How do you keep your garage warm for repairs?

Post by **vjaneczko** » 13 Dec 2011, 10:25

I'm planning on doing some repairs this winter but the garage is unheated and I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions/experience for heating a three car, non-insulated stand-alone garage. I’d like to avoid an electric heater ‘casue I don’t believe the cost-to-BTU ratio is good – but I could be mistaken. So I was thinking of the tank that fires-up the Weber grill but concerned about ventilation. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s being cold and working on a car – but I hate dying of asphyxiation even more!

Post by **JDS60R** » 13 Dec 2011, 11:50

Waste oil heater and some insulation goes a long way.

Post by **JDS60R** » 13 Dec 2011, 11:51

Or a propane burner

Post by **billofdurham** » 13 Dec 2011, 12:49

Propane heater.

One thing I have found that helps keep the garage warm is to recycle old carpets by using them on the garage floor. I just lay them on top of each other so now we are four carpets thick. One neighbour has told me that my garage is better carpeted than any room in his house.

Bill.

Post by **jblackburn** » 13 Dec 2011, 19:03

My parents have an old kerosene heater I drag down from the attic if I need to do anything in the winter. It heats up the small one-car garage side of the garage pretty well after an hour or two.

Post by **fazool** » 14 Dec 2011, 07:05

no no and no

Open flame heaters should never be used in a garage.

Garages are closed rooms, without designed-in ventilation. Your car carries 20 gallons of evaporating explosive fluid.

Three dangers exist:

1) fire/explosion - exposed flames plus gasoline supply
2) suffocation/poisoning/CO - flames eat up the oxygen in a closed space
3) burns - heaters in bad locations with exposed parts

The only RIGHT way to heat your garage is to have non-exposed heater pump heat in. The absolute best is to use how water (household baseboard heat) or a dedicated ventilated outside furnace.

That all said, the cheap easy solution is a portable sealed oil heater. These are small portable devices (you can get one at Walmart for <$50 in the housewares department). They look like a home water radiator on wheels. They have electrical heating coils inside them but are filled with oil to transmit the heat. There are no exposed flames, no exposed electrical elements.

Mine is a 1200watt. Its not enough to heat the whole 2-car garage but I turn it on in the morning and it raises the temp a bit, then I put it near where I am working and it makes the garage workspace quite comfortable.

Post by **Fish stick88** » 14 Dec 2011, 10:13

Yes the fire hazard exists. But cost effectively, that is about your only option, we heated a 30-30 room with a 75g propane tank (bigg sucker) for about 5 hours, returned to the same room and we were fine. Recommendations for fire protection is a minimum of 3 feet in all directions. Just some idea's wall mounted electric heaters are what do me good.

nepersonne · Post by **nepersonne** » 14 Dec 2011, 21:02

I actually find the halogen work lights I use to see heat things up nicely! And a long sleeve (old) jacket rounds things out.

+1 on the no open flame heaters.

Post by **Fish stick88** » 15 Dec 2011, 14:53

One thing I didn't mention, and it sounds a bit silly. But have a Hot/Warm bucket of water outside in the garage, put a garbage bag over the top, and push your hands in it. (garbage bag between hands and water) As odd as it sounds. The water will actually heat up your hand 6 times faster than if you were to let them "air warm" I have a heated garage. At the golf course I work at we have a cold storage unit where we do work in, and in the morning it dips down to the 50 degree range, which over time gets really cold!
hope that helps too!