# Off Topic - Portable Heater For Tracks



## WesJY (Mar 4, 2004)

Sorry if this is not the right place to post.. I am looking for some advice on how to heat the slot car track room (mine is in garage - no heat) I dont want a electric heater but is there another way to heat up the room cheap? gas? i only need to heat up the room on when we have slot car race you know. i tried using portable heater and it took like 10 hrs finally warm it up before people come over. i need another alternative to save electricity. 

any idea would be appreciated!! 

Thanks
Wes


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## coach61 (Sep 6, 2004)

.. wood stove, Hooters girls? Insulate the garage walls and it will keep the heat a lot better also....

sorry not much serious help...

Dave


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## sethndaddy (Dec 4, 2004)

kerosene heaters work good. heat fast, smell a little bit though


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## WesJY (Mar 4, 2004)

coach61 said:


> .. wood stove, Hooters girls? Insulate the garage walls and it will keep the heat a lot better also....
> 
> sorry not much serious help...
> 
> Dave


yeah my garage is insulate but just needs some advice on how to heat it up cheap only when we play slot cars you know. thanks 

Wes


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## WesJY (Mar 4, 2004)

sethndaddy said:


> kerosene heaters work good. heat fast, smell a little bit though


smell ? is it dangerous for kids? i mean kids to inhale it? my garage is one door garage its about 12 feet wide 30 feet long .. 

Wes


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

Actually, I like the propane heaters better. You can use the same tank as your grill, and they don't smell. Burns clean. It'll heat an average size double garage in about 20 minutes. Just attach it to your tank. You can usually pick one up for around fifty bucks.










Rich :thumbsup:


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## martybauer31 (Jan 27, 2004)

Bodies heat up a room faster than anything... why not just turn on your heater and hour before and then let your slotcar buddies do the rest? I've had get togethers at my place when it's been cold and I typically end up turning off the heater at some point because it gets too warm.


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## JordanZ870 (Nov 25, 2004)

NTxSlotCars said:


> Actually, I like the propane heaters better. You can use the same tank as your grill, and they don't smell. Burns clean. It'll heat an average size double garage in about 20 minutes. Just attach it to your tank. You can usually pick one up for around fifty bucks.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Right, Wes. What Rich says. These "sunflower" heaters are great. You can get them as a double, too.:thumbsup:
Just pass the kitty for contributions to the gas fund. Don't forget to lay carpet where ya stand. Concrete will leach the heat out of your feet in a hurry, right?

Do you have a ceiling fan in the garage? Pushing the heat back to the floor is a bonus. Especially if you have open rafters.


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

martybauer31 said:


> Bodies heat up a room faster than anything... why not just turn on your heater and hour before and then let your slotcar buddies do the rest? I've had get togethers at my place when it's been cold and I typically end up turning off the heater at some point because it gets too warm.


Group hug?


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## WesJY (Mar 4, 2004)

NTxSlotCars said:


> Actually, I like the propane heaters better. You can use the same tank as your grill, and they don't smell. Burns clean. It'll heat an average size double garage in about 20 minutes. Just attach it to your tank. You can usually pick one up for around fifty bucks.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


not a bad idea.. home depot has one on sale for 39.99. thanks for advice.. i ll look at it. 

Wes


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## WesJY (Mar 4, 2004)

thanks guys for some ideas/advices.. i ll look into it . i ll stop by at home depot tomorrow and see .. 

Thanks
Wes


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

If you're using kerosene or propane you may want to invest in a CO detector for your house if you don't already have one, especially if there is living space above the garage.


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## Dunk21 (Mar 23, 2007)

take the propane turkey fryer and just run the burner the garage gets hot fast


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## wm_brant (Nov 21, 2004)

AfxToo said:


> If you're using kerosene or propane you may want to invest in a CO detector for your house if you don't already have one, especially if there is living space above the garage.


...Might want one for the garage, too...

Let me rephrase that: if you are using any kind of gas- or kerosene-fired heater for a garage, a CO (carbon monoxide) detector is a must. 

-- Bill


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## tjd241 (Jan 25, 2004)

Hey Wes... What about matching racing sweaters for everyone?? nd


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## Slott V (Feb 3, 2005)

*There is no quick way without insulation-*

I work in my garage all the time. It is insulated but has no heater. I use a propane 'pit bull' for construction sites. Unless you keep the room/garage heated consatntly, the cement floor will never heat up. If you blast the air with a turbo heater or propane heater you will have a 1 to 2 foot space above the floor that remains cold. Plus, anything metal will sweat from condensation. If the garage isn't insulated you're wasting time and money trying to keep it warm.

If you use any kind of heater that is combustion based, the garage *must* have an open vent at the ceiling to vent Carbon Monoxide. _Remember:_ Carbon monoxide is a silent killer.


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## SplitPoster (May 16, 2006)

tjd241 said:


> Hey Wes... What about matching racing sweaters for everyone?? nd


As long as you're at it, add the matching mittens, with a cutout for controller fingers. They gotta have the strings you tie to your belt so they don't get lost when you take em off....

Agree with the safety conscious consensus, lots of heat being put out by kersosene or propane being burned in an enclosed space is an invitation for carbon monoxide poisening. I would think a couple gallons of kerosene would be cheaper than a propane refill (?), but how much extra were you spending on electricity in the first place? Cheaper to buy nothing and pass around the (free) hat. 

