who heats their garage? what do you use?

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I am thinking of heating my 2 car garage.

Should I go vent free or vented?

The garage is attached and I do not want the exhaust smell in the house. Guy who sells the vent free model says I will never notice the smell.

what do you use?
 
My garage itself isn't heated, but the double-dormered upsairs (AKA Man-Cave) is. It has a wall mounted propane fired unit that works great. No blower, just convection, seems to do the job. Exhaust and intake are co-axial. It uses a pilot light, which I find to be a bit of a gas hog. If I was doing it over, I'd look for a unit with an ignition of some kind instead.
 
I have a hanging 30,000 btu vented from Menards it was about $350 I think its the way to go the vent free add a lot of moisture to the space not good for tools.
they are easy to install relatively speaking depending on where your nearest gas line is.
Like this one
.http://www.menards.com/main/heating-cooling/heater-sale/45-000-btu-direct-vent-garage-heater/p-1312847-c-6865.htm
 
I recently asked a member about his garage heater. Shoot my garage is not as cold his, but we are not used to anything at close to 30*F here.
I was going to keep my propane outside heater inside the garage, but then I thought it wouldn't be a good idea since sometimes I work with flammables in there. :shock:

this is the outside heater I have:http://www.catererspartyrentals.com/party-rentals/space-heaters/

one like this can warm up a room nicely. I have this one in the attic: http://home.dailysteals.com/
I would use this one in the garage, but my 18 month old daughter likes to hang out with me me in the garage and I wouldn't want her to get too close to it and touch it. This one really works great in the middle of a 20x20 room.
 
Peatbog said:
I have been looking at heaters also because for a gas heater I would have to run a gas line under my driveway which wouldn't be any fun. I'm thinking propane would be the way to go.
Click to expand...

I have a propane furnace in the rear bay of my garage. The room is insulated, so that helps as well, although the overhead door isn't. It was put in by the previous owner, but it does heat the bay (about 11' x 24') rather well. The biggest issue I have is the moisture. After the furnace has been running an hour or so, I get condensation on the windows and such. Its starting to soften the drywall. I'm not sure, but I think that propane may be more prone to give off moisture compared to, say, natural gas or kerosene.

All that said, I don't use it very often. The bay is mostly full with a project car I haven't worked on in quite a while. All of my bike work goes on in my basement, which has been set up as primarily a bike shop.
 
I bought a single wide mobile home electric furnace off craigslist 4 years ago for $75. Wired it in and it works fantastic! I have a detached 24x24 garage. Click the t-stat on and it will go from 25 degrees to 75 in about 30 minutes.
 
I have a electric heater from Grainger. 220V,single phase. variable BTU. Small gage wires, doesnt pull many amps at all. Works flawlwssly. Thermostat works well.Hangs from the ceiling. ,measures about 8X12x16. Thats for use in my garage.
Id worry about non-vented heater. I have a gas fireplace,non-vented,in my living room.. It picks up every solvent I spray in the garage,or anywhere in the house. and stinks. Whether it be hairspray, or PB Blaster.Makes ur eyes water. Works great toheat the house.But unvented in a garage would be BAD.
 
my current garage....weld alot. it puts off some heat...ahahahah

In my old house I bought an old steel mailbox (big blue streetcorner box). We cut a hole in the top and welded a chimney in. Welded the mail slot door shut and busted the lock out of the front and threw a fireplace grate in. We packed it with wood and lit it then left the garage for the day and let it burn all the paint off. After that we could keep the coffee hot by leaving it on the top and had a few barbq in the middle of winter.
 
I don't have a garage heater but since I have a Vermont Castings free-standing fireplace in my glassed-in back porch I feel I can chime in. We went vent-free and I kinda regret it. It's a natural gas unit and it does leave a smell in the air, mostly when we turn it on and when we shut it off. It's not real bad but I notice it enough to wonder what I'm breathing. Also, like many others have said, the humidity level gets really high in there. The plants love it but the walls of sliding glass doors get so much condensation on them that it literally drips down the glass. If it's easy enough to run a flue in your garage I'd go vented.
 
Thankfully these days I use good ol Florida sun, and it's always too hot!
But back in my Michisuck days I tried every kind of heat/heater, that was made, by far and wide the oil burner stove I had was the best. Gallon of oil lasted a week, it'd burn antifreeze once lit.
That was the hard part, getting it lit. I figured out heating the burner plate helped a bunch, gets the gasses moving.I started it in October and ran it until May, just open a door if it's to hot.
 
I don't heat my workshop but, I do work on just about every natural gas or propane appliance there is so, here's my two cents.

Any heater that uses nat. gas, propane (L.P.) or fuel oil will be using the same oxygen supply as people in the room. Make sure you have enough fresh air coming into the garage to replace the air used for combustion.

Water is a by-product of combustion. That's just like the water that comes out of the tail-pipe of a car. That "water" or condensate is saturated with all kinds of stuff from the exhaust and tends to be corrosive to metals and concrete. Same thing as acid rain, basically.

For the reasons above, I would recommend a vented heater. Also, in terms of Dollar/ BTU ratio, natural gas is usually your best value.
 
I am currently looking for an indoor heat source. It need's to be enclosed because of the combustibles near by. Anyone have any suggestions?
 
get a propane, (or natural gas) HOT DAWG direct vent heater, I have installed many of them for customers and never a complaint.
 
My old shop had a fuel oil or kero fired mobile home furnace, we put it up on a stand with a piece of sheet metal at 45 degrees under it to deflect the bottom air flow out into the room. Originally it had ducts underneath the mobile home it forced hot air thru. It had its own pump, so all I had to do was attach the fuel line to a hose that went in a container of kero and fire it up. It did have an exhaust chimney to the outdoors, and could make my garage toasty in the worse new England weather. Not bad for a $50 used heater. While I did occasionally paint in the shop I never used the furnace while there were flammable vapors in the air. Better to heat the shop up, paint, vent the fumes and reheat if needed.
 
I'm in Northern California,Way up north close to the Oregon border.
I don't experience the super cold temps that most of you do but, I'm still in an uninsulated 2 car garage.
I'm actually in the hearth industry and have considered doing a freestanding Natural gas or Kerosene stove.
But I keep firing up my trusty Barrel style kerosene heater for the last 5 years.
The kerosene can fluctuate in price at times. I have learned t buy it from a fuel supplier as it is considerably cheaper than buying it in prepackaged containers.
http://www.woodlandproducts.com/Kerosene-heaters-Kero-Heat715.asp
 
I wish the garage was heated! BRRRRR!!!
I move the tinkering down into the basement ( also not heated ) during the early winter. Once it gets too cold down there I stop tinkering all together and Jones for springtime!
Cold here in New England :eek:
 

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