Shop heat

[Everett]

I had to finish out the inside of my shop when we moved in, so a heater was a must for a few reasons. It's a double wide attached garage, house was built in 2007 but previous owner left it unfinished. On the bright side it meant I got to insulate and wire it how I wanted. Very thankful that it doesn't freeze in there and that (as it SLOWLY gets sorted and cleaned out from junk) I have a place to work now.

Ironically, apart from the overhead door, it's now the best insulated part of the whole house!

 

[Darren]

Speaking of shop heat. When I was getting ready to pour the slab for my shop in the fall of 17, we got a massive dump of snow before Halloween and it stayed below zero after...
I was still tying rebar and laying pex and it kept snowing. I had to melt all the snow before we could place the concrete, so I installed the manifolds for the infloor heat, and hooked them up to the heater hoses in my plow truck and had it running with a snow broom on the gas pedal for 2 weeks straight.

Went from this:


To this:







Even had it going when they were placing the concrete because it was so cold. What a nightmare.

 

[DavidR8]

Speaking of shop heat. When I was getting ready to pour the slab for my shop in the fall of 17, we got a massive dump of snow before Halloween and it stayed below zero after...
I was still tying rebar and laying pex and it kept snowing. I had to melt all the snow before we could place the concrete, so I installed the manifolds for the infloor heat, and hooked them up to the heater hoses in my plow truck and had it running with a snow broom on the gas pedal for 2 weeks straight.

Went from this:
View attachment 42984

To this:

View attachment 42986

View attachment 42987

View attachment 42989

Even had it going when they were placing the concrete because it was so cold. What a nightmare.

Holy crap, that would have been incredibly stressful.

 

[jorogi]

My father in law grew up in Saskatchewan in the old days (he's in his 90's) and likes to tell the story of their old Dodge they had back on the farm. They would drain the oil and antifreeze at night in the winter. Heat the oil on the wood stove, bring the antifreeze to a boil, pour them into the motor, wait a couple of minutes for the block to warm a bit and then drag the car around the yard, in gear, for a while until it finally started.

He's a fan of the modern engine, block heater and battery warmer.

He also moved out to the coast with us a few years ago. Now his favourite winter saying is "It doesn't get cold here."

They used to do that with bush planes in the day, minus the antifreeze of course. Then P&W made a pump to pump fuel into the oil tank, a few seconds of pumping just before shutdown. Made the engine able to crank over in the cold the next morning. You can't use too much throttle till it's all warmed up and the fuel has evaporated out of the oil.

 

[Ironman]

Getting back to Shop Heat for a minute, does anyone have experience with Chinese diesel heaters in their shop? My "shop" is only 140 square feet, I have an electric oil heater but it takes hours to warm the space sufficiently to work in. I used a propane heater but with too much moisture my tools started to rust.

I've looked at the reviews online and they all seem favourable, anyone have a bad experience with them?

I have one, but my shop main floor is 1200sq and the total of 1840, so I have found that it has to be run full tilt boogie, and then it sort of takes the chill off. My main propane heat is 50kbtu and the machine shop 40,000
I never ran the exhaust out so got 100% of the heat, but if I had to open the door to bring in a truck or take out something, I was back to square one again for hours.
8kbtu is not enough for me, but it burns very clear and clean, and I have even run some crankcase oil through it to see how it does, and it burns it ok.
I think I will end up using it in the summer for drying garlic if the weather is cool.

 

[Tom O]

Getting back to Shop Heat for a minute, does anyone have experience with Chinese diesel heaters in their shop? My "shop" is only 140 square feet, I have an electric oil heater but it takes hours to warm the space sufficiently to work in. I used a propane heater but with too much moisture my tools started to rust.
I've looked at the reviews online and they all seem favourable, anyone have a bad experience with them?

They seem quite popular in England where “ Men in sheds “ means men in sheds I haven’t seen a bad review really but they sometimes have some problems in a few years.

 

[Jswain]

Agreed. Never owned a remote start yet. Wondering how they check their oil, looking out the living room window

My first vehicle was an older Blazer with a remote start. Started it up one day and went out to realize it wasn't running, then I seen oil all over the place

Blew one of the oil cooler lines out, luckily shut off with no damage lol

 

[Ironman]

My first vehicle was an older Blazer with a remote start. Started it up one day and went out to realize it wasn't running, then I seen oil all over the place

Blew one of the oil cooler lines out, luckily shut off with no damage lol

I had one of those back in Yellowknife, and it was always my fear the oil pressure would not come up. Often when starting a cold engine the oil pump will cavitate, so you stop and then re-start it. If it does not start it pumping, do it again and by the third start it always seems to pull oil. Of course now with the the fake oil gauges driven off the ECU, they respond to rpm not pressure.
I had a brownout from low battery and showed no oil pressure on the cummins. I put a gauge on the engine and got 80psi at idle. It took 3 days driving before the ECU admitted that there was oil pressure.

 

[Art M]

Chinese diesel heaters. A buddy tried one this week in his insulated 2 car attached. Was running an electric construction heater turned it off to try the diesel heater. Sunday was probably -30 plus wind. Wouldn't keep up after couple hours turned electric back on. We'll see how it does in the fishing shack

 

[Raygers]

Chinese diesel heaters. A buddy tried one this week in his insulated 2 car attached. Was running an electric construction heater turned it off to try the diesel heater. Sunday was probably -30 plus wind. Wouldn't keep up after couple hours turned electric back on. We'll see how it does in the fishing shack

-30 is very extreme for my area, South West Ontario, I'll be interested to hear how it performs in warmer climes.

 

[trevj]

They used to do that with bush planes in the day, minus the antifreeze of course. Then P&W made a pump to pump fuel into the oil tank, a few seconds of pumping just before shutdown. Made the engine able to crank over in the cold the next morning. You can't use too much throttle till it's all warmed up and the fuel has evaporated out of the oil.

I worked on Grumman Trackers, aka: CS2F's or "Stoofs".

Gasoline injection in to the oil was a common thing. Nine cylinders, 1820 cubic inches between them. Not a cold weather easy starter! Running joke was to get the gas checked, and the oil topped up! Ugly frikken things to keep clean, but very resistant to corrosion, as well as that if you lost one, you could just follow the oil slick to it's end and go straight down, to find it!