Just picked up this same heater at tractor supply about an hour ago. Fired right up and throwing a lot of heat. Just heating a 30x40 insulated garage. Should work fine. Thanks for the good info. 😊
Thank you for posting this video. I wanted to know how the MASTER heater works. Your demonstration was very useful. But I don't think anyone my age watches this video lmao (any middle schoolers here?)
Good video. I used to run torpedo heaters on construction jobs many years ago. I am considering getting another one for my 36x30 barn. It should at least take a bit of the chill off.
It sure will I still own 4 of them from the 1990’s one I had purchased brand new then and the other 3 used. I was just turned off using them because of the sky high Kerosene prices out there and decided to go with waste oil at the time instead to stay warm. If it was super cold out there and I had to be out there I would start things off getting it warm out there with one or two Kerosene Torpedo Heaters First then fire up the waste oil heater next to stay warm. The Kerosene Heaters for the most instant heat source.
I built a metal 4×4 ft shelf on the back wall. 3ft high so i wont have to get back on my knees to fill. I shaped a thin gage galvanized sheet into a cylinder as the same diameter as the back of heater, 16in long. Cut hole in wall. 6in in 10in out. 4in metal shelf bracket for support, Culked and flashed. All i have to do is back my heater which is smaller then yours up to it, it works great. My shed only 16 by 24. But nothing but freah outside air is now used to burn, and even tho my heater claims to burn 99% efficient on diesel or kerosene doing this with the fresh air give me an extra peace of mind. I had to put a screen on the outside opening. Carbon monoxide sensors never go's off. We all notice that we do breath better and no one gets a headache. Can even feel the difference in our eyes.
Those heaters do a great job when you need them, have warmed my hands on them for decades on construction sites. For fun you should put a large thermometer up in the rafters, I bet it gets 90 degrees up there pretty quickly, put a couple of fans up there to push the hot air around, you will see a big difference. With your property you are a great candidate for an outdoor wood boiler. Check out Central Boiler in MN. You can run hot water through coils and a blower to do all of your buildings. I used one to heat 3000 sq ft house, 1400 sq ft garages and 2000 sq ft pole barn all in floor.
Wow - you got a lot of places heated with one source! Since our house, garage and building are not plumbed for heat, I would think the expense of adding a boiler system now would be cost prohibitive.
@@PurpleCollarLife Actually you would be surprised at how you can add hot water to existing buildings. If you have a furnace in your house you can add a hot water coil just like your AC coil. In garage and shop you can use hanging unit heaters made for hot water. Definitely not the easiest but with your abundance of wood it is an option. :)
Thanks! I agree. We had never had one before, so we weren't sure. But when this one was on sale at Tractor Supply (Black Friday sale) a few years ago, we took a chance on it.
i have a building 20x40 20 foot ceilings and my kerosene torpedo heater does just fine, takes about 20-30 minutes to heat it up when its 0°F outside, though mine is very well insulated
I use one of these with propane. Loud but works fine in a 30X42 building. At 32 deg. it will run twice then it runs very little and keeps it a good working temp on low about 60 deg. Run it on a 100 gallon tank. I understand that when used for building new homes in the winter in Kansas a 100 gall tank will last 2 weeks working 8 hour days.
You can adjust the fuel and air on the back to put out more heat but it'll use more fuel. The older reddy heaters that did not have a thermostat you could use a household thermostat from a home based electric baseboard heater. Easy to wire up and was better than the digital units found today. I have the stove mounted waist high out side my building . I made a pipe with in another pipe like a wood stove uses to keep heat away from the building. Heater is outside along with the noise . Wire heater like I said above with thermostat inside garage . It will all ways draw in fresh clean air. Easy to refill and no worry of spilling diesel or kerosene on your garage floor.
Sounds like you have a great setup! All the noise outside and the heat inside. I've never adjusted the fuel/air ratio since I purchased the unit. I thought it was probably best to leave it how the factory set it.
There’s always a lot of paranoia around Carbon Monoxide and using these Diesel space heaters due to everyone knowing that engine fumes are lethal. However, engines are designed to operate with a rich instead of a stoichiometric ratio. This rich combustion designed into engines is to reduce the heat developed and to prevent sudden lean cut-out of engines. These space heaters purposefully run extremely lean to generate as much heat as possible so there is a trivial (if any) amount of Carbon Monoxide generated due to the excess oxygen present during combustion. By all means treat them with respect and make sure you follow the manufacturer’s operating guidelines but don’t shy away from using them due to Carbon Monoxide fears. They do knock out Carbon Dioxide amongst other combustion products so ventilation is always a good idea and you need to replenish the air these units require.
