Share your work methods of hanging a garage heater from the ceiling

Dustball · Mar 3, 2013

I thought I would start a thread for people to share how they went about putting their garage heaters in place. It's not the easiest thing to do and having the right setup makes things go much safer and faster.

I hung my heater in the garage yesterday by myself and it went very smoothly. I had some pallet racking that wasn't being used so I set it up at the right height to allow me to use a Jiffy Jack to raise/lower the heater to mark its location and to do the final install.

How have you gone about hanging your heater?

red dogs · Mar 3, 2013

We have done several at work and my drywall lift is the perfect tool for the job. Set the heater on top of a piece of plywood and up she goes.

Tre900 · Mar 3, 2013

Just did this tonight. Used a standard A-frame ladder and an 18 Y/O son. It was a total PITA.

Your way looks much easier.

fstbusa · Mar 3, 2013

Ran a 2x4 across the top of a few trusses, the ran all thread thru them to mount the bracket to the ceiling. Set it ont of a 10ft ladder.

Mine only weighs 35 lbs

bookman51 · Mar 3, 2013

Did a couple of those small 5,000 watt heaters a few weeks ago. I just through a light rope over a ceiling 2x4 and hooked it onto an eye bolt in the top of the heater and slowly pulled it up. Tied off the rope when it got close and then tied another rope on to the 2x4 I was connecting the heater to. Probably not the best way, but it worked. Working along requires some imagination sometimes.

Steevo · Mar 3, 2013

I used a "Garage Gator" electric hoist, which I modified a bit, hung from the unistrut, then removed after the heater was installed:

Tim The Tool Man · Mar 4, 2013

I suspended my 75,000 btu with 3/8" threaded rod attached to a couple pieces of uni-strut up in the rafters. I got the unit up there on my back and fought with it very precariously balanced on a ladder until I had the first rod threaded in. It was easy from there...

BTW I don't recommend this method! But if you do go this route make sure your wife isn't home to see you doing stupid things like that. Wives have no sense of humor some times!

skyking · Mar 4, 2013

I lifted my 150,000 btu with my chain hoist high enough to sit it on my scissor lift ,then drove it in place and lifted it. :beer:

finn · Mar 4, 2013

Drywall lift and aa strong neighbor who owed me a favor.

Unistrut and all thread are your friends.

Falcon67 · Mar 4, 2013

Cheater here - G73, single lag bolt in the bracket so it can swivel where I need it.

nwav8tor · Mar 4, 2013

Working alone sure is a PITA!!!

Only way I could get the job done for my 75K Mr Heater was to use two work benches one on top of the other then two small floor jacks for the final lift to the ceiling mount. Definately not the safest way to do it, but it worked!

Tre900 · Mar 4, 2013

lol - dude...that's THE BEST!!!

Steevo · Mar 4, 2013

nwav8tor said:
Working alone sure is a PITA!!!

Only way I could get the job done for my 75K Mr Heater was to use two work benches one on top of the other then two small floor jacks for the final lift to the ceiling mount. Definately not the safest way to do it, but it worked!

You win for the best Red Green solution.
All that is missing from that picture is you on your tiptoes on an upside down plastic HD bucket.

TerryD · Mar 4, 2013

Good thread to follow. I'm going to have to do this one of these days.

dave67fd · Mar 4, 2013

I rented a Genie lift for half a day. I think it was $30 and went up quick and no hassle.
I used SS unistrut just because I have a lot of it at work.

nwav8tor · Mar 4, 2013

Steevo said:
You win for the best Red Green solution.
All that is missing from that picture is you on your tiptoes on an upside down plastic HD bucket.

Remember that I said I was working alone. Nobody was around to take such a photo with me in it. It's bad enough that I took the one pic that I did to document the half-assed way I got the job done... ;-)

Steevo · Mar 5, 2013

nwav8tor said:
Remember that I said I was working alone. Nobody was around to take such a photo with me in it. It's bad enough that I took the one pic that I did to document the half-assed way I got the job done... ;-)

When I did mine, I set my camera on a tripod with is set on auto, so it would capture a picture every 5 minutes. I can't get anyone to help or take pics either.

nwav8tor · Mar 5, 2013

If I had a tripod, I probably would have tried to use it to get the heater up higher and closer to the ceiling!! :rocker:

nonhog · Mar 5, 2013

Mine looks much like Falcon67 (same heater) except mine hangs off a bracket
similar to this.

