Space Heater Recommendations

[Dan McEntee]

   The subject of space heaters for warming up a garage workshop or other cold work place came up several years ago and I was wondering if anybody has discovered anything new on the market? I didn't act on anything back then but am considering something these days. I currently use and small, typical electric space heater, but it is barely adequate. I set it up by the back door to my back yard, and it knocks down the chill coming through that door, and the heat carries into the garage, and after running about an hour or so, it will creep up from the normal 40 degrees or so and get into the low 60 degrees. The current that these old things draw is pretty high and it's not a good idea to run them on an extension chord to put the heat closer to where I am working. I would think technology has progressed to a point where something more efficient and effective is available these days. Several years ago several people spoke of a tower like unit  that didn't take up much room, available at Wal-Mart. Is that still about the best thing out there??

  Thanks in advance,
   Dan McEntee

[Dave_Trible]

Dan for a number of years I heated my large apartment only with OIL FILLED electric heaters and occasionally the fireplace when it got really cold.  This started when the gas company decided to turn off the gas when I was a few days late during some harder years and I was miffed enough to say leave it off for something like ten or twelve years.   It was mostly very comfortable.  BUT the radiant electric heaters are a house fire waiting to happen.  They also would draw so much current that the outlets were very hot to touch-even one wall felt very warm.   The oil filled heaters are slower to get the room warm but are much safer to just leave on around the clock as I did.  I recently had to drag them up from the basement for a few days when the furnace threw in the towel.  It also was during the coldest week so far.  We did very well for that time till the furnace got fixed.  These are the ONLY safe thing that I'd suggest for you.  I'm in the slow process of moving into a new house-and the old oil heaters are going along with me.

Dave Trible

[Bill Morell]

I use a propane heater in my shop. Always with adequate ventilation. It will run you out in a short time as it gets too hot.

[Dan McEntee]

A cow and three dogs. They give off a lot of heat. Why they are destroying the weather/atmosphere.  No honest.

   You are forgetting that termites help out a lot with that!! No ! Honest!! I read an article several years ago when all this crap started that some one got a ridiculous amount of money in a government grant to study termite flatulance !! I never ever contemplated the idea of a bug being able to fart, but that was the basic focus of the article !!

  Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee

[Ken Culbertson]

Dan for a number of years I heated my large apartment only with OIL FILLED electric heaters and occasionally the fireplace when it got really cold.  This started when the gas company decided to turn off the gas when I was a few days late during some harder years and I was miffed enough to say leave it off for something like ten or twelve years.   It was mostly very comfortable.  BUT the radiant electric heaters are a house fire waiting to happen.  They also would draw so much current that the outlets were very hot to touch-even one wall felt very warm.   The oil filled heaters are slower to get the room warm but are much safer to just leave on around the clock as I did.  I recently had to drag them up from the basement for a few days when the furnace threw in the towel.  It also was during the coldest week so far.  We did very well for that time till the furnace got fixed.  These are the ONLY safe thing that I'd suggest for you.  I'm in the slow process of moving into a new house-and the old oil heaters are going along with me.

Dave Trible

I would agree right up to the point where one of my oil-filled heaters from WalMart caught fire (exploded) and burned down my house and shop along with my entire fleet and 60+ years of plans and templates. 

Ken

[Dave_Trible]

Gee Ken!  I used them for years with no problem-still would.  You must have had a bad one.   I'm sure I have a couple here at least 20 years old.

Dave

[john e. holliday]

I have a wall mounted natural gas heater I got from Sutherlands years ago.  Keeps the shop warm except last week when temps and wind got the outside temps below zero.  The doors I have on the shop now do not insulate that well and the way things are piled up the air doesn't circulate that well.   

[Norm Faith Jr.]

What Dave said...I've been using the oil filled heaters for years. I have one in the shop and my green house. You can safely run them on a long 12 gage extension cord.
Norm

[wwwarbird]

 Space heaters are a bad idea, unless you spend EVERY moment right there to monitor it, including during cool down. If you want to spend real time in your shop commit and plumb in a small gas heater of some sort. I really don't want to hear about your house fire. 

[Dave Harmon]

   Several years ago several people spoke of a tower like unit  that didn't take up much room, available at Wal-Mart. Is that still about the best thing out there??

  Thanks in advance,
   Dan McEntee

Hi Dan....that was me and I posted the model number etc.
The same units are still in the shop running right now....well....I have them set for 65 degrees so they run whenever they want to. I don't use extension cords though.

Every time I go to Walmart I usually go right past that dept and look at what's available....haven't seen anything different other than cosmetic changes trying to make people believe that there is something new.
The vertical oscillating tower with blower still seems the best way to go.

If you want to buy a few of them go to the Walmart online site...usually there is a better selection and you can have them free delivered to your nearest store where you can pick them up.
Regarding the oil heaters.....I had 3 of them and I gave them away.

[dale gleason]

FWIW....My family spent three years in Japan and enjoyed on-base housing for most of those years. Our quarters had no heating systems, so we used the oil-filled electric radiators and they worked well. Never a problem unless the electric supply failed.

I have used these heaters in the basement and garage since 1985, keeping fingers crossed.

dg