@@PurpleCollarLife I have a vintage pipe built shop from the 50's. Doors slide open on outside rails (16x16'). Bottom of the pipe trusses are 16', no insulation and until I decide on replacing the old tin it will stay that way.
Thanks 👍. It was on my wish list for decades. I'll be doing a few videos in the future of how it was built and a few issues we had. Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@PurpleCollarLife you bet! Thanks for sharing the video, I was questioning the heater being able to heat my 42x64 hangar, it will be insulated with R-19 so it should work pretty well.
Years ago I used 2 Kerosene Torpedo heaters similar to the above in my 42’x60’ Pole Barn. They were 150,000 BTUs each to warm it up to work in during the bitter cold. Back then many years ago 1990’s I was buying Kerosene at 89 cents a gallon. I had 2 250 gallon fuel oil tanks out there? When fuel prices jumped up to over $2 a gallon I gave up on using these heaters. Too expensive to run everyday. It was costing me over $2,000 a Winter to keep warm out there at 89 Cents a gallon. It would of more then Tripled my cost once the prices went sky high. I then purchased a 250,000 BTU waste oil heater which was practically cost free except for electricity. It basically cost almost nothing to run as long as you have a good source for waste oil. I ended up selling the Waste Oil Heater after owning it about 9 years using it on occasion not everyday when I wasn’t spending the time outside in my Pole Barn like I use to with different projects and for work related things.. If I am out there now maybe working on my cars on occasion I use a propane style Torpedo style heater to warm me up during the Winter months if really needed which is not very often today.
I've always liked the idea of a waste oil heater. I mostly change all my own oil in our vehicles - and the diesel F350 takes 15 quarts at a time. Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@PurpleCollarLife I just realized I forgot to mention the Brand of Waste Oil Heater I had at the time that I sold in 2012. It was a 250,000 BTU Reznor Waste Oil heater that I had purchased brand new with Square work shop tank sitting below it on a platform with 4 Steal legs. I am pretty sure that Square Waste Oil tank size was somewhere between 200-250 gallon also. Can’t remember at the moment. Supposedly the System was a top of the line Waste Oil System sold at the time I purchased it. It had its own build in Air Compressor at the time. Other lessor named brands at the time sold out there required a Air Line coming from your shop air Compressor to work. It really was a very nice unit. I had no complaints about it. I installed it completely by my self and maintained it cleaning it once a year before the season started otherwise it ran pretty much trouble free. You just needed to have a good clean source for your waste oil like I mostly had. You don’t want to pour garbage into your tank only because if you accept oil from say a gas station you want to make sure it is good waste oil only because some gas stations don’t pay attention or care and will dump Antifreeze mixed with water in their waste oil which will cause a big problem. You have to get it from someone you can rely on. When I sold mine I pretty much was about to lose my best source because they were going to be retiring soon at the same time.
It's too late now, but you could have run Pex in your floor and added a boiler later. I have in floor heat in my 900 SF garage. I keep it 55 and it doesn't;t cool off much when the doors are open. Very comfortable for working on my vehicles or anything else. If I build a shop, I will put it in.
Yes, that is our biggest regret with the building. But even adding PEX to the flooring would have cost several thousand dollars extra at the time we were having the floor poured. At the time, we didn't have any more money to put into the building.
I have one in my 30by40 to get heat up fast then i but a mobil home heatpump in the shop to just keep it warm its way quiter n you can hear yourself think lol but i love the dragon heater nothing heats faster !!!!! GOOD VIDEO !!!
Kerosene is way less stinky than the diesel i fill my units with! I have a few natural gas Modine heaters in my shop, but i use the torpedoes to "catch-up the Modine heaters" help keep my natural gas bill a little lower when trucks come in/out. Great video!!!
We've never tried diesel in the heater, but can imagine it would be considerably worse (especially off-road diesel). How big is the shop and what size BTU heaters do you use? Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@PurpleCollarLife Kerosene is hard to find at the pump here in Milwaukee, off road is literally the exact same thing as regular diesel, just died red. But it is definitely stinky! I think i have a few 165k and 185k btu torpedo heaters. Shop is divided into a few bays but is roughly 4,200sq ft with 16' tall drywall ceilings
If you have natural gas, you have an essentially free heat source. Very lucky guy. Use it in torpedo heaters for a 80% cost reduction from oil or propane.
@@PurpleCollarLife Some places sell #1 fuel oil and that's jet fuel or kerosene. but red diesel is always the cheapest and if these heaters are tuned well, no odor. Co2 yes and particulates, but that too in Kerosene.
I still need to find a good method to heat my shop, using a small electric heater now but it is not enough for the space - I don't think I want anything that may smell though.
How's she goin'? These heaters are a great way to heat shops and barns. The smell can be an issue. I use mine to heart my shop and then shut it off. It runs for about 20 minutes. After I shut it off there is a smell. I burn diesel in mine as well. I also installed a CO detector in the shop just to be safe. Thanks for posting. Take care!!
