Anybody using a forced air heater in their home garage?

Hey guys, I'm looking to add some warmth to my cold garage. I have to insulate it better and rebuild it in the spring/summer but for this winter I want to pickup a propane forced air heater.

Electric is out of the question as I do not have 220v and those 110v heaters don't work well enough for my area.

I see princess auto has a 60,000 BTU forced air propane heater.

https://www.princessauto.com/en/detail/60-000-btu-forced-air-propane-heater/A-p8677478e

Mr.Heater also makes similar units.

Does anybody have a forced air heater that runs on propane here? Do you like it?

My garage is a 1-car detached garage and it's not huge.


Thanks

What are you wanting to use it for? I have used a variety of things in various places over the years. Wood, electric, propane, kerosene, diesel. As to what works best just depends on how much you are using it and for how long.

I had a 100k BTU kerosene torpedo heater that was powerful enough to crank my attached garage up to 100 F from 10 F in about 10 minutes, but it stunk, and most of the smell happened when you started it up and shut it off. Since it was overkill, I couldn't keep it running, but couldn't put up with the smell turning it on and off. So, I just opened the door part way. It was OK, but not ideal, and I only used it for when I absolutely had to do something in the garage.

My stationary propane radiant heater could maintain the temp reasonably enough to keep your fingers from freezing, but could not bring it up to temp nor get it toasty warm.

The propane torpedo heater was the best of both, BUT it CONSUMED fuel to the point that I sold it at a garage sale. Just was not worth the cost.

Wood heat at the farm shop worked great. But took a while to get going, and needs a LOT of extra space around it.

None of these are safe if there are lots of fumes about that could ignite.

My friend has a hot water transfer heater, that has a stove that can burn both wood pellets, wood logs, propane, and there is a setup that can also adapt a used oil burner. This in turn heats water, which gets pumped through a tube into a heat exchanger inside the building. Warm, safe, quiet, but does use lots of fuel.

One suggestion...
If you don't want to install a radiant heater due to space limits or simply want the air as opposed to stuff in the garage warmer, a wall mounted, unvented unit, typical called "blueflame" heater run on propane or natrual gas works well in a garage...some have thermostats....some don't...and take only a few minutes to shutdown/re-light when not needed.

Just as a point of reference, I have a 26 X 30 X 10 shop with a 75,000 BTU Reznor natural gas unit heater. It is more than adequate to keep me comfortable on any day in the winter.

The best part of the unit heater is it doesn't take up any wall or floor space.

Worth noting that Lowes currently has R12 fiberglass insulation on sale for 1/2 price. It's 20/bag and covers about 90 ft2.

I have a ceiling-mounted Mr. Heater 45,000 BTU forced-air natural gas heater that came set up for propane with a natural gas conversion kit included. More than enough heat for my insulated, cathedral-ceiling single car garage. I set it at 12C when I'm not in there working and it only comes on occasionally. My ceiling is R40, walls are R20 and front and back garage doors are R16. This was purpose built as a work shop.

I have the same heater the OP referenced and it works well. I use it to partially heat our detatched 28x32 unheated garage. It does Ok for taking the chill off but in no way heats it comfortably. When it's very cold it'll raise the temperature by only about 10 degrees. I use that and an 80,000 BTU contractors heater (no power required) on each side of the car but with as much mass as there is in the garage, I'd have to run the heaters for 6-8 hours to really make an appreciable impact. I also have a 2 head propane tank mounted catalytic heater I can use for localized heat but it doesn't make much difference.

One thing to note, propane puts a ton of moisture into the air, which means everything inside will be damp. It's workable but something to note. I have not had an issue with oxygen deficiency and do keep it in mind.

I used to have a 150,000 BTU oil kerosene torpedo heater and could not stand the smell. The heat was great but even running well it stunk so I got rid of it.

mrrhtuner said:

Hey guys, I'm looking to add some warmth to my cold garage. I have to insulate it better and rebuild it in the spring/summer but for this winter I want to pickup a propane forced air heater.
Electric is out of the question as I do not have 220v and those 110v heaters don't work well enough for my area.
I see princess auto has a 60,000 BTU forced air propane heater.
https://www.princessauto.com/en/detail/60-000-btu-forced-air-propane-heater/A-p8677478e
Mr.Heater also makes similar units.
Does anybody have a forced air heater that runs on propane here? Do you like it?
My garage is a 1-car detached garage and it's not huge.
Thanks

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I have a similar propane tube heater. I've used in sparingly over the years but when needed it's done exactly what I've bought it for. For what you are needing i think it would be ideal. The comments about CO are valid. I'd suggest getting a CO alarm in the garage.

I have one and used it a few times. Not a good option for a garage. Creates a lot of moisture and is very loud. Also uses a lot of propane. Had a CO detector installed int he garage when I first used it, it never went off. I stopped using it after the 3rd bottle of propane.

Now I just use a simple 110V, 1500W space heater that runs 24/7 in the winter. Keeps my insulated double car garage around 12C. More than enough to be comfortable.

