Garage or shop Heater

Looking for a heater to keep my utility room pipes from freezing, either electric or propane. It would be ideal to have a thermostat that went down to around 35 or 40 degrees F. Other than that, I'll use a temperature control to turn on power to an electric heater or a propane heater with continuous electric start pilot light substitute.

Heat tapes would do the trick for the pipes but I don't want residual water freezing in the washing machine pump. This doesn't freeze when it's 20 degrees F outside, but we had a pipe bust when it got to -9 degrees F. We've had pipe freeze problems twice in the 10 years I've lived here so I'm thinking it wouldn't take much heat to keep the room above freezing.

Anyone know of an electric or propane shop heaters that have a thermostat that goes close to freezing temperature?

RogerN

Reply to
RogerN
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Just buy yourself a Thermocube.

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Reply to
Ignoramus20572

Get a regular plug-in electric heater and a "plug-in" line thermostat. Modify the calibration if necessary.

Another idea - use a contactor-relay to control the outlet you plug the heater ijnto. Control the relay with one of the old round honeywell mercury switch thermostats - calibrate the thermostat 10 or

20 degrees down by rotating the mounting. They are only accurate when mounted level.. Third option - get a refrigerator thermostat and have it operate a NC relay - reversing it's operation - it heats when the thermostat calls for no cooling, and does not when the thermostat calls for cooling.

The plugin thermostat used to be a common item for "milk house heaters" at farm supplies. Might even be able to get a "milk house heater" with a thermostat that goes low enough. -

Or get a "block heater thermostat" - Here in Canada Canadian Tire carries the Noma brand.

Or go to Home Despot and buy a "thermocube" - on at 35F, off at 45F.

Handles up to 1500 watts. I'd run it on a 750 or 1000 watt heater

Reply to
clare

Something that happens every five years seems like a perfect place for a manual solution.

An incandescent light bulb of appropriate wattage placed close to the area that might freeze works fine. You have to manually control it, every five years.

Most any old heater with a bi-metal thermostat has a calibration adjustment. Or, if it doesn't you can bend something.

Reply to
mike

You could salvage the thermostat from a refrigerator and reverse its action with a relay.

Or you could measure how cold the room gets with 100 or 200W of continuous heat, such as a light bulb or

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$12 in WalMart

I use mine to defrost my breakfast sandwich before microwaveing it. jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Thanks. I plan to run another house cooling rate test during the next cold spell and that will help determine how much (or little) electric heat I need to keep the basement plumbing above freezing. jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

I'd never heard of a Thermocube until I looked it up after your post. That looks like a good solution.

Thanks!

RogerN

Reply to
RogerN

The pipes froze up the first or second year I was here, then I used a heat tape on the pipe that runs along the outside wall. It's hard for me to know if the heat tape is working unless I get a frozen water pipe. The last freeze happened on a different area of the pipe when the temperatures dropped and it was windy. The old heating system here used a very wasteful propane heater that's located in the utility room, that keeps pipes from freezing but it ran through a tank of propane in less than 2 months, now I get 2 years out of a tank of propane but have to try to keep the pipes from freezing.

I like the idea of modifying the thermostats I could probably get a cheap heater to do what I want.

RogerN

Reply to
RogerN

I went to Wal-Mart last night, didn't see the personal heater but I bought an $18 ceramic heater, low setting is 750 watts. With a lower power heater it would be nice with the refrigerator thermostat because if it failed ON, it would heat but not enough power to overheat the room.

I have an oil filled electric radiator with bad controls, I'm considering using it with an electronic temperature control and using the alarm output to turn on an indicator light if the temp is out of range, indicating a heater failure or too cold even with the heat.

I have a "Kill-A-Watt" I can use to see how much power it takes to keep the room above freezing.

RogerN

Reply to
RogerN

Here is a small programmable controller. Add a relay or solid state rely to control higher currents. I bought one, but I haven't tried it yet. It uses a thermocouple. I plan on replacing a bad mecanical thermostat on a heater, and possibly one on a large solder pot.

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Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

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