Thanks for sharing. Good point about the C02 detector. We installed one in the building, but I forgot to mention that in the video. Thanks for reminding me!
Check your pressure gauge at the back and compare that to the manual. I've literally just watched another video telling me that it should be on 5, yours is on 6.
I recently purchased a new torpedo heater. Is it normal for it to smell so much in the beginning? If so, how long does it last before it stops smelling?
It does get expensive when the cost of Kerosene is high. We have only tried diesel in ours once - but didn't like the fumes compared to the clean Kerosene.
Great question. I am not qualified to answer that as far as a safety of CO2 person. I can tell you that we have operated ours in a similar way to what you have described. But our building is 40x60 with 20' ceilings - so there is A LOT Of air in that space, and lots of ventilation.
If your building is air tight you might want to crack a door but if you got a drafty building it's not an issue. These heaters usually have a low oxygen shut off anyway they won't burn right with the lack of oxygen.
Enjoyed the info. and run-down. I can research this but these are only available with electric ignite and operation correct? They don't make them that do not require electricity?
There is some smell for sure. I think it would be more noticeable in a small shop. Our 40x60 with 16-20' ceilings has a lot of space for the smell to dissipate. We do only burn clean kerosene.
Most of these area able to burn diesel instead of kerosene which is much cheaper for one, and puts out more btus than kerosene. Diesel is a little thicker when it gets cold so adding a little alcohol to thin works well and there is no smell. Some say to use gas to thin the diesel but that's really not a good practice and would you really want to be breathing gas fumes?!
Hi David - I think I mention in the video that this Master 140,000 BTU heater runs on multiple fuels. According to the specifications page: "Runs on efficient, clean-burning Kerosene and CSA certified to run on #1 & 2 Diesel Fuel, JP8/Jet A Fuel and #1 & 2 Fuel Oil". According to the manual, there is no adjustment necessary to the pressure. The heater does all the work. I have found that diesel fuel (off-road, or on-road) puts out considerably more smell than the clean kerosene. Thanks for watching!
@@PurpleCollarLife If you get a smell burning diesel, your fuel pressure needs to be adjusted. You should NOT get a smell when it's burning. Diesel is a little thicker than kerosene so it's a little harder for the suction pump to pull it up out of the tank. It's especially thicker when you go into a cold shop in the morning and turn it on. I thin mine down with alcohol or diesel fuel additive so it flows better.
Jet heaters run best on Jet-A fuel, but unless you plan ahead, it's harder to find without the de-icer, which is poisonous when burned. The equivalent is one gallon of gasoline and four gallons of Diesel. Off-road (farm) fuel doesn't include road use tax. I heated my shop all winter with excellent results. If you can find a free source, used (filtered) cooking oil from a restaurant, mixed with farm gasoline (no tax) at a 50/50 ratio (1:1) performs about the same at the lowest price. Pure kerosene would cost me about $28/day to heat my shop, but I can make my own Jet-A for about $8/day using Diesel & gasoline.
Thanks for this info! I will likely always run the kerosene in our unit, but it's really interesting to know that there are other options that people like you use.
Next time you build a 40x60 garage, think of a geothermal solution. It gives you 50 degrees from the gettyup, and it's up to you to add to it to say 72 degrees for heating the space (22 degrees above earth's nominal temperature), or leave it at 50 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer time for a nice cool space.
That's a great question. I'm not sure that I've ever really kept track - since it kicks on and off as needed, and depends on what fuel you're using and what temperature you have it set at. I believe there have been a few times that I've filled it up (over 9 gallons of Kerosene) and turned it up to 70, and it's run for about 8 hours. So just a guess is that it uses up to 1 gallon per hour? I'll keep better track the next time I use it and re-post on this comment. Thanks for watching and asking!
Hi Richard - thanks for watching and commenting. I believe having the PEX line installed in my 40x60 floor, and all the necessary fittings/setup for that was going to cost well over $1000. I priced it out at the time and it was cost prohibitive. In fact, it would have put us over budget and unable to build the building. Obviously it would be nice to have now, but I wasn't willing to save money a few more years to put the building up.
@@PurpleCollarLife 6] 300' zones of 1/2" pex would be $360. Could have laid that out to a future manifold area. Done this for 50 years. Cheap and easy if using passive system design
@@RRaucina I believe that running the PEX line also required additional installation costs. And like I said, we have an all-electric property. So we would have to heat a boiler with electric, or install a LP gas tank and boiler system. If we would have had unlimited budget, I definitely would have added the PEX line, a boiler, LP gas service (or run natural gas to our location) AND insulated the building. But all that would have cost more than the building construction.
