Propane wall heaters

[sinkrun]

Anyone on here have any advice or opinions on one of these for a 2 car garage? I am trying to decide on a wall mount or a torpedo heater.

[Regger]

can't say much about the wall mount units, as I've never used them before. But I do have tube style heater. I can't remember the size, but its meant for the standard BBQ size bottles (20lbs). Its about a foot in diameter, and about 2-3feet long. It has a plug in fan that must be on before you turn on the propane.

The unit works good. Heats up the shop pretty good, so that I can get away with just wearing a sweater and being comfortable. For my garage, (20'x20') I think I have it on for about 15mins at a time. otherwise it gets too hot in there. For my shop (24'x30'x11' ceiling) I'll have it on for about 30mins before turning it off. Each place I have it off for about 30mins before turning it back on.

The only real downside I have with it, is that it is real loud!!! It gets a little annoying after a while. Especially if your just wrenching and not using any power tools. You'll get used to it after a while.

One thing to be careful of though, is I was working under my jeep one winter in the garage, and had it aimed under the jeep about 5' away. Well after about 20-30mins of it on, the garage was nice, but I couldn't touch anything metal on the jeep as it heated the frame up so much that I could barely touch them with my bare hands. So watch where you point it, as it does it metal up fast.

I would the nice thing about the portable units compared to wall mounts, is that they are portable. So you can move it around the shop to where you need it the most, or where you can muffle the noise the most.

Either way you can't go wrong with having some heat in the garage during the winter months.

 

HTH

Ryan

[Automan2164]

I use a torpedo heater, except I have a multi fuel, so I run it on some of the cheapest stuff I have. Diesel. It heats up the garage quick, and it hardly uses any fuel. The GF says it makes me stink, but I like diesel exhaust, so I don't even notice it.

 

Rob

[500 MJ]

I use a torpedo heater, except I have a multi fuel, so I run it on some of the cheapest stuff I have. Diesel. It heats up the garage quick, and it hardly uses any fuel. The GF says it makes me stink, but I like diesel exhaust, so I don't even notice it.

 

Rob

 

You DO stink.

[HOrnbrod]

You DO stink.

 

:rotf: Way back when in the USN I was stationed on the SS-350 Dogfish, one of the last diesel subs on the East Coast. No matter where I went, and how much I scrubbed, everyone within 20' of me knew I was a off one of the pigboats. Didn't bother me though. 8)

 

Back on topic: I use a propane radient 3-element wall unit with an optional thermostat to heat my 30'x24' garage. While it's not super cold down here we go a few weeks at a time when it's well below freezing. It's a 30K BTU unit, and I light it off about 30 minutes before I go in and it's nice and toasty, kicking on and off using one element to maintain the temp. Used very little fuel, and I don't stink diesel now. :cheers:

[Boots]

My dad has a little kerosene torpedo heater we use to heat the shop (haven't hooked up the real heater yet), it works good but is very loud. Like we have to yell at each other if were more than a couple feet apart. Puts out some good heat though.

[btm24]

Could you just stretch the AC/heat and add a vent or two in the shop? Or is it to far from the house for that?

 

Brandon

[glundblad]

You DO stink.

 

:rotf: Way back when in the USN I was stationed on the SS-350 Dogfish, one of the last diesel subs on the East Coast. No matter where I went, and how much I scrubbed, everyone within 20' of me knew I was a off one of the pigboats. Didn't bother me though. 8)

 

Back on topic: I use a propane radient 3-element wall unit with an optional thermostat to heat my 30'x24' garage. While it's not super cold down here we go a few weeks at a time when it's well below freezing. It's a 30K BTU unit, and I light it off about 30 minutes before I go in and it's nice and toasty, kicking on and off using one element to maintain the temp. Used very little fuel, and I don't stink diesel now. :cheers:

 

Hi Pigboat. I kinda like that. :rotf:

[sinkrun]

Glad you guys mentioned the stink as the house is attached thru a breezway to the garage so that would not work. I talked to a guy about running hot water pipes to the garage and he thought with infrequent use it would not be a good idea but could be done.

[dasbulliwagen]

The livingroom in my house is a converted carport, and it came with a natural gas radiant wall unit. We used it a couple times and combined with a ceiling fan it heated the 600 sq ft room nicely. A propane unit should do the same. Just make sure you use a fan with it to circulate the heat better.