Plug in a bunch of transformers, that'll help LOL


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## mking (Apr 25, 2000)

*if you use the race room yourself*

then an oil filled electric heater might be a reasonable choice. 

particularly if your space is well insulated (i.e., it will not lose alot of heat after it warms up), those types of heaters dont use huge amounts of electricty. most of them have power three settings 600W, 1000W, and 1500W. use the 600W setting to keep the garage at a reasonable temperature, then crank up to 1500W a few hours before the race. 

at my house, trial and error showed these heaters to be less expensive for heating our living space than natural gas (were renting a HUGE house, 3900SF, and heating that house with forced air heating is $$$$$). we use a total of 5 of these for heat in the winter. we keep them at the low setting and have never had a problem.


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## T-Jet Racer (Nov 16, 2006)

get a sheet of styrofoam ins to stand on it works great I used to do it when I worked in construction building elevators. it really warms your feet up


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

I guess everyone could wear a drivers suit and tape styrofoam cup to thier feet, for that vintage Nascar effect(they invented the drivers suits and putting cups on their feet.) Or, you could replace all the light bulbs with heat lamps. I just leave the soldiering iron plugged in.


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## Rusty Cragers (Dec 1, 2008)

Hi Wes, I live in NJ and have a two car attached garage. The garage was not heated when I bought the house. I simply installed a gas vent free fire place that I bought at home depot for about 300 bucks similar to this one in the link below. Come winter I clean out the garage and put all my summer stuff in the shed and turn the garage into a big great room. With the gas fire place I can take a ice cold garage and make it 100 degrees in less than a half hour. I then set it on low and it keeps it nice and toasty. Also the heat is not lost as it warms the garage so well it helps heat the bedrooms that are above the garage. In fact last night it was 20 degrees and I had some friends over and we hung out in t shirts drinking beers and shooting darts and planning our next race track. Mine is natural gas fired but they also make propane. It took less than and hour to intsall a line for it and get her fired up. Good luck.

Rusty

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200362091_200362091








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## WesJY (Mar 4, 2004)

FYI - i finally found time to stop by home depot last weekend and checked out one of those sunflower propane to heat up my garage. they were out of stock and i talked to 3 guys they all werent sure if it was safe to use it in my garage.. sighhh .. i am little frustrated by this that i cannot find anyone to help me out on this one. home depot sucks. 

i have one door garage its about 12 by 30.. its insulated and we raced in there maybe at least once or twice a month just i would say we would start like 7am til 2am twice a month. i dont need a fire place or anything big just something enough for two nights racing per month so anyone here is really sure that one of those sunflower thing for propane is safe? its perfect for my garage. like i said i only used it when we have races that like once or twice a month thats it. 

let me know again. i ll have to check out another home depot.. 

Wes


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## blaneo (Jan 22, 2007)

Been lurking on this site for quite a while now, and have just been checking everything out. Time to put in my " two cents ". This information comes from personal experience, both as a consumer and as a sales person. I ran a hardware store for over twenty years and I personally have four of these heaters, ranging from the smallest that can boil a can of soup to the larger three burner. My favorite is the two burner design, I have found it most useful, but I wouldn't give up any of them as they all have their benefits due to their size. 

Like any type of heater, they are only as safe as the person or persons using them. These are an "infra red radiant" type heater, not a "convection" type heater most of us are used to using. A convection heater will heat the air first, then heat the objects and persons in the area. A radiant heater will heat the objects and persons first, then the heat the air. In simplicity, the heat is attracted to persons and objects first, much like a magnet is attracted to steel. It's unbelievable, I have used them outside in the open air, in winter time, working under the hood of a car, and been very comfortable. Most people can't believe how you can be standing in freezing temperatures and still be warm enough to work without gloves and to have your tools nice and warm. 

I have a fully insulated 25' x 25' garage and I use the two burner to quickly heat it up and get to work. It takes about 20-30 minutes to give me a rise of 30-40 degrees in temperature. I often find myself shutting it off. A twenty pound tank will usually last me all winter with the two burner heater. Of course, usage will dictate how long it lasts.

The single, double, and triple burners are basically the same, except that the larger ones will give you more BTU s of heat. The single burner gives you a low,med,high setting. The two burner allows you to light one burner or both burners and gives you a low,med,high setting. The triple allows you to light one,two,or all three burners, and gives you a low,med,high setting. If I remember right the single burner gives 3000, 6000, 9000 BTU s. The double gives between 3000 and 18000 BTU s depending one how many burners are lit and what setting it is on. The triple gives between 3000 and 27000 BTU s. This doesn't sound like a whole bunch of heat, but you need to remember that you are not heating in the conventional way. 

You do need to use caution with these heaters. If something is close enough to them, they can actually catch on fire without even touching the heater. I experimented once with a 2 x 4 block of wood approximately two feet away from the heater. In less then an hour, the wood was charred black and had white ash appearing, and was smoking. So you do need to use some common sense, and pay attention to how close you get it to other things. 

You can usually finds these at Home Depot or Lowes, but don't forget to check with the smaller hardware stores also. Like Ace Hardware or HWI. Another place to check is at the Farm Suppliers Like TSC or Town and Country.

Would I buy another? In a heartbeat!
Would I give up the ones I have? Nope, Notta Chance!

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.


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