Garage Heaters- What's in your garage??

[EZRhino]

Great thread! I have much to add since I just put a heater in my garage.

Here's what I have:
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/...S=on&TEST=Y&productId=20858&categoryId=155628

It is natural gas, 40k BTU. To figure out what BTU rating you need (this is a very rough estimation) take your LxWxH of your garage and multiply it by 3. This will give you rough BTU's needed.

I would recommend not using electric heaters; they are too expensive to run. I personally don't like kerosene since it stinks and my wife is super fussy about "garage smells" permeating the house.

Two types of nat'l gas heaters: Forced air and radiant. The one I got is radiant. Forced air heaters heat the air, and the air heats surrounding objects. Radiant heats the objects (including you) and then heats the air after. Forced air will blow dust around the room depending on what you are working on.

My radiant heater is quiet (slight hissing sound), you can feel heat immediately up to 10 feet away or so, requires no electricity (uses milivolt pilot light/ thermocouple and thermostat), and it requires no venting (flu to outside.) The tube heaters (someone posted a pic of it earlier) are by far the best way to go in my opinion, but they start at about $1000 and that doesn't consider all the work it takes to install them.....they do have a 110v blower and they use a flu through a wall or ceiling. These are long (8-10 feet or more) so they heat up a much larger area. I could still upgrade to this type down the road if I feel like it...I've already got the gas line in, it wouldn't be difficult to run it a little further.

Downsides: My heater isn't as dramatic as I thought it would be. It does work; after 45 minutes or so my garage is very comfortable to work in with a long sleeved shirt or sweatshirt on. It is not as dramatic of a heat source as the tube heaters. I haven't really cranked up the thermostat so it gets a lot warmer than 60 or so; I need to put in a ceiling fan to circulate all of the hot air that rises above the heater and get it down lower where it belongs (I've got a 12 foot ceiling; it's a pretty voluminous area to heat.) The other thing with radiant heaters is the open flame...you gotta be sure to turn em off when you start painting or ka-boom.

Figuring out the gas lines wasn't really that difficult. Inside just use black pipe, joined with threaded couplings with Teflon tape and pipe dope. Outside, gas lines are supposed to be buried. I dug about 40 feet of trench 2 feet deep, used plexco (yellow) gas pipe and risers which came from a place in West Jordan called Maskell Robbins. Putting in the plexco was probably the easiest part. I spent $350 on the heater and almost $200 on all the pipe. I t is worth every cent!

EZ

 

[TRNDRVR]

I have the "Piss off the wife" style heater.
I get up in the morning, open up the door between the house and garage, and light a small Mr. Heater out in the garage. About an hour later it's warm enough to work out there with a flannel shirt on.
Dan.

 

[SAMI]

i use a propane heater... blasts the warmth...

 

[Shawn]

I have the "Piss off the wife" style heater.
I get up in the morning, open up the door between the house and garage, and light a small Mr. Heater out in the garage. About an hour later it's warm enough to work out there with a flannel shirt on.
Dan.

Been there Done that

 

[James K]

what I use when I work on the jeep.

 

[James K]

what I have in the shop I make money in

 

[Herzog]

I'm currently using one of those huge kerosene / deisel torpedo Reddy Heater contraptions. I think it says 130,000 BTU on the side. Yeah, it's a huge one. Warms the garage up in about 3 minutes.

I Borrowed if from a friend, the little electric box heaters just weren't cutting it. My light racks were putting off more heat than those stupid things.

 

[cyberduke]

I was recently doing some research on this topic. No the geeky side though. I called Mountain Fuel.

1) For those that don't know, Mountain fuel is no longer on a closed loop system. The result is that their gas will not have as many BTU's. For now they are adding something to bump up the BTU's, but that's only going to last until about 2008. So prior to then, everyone should have someone come out and look at your heater(s) and hot water tank(s) and adjust for the different gas.

2) Per code (I think) they have changed (and made more complicated) the rules for sizes of flues. There is a table that the Mountain Fuel guy had to lookup on what size double wall flue an 80% effecient 60K BTU furnace, blah blah blah. It may be a bit over the top, but I'm thinkin I may have someone install mine.

Just my $.02

-Earl

 

[TEAM FRED]

The high intensity radiant heaters work well for smaller garages. They are vent free but should have the fresh air louver installed in the garage above the heater, the heater is shipped with the louver.
I have a 20X20 detached garage that I heat with a 60,000 BTU heater similar to a hot dawg. It works great.
Give me a call if you have any questions on venting, gas lines or heaters this is what I do and would like to help you out.
Carl Nielson
801-940-6456
United Team Mechanical

 

[WildYoats]

The high intensity radiant heaters work well for smaller garages. They are vent free but should have the fresh air louver installed in the garage above the heater, the heater is shipped with the louver.
I have a 20X20 detached garage that I heat with a 60,000 BTU heater similar to a hot dawg. It works great.
Give me a call if you have any questions on venting, gas lines or heaters this is what I do and would like to help you out.
Carl Nielson
801-940-6456
United Team Mechanical

Great! Thanks Carl, I just may take you up on that!

