Looking for help on selecting garage / shop heater?

[noyu]

Hi,

A good friend of mine is shopping for heater for his double car garage and the size is roughly 20' by 20' with 10 feet height.

He was thinking of getting the ReddyHeater (vent free) natural gas unit and was wondering if anybody has experience with this brand and how safe / reliable for those vent free units?

Here is link to the heater:

http://www.reddyheat.com/productType.cgi?type=1&target=10117.1.1-&sub=10117

Any input will be very much appreciated.

 

[porcupine73]

The thing I don't like about ventless heaters is they put a lot of moisture into the air, which isn't good for tools or metal work, etc.

If the garage is insulated at all, a 60k btu input I would guess would be adequate for toronto temps. If not insulated/drafty a 75k btu input might be better suited.

 

[sneezer41]

With what natural gas is doing, buy the best you can get. There are condensing hot air furnaces on ebay for under a grand, plus the install is cheap because of the PVC pipe for exhaust

 

[arthur1920]

The thing I don't like about ventless heaters is they put a lot of moisture into the air, which isn't good for tools or metal work, etc.

If the garage is insulated at all, a 60k btu input I would guess would be adequate for toronto temps. If not insulated/drafty a 75k btu input might be better suited.

insulated 2 car in New England, 45,000 btu is enough. Got a Modine separated combustion heater...but an easier install is a through the wall heater, like they put in house trailers. Separated combustion (intake air from outside, heat exchanger) costs more but I was afraid I would blow myself up.

 

[porcupine73]

A typical 60k btu input garage type heater would have maybe 45k btu output. High efficiency unit could easily be worth the $ over its lifetime with energy costs.

 

[noyu]

Thanks for all the input!

My friend likes wood working and occasionally will use the garage as his workshop for his projects but primary will be using for parking so I assume he don't want to spend a lot money to heat the place.

I think he already set his mind on a Freddy Heater (the vent free) because he only need to heat the garage 5 or may be 10 times a year during winter months so I'm just trying to gather as much information for him as possible.

I know he told me he's looking for something around 30000 btu which I know is not a big heater but for his purpose it should be okay because he just need to bring up the temperature a few degrees to a comfortable level so he can build things for his house or helping friends here and there.

 

[porcupine73]

Sounds good. In that case maybe a dual head type infrared heater that mounts on a 20lb tank would suffice? I use that in some garages, I just put it on a small luggage cart so I can wheel it right where I need it. Home depots in the Buffalo area anyway (just over the border!) are closing out this kind of heater at 1/3-1/2 off (as of a couple weeks ago anyway.......)

 

[noyu]

Sounds good. In that case maybe a dual head type infrared heater that mounts on a 20lb tank would suffice? I use that in some garages, I just put it on a small luggage cart so I can wheel it right where I need it. Home depots in the Buffalo area anyway (just over the border!) are closing out this kind of heater at 1/3-1/2 off (as of a couple weeks ago anyway.......)

Thanks for your suggestion!

I know which one you're talking about and I know he has a single head unit run off a 20 lbs propane tank but both he and I are concerning about the carbon monoxide issue if running that heater for any extended period of time and he done some research on those "Vent free" heater and according to his findings they are supposedly emit no or extreme low emission.

I think he's more or less more comfortable with a natural gas fixed vent free unit due to the convenient on not having to refill the tank plus the extra safety.

What do you think?

 

[porcupine73]

I don't know; I mean typically CO is from burning the fuel without adequate combustion air. The LPG tank top heaters are an infrared style, not unlike the larger indoor unvented infrared styles you can buy. I haven't looked at specs for how much co those put out etc. One thing with unvented ng appliances is any contaminants in the ng, you end up breathing. Not a big deal in all areas, but I remember seeing some issues in california where there certain amounts of benzene in the natural gas...... certainly yes not having to refill tanks is nice, but from his usage it sounds like maybe he would go through two tanks a year?

 

[noyu]

Thanks for your reply again!

I guess the decision is upto him so will past along the info will find out what he think.

I learned a lot from this forum when I did my epoxy garage floor so I'm just trying to see if I can help my buddy out on his heater selection.

Thank you all again and have a great weekend!