Cold-weather camping has two competing needs and usually two pieces of gear to meet them. You want hot food, and you want to not be shivering while you eat it. Carrying a stove and a separate heater is heavy and awkward, especially if you are walking in or sitting in an ice shanty where floor space is measured in inches. One item that does both jobs is the obvious answer.
This unit does both jobs from one body. Run it as a burner to boil water and cook a meal, then use it to push heat into the space around you. Nine thousand BTU is modest by household standards and deliberately so: enough to cook on and take the edge off a small enclosed space, without the bulk of something you would end up leaving in the garage.
The whole design is built around portability. It packs down small enough to drop into a pack lid or a gear bucket without planning your load around it, which is why it makes sense for backpacking, ice fishing, hunting camps and the emergency kit that lives in the trunk. Set it on a flat surface, use it with ventilation, and treat it like any gas appliance. Keep it clear of anything flammable and never run it in a sealed tent.
Reviews below include verified buyers of this exact item from before it joined the REIDWOOD kit, plus REIDWOOD customers as their gear gets out there.