Hot in the Shop!

[Dave Richards]

I had an interesting experience over the last few days. My shop is our attached 2-car garage. Monday morning about 7 I went out there to discover the shop was incredibly hot and the Hot Dawg heater going full bore. I quickly climbed up and shut off the heater. The instant read meat thermometer said it was 117° F out there! I immediately suspected the thermostat and had a look at it. It's a non-programmable low-temp thermostat intended for out buildings and green houses. Pretty basic. No batteries, just a bi-metallic strip, a magnet and a leaf switch in a glass vial. I checked it out and cleaned the sawdust out of it. After cooling off the shop, did some testing. It all seemed to work fine so I set it at 50° and went in the house. Went out to run some errands and came back about 3 hours later. It was only 105°F this time. New thermostat this morning and so far so good.

If you have a T-stat in your shop, it might not hurt to look at it and make sure it's clean and working well.

[David Eisenhauer]

Sounds just like summer around here Dave. Well, 117 may be a touch warmer than ususal, but not much. Just dropped from 90+ to 45-55 in the last few days and it is oh-so-nice. Joking aside, I would not be comfortable with leaving that thing "in gear" overnight and dependant upon a thermostat. Is a Hot Dawg electric or propane? It is not a problem here, but maybe you have to prevent going below freezing in the shop overnight in your area.

[Dave Richards]

David, here in Minnesota we're having frosty nights so heat in the shop is a good idea to keep things from freezing. I have a low-temp thermostat which I set to 40 when I'm not working out there. The T-stat that I replaced is more than 15 years old and for all that time it's done a good job of maintaining whatever temp I set. Until yesterday I didn't have any concerns. The heater runs off the city natural gas supply (bet my bill will be high this month) and I like it for a shop heater.

The over-engineer in me considered buying two thermostats and putting them in series. Set one at something like 75 and use the other as my adjustable T-stat. Might work, might be a waste of time. The failure rate of the thermostat I replaced is really very low.

[Jim Becker]

When the "very basic" thermostat went in my Farenheat unit, I bought an interface and a standard wall thermostat for it.

[Bruce Page]

I have one of those round Honeywell basic thermostats that have been around for decades. No problems with it so far.

[Dave Richards]

Jim, I thought about buying an electronic thermostat to replace the mechanical one on the wall. It'd just be another couple of batteries to replace and wouldn't pay for itself.

Bruce, I wish I could still get a good round thermostat. The kind with the mercury filled vial instead of the magnet and leaf switch. Oh well, I think I probably paid $20 for the one that went out. For 17 years or so of service, I can't complain.

It's just a little surprising to touch the cast iron top on my tablesaw and not have it sucking the heat out of me. Especially this time of year. :D

[Andrew Seemann]

We have some old Honeywell line voltage thermostats with the mercury switch the size of a chapstick tube at the family greenhouse business that we have been using since the 1940's. Those things last forever. We did switch them to low voltage a few decades ago:)

[Dave Richards]

Would love to have one of those, Andrew.

[Jim Becker]

Dave, for my unit, I had to buy not just the thermostat, but also a control interface that gets wired into the unit so that the external thermostat could "talk" to the unit. That may be just the nature of the Farenheit heater I have. (and likely will no longer use since I put in the MiniSplit in the spring)

If your heater can take an external thermostat directly...totally a no-brainer there!

[Dave Richards]

Yeah, Jim, the Hot Dawg uses an external thermostat which I mounted on the wall across the shop. No built in thermostat so it's more like a regular old furnace in that respect. I keep my shop closed up so it stays pretty cool in there in the summer but a minisplit would be nice.

[Robert Engel]

Now all your lumber in there is kiln dried LOL

[Dave Richards]

Now all your lumber in there is kiln dried LOL

True dat!

I'm glad I caught it before it got really crazy, though. I wonder about the cans of paint and other flammables. Fortunately there's not much gas in the snowblower :) which has to have a place in the shop. :(

[Van Huskey]

Wow you were almost at Powerpost beetle killing temps! That was a hot dawg indeed. :D

[Dave Richards]

Wow you were almost at Powerpost beetle killing temps! That was a hot dawg indeed. :D


I hope there aren't any powderpost beetles in my shop.

[Van Huskey]

I hope there aren't any powderpost beetles in my shop.

If you did I bet they have already enlisted a beetle realtor and looking for a new place to live with A/C, if they did indeed live through the heatwave. IIRC 30 mins at 120 releases them from their mortal coil. < ha that's my second Shakespeare reference on SMC in less than a week.

[Dave Richards]

Van, that's a good one. How does that 120° work on Asian beetles?

[Van Huskey]

Van, that's a good one. How does that 120° work on Asian beetles?


I think at 120 deg they are just chillin', the women may be in bikinis and the dudes might be firing up the grill but I doubt they will be worried about if their life insurance is up to date. IIRC the 30min kiln temp for the ALB is around 135 F. Now if you turn your shop into a sauna it might send them to the great afterlife.

[Clint Baxter]

I use a programmable thermostsat in my shop. All four preset temps are set to take it down to 53 which is where it’s left when not occupied. (My lowest setting on this stat is 50.) When I go out to work I just bump it up to whatever temp I like to work at. If I need the temp maintained, I hit HOLD. When it hits its next programmed time, it just reverts to the 53 degree, non-occupied setting. This way I don’t forget to set the thermostat back down when I leave the shop.

FWIW, my garage and shop are a detached building.

Clint

[Mike Heidrick]

Nice Kiln you built.