Bulbs & Fittings Ideas

I haven’t seen the electric bill yet so I’m giving this heater 5 stars. I had previously bought one of the propane Reddy Heaters (RLP50VA see my review on that) to heat my garage but that heater was completely unsuitable for that task. This one is perfect, it heats up the garage quickly and is quiet and clean. It is a 240v heater and requires a hardwired installation so is a little bit of a pain but I wired everything up and had an electrician friend come check out my work before I turned it on and all was OK. Needed a 30A dual pole circuit breaker and 10/2 wire along with a junction box and flexible connecting cable but it was worth the effort! My garage is a garage under (standard Colonial) 26×22 so the ceiling is insulated but nothing else is. Living in NH, a heated garage for working on the cars is pretty much a necessity and I would recommend this heater highly.

I built my woodshop which is well insulated (R19 in walls, R40 in ceiling) and about 460 square feet with 8 foot ceilings. Living in Iowa, I was skeptical whether this heater could do the job where it sometimes gets 10 to 20 below for several days in Dec and Jan. Those fears were alleviated.

If you are at all concerned that the heater can handle a level of cold that commonly reaches 33 below (wind chill) and -20 ambient temp, worry no more. I kept the heater on the third mark out of 10 and it maintained between 49 and 53 depending on the coldness of the night. When I went out to work, I turned it up to a tad beyond LOW and it leveled at 60 degrees. It’s also very quiet in that I’m able to have a normal voice conversation with anyone present and we aren’t really aware when it turns on. Very nice not have the smell of fuel oil in the air. I’m very happy with the purchase.

As to cost – I’m lucky because through the use of a heat pump in the house, I use over 1000k and with my electric company, anything over that is just 2.5 cents a kwh. That makes heating the shop very affordable for me, but without that break, it would be quite a bit more expensive.

Edit as of 01-03-09. The local news just advised that here in my area, it is the 9th coldest December since 1897 when they started keeping track. They also said it is the second snowiest December on record. There were several days below 0 and a couple to -20 ambient temp which is common in those months any Winter. This small heater kept up perfectly well.

Edit as of Dec of 2013 – I’m now on my 6th Iowa Winter with this in the shop and haven’t had any issue at all. By this time, I figure it doesn’t owe me much, but if by chance it did go south, I’d buy another without hesitation. Fortunately, it just keeps working as well as the day I hung it. Highly recommend.

I purchased this heater for my 700 sq. ft. shop with 12′ ceiling (well insulated). In the first hour it raised the temperature from 43 to 55 degrees (F). After two hours temp. was up to about 60F. I was impressed.

It is small, quiet, and produces great heat for its size.
Thermostatically controlled fan will cycle on and off until the ambient temperature is above 55 or so, then will run continuously until reaching desired temp.

Good heat with poor documentation. Documentation does not give a clue as to how to connect to today’s 240v 4 wire connections.

The heater requires a 240v 30amp 3 wire connection. I have a 30 amp 4 wire outlet. Therefore, I purchased a 4 wire 240v dryer pigtail from Home Depot. Then I connected black to black, red to white, and green to green (ground). Black and red are the two incoming hot wires in newer 240 volt 4-wire arrangements…I presume. I am NOT an electrican.

The 4th wire (white) in this case is not needed. I capped the white wire and tied it off inside the heater.

Expect some smoke in the first couple of minutes…from oils on the heating elements, etc. It is a nice heater considering price and size.

I subtracted one star in my rating due to the poor documentation.

Installation was no problem if you plan ahead with the wiring. I am impressed with the heat output. Don’t be surprised when it doesn’t seem to start up when you first turn it on. Give it a few seconds. It will!

This heater is top notch! It’s quiet, and puts out plenty of HOT heat for a basement below grade. I’m really glad I chose this over baseboard heat. Enjoy!

Bought this heater for my man cave. Instructions were clear and I even called in for customer support to check on the breaker type and wire gauge, they were super helpful and knowledgeable. Total installation time took about 2 hours mostly to run the wiring from the breaker box to my wall location. As for heat, the 400 sq ft room heats up in about an hour from 30 to 70 degrees. Very pleased with this product and would recommend it to anyone looking to heat a man cave…