Need help with heater dilema

[jam022316]

Hi all. I have a 400 square foot insulated garage with osb walls and ceiling. I was looking at getting a 45k btu vented natural gas heater for it for around $450. I got to looking and I can get a salamander kerosene heater that puts out 125k btu for half the price and it's got wheels and everything.

Can someone point out advantages/disadvantages of just using the kerosene heater in the winter? Seems like a no brainer having so much more btu and not having to permanently install and vent a heater for double the price. But there's that old sang you get what you pay for, so I'm in a real dilema.

Any insight you all can give would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Jim

 

[D.J.]

pros - none
Cons - kerosene stinks, expensive, hassle to fill heater, spills, some containers to haul it in, etc.

Just my opinon!

Yes I used it in a former house and mobile home when I was a younger man!

Investigate a good natural gasw or propane model heater for your garage!

 

[jam022316]

Thanks for the feedback. I was curious about the smell. Is it anymore expensive then natural gas?

 

[Milton Shaw]

You will get a lot of moisture from the heater with the fumes also. It really needs to be a vented heater to keep CO and moisture from being a problem.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

In a closed 400 sq/ft shop with a salamander heater (torpedo heater, whatever you call it) you will be dead in a couple of hours. I have one and have used it for years, but always for short periods of time and with lots of outside air coming it. Last winter I used it while I was assembling my used oil furnace, and had headaches a couple of times when I spent a couple of hours in the shop. This is a 60x60 (3600 sq/ft) steel building with 16 ft eaves and 21 ft peak and some pretty good air leaks around a couple of the doors.

A wick type kerosun heater is different. They will burn clean, and if working properly, produce no measurable CO (ALWAYS use a CO alarm when using any type of space heater like the wick type or the salamander type). The wick type also has little to no smell, and is of course, noiseless. The torpedo heater is loud and you will grow tired of it in a few minutes.

If you haven't priced it, K1 is more expensive than diesel.

Charles

 

[jam022316]

Thank you all for the sound advice. You've talked me out of it. Looks like I'm going to have to pony up for a real heater!

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Thanks for the feedback. I was curious about the smell. Is it anymore expensive then natural gas?

Yes. A Lot more. Like more than twice as much.

Phil

 

[HoosierBuddy]

A wick type kerosun heater is different. They will burn clean, and if working properly, produce no measurable CO (ALWAYS use a CO alarm when using any type of space heater like the wick type or the salamander type).
Charles

Charles,

You are of course correct in normal "home type" circumstances, which assumes adequate, CLEAN, combustion air is available for the ventless heater. However, in a garage, you have a lot of times when you are working with solvents like paint, thinners, solvents, glues, etc. What I found, when using a ventless fuel burning heater in the garage, I would get horrible odors coming out of the heater where it was sucking in contaminated air, burning it, and blowing the byproducts into my general direction. After a couple of hours of that, I'd start to get kind of dizzy. It can't be good for you.

Phil

 

[Milton Shaw]

If you have a flame type unvented heater and release of refigerant and other vapors will create a hazardous breathing mixture. 22 years ago found this out in a house with a heater sitting in the kitchen and I released freon 12 to replace a compressor. (Legal then no recovery required).