Anyone have a Reznor propane heater?

[Lewis Cobb]

Sorry...it's another shop heat thread here

The 4800W 240V "electric box" in the corner of the workshop will get me by for this year...that's what I have been saying for the last 3 years actually. However, the idea of having a big 'honkin propane heater in the corner near the ceiling has been getting more attention as the temperatures drop lately.

I took a look around locally for someone that might sell the Hot Dawg brand from Modine but have not located anyone yet. But I did come across someone that can source the Reznor equivalent and it looks pretty good from a cursory glance.

Does anyone have one of these units and can they comment on how well it works, ease of installation, special venting considerations etc? I think 45000 BTU will be more than sufficient for my shop - it's 21' x 21' with 10' ceilings. Based on the heater that I have at the moment 4800W is about 16000 BTU so I'd be jumping up with 2-3xthe heat output with 45000. Maybe 30000 would be sufficient but better safe than sorry.

Thanks for any tips and comments people can supply.

Cheers from up here in Canada,
Lewis

[Bill Blackburn]

Having had both the HotDawg and currently the Reznor in 45K units I think they are basically like Shop Fox and Grizzly

I believe the Reznor to be a bit more efficient based on what my useage has been but so many factors like inconsistent weather, etc it's hard to say. Minus 20 is minus 20 but .... winds can change the whole picture as I am not 100% airtight and do open doors.

Guess I would look at the prices - and if close it's a toss-up but I'd go Reznor myself. Both excellent units

Venting -- I have in upper corner and thru the ceiling currently but will be reconfiguring and going straight back and out the wall when I redo this. Both units pretty simple in hookup - I used copper all thu until I hit the regulator and black piped about 2' from there. They both are pretty easy DIY installs.
Your shop size is mighty similar and 45k is more than enough for me and I get mighty cold. Not sure of your location in Canada so it might possibly be to large of unit even. You want the devil to cycle every now and then to stay nice and consistently toasty. I do anyway. I think the key on both is location of the thermostat -- the thing has to be out of warm air flow of course but they blow hard and in my case the only option is an outside wall but then that's nearest the door too. It seemed to cycle a bit more than I wanted so I created a open "box" around it out of some 1x and that kept the "creeper" effect of any draty cold air off it. It works perfectly now - if it's set at 68 it cycles when the actual corners are about 63-64.
Upside to the slighty over-sized units - if I have it way down at night to say 45 overnight it takes 10-15 minutes to have it back to 68. I suspect a smaller unit would take longer, mainly as the blower on the 30k is slightly smaller. Or it was when I was researching them way back. Another upside to 45k would be if you ever enlarged shop as it would not need to be replaced.

You will be happy with either unit I am sure

[Lewis Cobb]

Bill -
Thanks for the info. I did a quick search and found one of those "calculate btu needed for your size of room" things and it came out with about 25k btu requirement for my shop. I think it's a toss up between the 30 and 45 size.

Good tip on the thermostat as well - I will have to look over my shop and see where it would be best to locate it based on your experience.

I'm on the east coast of Canada - right next to the state of Maine. It's colder here than in say Toronto where it's more south, but not really brutal. I'd say on average we hit 0F this time of year, and possibly down to -15F on a real cold stretch that would last a few days.

I'm going to have to crawl around in the attic a bit to see about running some electrical to the corner of the shop that I want to locate the heater in so that might put this exercise off until the spring, but I might be able to at least buy and hang the unit before then. We've got a propane fireplace in the house and the tank outside only feeds this, so T'ing off the line to the fireplace might be an option.

How much propane do you go through in the course of a winter in your set-up?

Lewis

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

I have a 65,000 btu natural gas Reznor in my 21x25 garage. It's much bigger than needed, but was cheap on Ebay . Venting is easy if close to a wall, just a straight shot outside. As was mentioned, thermostat placement can result in a lot of cycling. This is most noticable if you don't keep the garage heated continuously. Once warmed up, it's really not an issue.

I've been running it for over 5 years now, and I'll definitly be buying another when I eventually get to build a bigger shop. Very happy with it.

[Bill Blackburn]

Lewis - I'll have to do some digging if you want it in # useage as It's on shared 1000# tank with another building but I can toss these figures out and they may help some.Prices have been all over the place on propane for the last few years so from fill to fill it's varied too so ....

I've had the other building that shares the tank shut down for sometimes a couple months at a time and can use a dollar average figure for a season to "guesstimate" that the shop runs me on average $80/mo for 5 months or around $400 an average season in total - well, actually would be less a month as I heat more like 7 months a year. Just lesser amount used for the month(s) on each side of the peak use season. By comparison the other building uses almost 3x the gas and the thing is only 60% larger. Need to replace that heater with better one and revamp the insulation setup in the attic maybe? The shop seems to me to be relatively inexpensive considering I like to be in a T-shirt and it often is more like 74-75 in there. Have to make up for the lack of summer heat somehow

A friend has the same 45k unit in his shop and he is more like 28x30 with 8' ceiling. The place is zipped up tight as can be as it's pretty new and his 2x6 walls are loaded with insulation. Great windows too. He likes to rub it in he spends less than I do each year. He doesn't share his tank so he's more accurate in use no doubt. He says about $45-55 a month it runs him.

How spendy is propane in your neck of the woods??

[Lewis Cobb]

Bill -
I am not sure what the price is exactly - I got the tank filled last summer, and like you say, the prices bounce all over the place. It's probably somewhere around 85-95 cents / liter which converted to US gallons is about 3.50 a gallon. Wait - detune that number for the exchange - maybe 3.25 US$ per US gallon.

I did a quick estimate and figured it would probably cost me an addtional 60-90 bucks a month in the brutal months (say 4 months) so I am not that far off your figures. Probably would be in this range. I am used to working with a light jacket on out there, not a t-shirt but that's probably because the little electric box I am using just is not enough to bring the temps up to that level.

Found the manual for the Reznor unit on the web and downloaded it. Looks like there's 2 pipes that come off the back - I assume there's some sort of little adapter so you don't need to punch 2 holes in the wall. The location I am looking at is the corner of 2 outside walls so there's no problem going out through the wall on either side. I am thinking I would mount the unit at 45 degrees to fire across the room in a diagonal.

I have a ceiling fan that I keep on low all through the winter in the shop so the heat (regardless of what level it's at) does not pool up near the ceiling. I made that discovery a couple of years back when I went up a ladder to fiddle with something on the ceiling and was sweating up a storm while at "ground level" I was slightly cold all the time - hehe. Heat really does rise it seems......

[Steve Leverich]

Lewis, if you have a shop air filter you might consider mounting it as high as you can (and still get at the filters for maintenance) and aim the discharge downward - I did this and it keeps the air temps much more even... Steve

[Philip Johnson]

Lewis, I just installed a Renzor furnace in my garage. Its about 1000 square feet with 10 foot ceilings. I went with a 75,000 btu one and I,m sure I could have went smaller. It easily brings it up to temp in 15 mins or so.

I have nothing to compare to except what the dealer told me. He sells both Modine and Reznor and said he had a modine in his shop but likes the Reznor better. He said they were quieter and better fan and a better heat exchanger. I am sure either would be fine but at about then same price I went with what he sugguested.

One other thing to keep in mind when picking a size is the advertised size such as 45,000 btu is the input btus, the output btus is a bit less.

Phil