Mr. Heater 60,000 BTU Propane Heater on sale at Menards until 12/24/19

[gtaus]

I am freezing my bottom off here in northern Minnesota with nights getting down to -22F. My garage is unheated, and I am at an age where little things in life - like heat - are getting more important to me.

Today I bought a Mr. Heater® 60,000 BTU Portable Forced Air Propane Heater from Menards. They normally sell for $119.99 but have a mail-in rebate of $70.00 on this unit until 12/24/19. If you do the rebate thing, that brings this heater down to $49.99 after rebate. This heater has great reviews and should be more than enough needed to heat up my 2 car garage for those occasions I need to work on something during the winter months.

Anyway, the reason I post this is because my local Menards had no idea the heater was on sale and had no display of the unit on sale, just the regular price. I found the unit on sale on line - not in the weekly flyer - but it is indeed on sale (with $70 rebate) even in the store. I don't spend much time in my unheated garage in the winter, but now if I have to work on anything this winter, at least I'll be able to feel my fingers!

 

[cavemanrich]

Just a word of advice, and caution. Since this is an Un-vented heater, it will consume the oxygen of a closed garage. Read all the Cautions that I'm sure are accompanied with this unit. At minimum, have an open door, or window when using inside.
I would also suggest you have a working CO ALARM in garage as you are using heater.
I have used such heaters, Propane, and Kerosene, in the past. It was outdoors, and the warm air was directed towards me as I was working on whatever I was fixing.
I have used smaller BTU output Infra-red heaters inside garage, but the garage was also very well ventilated. I have used the kerosene heaters also. Same garage, well vented.
This one is 10,000BTU

 

[gtaus]

Just a word of advice, and caution. Since this is an Un-vented heater, it will consume the oxygen of a closed garage. Read all the Cautions that I'm sure are accompanied with this unit. At minimum, have an open door, or window when using inside.
I would also suggest you have a working CO ALARM in garage as you are using heater.

Even when my garage is "closed", it is still quite leaky. I have a small gap on the bottom of the garage doors and there is also a doggy door in the main entry door of the garage. But I take your concerns well and have already started looking for an Oxygen/CO monitor alarm.

While doing research on these type of garage heaters, I saw a YouTube video where a guy ran one of these forced air propane heaters inside a completely tight, small room (not a big leaky garage). Anyway, within mere minutes the Oxygen levels had dropped below safe levels and the CO levels rose to alarm state. What I found most interesting is that the Oxygen dropped below a level where you could remain conscience BEFORE the CO levels reached toxic states. Personally, I don't expect to be running my garage heater that long in the garage to worry about Oxygen depletion or CO toxic levels, but yes, I will be getting some kind of monitors and alarms for safety. Thanks.

 

[cavemanrich]

I'm glad you are well informed about the OXYGEN DEPLETION.
I have one time encountered Oxygen depletion inside a cave we were exploring. I have been inside that chamber many times before with no problems. In that particular time, there were many other visitors that have been inside that chamber shortly before me. They consumed the oxygen in their breathing. The sensation I felt, was that I could not get enough breath. We all exited that chamber, and all was well immediately.
BTW Caveman comes from my of exploring caves

 

[gtaus]

Just a quick follow up, I took out the heater today and got everything all hooked up to a 20 pound BBQ tank. Pretty easy to set everything up, took about 10 minutes. I started up the heater and let it run on high (60,000 BTU's) for 15 minutes out in my 2 car attached garage. Starting temp was 39F at about 5 feet off the floor. After 15 minutes, temp was up to 49F. I thought that was very good especially considering I have a high garage ceiling at about 13 feet high. We all know that hot air rises, so the hot air has to fill from the top down before it gets to my thermometer at 5 feet high. I think this summer I will put in a ceiling fan to circulate the hot air back down towards the floor. That should help keeping the garage warmer while I'm working out there.

FYI, a 20 pound BBQ tank is rated to last for 7 hours on the high, 60,000 BTU setting and for 14 hours at the lower, 30,0000 BTU setting. There is no thermostat on the heater itself, so you have to manually turn off the heater when you get the temp you want. In theory, I would use the heater to quickly heat up the garage, and then turn it off and work out there until I started to feel cool, so maybe that little 20 pound BBQ tank would last a long time.

I don't have a CO or Oxygen monitor yet, so I shut off the heater after 15 minutes. You can smell the burning propane, but it is so much cleaner than my older kerosene heater. Since I have an attached garage, I did not want to burn kerosene in my garage.

Bottom line, I am very happy with this purchase.