Not that I'm aware of in this size. There are the Mr Buddy portable indoor/outdoor heaters. But they put out 4000, 9000, or 18,000 BTU. amzn.to/3JERxNU
You're absolutely right. The fuel cap is ridiculous. I have to mess with it every time. Sometimes it takes me longer to get the cap on than it took to fill the fuel tank.
Great question. I did not notice any change to our bill. But since our house is all electric, when it is cold out and I'd be running the heater, I'd also have our baseboard heat, the wood stove, and the pellet stove running in the house - so my electric usage would be higher than typical due to all those things.
I’m remodeling a 2400 sq ft house and my bill was 160 . No insulation and Low ceiling. Literally nothing else running except a couple of lights which would give me a 20 dollar bill on the usual. It can be a hefty hill. I live in nj btw.
Yes it significantly impacts the cost of electricity. We live in Mississippi, so our "winters" are not very intense. Additionally, the heater thermostat is never set past 65° F using in non-insulated shop equivalent to one in video. Our electric bill jumps from an average of $10-$12/mo in the summer to $65-$70 in the winter, and the only device in the shop that runs consistently is a compact full-size refrigerator. We use diesel, and he is correct that it consumes roughly 1gal/ hr. Notably, it does an excellent job of quickly heating a large area, but it's quite pricey to operate.
*Nice heater I have two but no thermostat. Love that shop. You should check out my smart garage video. I put that heater on a wemo smart plug so i can turn it on from my phone and let it warm up before I go out* #WorldsOkayestFarmer
Just picked up this same heater at tractor supply about an hour ago. Fired right up and throwing a lot of heat. Just heating a 30x40 insulated garage. Should work fine. Thanks for the good info. 😊
Awesome! I bet the insulated garage will hold that heat in for a while. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. Let us know how it does for you.
We have a 135k at our POA that needs some attention... I've been watching videos on repair & proper operation. Nice Job, Thank You. God Bless.
Thanks 👍
Thank you for posting this video. I wanted to know how the MASTER heater works. Your demonstration was very useful.
But I don't think anyone my age watches this video lmao (any middle schoolers here?)
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Good video. I used to run torpedo heaters on construction jobs many years ago. I am considering getting another one for my 36x30 barn. It should at least take a bit of the chill off.
Go for it! Compared to the older ones that I've experienced, this new one is much nicer (less smell, easy to use).
It sure will I still own 4 of them from the 1990’s one I had purchased brand new then and the other 3 used. I was just turned off using them because of the sky high Kerosene prices out there and decided to go with waste oil at the time instead to stay warm. If it was super cold out there and I had to be out there I would start things off getting it warm out there with one or two Kerosene Torpedo Heaters First then fire up the waste oil heater next to stay warm. The Kerosene Heaters for the most instant heat source.
I built a metal 4×4 ft shelf on the back wall. 3ft high so i wont have to get back on my knees to fill. I shaped a thin gage galvanized sheet into a cylinder as the same diameter as the back of heater, 16in long. Cut hole in wall. 6in in 10in out. 4in metal shelf bracket for support, Culked and flashed. All i have to do is back my heater which is smaller then yours up to it, it works great. My shed only 16 by 24. But nothing but freah outside air is now used to burn, and even tho my heater claims to burn 99% efficient on diesel or kerosene doing this with the fresh air give me an extra peace of mind. I had to put a screen on the outside opening. Carbon monoxide sensors never go's off. We all notice that we do breath better and no one gets a headache. Can even feel the difference in our eyes.
This is a great idea! Thanks for sharing.
Good video. I have the master 80,000 in my 18×24 building. My fuel cap is a pain in the ass too!
Thanks for watching and commenting! You'd think they'd come up with a better fuel cap design.
Nice to see you’re using British Thermal Units
Thanks!
Those heaters do a great job when you need them, have warmed my hands on them for decades on construction sites. For fun you should put a large thermometer up in the rafters, I bet it gets 90 degrees up there pretty quickly, put a couple of fans up there to push the hot air around, you will see a big difference. With your property you are a great candidate for an outdoor wood boiler. Check out Central Boiler in MN. You can run hot water through coils and a blower to do all of your buildings. I used one to heat 3000 sq ft house, 1400 sq ft garages and 2000 sq ft pole barn all in floor.
Wow - you got a lot of places heated with one source! Since our house, garage and building are not plumbed for heat, I would think the expense of adding a boiler system now would be cost prohibitive.
@@PurpleCollarLife Actually you would be surprised at how you can add hot water to existing buildings. If you have a furnace in your house you can add a hot water coil just like your AC coil. In garage and shop you can use hanging unit heaters made for hot water. Definitely not the easiest but with your abundance of wood it is an option. :)
I know some of the big box stores like “Home Depot“ or “Menards” Sell an Odorless fuel for the heaters.Those heaters are a heaven sent. Great video
Thanks, Karl! I didn't know there was another fuel option.
