Shop heater

[John Charles]

Does anyone own a Hot Dawg garage heater .
Is it's performance satisfactory .
Separated combustion or not.

[glenn bradley]

Just do a search here on 'Dawg' and you'll get a boat load of threads.

[Chris Friesen]

Separated combustion or not.

Separated combustion will probably mean less frequent cleaning of the heat exchanger. There is unlikely to be any safety issue, as the amount of fumes/dust it would take to cause any combustion danger would likely make the space uninhabitable to humans.

I have a similar unit heater from Lennox, without separated combustion.

[David G Baker]

I have a 75k BTU Hot Dawg and have been happy with it. I have had it for around 4 years. It runs on natural gas. I don't know what you mean by separated combustion.
I suggest that you do a little shopping around because the prices can vary from different dealers.

[Matt Meiser]

Mine is not a Hot-Dawg, but looks the same and is made by Beacon-Morris. It is a 75K BTU converted to propane. I suspect someone is making these and selling them under several brand names. Anyway I am really happy with mine. It does use room air for combustion. One of the things I like about it that I didn't think about when I bought it is that it is force-draft, meaning it has a blower to force the exhaust gasses out of the flue. This minimizes the risk of running an exhaust fan or outside-vented dust collection and drawing the exhaust into the building. I also have a CO detector but theoretically the furnace would shut itself down if that happened.

[Stephen Pereira]

Hi,

One nice thing about the "forced draft" or combustion motor is that you can vent this type of heater through the wall. Hot Dawg heaters and similar heaters might be sensitive to dusty environments. Unlike heaters with pilot lights Hot dawgs have computer boards that are spendy to replace. Menards sells the Beacon Morris .. about $200.00 less than Modine's Hot Dawg but I don't know anything about these units.

Has anyone had problems with dust shutting down their Hot dawg?

[Matt Meiser]

Carter Lumber also sells Beacon-Morris. At least they did 4 years ago when I got mine.

[Al Willits]

Just curious, I'm assuming by seperate combustion you mean a sealed combustion chamber and air for combustion is drawn in from outside??

Matt, not sure but I doubt CO will shut down these heaters, usually the combustion blower triggers a pressure switch and if the motor dies or intake and or exhaust get restricted, the pressure switch will shut the burner down.

They make have some sort of CO detector though, haven't looked at one in a while.

fwiw I would advise anyone who heats their garage/shop/home to pick up at least one CO detector.
May save your life.
Or someone you love.

Al

[David G Baker]

I like the Hot Dawg but I do wish that it used outside air instead of shop air for combustion. My pole barn is pretty air tight, in cold weather if I haven't opened the door for a few days the air has a funny smell and I don't feel comfortable in the building until I leave the door open for a while. A CO detector sounds like a very good idea.

[Joe Mioux]

I have a Reznor (I think) T3 heater. 45K btu for a garage shop measuring 24x32x9 and an unisulated ceiling. That will change. Combustion air comes from outside and is vented out the side of the building. No holes in the roof.

this unit has worked great. It knocks of the chill and I can work comfortably all Winter long.

Joe

[Matt Meiser]

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that CO itself would shut the heater down. What I meant is that if the furnace doesn't sense the proper airflow in the flue, it is supposed to shut down. The CO detector is for if the furnace malfunctions.

[John Charles]

Thanks guys .I will be ordering my heater this week . We had frost here in southern Ontario last night , so it must be time to do something about the heat.

[John Ricci]

We had frost here in southern Ontario last night

Three inches of snow here in Markdale this morning and anything in the shade is still covered:eek:.

Meanwhile back on topic...I have a Reznor T3 60k btu closed combustion propane unit venting through the wall in my 20'x30'x10' shop and it can easily keep the place toasty all winter. I have the thermostat programmed to maintain 10c most of the time and it bumps up to 18c from 8am-6pm for me:D

J.R.

[Tony Zona]

John,

About your Reznor and shop: Is the shop insulated?
I have a shop of similar size and my Reznor is too small
to keep up in the dead of winter.

My Reznor, however, is only 45,000 and I am looking
for something like a 75,000 BTU propane hanging heater.

I got my present heater for no cost from a friend
who removed it. What do the new ones cost?

[John Ricci]

John,

About your Reznor and shop: Is the shop insulated?
I have a shop of similar size and my Reznor is too small
to keep up in the dead of winter.

My Reznor, however, is only 45,000 and I am looking
for something like a 75,000 BTU propane hanging heater.

I got my present heater for no cost from a friend
who removed it. What do the new ones cost?

Tony, yes my shop is R20 insulated topped by 7/16 OSB and the 60k is plenty even for our winters. I bought the Reznor last fall and it was about $3k Cdn. The closed combustion/external air unit adds about $1k to the price of the same sized unit that burns internal air but I like the safety factor particularly when finishing.

J.R.