I use one of these "Forced Air Kerosene Heater", can use different heating fuels (or diesel). Mine is 135,000 btu. Draw backs is the diesel smell, also nothing can be in front of it for about 4 feet or it will melt, but damn does it heat my uninsulated 24x24 garage quickly

https://www.lowes.ca/shop-garage-he...VXJ7ACh09iwWOEAQYBCABEgK_mfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I'd rather spend the extra for this as I feel Diesel is easier to get quickly, don't really like lugging propane tanks around.

steve6 said:

......... but damn does it heat my uninsulated 24x24 garage quickly.......

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This will cause condensation and make bare metal parts rust really fast. Ask me how I know. In my case it was a propane heater that produced lot of moisture but and made things even worse.

If you want to keep this from happening, the air and everything else in the garage has to warm up slowly.

imo000 said:

This will cause condensation and make bare metal parts rust really fast. Ask me how I know. In my case it was a propane heater that produced lot of moisture but and made things even worse.
If you want to keep this from happening, the air and everything else in the garage has to warm up slowly.

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READ what the OP posted. He wants a temporary solution. This is a cheap and effective temporary solution.

imo000 said:

Now I just use a simple 110V, 1500W space heater that runs 24/7 in the winter. Keeps my insulated double car garage around 12C. More than enough to be comfortable.

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Interesting.... what's your cost on that?

1500W is the same as 1.5kW?
North Waterloo hydro bills, I think our electricity comes out to $0.30/kWh....

1.5 x 0.30 x 20hrs/day x 30 days = $270/month....

or my math is wrong....

Thanks,
Peter

petee_c said:

Interesting.... what's your cost on that?
1500W is the same as 1.5kW?
North Waterloo hydro bills, I think our electricity comes out to $0.30/kWh....
1.5 x 0.30 x 20hrs/day x 30 days = $270/month....
or my math is wrong....
Thanks,
Peter

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Wife does the finances but she says it costs about $50 a month more in the winter when I have the heater on in the garage. It's not $270 or anywhere near it. If it was I would hear her complaining about it even more than the $50.

mogly said:

READ what the OP posted. He wants a temporary solution. This is a cheap and effective temporary solution.

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And so is starting a bonfire in the middle of the garage.

imo000 said:

Wife does the finances but she says it costs about $50 a month more in the winter when I have the heater on in the garage. It's not $270 or anywhere near it. If it was I would hear her complaining about it even more than the $50.

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Does the portable unit you use have a thermostat?

petee_c said:

Does the portable unit you use have a thermostat?

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The electric heater has it and I have it set to low when not working in the garage. Then when I know I will be working in there, I turn up the thermostat to full blast a few hours, or even the night before, so that it reaches around 12C by the time I'm going out to work. So technically it's not on 24/7 but had it on for days when I was working on something every evening or over the weekend.

imo000 said:

The electric heater has it and I have it set to low when not working in the garage. Then when I know I will be working in there, I turn up the thermostat to full blast a few hours, or even the night before, so that it reaches around 12C by the time I'm going out to work. So technically it's not on 24/7 but had it on for days when I was working on something every evening or over the weekend.

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ok, i can see that...

I have a big ass messy 3 car garage. I need to insulate and finish it someday....

I hope to move our house furnace out there and hang it from chains or put it on some sort of large shelf in the corner when we upgrade our home unit...

I have not moved one iota on this project though.... still too busy.

First step should be to insulate the garage, including the doors if they are not already insulated. This alone makes a huge difference. First year I've tried to heat my double car garage before insulating it and it was pretty much impossible.

imo000 said:

First step should be to insulate the garage, including the doors if they are not already insulated. This alone makes a huge difference. First year I've tried to heat my double car garage before insulating it and it was pretty much impossible.

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That's the second step,


1st step is to get off my @ss and start getting rid of junk

I just insulated my double garage with R14 rockwool. Cost me $200 in materials, and three hours of labour so far. Need another hour to finish the vapor barrier. It is a very small job that anybody should be able to do!

Silver02TDI said:

I just insulated my double garage with R14 rockwool. Cost me $200 in materials, and three hours of labour so far. Need another hour to finish the vapor barrier. It is a very small job that anybody should be able to do!

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Unless you have junk hanging from the walls already that has to come down to do it, shelving units up in front of the studs etc

steve6 said:

Unless you have junk hanging from the walls already that has to come down to do it, shelving units up in front of the studs etc

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lol I did have to remove some shelving and clean up my garage, so let's add an hour for prep.

Finished the vapour barrier last night plus my clean up - took longer than I expected to put up and tape the vapour barrier. In total, I would say it was a 7 hour job!

I use a 55'000 BTU Reddy torpedo heater in a two car garage. Add about 10L of kerosene for every few tanks of diesel to clean things up since running straight diesel all the time fowls the injector.

I crack the door a few inches with a block of wood to get ventilation, never had a problem with CO, and if you really don't like the smell just run straight kerosene all the time. Been using it for about 10 years with no issues, just had to replace the fuel filter once. No insulation in the garage either, just vapour barrier on the ceiling to contain the heat.