@@PurpleCollarLife Too expensive. Red diesel or Kerosene at the bulk fuel location.
Those torpedo heaters are a good choice when heating a large area like a shop or barn.
Thanks! I agree. We had never had one before, so we weren't sure. But when this one was on sale at Tractor Supply (Black Friday sale) a few years ago, we took a chance on it.
i have a building 20x40 20 foot ceilings and my kerosene torpedo heater does just fine, takes about 20-30 minutes to heat it up when its 0°F outside, though mine is very well insulated
Good morning and nice video!
Hey, thanks!
I am actually using mine now, in our new 54x26 shop, we have a 55,000 bTU torpedo heater, kerosene
How long does it take to heat your shop?
@@PurpleCollarLife the shop has not insulation, and is part of another building so is missing the side in the trusses, it takes about 30 minutes
I use one of these with propane. Loud but works fine in a 30X42 building. At 32 deg. it will run twice then it runs very little and keeps it a good working temp on low about 60 deg. Run it on a 100 gallon tank. I understand that when used for building new homes in the winter in Kansas a 100 gall tank will last 2 weeks working 8 hour days.
You can adjust the fuel and air on the back to put out more heat but it'll use more fuel. The older reddy heaters that did not have a thermostat you could use a household thermostat from a home based electric baseboard heater. Easy to wire up and was better than the digital units found today. I have the stove mounted waist high out side my building . I made a pipe with in another pipe like a wood stove uses to keep heat away from the building. Heater is outside along with the noise . Wire heater like I said above with thermostat inside garage . It will all ways draw in fresh clean air. Easy to refill and no worry of spilling diesel or kerosene on your garage floor.
Sounds like you have a great setup! All the noise outside and the heat inside. I've never adjusted the fuel/air ratio since I purchased the unit. I thought it was probably best to leave it how the factory set it.
Great heater!
It works really well. We like that the thermostat turns it on and shuts if off automatically to maintain a certain temperature.
There’s always a lot of paranoia around Carbon Monoxide and using these Diesel space heaters due to everyone knowing that engine fumes are lethal. However, engines are designed to operate with a rich instead of a stoichiometric ratio. This rich combustion designed into engines is to reduce the heat developed and to prevent sudden lean cut-out of engines. These space heaters purposefully run extremely lean to generate as much heat as possible so there is a trivial (if any) amount of Carbon Monoxide generated due to the excess oxygen present during combustion. By all means treat them with respect and make sure you follow the manufacturer’s operating guidelines but don’t shy away from using them due to Carbon Monoxide fears. They do knock out Carbon Dioxide amongst other combustion products so ventilation is always a good idea and you need to replenish the air these units require.
Thanks for watching and offering your insight! We really appreciate it.
Yep. They aren't that bad, but you do need to replenish the oxygen. If you don't, it'll burn rich and cause your room to quite quickly fill with co
I have a similar heater with the same fuel cap, the cap is difficult to line up with that locating pin. I have three ceiling fans in my 40X80' shop.
Thanks for letting me know it's not just my issue with the cap. How tall if your ceiling? Do you have the ceiling and/or walls insulated?
@@PurpleCollarLife I have a vintage pipe built shop from the 50's. Doors slide open on outside rails (16x16'). Bottom of the pipe trusses are 16', no insulation and until I decide on replacing the old tin it will stay that way.
Those heaters definitely do the job I used one in my old shop.
Thanks! They are nice.
Nice heater! Kinda reminds me of a jet engine😄 And nice building too! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for watching!
Nice shop.
Thanks 👍. It was on my wish list for decades. I'll be doing a few videos in the future of how it was built and a few issues we had. Thanks for watching and commenting!
The female end is to run a second heater/light/extra cord that kind of thing
Thanks! I wasn't sure, but appreciate you answering the question.
@@PurpleCollarLife you bet! Thanks for sharing the video, I was questioning the heater being able to heat my 42x64 hangar, it will be insulated with R-19 so it should work pretty well.
Years ago I used 2 Kerosene Torpedo heaters similar to the above in my 42’x60’ Pole Barn. They were 150,000 BTUs each to warm it up to work in during the bitter cold. Back then many years ago 1990’s I was buying Kerosene at 89 cents a gallon. I had 2 250 gallon fuel oil tanks out there? When fuel prices jumped up to over $2 a gallon I gave up on using these heaters. Too expensive to run everyday. It was costing me over $2,000 a Winter to keep warm out there at 89 Cents a gallon. It would of more then Tripled my cost once the prices went sky high. I then purchased a 250,000 BTU waste oil heater which was practically cost free except for electricity. It basically cost almost nothing to run as long as you have a good source for waste oil. I ended up selling the Waste Oil Heater after owning it about 9 years using it on occasion not everyday when I wasn’t spending the time outside in my Pole Barn like I use to with different projects and for work related things.. If I am out there now maybe working on my cars on occasion I use a propane style Torpedo style heater to warm me up during the Winter months if really needed which is not very often today.