Off my post (pole building)

James-W · Mar 6, 2013

My neighbor has a battery powered scissors lift that he bought at an auction. There is a "cage" on the lift where you stand on when using the lift. I put a piece of plywood on top of the cage and then the heating guy and I lifted the Hot Dawg "modine" type heater and put it on top of the plywood. Then I drove the lift over to where we wanted to hang the heater and lifted it right up into place. Only took a couple minutes to get it mounted, the scissors lift took practically all the work out of it.

nwav8tor · Mar 6, 2013

Yeah, isn't it always easier when you have the proper tools...

Sigh...wish I would've thought to go rent a drywall lift.

Paul

mrpowderkeg · Mar 8, 2013

I will use my drywall lift

brewchief · Mar 8, 2013

We use one of these to lift unit heaters and other stuff. http://www.vermettlifts.com/512m.html

Sam Farris · Mar 23, 2013

How I went about lifting the 45,000 BTU heater into place is not very interesting because I had two people on step ladders with another person underneath to stabilize it, then used threaded rod to quickly get it into position.

Once I had it hung, then the part that I think some may find interesting is how and why I changed the mounting.....

The first day I fired it up it worked flawlessly and I was totally enjoying my heated garage. When I went to bed that night, that was a different story. Soon after the wife and I jumped into bed and were almost asleep, we were greeted with what sounded almost like a helicopter landing in our bedroom! My attached garage is adjacent to the master bedroom, and as it turns out, the ceiling joists in the garage have a direct connection into the bedroom. The vibration from the heater was being transmitted into the bedroom structure and 'lighting it up'.

One of my jobs where I work is as a 'NVH' technician and do sound/vibration testing. I knew if I could reduce the amount of mechanical coupling from the heater to the ceiling joist, I could reduce the transmitted vibration, and hence make the bedroom quieter when the heater is running.

What I did is I used looped steel cable and eyebolts to mount the heater (see picture). Because the cable is stranded, it does not transmit vibration as well as a solid rod. Also, since the cable is small and round in diameter, the amount of surface area in the cable to eyebolt interface is small, therefore minimal mechanical contact for which the vibration to travel through.

Now when the heater fires up, you hear the muffled sound of a heater running in the garage, rather than a Sikorsky touching down on the roof. :thumbup:

Sam

Vegaman_Dan · Mar 29, 2013

If I were to do this with the tools I have, I think i'd probably use four eyebolts lag screwed into adjacent rafters and four ratchet straps, one to a mounting point on the furnace. If no mounting points, then four more eyebolts bolted into the frame of the heater.

It will be a slow ratchet job to get it up there, but each strap would be under very little load, and once it's clost to your you actual mounting points, you could lift it into place by lifting one side by hand.

I'm cheap, and I'm used to working alone. You come up with solutions.

Nitsuj · Mar 29, 2013

I secured the eye bolts in the ceiling, then the ones on the top of the heater. Ran rope through the ceiling bolts, tied off to the heater bolts. Then just hoisted it up. Once it was close, I tied off the ropes to a sturdy workbench leg, went up the ladder, and lifted the heater one side at a time the last few inches, and hooked the eye bolts together with heavy duty carabiners. It sounds more complicated than it was, working alone, it took me 10 minutes. It was an old Modine 50,000 btu. I'd guess it weighed 100lbs.

SteelHorseHD · Mar 29, 2013

I just put the heater in the bed of my truck and backed it up to where I wanted it, had a buddy help me lift it into place then the wife put the nuts on the bolts. Done and done. Of course, I only have 10 ft ceilings and this is with a Mr Heater 75k, a bigger heater would be much more of a PITA!

tinner73 · Mar 29, 2013

Sam Farris said:
How I went about lifting the 45,000 BTU heater into place is not very interesting because I had two people on step ladders with another person underneath to stabilize it, then used threaded rod to quickly get it into position.

Once I had it hung, then the part that I think some may find interesting is how and why I changed the mounting.....

The first day I fired it up it worked flawlessly and I was totally enjoying my heated garage. When I went to bed that night, that was a different story. Soon after the wife and I jumped into bed and were almost asleep, we were greeted with what sounded almost like a helicopter landing in our bedroom! My attached garage is adjacent to the master bedroom, and as it turns out, the ceiling joists in the garage have a direct connection into the bedroom. The vibration from the heater was being transmitted into the bedroom structure and 'lighting it up'.

One of my jobs where I work is as a 'NVH' technician and do sound/vibration testing. I knew if I could reduce the amount of mechanical coupling from the heater to the ceiling joist, I could reduce the transmitted vibration, and hence make the bedroom quieter when the heater is running.

