Best type of heater for garage gym

[cwcmac]

I'm curious what other cold weather garage people do for winter months. I'm a fan of sweating my arse off when I lift so I'm not a huge fan of working through the cold.
My garage is drywalled and insulated so it can hold heat pretty well.

My decision is between just using a ceramic heater and keeping it around 60 or so (and have the heater run non-stop) or get a forced air propane heater and run it full blast for about 30 minutes prior to working out.

Anyone have any opinions (outside of telling me to quit being a sissy and dealing with the cold)

[urbanlifter]

Best $300 I ever spent on the garage gym, plan on buying a dedicated 30amp breaker for the install and the appropriate wiring. Paying a professional electrician is recommended for the install, but I was able to watch some youtube video's and pull it off myself. I had 20x20 garage with 10 foot ceilings, fully insulated walls and when it was snowing outside my entire garage was T-shirt weather in 30-40 minutes.

http://www.air-n-water.com/product/g73.html

Edit: Here is a picture for scale, it comes with the mount and they recommend a specific height but I forget. Small profile, but man that little thing puts out some heat!

[Synthetickiller]

Screw the cold! I'm with you on that. I hate lifting when it's damp outside.

If you can afford the spend money on propane, get a forced air heater. It'll run you $100 + the propane, but will run on 20lb of propane for 14 hours on low.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Dyna-Glo-...0DGP/202223041

Protip: buy a humidifier & have it flow the vapor into the exhaust of the heater. I cannot stress enough the benefits of warm air that has the appropriate amount of humidity. Excessively dry air is horrible for your health over a long period of time & makes you feel like crap in the short term.


Urban Lifter's idea is great as well.

[cwcmac]

Best $300 I ever spent on the garage gym, plan on buying a dedicated 30amp breaker for the install and the appropriate wiring. Paying a professional electrician is recommended for the install, but I was able to watch some youtube video's and pull it off myself. I had 20x20 garage with 10 foot ceilings, fully insulated walls and when it was snowing outside my entire garage was T-shirt weather in 30-40 minutes.

http://www.air-n-water.com/product/g73.html

Thanks, tried to rep but I'm on spread.

[cwcmac]

Screw the cold! I'm with you on that. I hate lifting when it's damp outside.

If you can afford the spend money on propane, get a forced air heater. It'll run you $100 + the propane, but will run on 20lb of propane for 14 hours on low.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Dyna-Glo-...0DGP/202223041

Protip: buy a humidifier & have it flow the vapor into the exhaust of the heater. I cannot stress enough the benefits of warm air that has the appropriate amount of humidity. Excessively dry air is horrible for your health over a long period of time & makes you feel like crap in the short term.


Urban Lifter's idea is great as well.

H

Thanks, I was looking at that but I read the warning and it indicated to keep 2 feet clearance on each side and the back and 3 feet in the front. Are those accurate or just extreme warnings to cover liability? I tried to rep you too and am on spread with you (damn, need to rep some other people).

I hadn't thought of keeping an eye on humidity in the winter since my concern has been keeping it down in the summer. I appreciate the heads up on that.

[Domicron]

agree with you on the humidifier. we have one for the house. it doesn't turn the house into the tropics, but it helps a little. i just need to remember to replace the water panel...

[Seatard]

You may actually need more ventilation when heating with propane. A propane heater produces H20 as a product of combustion, about .8 gallon of water for every gallon of propane.

Be careful with any ideas of adding additional moisture into a room filled with steel equipment.

[Cleveland33]

Protip: buy a humidifier & have it flow the vapor into the exhaust of the heater. I cannot stress enough the benefits of warm air that has the appropriate amount of humidity. Excessively dry air is horrible for your health over a long period of time & makes you feel like crap in the short term.

I am in the market for a whole house humidifier. I woke up so congested this morning (first night I closed the window in my bedroom) I really do want to get one installed.

I don't think it would be that hard, but I am having a hard time really finding the differences as they are not all marked the same. There are some models I like the features on, but they are way to big for my condo, but I can't seem to find the appropriate smaller model. I should probably call the manufacturer directly.

[cwcmac]

I am in the market for a whole house humidifier. I woke up so congested this morning (first night I closed the window in my bedroom) I really do want to get one installed.