I've always liked the idea of a waste oil heater. I mostly change all my own oil in our vehicles - and the diesel F350 takes 15 quarts at a time. Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@PurpleCollarLife I just realized I forgot to mention the Brand of Waste Oil Heater I had at the time that I sold in 2012. It was a 250,000 BTU Reznor Waste Oil heater that I had purchased brand new with Square work shop tank sitting below it on a platform with 4 Steal legs. I am pretty sure that Square Waste Oil tank size was somewhere between 200-250 gallon also. Can’t remember at the moment. Supposedly the System was a top of the line Waste Oil System sold at the time I purchased it. It had its own build in Air Compressor at the time. Other lessor named brands at the time sold out there required a Air Line coming from your shop air Compressor to work. It really was a very nice unit. I had no complaints about it. I installed it completely by my self and maintained it cleaning it once a year before the season started otherwise it ran pretty much trouble free. You just needed to have a good clean source for your waste oil like I mostly had. You don’t want to pour garbage into your tank only because if you accept oil from say a gas station you want to make sure it is good waste oil only because some gas stations don’t pay attention or care and will dump Antifreeze mixed with water in their waste oil which will cause a big problem. You have to get it from someone you can rely on. When I sold mine I pretty much was about to lose my best source because they were going to be retiring soon at the same time.
It's too late now, but you could have run Pex in your floor and added a boiler later. I have in floor heat in my 900 SF garage. I keep it 55 and it doesn't;t cool off much when the doors are open. Very comfortable for working on my vehicles or anything else. If I build a shop, I will put it in.
Yes, that is our biggest regret with the building. But even adding PEX to the flooring would have cost several thousand dollars extra at the time we were having the floor poured. At the time, we didn't have any more money to put into the building.
I have one in my 30by40 to get heat up fast then i but a mobil home heatpump in the shop to just keep it warm its way quiter n you can hear yourself think lol but i love the dragon heater nothing heats faster !!!!! GOOD VIDEO !!!
Thanks for sharing your experience! Good idea to use the heat pump once the building is up to temperature.
Kerosene is way less stinky than the diesel i fill my units with! I have a few natural gas Modine heaters in my shop, but i use the torpedoes to "catch-up the Modine heaters" help keep my natural gas bill a little lower when trucks come in/out.
Great video!!!
We've never tried diesel in the heater, but can imagine it would be considerably worse (especially off-road diesel). How big is the shop and what size BTU heaters do you use? Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@PurpleCollarLife Kerosene is hard to find at the pump here in Milwaukee, off road is literally the exact same thing as regular diesel, just died red. But it is definitely stinky!
I think i have a few 165k and 185k btu torpedo heaters. Shop is divided into a few bays but is roughly 4,200sq ft with 16' tall drywall ceilings
@@DC9Douglas Thanks!
If you have natural gas, you have an essentially free heat source. Very lucky guy. Use it in torpedo heaters for a 80% cost reduction from oil or propane.
@@PurpleCollarLife Some places sell #1 fuel oil and that's jet fuel or kerosene. but red diesel is always the cheapest and if these heaters are tuned well, no odor. Co2 yes and particulates, but that too in Kerosene.
170,000 jet been using for 20 years in 30 x40 high ceilings never had problems
I have one the runs on propane. Cheaper to operate.
Interesting. I thought propane was more expensive than kerosene.
@@PurpleCollarLife here in Indiana kerosene is getting close to double the price of propane.
I still need to find a good method to heat my shop, using a small electric heater now but it is not enough for the space - I don't think I want anything that may smell though.
Have you looked into the torpedo heaters that run on propane? I don't know if they'd have any smell.
@@PurpleCollarLife I have propane and kerosene, the kerosene is hotter, louder, and stinks, the propane isn’t as hot, but is quite, and doesn’t smell.
@@PurpleCollarLife googling now :-)
@@LogHouseFarm :)
@@emrythompson Thanks!
My dad had one in the 50s for our northern Ohio garage.
Thanks for watching!
Great video highly informative
Glad you think so! We appreciate the watch and comment!
Great review! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for watching!
