Recommended Garage Heater

Just wondering if anyone has had a good experience with any particular type or brand of garage heater. Most interested in a heater for use when working on bikes in the winter. Garage door would be closed.

Thanks

 

Depends if the garage is well insulated or not. If it's well built, and you've got some decent electrics available you can hang something like a Modine heater you'd see in a commercial shop, shipping dock etc... If you've got natural gas service, they make similar looking units that are essentially mini furnaces.

http://www.modinehvac.com/web/products/electric-unit-heaters/horizontal-electric-heater-her.htm

If the garage is an non-insulated shanty, your best bet is probably a torpedo heater. (either kerosene or propane) Just crack a door or window for some fresh air and turn that sucker up. Work area will be toasty in no time.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Dyna-Glo...Air-Heater-with-Run-Time-Fuel-Gauge/36889722?

 

I use a 75,000 to 125,000 BTU Mr. Heater Contractor series forced air LP gas heater and a 33.5 LB LP gas tank.

Heats my 2 1/2 car garage roasty toasty in roughly about 15 minutes. I've worked on my bikes in my garage in a T-shirt and a pair of jeans in sub zero temps with this heater.

It runs very quiet compared to my old kerosene torpedo heater and is physically smaller as well yet it puts out a ton of heat. I keep the side door on the garage open about an inch or so to allow fresh air in when the heater is running.

 

All those heaters work fine. Please pay attention to the part about ventilation and stay away from the wick type heaters fueled with kerosene. The large propane fired heaters can be obtained and sometimes even rented at a builders supply. They are very efficient and are used to dry fresh plastering, drywall and wall and ceiling texture on construction projects.

 

I have a half size ~3feet patio heater (the tall heaters with a cylinderbshape burner w/ a big round heat shield at top. Runs off the little 2lb? Propane canisters for portability or can be hooked to 20lb grill tanks or even the bigger stationary xxx gallon household tanks.

Works well for heating up to a 2 bay garage, on an as needed basis (crank it up on high , wait 20 mins to an hour, then adjust as needed. Can be left on low on really cold nights but you would want at least 100lb. tank if you were going to use it regularly during the winter months to prevent freezing in a detached garage. If you needed that type of constant heat a setup with wall thermostat may be the better option.

I also have a small (3 6"X10" ceramic bricks/burners) that can be used in a garage w/o a vent/ chimney and has jets/ regulator options for natural gas or propane.

http://m.ebay.com/itm/Homebeez-Gard...Stainless-Steel-3-ft-/262769484462?nav=SEARCH


http://m.homedepot.com/p/Reddy-Heat...Wall-Heater-with-Blower-IWH16NLTBDC/202275097

Both are more for intermittent heating I got my little patio heater for $50 on sale and gave a similar amount for my little 3 brick wall/ floor unit at a garage sale. The one in the second Link is much nicer with a blower and a better range of setting

 

i think the main choice for you is an oil filled electric radiator setup as the door would be closed.

 

I have a prety well insulated shop and have used all the above portable heaters. All have their good and bad features. I finally installed a natural gas modine overhead. I use an oil filled radiator type heater to keep things 50 degrees in the middle of winter in Wisconsin. Then, just move the thermostat to 70 and in 3-4 minutes, it's summer. Just like your furnace, it will cycle and keep you at your desired temp. The bigger construction heaters work well and heat quickly but I hated the up and down nature of the temp with those. If you like your shop, do yourself a favor and go modine!

 

You guys are great! Thanks for the good advice and merry Christmas and happy holidays.

 

My recommendation is to stay away from the kerosene torpedo types, they are loud as hell, and stink pretty badly. Combustion is inefficient.

I started with those, but wound up with a semi-stationary 96% efficient propane one, the type with a smallish blue flame line in the front, with a small fan to help circulate the heat.
Works in my shop, especially if I turn it on 20 minutes before I want to work. The shop is not airtight enough that I'd worry about oxygen depletion, but there is no CO to worry about, and the smell of burnt gas is very mild.

 

I have a used kerosine heater, that was given to me. Works fine. No stench.

Winters in Southern Indiana are usually mild. If i was serious about heat, id get some sort of natural gas heater.

 

C0 is produced from incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons including kerosene, natural gas. LPG, diesel and gasoline. The effects are insidious and deadly. What happens is the C0 molecules pass into the bloodstream more easily than do the O2 molecules and ya basically suffocate. The precise term is histotoxic hypoxia.