I don't think it would be that hard, but I am having a hard time really finding the differences as they are not all marked the same. There are some models I like the features on, but they are way to big for my condo, but I can't seem to find the appropriate smaller model. I should probably call the manufacturer directly.

You should be able to get a simple one that can be added to the HVAC unit at your place. What's the make/model of your furnace? There are really simple add on units that just have a switch for summer and winter.

Something like this: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Honeywell...1010/100476736

[Cleveland33]

You should be able to get a simple one that can be added to the HVAC unit at your place. What's the make/model of your furnace? There are really simple add on units that just have a switch for summer and winter.

Something like this: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Honeywell...1010/100476736

See that's the thing, I have read somethings that say the drum style isn't as nice. Then there is a bypass style, but I am not sure what the other style is called.

[urbanlifter]

I have an Angie's List account, and there are frequently awesome deals on whole house humidifiers. I purchased one thru a local HVAC company for my last home because it was going to be a tight fit, it came to about $900 when it was done. Although I have seen several Angie's list deals for $399 and $499 installed that I may take advantage of next time.

[Cleveland33]

I have an Angie's List account, and there are frequently awesome deals on whole house humidifiers. I purchased one thru a local HVAC company for my last home because it was going to be a tight fit, it came to about $900 when it was done. Although I have seen several Angie's list deals for $399 and $499 installed that I may take advantage of next time.

damn - I have such a small condo, I don't think the unit will be more than $150-190 by itself.

I am checking in with my friend the rocket scientist, to see if he has any experience with them. Even outside of him, I think I can handle the install between some other friends and myself. It's understanding the differences in the units that is throwing me off.

[Domicron]

my humidifier cost me a few hundred through my HVAC guy, but it's a pretty basic model. when mine is on, you can tell in that it's not as dry as it usually it, but it certainly doesn't make the house noticeably more humid; it just takes that bite out of the dryness, if that makes sense...

[Wildtim]

H

Thanks, I was looking at that but I read the warning and it indicated to keep 2 feet clearance on each side and the back and 3 feet in the front. Are those accurate or just extreme warnings to cover liability? I tried to rep you too and am on spread with you (damn, need to rep some other people).

I hadn't thought of keeping an eye on humidity in the winter since my concern has been keeping it down in the summer. I appreciate the heads up on that.

When on high those warnings are pretty accurate. Plastic stuff within that range can start to melt. Of course on low you don't need to be as far away.

[STR8OUT]

I have a semi insulated barn (with a lot of gaps in the walls) behind my house which I'm in almost every night. It's about 20ft deep by 40ft wide with 9ft ceilings and has 3 rollup garage doors. I installed one of these 30amp - 5600watt heaters and it completely transformed the barn from unbearable to comfortable with a sweatshirt on single digit nights: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00..._detailpages00

There are a lot of 30amp heaters for sale online, urbanlifter has one. I went with the cheapest one since I didnt expect much out of it but I was really surprised at the change. You really notice it when you go outside, then come back into the barn. In a smaller garage I'm sure the change would be much more dramatic. These heaters are not quiet, kind of like a loud fan. But with music on its not noticeable. Very easy to wire yourself too.

[Domicron]

i don't understand wattage, are those pretty expensive to run? or is it not bad for just using during the workouts?

[Synthetickiller]

i don't understand wattage, are those pretty expensive to run? or is it not bad for just using during the workouts?

I did some quick googling & a 6kw AC (mostly the compressor) at full load will cost about $1.50/hr unless you live in an expensive area (poor California!).
Training for 3 hours at the most is not going to cost you more than $4. Now, if you want to run it 24/7... that's $1.50x24x30, so about $1080+ a month. You get the idea.

[daniel327]

I did some quick googling & a 6kw AC (mostly the compressor) at full load will cost about $1.50/hr unless you live in an expensive area (poor California!).
Training for 3 hours at the most is not going to cost you more than $4. Now, if you want to run it 24/7... that's $1.50x24x30, so about $1080+ a month. You get the idea.

Hopefully your appliance (AC, heater, whatever) will be able to reach the desired temperature and then cycle the thermostat on and off, thereby significantly reducing the running cost.