Great building, if the ceiling is insulted will make a difference on holding the heat
It's on the wish list. Probably be done in 30 years or so. 😬
How's she goin'? These heaters are a great way to heat shops and barns. The smell can be an issue. I use mine to heart my shop and then shut it off. It runs for about 20 minutes. After I shut it off there is a smell. I burn diesel in mine as well. I also installed a CO detector in the shop just to be safe. Thanks for posting. Take care!!
Thanks for sharing. Good point about the C02 detector. We installed one in the building, but I forgot to mention that in the video. Thanks for reminding me!
Check your pressure gauge at the back and compare that to the manual. I've literally just watched another video telling me that it should be on 5, yours is on 6.
Thanks for watching! I'll give it a look. I've never adjusted mine and it works great. I hate to change something that's working.
I recently purchased a new torpedo heater. Is it normal for it to smell so much in the beginning? If so, how long does it last before it stops smelling?
There's a smell for sure - whenever burning kerosene. I don't notice it too much until the heater turns off.
dadgum using Kerosene in that costs an arm and a leg! I only ever run ours on Diesel and even that is expensive these days brother!
It does get expensive when the cost of Kerosene is high. We have only tried diesel in ours once - but didn't like the fumes compared to the clean Kerosene.
Get some ceiling fans or point some up from floor level. and few Co2 alarms.
Great point about the C02 alarms. We do have C02 detectors/alarms in the building. Thanks for watching and commenting!
How do you ventilate it? Reason I ask I worried about Co2 so I cracked both doors about 4” and when it gets warm I close it… is that safe?
Great question. I am not qualified to answer that as far as a safety of CO2 person. I can tell you that we have operated ours in a similar way to what you have described. But our building is 40x60 with 20' ceilings - so there is A LOT Of air in that space, and lots of ventilation.
If your building is air tight you might want to crack a door but if you got a drafty building it's not an issue. These heaters usually have a low oxygen shut off anyway they won't burn right with the lack of oxygen.
Enjoyed the info. and run-down. I can research this but these are only available with electric ignite and operation correct? They don't make them that do not require electricity?
I believe you are correct, but I'm not positive. Thanks for watching and commenting!
You can stick a wick into diesel fuel and burn it like the pots they used in the 30's to heat California orchards, but you air quality will suffer.
@@RRaucina Good point Richard, thanks!
What about the smell in the small shop?
There is some smell for sure. I think it would be more noticeable in a small shop. Our 40x60 with 16-20' ceilings has a lot of space for the smell to dissipate. We do only burn clean kerosene.
Most of these area able to burn diesel instead of kerosene which is much cheaper for one, and puts out more btus than kerosene. Diesel is a little thicker when it gets cold so adding a little alcohol to thin works well and there is no smell. Some say to use gas to thin the diesel but that's really not a good practice and would you really want to be breathing gas fumes?!
Hi David - I think I mention in the video that this Master 140,000 BTU heater runs on multiple fuels. According to the specifications page: "Runs on efficient, clean-burning Kerosene and CSA certified to run on #1 & 2 Diesel Fuel, JP8/Jet A Fuel and #1 & 2 Fuel Oil". According to the manual, there is no adjustment necessary to the pressure. The heater does all the work. I have found that diesel fuel (off-road, or on-road) puts out considerably more smell than the clean kerosene. Thanks for watching!
@@PurpleCollarLife If you get a smell burning diesel, your fuel pressure needs to be adjusted. You should NOT get a smell when it's burning. Diesel is a little thicker than kerosene so it's a little harder for the suction pump to pull it up out of the tank. It's especially thicker when you go into a cold shop in the morning and turn it on. I thin mine down with alcohol or diesel fuel additive so it flows better.
Do they smell when they run?
I had the same question. Yes, there is SOME smell - but it's not horrible as long as you choose clean kerosene as your fuel type.
Jet heaters run best on Jet-A fuel, but unless you plan ahead, it's harder to find without the de-icer, which is poisonous when burned. The equivalent is one gallon of gasoline and four gallons of Diesel. Off-road (farm) fuel doesn't include road use tax. I heated my shop all winter with excellent results. If you can find a free source, used (filtered) cooking oil from a restaurant, mixed with farm gasoline (no tax) at a 50/50 ratio (1:1) performs about the same at the lowest price. Pure kerosene would cost me about $28/day to heat my shop, but I can make my own Jet-A for about $8/day using Diesel & gasoline.
Thanks for this info! I will likely always run the kerosene in our unit, but it's really interesting to know that there are other options that people like you use.
Next time you build a 40x60 garage, think of a geothermal solution. It gives you 50 degrees from the gettyup, and it's up to you to add to it to say 72 degrees for heating the space (22 degrees above earth's nominal temperature), or leave it at 50 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer time for a nice cool space.
You do understand geothermal is extremely expensive 💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸.
Be safe
Thanks, Ron. You too!
