anyone use a quartz style heater? (edenpure or lifesmart)

**0rion** · 01-24-2013, 03:33 PM

I'm wanting to get an electric heater for the garage. I have a propane heater in there now but I'm tired of filling bottles. I have the 2 head heater on there but only run one side on low. I've yet to see how many btu's that equals but hopefully I can stumble onto that info as it would help a lot. Anyhow....my buddy heats his office with an edenpure and I'm looking at that style of heater. Not necessarily that brand as the lifesmart seems to be pretty much the same heater at half the cost. My garage is attached, has a room above it, and is insulated (including the door). It's 525 sq/ft and all of those heaters claim anywhere from 1000-1800 sq/ft which the claims are almost hard to believe. Just curious if anyone has one and what their impression is. I don't want to buy one and have it not be enough to heat the garage. That would piss me off. It'll only be used a handful of times a year really which is why I don't want to spend $300 on an edenpure. The propane heater works fine.....just tired of having to fill the bottle.

**35th-ANV-SS** · 01-24-2013, 03:51 PM

I figured where you live and your set-up you would look into a wood-burner.

**0rion** · 01-24-2013, 03:55 PM

I have a pellet burner in the house.....just heavy as hell and not really portable. I just want something to keep us warm while we drink beer in there. Plus I would have to drill a hole in the wall to vent it and shit like that. Just easier to throw an electric one out there for the 4-5 times people come over in the winter.

**Zapper2003** · 01-24-2013, 04:29 PM

light your farts

**0rion** · 01-24-2013, 04:33 PM

Originally Posted by Zapper2003

light your farts

tried that....the wives bitched too much. Evidently they prefer their farts uncooked because they're getting the farts either way.

**1MileCrash** · 01-24-2013, 06:49 PM

i've got one. it's a nice supplemental heater for inside the house, but i wouldn't rely on it as your sole heating source.

**allbaugh_04** · 01-24-2013, 07:03 PM

I think you've thrown out the wood burner idea, but I would reconsider. There is nothing that compares to the heat wood puts off, and it's free if you just go look for it and load it up. Hell, a saturday afternoon or two will get you enough wood to last you the winter the way it sounds.

My dad burns wood in the garage. Very small stove, but that sum bitch heats it up in a hurry. If you're actually working in there, you'll work up a sweat. And who doesn't have fun building a fire. We were born to do this shit.

**35th-ANV-SS** · 01-24-2013, 07:09 PM

Originally Posted by allbaugh_04

I think you've thrown out the wood burner idea, but I would reconsider. There is nothing that compares to the heat wood puts off, and it's free if you just go look for it and load it up. Hell, a saturday afternoon or two will get you enough wood to last you the winter the way it sounds.

My dad burns wood in the garage. Very small stove, but that sum bitch heats it up in a hurry. If you're actually working in there, you'll work up a sweat. And who doesn't have fun building a fire. We were born to do this shit.

This is exactly the reason I initially mentioned it. My father has had (2) different wood burners now in his garage. I've been in Orion's garage before so I know the size. It's a little smaller than my father's garage and that damn wood burning stove had that garage steady at 78 degrees when it was 15 degrees outside. That was with the larger wood burner.

He now has a smaller one, but he added a blower to it. It works quite well and doesn't require a lot of effort to maintain or get a fire going really.

One thing I would not recommend though is cutting up a mattress with a chainsaw and burning it in the wood burning stove while drunk.

**1MileCrash** · 01-24-2013, 07:28 PM

if you go the wood burner route you need to make sure to check your local regulations and ordinances on them. if you live in a city you definitely have ordinances regulating them. typically they include where you can place them and the hook ups as well as an inspection by the fire department. just an fyi so you don't get blindsided if you put one in and then you get a fine from the city.

**35th-ANV-SS** · 01-24-2013, 07:34 PM

I'm thinking he'll be safe in that regard where he lives.

**allbaugh_04** · 01-24-2013, 07:58 PM

Originally Posted by 1MileCrash

if you go the wood burner route you need to make sure to check your local regulations and ordinances on them. if you live in a city you definitely have ordinances regulating them. typically they include where you can place them and the hook ups as well as an inspection by the fire department. just an fyi so you don't get blindsided if you put one in and then you get a fine from the city.

Small amount of work to go through, for major benefits. Even then, who is to know what YOU are doing in YOUR garage.

Originally Posted by 35th-ANV-SS

One thing I would not recommend though is cutting up a mattress with a chainsaw and burning it in the wood burning stove while drunk.

Doesn't sound like that great of an idea....

I forgot to mention, my dads garage is at least 600sq. ft of space, not insulated, and on the coldest days with the wind howling and a drift blocking the sidewalk to the house, it's still shorts/t-shirt weather in the garage.

**35th-ANV-SS** · 01-24-2013, 08:32 PM

It wasn't. The sky was filled with black soot/smoke and the flute was beat red when I walked outside to take a piss

**0rion** · 01-24-2013, 08:41 PM

na....wood burner is not an option. Just too much trouble for what I need and we're starting house hunting this year so I don't want to go to all that trouble and then either have to move it or leave it in a year. My garage is 525 sq/ft so it's hot a huge garage. Found a calculator to determine btu's you need to heat a space.....actually a pretty cool calculater. It's WxLxH which gives you cubic feet. Then you take that times the difference between 70 and your average winter low then divide all that by 55 because it takes 55 btu's to raise a cubic foot 1 degree.

25x21x10 =5250 cubic feet
5250x50=262500
262500/55 = 4772 btu's

Most of those quartz heaters are 5000-5200 btu's so they should work as long as it's not dog shit cold in which case I can use the propane one as a bumper. I don't mind running the propane but when I'm running it 12-16 hours a day I go through a couple tanks worth of propane over a weekend. Just a pain and by the time I bought a larger tank I could've just bought another heater.....tanks are expensive.
I used 50 degrees because we see 20's here pretty regularly during the winter.

**flat-top** · 01-30-2013, 05:14 AM

Kerosene heater...
I bought one used on craigslist...$50

**0rion** · 01-30-2013, 05:31 AM

I have a kerosene heater. It smells too much to burn in the garage. I got the lifesmart last week. Sucks balls. Definitely not enough heater. It will keep it in the mid to upper 50's and that's it. Back to propane. I should've just bought the 220v heater and put in an outlet. Live and learn I guess. Hopefully we build our house in the next year to 18 months. I'm having a gas line ran to that garage and putting a real heater in that one.