Propane heater -- questions!

[igxqrrl]

Hello, I'm planning to install a propane heater in my garage, along with a 500 gallon tank. The garage is 30x30 with a 12' ceiling. Is a 75K BTU unit the right size?

In the past I've used a cheapo ventless unit from Home Depot, a propane unit and a diesel/kerosene unit. They produced a tremendous amount of humidity. I assume that a vented unit will not have this problem?

What is a good brand? I've read about lots of problems with the Big Maxx heaters, but they're also the most affordable. I'll happily pay extra for a trouble-free heater, though.

Thanks for any help!

 

[walrus]

How much insulation, where do you live, how much do you use the shop, will it be heated all the time. You need to do a heat loss calculation, how many doors, how many windows, etc.

 

[a3tripod]

I have a 30x22 garage with ~10' ceilings. Walls are 2x6 with R19. The ceiling is insulated using R30 under two layers of 5/8" fire-rated gypsum. I'm using a Redi-heater torpedo style propane heater that supposedly ranged between 50k - 100k BTU. I live in Iowa (temps in the teens) and use the heater for about 10 minutes at a time. In 10 minutes on the lowest setting, the garage it hotter than the interior of my house. I can start to see my breath after about 25-30 minutes of it having been turned off.

Don't know if that helps you or not.

 

[sledzz]

75k will work fine. I have a similar size with 2 big windows and a 10x12 garage door with 3 windows and my 75k heats it fine. Get as much insulation above the ceiling as you can.. I also have a 500 gallon tank but this cold weather is draining it faster than I want so keeping it turned down util it gets warmer out!

 

[Shocker]

It does seem that the Big Maxx heaters have issues sometimes out of the box. I have hung mine and just need to get the rest of the exhaust done.

It seems like the circuit boards can be bad out of the box, but Enerco gets it fixed fast.

Maybe they had a bad run on those boards.

 

[Chetter]

My garage is 32x24 with 10ft high ceilings and I use the 45000 btu big maxx heater and it is all I need to heat the garage very nicely. IMO the 75000 may be overkill for your size garage. I've had mine now for 2 years and yes I had a board problem that they, Mr Heater, took care of pronto and was no big deal to change. I told them I thought pre-ignition blower was a little noisey and they sent me a new one of those as well but I haven't installed it, I'll keep it for a spare. I think Mr Heater does a really good job of trying to take of their customers and given the heaters are mass produced with parts manufactured in China, there are bound to be some that have minor problems and I would be willing to bet that all brands of heaters have "made in China" sub-assemblies in them. It is without a doubt nice to have a warm dry garage and tools that are not all sweaty and rusting as well as car adn truck that are completely melted and dry.

 

[hammlm]

75K will do the trick. Maybe overkill, but you never know.

I have a 1220 sf shop, 2/3 of one wall shared with the house, the rest 2x6 with R-19. Ceiling is R-30, but tempered living space above. Only 100" ceilings. 2 garage doors (insulated), 2 man doors and three windows. The 75K keeps it at 59* running 2 times a night unless it's in the teens and then it's three times. It also can get it up to 70* quickly----it will cycle until it gets the slab temp up, but once it does, it can hold those temps with very little run cycle too. It's a bigg max. knock wood, no problems.

 

[nehog]

Hello, I'm planning to install a propane heater in my garage, along with a 500 gallon tank. The garage is 30x30 with a 12' ceiling. Is a 75K BTU unit the right size?

I heat a 30 x 60, steel insulated building in NH with 200K BTU. Only heat when working, and 200K will bring the temp up to an acceptable level in about 15 minutes! A 500 gallon tank is huge, but if you can afford to fill it, that's great. Probably would not buy gas more than once in a year.

In the past I've used a cheapo ventless unit from Home Depot, a propane unit and a diesel/kerosene unit. They produced a tremendous amount of humidity. I assume that a vented unit will not have this problem?

Vented heaters are much better. Unvented heaters dump a ton of water in the air...

What is a good brand? I've read about lots of problems with the Big Maxx heaters, but they're also the most affordable. I'll happily pay extra for a trouble-free heater, though.

Thanks for any help!

Oops, I was thinking of going with a Big Maxx myself, now you have got me worried!

 

[Friartuck]

Peter Hipson,

Could you tell me more about the rotary lift that you include in your signature page? I would have e-mailed/contacted you directly, but your webpage contact form is password protected.