Thinking about a space heater for garage this winter...

W

White95Max

New member
I washed my car in the garage all last winter about once every two days, although on really crappy days I may have washed it twice in one day! It was rough trying to wash the car when it was 10 degrees F out. This winter I plan to get a space heater to aid in warming the garage when I'm working on the car, whether it be changing the oil or detailing the car.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good space heater? I'll probably just go to WalMart and pick one up.
 
It would depend on how well your garage is insulated. I live in Indiana, my 26X30 garage is very well insulated and attached to the house but I have no heat in it. I went to Target and got two of the oil filled heaters that look like radiators. One on each side of garage. Was working in a tee shirt this past winter on even the coldest days. I have also owned the forced air karosen heaters I find the fums to be nasty smelling. Oh and this will be the third winter for the oil filled heaters and I don't plan on changing either.
 
I think I've seen those before. Are they like 2 ft high and made of 8-10 metal bars? And those heat the garage that much?

How long does it take them to heat the garage to that temperature?

How much did they cost and where did you get them?
 
Yes those are the ones, about 2'X3' with about 6 or 8 tubes. I do not remember the cost but I think like 40.00ea. I have not had to use them this year yet as a matter of fact I still have them stored in my shed, but if I remember right lets say its 25* outside I would turn them on when I wake up and could work out thier in about 2 hours in a sweatshirt. It will take several hours to warm up for the tee shirt but rermember you have to warm up the concreat also and that is what takes so long. One more thing I do not like about the forced air K-1 heates is it raises the temp so fast that everything sweats. Can make a nice detailed Harly look like crap.
 
I washed my car in the non-heated garage all winter long last year, and it would just be really nice to get the air above freezing. I thought I could wake up, turn the heater on in the garage, have breakfast, take a shower, and then go in the garage and it would be 40 degrees. That would be great. No more worrying about the water freezing on the paint. I could be much more careful about avoiding any marring during the process.
 
Funny story about space heaters. I have an old garage, unattached and poorly insulated. The only door is a double electric door that lets you in and out. I opened the door with the electric motor, closed the door with the electric motor and plugged in the heater. Before the garage got toasty the breaker tripped. Of course I was now in a pitch black room, with no power. The breaker it seems is inside the house. Trying to open a 60 year old solid wood door in 5 degree temps in the dark made me learn a valuable lesson. Just what that lesson is I cannot recall but at that time it made an impression.
 
I prefer the ceiling/mount idea. It's out of the way, it's $25.00 cheaper, and it weighs 6 lbs less. I have a 1 car garage, so space is very limited. I need to keep as many things off of the floor as I can to have enough room to move around the car. If I could hang stuff from the ceiling that helps a lot.
 
That heater from costco looks cool! Woul dit heat a partially insulated garage of about 24x28? Do they sell them at Sams by any chance, I dont have a cOstco membership? I bet that plus one of the cieling mounted units would make my garage nice and toasty during the nasty winter!
 
THe main problem with the ceiling mounted thing is that heat goes up. If you mount it on the ceiling, it will be a very inefficient way to heat the garage.



As for the Costco thing, I don't know if SAM's has them, but you can always order it from Costco.com and just pay 5% extra.
 
Heated air rises, but this heat is being radiated downward or toward the object you aim it at similar to infrared. If you direct it toward the car, it will heat the car. It's very difficult to heat a large air space with a small space heater. The most important thing to consider in this instance is safety. How far can you keep a heater from an inflamable object and still do you some good?



Here's an even better one. This one has a halogen light in it as well. I think I will get this one this time.

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/...play?storeId=6970&productId=1029779&R=1029779
 
I bought this one:



http://www.lowes.com/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=220642-234-RLP50VA



I'm pretty sure that it's the same the Northern Tool unit, only bigger.



In general, I like it. In about an hour, it heats my garage pretty quickly. Since I use Zaino products, I try to bring the garage temp up to about 70 degrees.



However, it does use oxygen (like all flames). I open the garage door about 1-2 inches and place the back toward the opening. This brings in fresh air.



Regards,



Dan.
 
It's been my experience that these types of heaters also cause a lot of condensation and are noisy.
 
I have something similar to these in my 20 x 30 foot 3-car garage (which is insulated, but lots of windows):

Heater

Lately it's been chilly at night. It will keep the garage very comfortable in the whole area. It doesn't heat the area, which rises. Instead, it heats objects (no, nothing is going to combust or anything) such as the floor, cars, etc. Powered by natural gas. Costs only pennies an hour to run. I leave it on during the day because my dogs are in the garage when it's cold out.



As far as CO2 levels, I just had the company check that. After running in my closed garage with no venting for about 30 minutes, there was less than 1 ppm of CO2. A candle generates about 3 ppm of CO2.



We left the garage open over night the other day by accident and woke up and it was about 40 degrees in there. In about an hour and a half the heater had it up in the 60s again. Really quiet to run also. Just a very subtle hiss (the gas running through the line).
 
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