I have an attached garage on my house that I'm looking to heat. My wife parks her vehicle in the garage and also likes to go out there and do some craft work. Any painting or sanding she does in my work garage. She mainly assembles and packages stuff in the house garage. When we built the garage we had it sprayed foam insulated and finished the inside with tin. We had our daughters 1st birthday party in the garage the other week and I used a portable propane forced air heater to warm up the garage for the party. On the 60,000 BTU setting it took an hr to get the garage from low 40s to 70 degrees and it stayed warm for several hours. I would like to add a more permanent heat source. I thought about an electric heater (Would have to be 7500W) but my panel box is full and I'd have to go thru the whole process of getting a bigger one, etc. I've been looking at the ventless propane fireplace (30,000 BTU). Has anyone used one of these in a similar layout and how have you liked it? I'm not looking at keeping the garage 70 degrees 24/7. My wife works part time and on the days she doesn't work or the weekends I'd like to be able to take the chill out of the garage and have it around 60 degrees or so.

We installed a wall mounted 30,000 propane ventless a few years ago in a cooler part of the house. That area is now the warmest part of the house and we keep the thermostat on low. Clearly a success. I don't know about a 'fireplace' style. Get one with a thermostat, just cause they require less attention. We love ours and wished that we had put it in long before we actually did.

My experience with ventless heaters is that they tend to put a lot of humidity into the air, not such a bad thing in the winter, as long as the area is always heated. When the heat is shut off, after several hours, that moisture comes out of the air and tends to cling to metal objects. If you do it, plan on heating the area all winter with temps above freezing, preferably with a thermostat control. I would look into the cost of a vented heat source with a thermostat, they ted to be more efficient.

I had a 30,000 ventless heater in my 2 stall garage when we first moved here. I would heat the garage during the day, while I was working in there, and shut it off when I left for the day. After a couple weeks I noticed that some new sheet metal was getting surface rust on it, and the under side of the metal work bench had water dripping off of it, that would disappear after the heat was turned back on for a couple of hours. The next winter I installed an outside vented furnace with a thermostat control, and the dampness was gone.

The byproduct of propane combustion is water. Keep in mind that moisture condenses on any cold surface. So you go out to your cold shop and fire up a propane heater for a few hours and it spews moisture which condenses on everything in the shop. Bare metal will rust and mold will form on everything else - not overnight obviously but eventually.

If you are looking at about 7500 watts that is a 40 amp breaker with the 125% factor applied. You'll need two slots to install that breaker. I have no idea what panel you have but I'd bet that tandem breakers are available for it. By doubling up two existing branch circuits you'd have the space available. For what you are doing, I think this would be the way to go versus the non-vented propane heater.

Tandem Breaker Example

You need a radiant tube heater. They make them for residential garages.

I've had radiant tube heaters in a couple of garages over the years. You need the ceiling height. They are great!! I have a vent-less fireplace in my home today. I've been having some problems and It's VERY difficult to find anyone who will work on them.

Unfortunately we just added on to the house in the last few years. Added the attached garage then as well and when we did so we already combined some of the breakers with the tandem breakers. I looked in the panel box and there's 2 that could be combine but that would only free up 1 slot. Not sure if 2 circuits could be combined to 1 to free up a second slot or not. I didn't spend that much time looking at it once I realized it was going to be more complex than just adding a breaker.

Garage heigh is 11'2" if I remember correctly. I know it right around 11'.

What I did for my garage when I added on was to add a 60 amp subpanel. That required only one 60 amp feeder breaker in the service entrance and I not only fed all the garage branch circuits but transferred some of the house branch circuits to the sub panel to free up space. But everyone's situation is different.

Whats wrong with your fireplace?

check national and local codes for installing open flame appliance in garage....an old car or lawn mower/fuel cans etc that vent to atmosphere dont get along well with open flame in confined space.

It stays lit for about five minutes then goes out.

That's a thermocouple issue - easily fixed. You can clean it with emery cloth or scotchbrite or replace it.

Does the pliot flame when on curve up? If so there is a little hole in the side that probably is plugged etc with dust. Blow the hole out and restart your pilot and see if it stays on. If that doesn't fix it more than likely the thermocouple is bad. Here is a pic of how the pliot flame should look like.

Also the little hole I am talking about is on the end of the plot burner.

I have back problems that significantly limit my movement. That’s why I’m trying to find a repair person.

Damn I am sorry to hear that. I know all to well about back problems. Could you have a Friend help you. This is a very easy fix.

Anyone knowledgeable about
old ( +20 years perhaps)
vented
“Real Fyre 24”
natural gas fireplace inserts ?

This is a simple match lit unit.
Has four rectangular refractory cement bars surrounding the black pipe gas burner.

I am looking for an installation manual,
or pictures of the insert installed.

I know about the webpage of today’s Real Fyre:

https://www.realfyrestore.com/real-fyre-fuel-injector-natural.html

my old unit has a fuel injector that looks like that,
and an “Air shutter nut” that screws onto the fuel injector.

A friend tried to help. He damaged the mounting point where the thermo-couple goes. Now more parts will have to be replaced. I was hoping to find someone who actually services these things. The best I could do was to make an appointment four weeks in the future and pay $200 for a service call. The repair guy will be here tomorrow. We shall see. At least here in SC there does not appear to be many service people who repair these things.

It would help if you knew the model number. Which should be on a metal tag hooked to the gas valve. Here is a list of different models.


https://www.realfyre.com/catalogs-manuals/

Very sorry to hear that. You can buy a new pilot assembly with thermocouple and ignitor for $35-50 Dollars. I hope they don't try and stick it to you on service charges.