Хорошо обогревает такой онгар , и в волейбол играть можно классная пушка 👍👍👍
Thanks for watching and commenting!
How long does it run on a tank? Or a gallon? roughly?
That's a great question. I'm not sure that I've ever really kept track - since it kicks on and off as needed, and depends on what fuel you're using and what temperature you have it set at. I believe there have been a few times that I've filled it up (over 9 gallons of Kerosene) and turned it up to 70, and it's run for about 8 hours. So just a guess is that it uses up to 1 gallon per hour? I'll keep better track the next time I use it and re-post on this comment. Thanks for watching and asking!
So, would using diesel make the odor worse?
Thanks.
Yes, using diesel would produce more odor.
How fast does it burn through the karosene?
Hi Dakota - it really depends on how cold it is, how warm you have the temperature gauge set to, how often the heater needs to kick on and off.
Less than 1000$ to have installed 1/2" pex in the floor for future heat source - even from diesel fuel. Better than the noise and bad air
Hi Richard - thanks for watching and commenting. I believe having the PEX line installed in my 40x60 floor, and all the necessary fittings/setup for that was going to cost well over $1000. I priced it out at the time and it was cost prohibitive. In fact, it would have put us over budget and unable to build the building. Obviously it would be nice to have now, but I wasn't willing to save money a few more years to put the building up.
@@PurpleCollarLife 6] 300' zones of 1/2" pex would be $360. Could have laid that out to a future manifold area. Done this for 50 years. Cheap and easy if using passive system design
@@RRaucina I believe that running the PEX line also required additional installation costs. And like I said, we have an all-electric property. So we would have to heat a boiler with electric, or install a LP gas tank and boiler system. If we would have had unlimited budget, I definitely would have added the PEX line, a boiler, LP gas service (or run natural gas to our location) AND insulated the building. But all that would have cost more than the building construction.
Female end is just a pass through so it doesn't take up your whole extension cord.
Thank you!
Are there any such heaters that don't require electricity to run?
Not that I'm aware of in this size. There are the Mr Buddy portable indoor/outdoor heaters. But they put out 4000, 9000, or 18,000 BTU. amzn.to/3JERxNU
DeWalt makes a cordless capable one at Lowes.
YES, propane heaters that are Not "torpedo" style need No electricity.
Would it be recommend it to use it to heat up a green house?
That's a great question. I have no idea - I've never had a green house. Thanks for watching and commenting.
Does it kick off by itself when it runs out of fuel ?
Yes, it does. But I don't like to let it run out of fuel.
Do you have to have it plug in run it
Hello - Yes, it requires electricity to run. Thanks for watching and asking the question.
Your welcome thanks
The cap is giving you a hard time and it is a whole production ...
You're absolutely right. The fuel cap is ridiculous. I have to mess with it every time. Sometimes it takes me longer to get the cap on than it took to fill the fuel tank.
Wait... So as adults you play 4 square??? Can I hang out?
We do play! Jennifer and I can keep right up with the kids! :) We've got trick serves, sneak plays, and its gets pretty competitive.
This heater spike your electric bill ? My bill was ridiculous.
Great question. I did not notice any change to our bill. But since our house is all electric, when it is cold out and I'd be running the heater, I'd also have our baseboard heat, the wood stove, and the pellet stove running in the house - so my electric usage would be higher than typical due to all those things.
I’m remodeling a 2400 sq ft house and my bill was 160 . No insulation and Low ceiling. Literally nothing else running except a couple of lights which would give me a 20 dollar bill on the usual. It can be a hefty hill. I live in nj btw.
Yes it significantly impacts the cost of electricity. We live in Mississippi, so our "winters" are not very intense. Additionally, the heater thermostat is never set past 65° F using in non-insulated shop equivalent to one in video. Our electric bill jumps from an average of $10-$12/mo in the summer to $65-$70 in the winter, and the only device in the shop that runs consistently is a compact full-size refrigerator. We use diesel, and he is correct that it consumes roughly 1gal/ hr. Notably, it does an excellent job of quickly heating a large area, but it's quite pricey to operate.
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Thanks!
*Nice heater I have two but no thermostat. Love that shop. You should check out my smart garage video. I put that heater on a wemo smart plug so i can turn it on from my phone and let it warm up before I go out* #WorldsOkayestFarmer
Thanks! Will do!
I don't like the noise they put out either.
That's the downside for sure.
Gasoline fumes would add to the heating capacity!
I wouldn’t want any gas fumes anywhere near this heater. That would be very dangerous.
big ass fans. that will pull the heat down from the ceiling.
That would certainly help.
😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐
Use a 400000 btu and never play around with those little heaters again
That's a huge heater!
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Thanks, needing it today. It's snowing like crazy here and it looks like I'll be using the Toro snow blower tonight!