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Garage Heater

Discussion in 'General' started by svracer22, Dec 14, 2020.

  1. svracer22

    svracer22 Well-Known Member

    I'm in Michigan and now that its starting to get cold I'm thinking about upgrading my garage heater. I have a 20' x 20' workshop with 9' ceiling fully insulated and drywalled. I want to replace the current 30k btu ventless heater with a unit heater that vents up through the roof. I already have the vent and natural gas line, I just need the heater. I'm thinking 50-60k btu as this isn't a space I heat all the time so I want it to warm up fairly quickly.
    I was originally looking at the Mr Buddy Big Maxx and Moline Big Dawg units but both brands got awful reviews.
    I'm leaning towards the Reznor 60k btu unit but can't find any reviews on it.
    Can you recommend a quality ceiling mount natural gas unit heater. Thanks.
     
  2. skidooboy

    skidooboy supermotojunkie

    for that size, a 30k unit is plenty. i have a 22x24 insulated garage and the 30k ventless, will drive you out of the garage on high. your results may vary. Ski
     
  3. Banditracer

    Banditracer Dogs - because people suck

    :stupid:
     
  4. Sabre699

    Sabre699 Wait...hold my beer.

    30,000 btu's ought to heat up a 20' x 20' with no problems.
    That size is rated to heat 1000 sq. ft. with a 9' ceiling.
     
  5. svracer22

    svracer22 Well-Known Member

    Yes, the current 30k btu ventless heater is plenty but the vent style is only 80% efficient and I don't want less btu than I have now.
    The Reznor is offered in 30k, 45k, 60k...
    I'm more interested in if this is a good brand or are there other brands I should look at.
     
  6. GRH

    GRH Well-Known Member

    I have a Reznor 30k btu in a 24'x24' insulated pole barn and it has no problem heating the building
     
  7. svracer22

    svracer22 Well-Known Member

    How long have you had it? Any issues with it?
     
  8. Kurlon

    Kurlon Well-Known Member

    The efficiency rating doesn't reduce the BTU output. It just means it's doing more work to hit it's 30k btu rating than the ventless has to do.
     
  9. j cal

    j cal Well-Known Member

    This heater and a fan heat up my 600 Sq ft semi insulated garage pretty quickly. I'm in Michigan also

    Sent from my SM-N981U using Tapatalk
    [​IMG]
     
  10. Sprinky

    Sprinky Well-Known Member

    My garage is 20x30 with 10’ wall height and 14’ center height inside. My Modine Hot Dawg 45k gets it warm quick. I bought a low temp thermostat so I keep it around 40-45 when I’m not out there. I’m in Wisco so same type of weather you get.
     
  11. svracer22

    svracer22 Well-Known Member

    How long have you had it? Any issues? They don't have the best reviews.
     
  12. DBConz

    DBConz Registered Idiot

  13. bullockcm

    bullockcm Well-Known Member

    My family has 4 of the Reznor heaters in a number of shops/garages. Zero issues, all are between 5-8 years old.
     
  14. GRH

    GRH Well-Known Member

    around 5 years, had a 45k Reznor unit in there before that, both were given to me from a business doing some demo work, the units were used very little if at all, I just had to convert them to propane. The 45k unit had a big squirrel cage fan on the back and it was loud when it kicked on. I swapped it out with the 30k unit that had a regular fan that's whisper quiet. Both heat the building fine, no issues with either, they are fairly small and hung from the truss with 3/8" all thread. The building is pretty well insulated, the biggest heat (cold) sink is the concrete floor.
     
  15. lopitt85

    lopitt85 Well-Known Member

    You guys make me feel inadequate with my heating, lol.

    I'm in Wisconsin and use a simple electric ceramic heater from Walmart. I turn it on a couple of hours before I want to go into the garage, and even during the dead of winter I was able to get a comfortable 55-65 degrees in the garage. I also angle a box fan up towards the ceiling to circulate the air and help warm the whole garage. 2 car garage, insulated and dry walled. Simple, easy and comfortable.

    I use this. I'll set it on auto at 45-50 deg and leave it there to cut the chill out of the air. Then a couple of hours before I want to work in the garage I'll crank it up to 65-70 and have a comfortable working temp in shorts and t-shirt.

    Screenshot_20201214-110305_Chrome.jpg
     
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2020
  16. pickled egg

    pickled egg Tell me more

    Here comes the bubble burst...

    Reviews are essentially worthless. All these heaters are made from the same crappy components, they’ll all suffer the same failures at roughly the same time in their life expectancy. Inducer fans, control boards, limit switches, gas valves, blah blah blah. They’re easy to fix and parts are cheap, and the new parts will be just as craptacular as the ones that failed.

    Buy a spare igniter and flame sensor so when they DO fail, you don’t have to freeze your tits off waiting for the replacement.

    Otherwise, buy whichever one tickles your pickle or punches your prostate, no judgment. ;)
     
    CRA_Fizzer likes this.
  17. GRH

    GRH Well-Known Member

    I learned this with my outdoor boiler. The damper AC solenoid seems to go bad at the worst possible time so now I keep a spare in stock, hasn't failed since of course
     
  18. joec

    joec brace yourself

    Reznor makes good stuff and easy to get parts for..I seem to replace an occasional inducer motor but otherwise they seem to tolerate dust, overspray, and every thing I can seem to throw at them.. This year the guys next door said they had a colony of house flies move into thiers. So when they started it we had fly issue in the building for a bit. I just picked up a 200,000 btu radiant space ray for the shop.. Still working on installing but I hear good things. I'll Be ditching the reznor hopefully.
     
  19. svracer22

    svracer22 Well-Known Member

    So there is no difference between the Mr Heater and Reznor? Even with the Reznor costing more than double. What about customer service and spare parts availability?
     
  20. JBraun

    JBraun Well-Known Member

    Modine and reznor make a better heat exchanger and cabinet than the off-brands, but as @pickled egg pointed out, none of the parts are any good. You will have failures no matter what. Upside to major brands is that parts are easier to source.
     

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