 

[kirk86CJ]

Just to give an update on my heater referred to in my earlier post. I hooked it up last night and ran it. The heater puts out plenty of heat and with the blower, I think it will heat my garage just fine. I am however disapointed in the smell. I cracked my man door and still got some fumes. I will try it a couple more times and see what happens. I have been using a double burner camp chef with propane, and it didn't seem to smell as bad as the natural gas. My garage is very tight, so I think I will need to crack the door anyway.

I guess for $160.00, its worth a headache or two.

 

[EZRhino]

Just to give an update on my heater referred to in my earlier post. I hooked it up last night and ran it. The heater puts out plenty of heat and with the blower, I think it will heat my garage just fine. I am however disapointed in the smell. I cracked my man door and still got some fumes. I will try it a couple more times and see what happens. I have been using a double burner camp chef with propane, and it didn't seem to smell as bad as the natural gas. My garage is very tight, so I think I will need to crack the door anyway.

I guess for $160.00, its worth a headache or two.

Hey that is the one that I was going to get at first. Does it just sit on the floor or did you mount it?

You know what? I noticed the same thing when I first started mine up. Part of it was the heat burning off some of the dust on the unit, and also burning/melting off the sticker that was on the top side of the reflector ("this side UP" sticker ). After using it a few times it wasn't so bad. However I do have a slight "nat'l gas" odor/smell to it, even if only the pilot light is left running. It isn't so bad that it makes me open a door though. I put my CO detector in the garage to watch the levels but it didn't go up so I think I'm OK, and considering that the garage doors are far from airtight.

EZ

 

[kirk86CJ]

I hope you are right about the smell. Mine is a wall mount. They provided a hanger for the top, then I screwed in the bottom solid. They also provided spacers to keep it about 1/2" off the wall. It seems like there was an optional floor stand available.

 

[cyberduke]

I hope you are right about the smell. Mine is a wall mount. They provided a hanger for the top, then I screwed in the bottom solid. They also provided spacers to keep it about 1/2" off the wall. It seems like there was an optional floor stand available.

I believe there are some parts that manufactures coat w/ oil so that they don't oxidize while they're sitting on the shelf. It burns off after a few times of use.

-Earl

 

[richpblaze]

Exspensive?????

I was thinking the same thing...
220 volt heater, sounds like it would suck spark.

Well I don't know about you guys, but I personally have triied just about every heater on the market ( I'm in the construction business ) I will say breathing the cheap gas fumes ( propane, white gas, kerosene ) all day really sucks a$$. I would have to think by the taste AND smell breathing it all day can't be to good for your health either. So I will pay the few extra bucks a month on the power bill, my 02. Blaze

 

[Shawn]

Well I don't know about you guys, but I personally have triied just about every heater on the market ( I'm in the construction business ) I will say breathing the cheap gas fumes ( propane, white gas, kerosene ) all day really sucks a$$. I would have to think by the taste AND smell breathing it all day can't be to good for your health either. So I will pay the few extra bucks a month on the power bill, my 02. Blaze

I'm talking about Natural Gas.

No smell there and by far cheeper then electric. However, I'm also in a position to run gas lines and some may not be.

 

[Rabidray]

the old fashioned way

i losely looked the thread over and was kind of surprised to not see anyone burning wood or coal or corn for that matter.......
i have used all three of the above.......wood is the cheapest i just have too go too any fence row on the property to get it......

or do the smog nazi,s frown on burning solid fuels in utah....

 

[Coreshot]

or do the smog nazi,s frown on burning solid fuels in utah....

Yup, they keep us on a short leash when it comes to burning in the winter. If it's not your sole source of heat, quite often it's illegal to burn.

 

[Caleb]

Yup, they keep us on a short leash when it comes to burning in the winter. If it's not your sole source of heat, quite often it's illegal to burn.

yep, and not only that but its not very controllable...wood burning stoves get the place DAMN hot...and they take up floor space...

 

[RockMonkey]

Just to give an update on my heater referred to in my earlier post. I hooked it up last night and ran it. The heater puts out plenty of heat and with the blower, I think it will heat my garage just fine. I am however disapointed in the smell. I cracked my man door and still got some fumes. I will try it a couple more times and see what happens. I have been using a double burner camp chef with propane, and it didn't seem to smell as bad as the natural gas. My garage is very tight, so I think I will need to crack the door anyway.

I guess for $160.00, its worth a headache or two.

Am I the only one wondering what "cracked my man door" means?