[rfp]

Mirnin responses itt

I have one of those 15$ big lot special box style ones. It actually keeps it warm in my 12x10 Amish shed style setup

[litljay]

I had one of those forced air propane heaters in the garage in my old house. We don't get single digit cold here (30's is a cold night for us), but that little heater could get my standard 2 car garage up into the 80's in about 15 minutes.

[Synthetickiller]

Hopefully your appliance (AC, heater, whatever) will be able to reach the desired temperature and then cycle the thermostat on and off, thereby significantly reducing the running cost.

We probably use the AC almost more than anywhere besides Florida & I can say at some point in any month, we use the AC. It cycles, trust me, lol. There's also 2 stage ACs with 2 compressors. Then there's geothermal w/ 2 stage compressors & multistage compressors, but this isn't an HVAC forum, lol.

Insulation matters more, much more in the case of AC.

[Domicron]

I did some quick googling & a 6kw AC (mostly the compressor) at full load will cost about $1.50/hr unless you live in an expensive area (poor California!).
Training for 3 hours at the most is not going to cost you more than $4. Now, if you want to run it 24/7... that's $1.50x24x30, so about $1080+ a month. You get the idea.

google, huh, what's that?

[Synthetickiller]

google, huh, what's that?

Kinda like oogling at a hot chick, but being an original G.

[big420atx]

I have a semi insulated barn (with a lot of gaps in the walls) behind my house which I'm in almost every night. It's about 20ft deep by 40ft wide with 9ft ceilings and has 3 rollup garage doors. I installed one of these 30amp - 5600watt heaters and it completely transformed the barn from unbearable to comfortable with a sweatshirt on single digit nights:

There are a lot of 30amp heaters for sale online, urbanlifter has one. I went with the cheapest one since I didnt expect much out of it but I was really surprised at the change. You really notice it when you go outside, then come back into the barn. In a smaller garage I'm sure the change would be much more dramatic. These heaters are not quiet, kind of like a loud fan. But with music on its not noticeable. Very easy to wire yourself too.

how long have you been using the heater and have you had any issues with the heater..?

[urbanlifter]

I don't have that one specifically, but for $110 on Amazon it seems pretty hard to go wrong. My NewAir G73 had been running for over 4 winters without problems, also had a thermostat but I never left it on to save on the electric bill. Each workout I would run mine about an hour total, 30-40 to warm up and about 20 minutes into the workout it would be hot and I would shut it down. The one nice thing about the G73 is that it comes with a mount and swivel, dedicated 30 AMP and wiring should only cost you another $20.

[Cleveland33]

my humidifier cost me a few hundred through my HVAC guy, but it's a pretty basic model. when mine is on, you can tell in that it's not as dry as it usually it, but it certainly doesn't make the house noticeably more humid; it just takes that bite out of the dryness, if that makes sense...

I have a small digital thermometer/hygrometer, woke up this morning at 40% humidity, now I slept better last night cause I cracked my window again (the hygrometer was downstairs).

Spoke to the rocket scientist, he had one at a previous house. His response when I asked if he, a mutual friend, and I can install - "I'll engineer the hell out of it"

Feel like I am in pretty good hands there.

[urbanlifter]

I noticed that my skin wasn't nearly as dry in the winter, and the static cling on my clothing was drastically reduced (although not completely gone). There have also been studies that show you are less likely to get sick with a whole house humidifier, harder for viruses to travel thru the moist air. FWIW

[Cleveland33]

I noticed that my skin wasn't nearly as dry in the winter, and the static cling on my clothing was drastically reduced (although not completely gone). There have also been studies that show you are less likely to get sick with a whole house humidifier, harder for viruses to travel thru the moist air. FWIW

Yea I have read a lot of good things about them - and my daughter gets semi-persistent coughs throughout the winter so I think it will help.

On the flip side, I have a room humidifier I could get new filters for and get a Frozen themed humidifier for her room and save $100.

[urbanlifter]

Very true, this is the route my wife decided we should go with our new house. Too many equipment purchases lately and new house expenditures, it is REALLY nice though not having to worry about the kids tipping over humidifiers or having to refill them.

[Cleveland33]

Very true, this is the route my wife decided we should go with our new house. Too many equipment purchases lately and new house expenditures, it is REALLY nice though not having to worry about the kids tipping over humidifiers or having to refill them.

Yea that's the rub.