What I did is I used looped steel cable and eyebolts to mount the heater (see picture). Because the cable is stranded, it does not transmit vibration as well as a solid rod. Also, since the cable is small and round in diameter, the amount of surface area in the cable to eyebolt interface is small, therefore minimal mechanical contact for which the vibration to travel through.

Now when the heater fires up, you hear the muffled sound of a heater running in the garage, rather than a Sikorsky touching down on the roof.

Sam

you can put these isolators between the structure and the unit to eliminate any vibration.

Sam Farris · Mar 31, 2013

tinner73 said:
you can put these isolators between the structure and the unit to eliminate any vibration.

For those to be effective you need to know the mass of the vibration source and the frequency of the vibration you are trying to ABSORB. By minimizing the transfer path I was attenuating all frequencies transmitted to the structure. Worked GREAT!

(I do this stuff for a living)

Sam

dave67fd · Mar 31, 2013

Sam Farris said:
For those to be effective you need to know the mass of the vibration source and the frequency of the vibration you are trying to ABSORB. By minimizing the transfer path I was attenuating all frequencies transmitted to the structure. Worked GREAT!

(I do this stuff for a living)

Sam

Don't need them at all if the unit is functioning properly.

Deltarat · Mar 31, 2013

Tim The Tool Man said:
I suspended my 75,000 btu with 3/8" threaded rod attached to a couple pieces of uni-strut up in the rafters. I got the unit up there on my back and fought with it very precariously balanced on a ladder until I had the first rod threaded in. It was easy from there...

BTW I don't recommend this method! But if you do go this route make sure your wife isn't home to see you doing stupid things like that. Wives have no sense of humor some times!

Same heater,same method.

darkk · Apr 1, 2013

We had some staging we used to get it up near the ceiling then hung it on threaded rod...We used a Modine hydronic unit *water* connected to our house furnace. It's been in a year or so now and works beatifully... Here is a picture of my *sil* connecting the plunbing about a week after we installed it.

Sam Farris · Apr 3, 2013

dave67fd said:
Don't need them at all if the unit is functioning properly.

Exactly.

Sam

Kevin54 · Apr 3, 2013

I had it marked out where the lags were supposed to go and I had a buddy stop over after work one day. He held it up and I ran the lags in with my impact driver. It was a 5 minute task.

Dustball · Sep 28, 2013

Adding more ideas to this thread-

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=217441

zmaxmotorsports · Sep 28, 2013

Ive found a case 90xt skidloader to be a handy little tool for holding stuff up. :lol:

Mr onetwo · Sep 28, 2013

This tool is 1 of the great inventions of all time! :beer:

KCarGuy · Sep 29, 2013

I am one of those Guys who hates asking for help (like Most Guys)
So I made a Templet with a Large Piece of Paper, of the Size, shape and Location of Holes, of the Top of my Beacon Morris 75K Unit.
moved it around on the ceiling, until I liked the Location, and Got the Best "Bite" from the Joists, marked it, Bolted my Angle Iron to the Ceiling, Hung some Threaded Rod from That (a Little longer than I needed)
Muscled the Unit to rest on Top of the Ladder, Added (1) 2x4 under it to start the Bolts on the Threaded Rods, and simply raised it up by tightening the Bolts.
I had Locking Bolts/washers already on the Threaded rod to Jam together after It was level. and Then Cut off the excess Threaded Rod...Done!
Its now going on 6 years I think, that I have had it up and Man...I love that Unit!

wdrumheller · Nov 9, 2013

I just got three 80k btu heaters from Northern tool Mr. Heater Big Maxx versions. They arrived safe and sound.

I'm going to lift them into place with my small electric forktruck and hook them to the ceiling with all-thread.

One thing I DID learn on this thread, and this forum that is very helpful, is that I can use the UNI STRUT that I have to help with the ease of installation! Thanks Garage Journal Folks!

IMCA38 · Nov 10, 2013

Did mine about twelve years ago, so some details are a little fuzzy.
I have a 100,000 btu Hastings unit, it's pretty heavy.
Picked it up with the engine crane and raised it up as far as we could, used four full length pieces of all thread to hold it up to the ceiling. We got it hanging from the all thread, and got the crane out of the way, went up in the attic and started cranking the nuts on the all thread. Not particularly hard, but a little time consuming. Got it to the desired height, duble nutted it and cut off the excess all thread.
Now, I have a small tractor with a loader, so taking it down wouldn't be too hard.

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