address has changed to
[email protected]
Thank you
Eric

New email address for coleman focus 3 / 5 / or 10 heater repairs including burners. [email protected]

Looky what I just scored at a garage sale! $10, and it even included the hose for hooking it up to a big propane tank.

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!! Sweet find Ralph!