Alot depends on your budget but gas fired heaters designed specifically for garage spaces would be the way to go. Google Mr Heater Garage Heaters

Hot Dog heaters work good and are not expensive. If you want to spend a bit more look into overhead radient heaters, keeps your tools and floor warm when you're crawling around under you're muscle cars. If youdon't have gas near your garage you may need to look at other options, like electric heat or possibly a wood stove.

Currently I have an electic heater by Dimplex in my 2 car.
Alot depends on whether your garage is insulated. If it's not, that would be the first thing you should do, otherwise you will spend a fortune on trying to keep it heated.
I am planning on installing a mini-split system before summer so I can have my garage cooled over the summer. I spend alot of time in my garage so it will be completely worth it for me.
Annette

Here is a link that might be useful: garage heaters

If you read the post again I don't think this guy wants to work out there, etc. Sounds like he just wants to keep the space above a temperature that is causing his pipes to freeze so suggesting a wood stove or the roaring open flame hot dog heater doesn't seem very practical. As far as those hanging electric unit heaters,,, I don't care how well you insulate the ceiling and walls of the garage you still have to deal with an ice cold concrete floor so you'll probably be using electricity like crazy and still not be working in much comfort. IMO

I agree

I would cut out the wallboard and insulate the water pipes so there's no chance they could freeze - If necessary, you could wrap them with electrical heat tape before you insulate them and plug that in during the cold months - Much cheaper than trying to heat the garage just to prevent pipes from freezing. The money you would waste heating the garage for 1 year would certainly pay to have the sheetrock you cut out repaired

Don

Insulate the water pipes. Possibly build a room around the heater.

The heater isn't in the garage, the pipes are run in the ceiling because there are rooms above the garage,, ka'peesh Bob? To a Texan frozen pipes in a ceiling is probably kind of like the original Star Trek. WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE

Hello,
Yea, BX weuns down hear in Texas are culturly backward. We were the place they sent those damn rocks from the Moon a few years ago. H*ll, the administration of the space program also is in Texas. They solved a world crisis when the supercollider was cancelled in Texas. When Texas was accepted into the union, we were the only state to have the right to raise an army, or divide up into 5 seperate states. The size of land stretched from the southern boarder to almost the northern boarder. The distance between the east to the west is almost as far as the drive to St. Louis, 640 miles. When the grapes in France died, the new plants that replaced all of the old uns came from Texas. (1918 or about that time) 3 of 6 of the biggest and best HVAC companies in America are based in Texas. We have about 13% of the population, that lives in comparative bliss without freezing weather for 9 months of the year.

We are just stupid I guess, we wrap the pipes when they are in environmentally poor areas. We just doent think on it.

The post suggested a poorly thought out solution to frozen pipes. I tried to offer a suggestion that would be much cheaper than heating a garage. If you are rich as sin, and an American, why not waste energy. We do it all of the time. Not this Homboey.

As a final note, I was talkin to a dumass today. He holds a double degree in mechanical engineering and metalurgy. He was recently in Peru, and spent the entire time gettin drunk in the best hotel they had. He told me he could trace his ancestors for 800 years. He is just a good ole boy that has built tuned suspension race car chasis for the last 30 years. Yea, born and bred in Texas.

Articulation is probably overated, ifin you can't pronounce the words, Ask someone to read this for you.

In spite of this comment, I still like your posts.

Bob, you gotta pay more respect to anybody who goes so far as to call himself as "Mr. HVAC" - Hell, he probably has more degrees all to himself than you and I and half the forum do combined ;-)

Don't be so hard on him . . . . occasionally, he gets things right - Just not this time

Don

Jesus Christ bob calm the hell down, all I meant by my comment is that in Texas you people probably don't have to worry about frozen pipes all that much, you know like "WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE" So as long as the shoe fits why don't you just pass over the heating and air conditioning posts you possess very little knowledge in. Oh hell, that doesn't leave you with much to comment about in here at all does it??:-) For your information when you get consistant temperatures around zero with high winds there are times when you just have to use energy to keep pipes from freezing. It's the lesser of two evils bob, either use energy or spend lots of time repairing burst pipes and replacing sheetrock. You haven't a clue about what this poster is talking about here so SHUT UP! You seem to have to make a comment for practically every post anyway. Insulation just doesn't cut it some time. For that matter in hot weather why don't you just place a bowl of ice cubes in front of a fan, why waste energy turning on your air conditioner? And don't try to impress me with what Texas has. I'm not impressed by braggers which is why I continue to raze you in here, it seems like bragging is what you do best. Besides what does all you've bragged about in that state have anything to do with you anyway? On top of all your other BS I suppose you're gonna tell us you had something to do with the development of the space program or something like that too huh? I think the more you contribute to this forum the more people realize most of the time you haven't a clue about anything!
And don21, actually I don't have any degrees at all. What I have is 30+ years of sweating and freezing many body parts off fixing pieces of equipment that would probably make your head spin. I've been fortunate in that time to get exposure to all kinds of equipmment and work for some companies that realize the importance of trained technicians and were very generous providing it. When I supply info to "any" inquiry here its only because I've been there and have experienced a similar situation first hand. When you perform your services from 20 below to 100+ degrees at any hour of the day or night in all kinds of weather you get pretty good at what you're doing!

Well, I dont work in sub zero weather, but it only takes about 30 degrees to freeze a water pipe. Electric heat tape for pipes that has a resistive sensor to reduce heat unless needed have been around since the mid 1970's. Foam has been acvailable since the 1980's just about world-wide. Foam pipe insulation protects to about 30 below if you get the thick foam. When I moved into my house in 1984, the pipes froze in 2 bathrooms. I insulated the pipes and the pipes don't freeze anymore.

Now let me tell you about the time I launched my first rocket. It went straight up and almost straight back down. It landed very close to where I was standing. I did that near Dallas, not Houston. In Houston, I launched a rocket and it followed the bayou into the sunset. I was miles from NASA.

several things, 1, electric heat tape does not last all that long and in cold weather (and I don't mean 30 degrees, that's tee shirt weather for some of us) how that is discovered many times is when a pipe bursts. 2, a pipe that has electric heat tape on it should not be insulated. 3, foam insulation does not protect down to 30 below zero, believe me.
As for rockets,, you should probably spend some time polishing your rocket and less time in this forum! :-)

I'm staying out of this one.

In my bathroom I had pipes freezing last week, I repaired them twice and insulated them, as well as filling cracks in the foundation with foam. The next day they froze again, I broke down and put some heat tape on them and they have ben trouble-free since.

Go HVAC Go / Sic him Bob, Sic him.
Sorry, just enjoying the entertainment.

Don21: It's Mr "HAVAC", not Mr. HVAC.

"It's Mr "HAVAC", not Mr. HVAC"
For some maybe words with more then 4 letters are just to difficult to use in conversation. :-)
This is not my first encounter with the air conditioning messiah from Texas but I do believe this is the first time don21 and I have talked trash at each other.

OK.

My garage is attached to my house, and we've had lots of freezing weather this year. I don't have pipes in it, but anyway...

2 things the otherwise dopey previous owners did that was smart? 1 - get a decent, insulated garage door.

2- run the pipe for the dryer through the garage, and out the wall. That, combined with parking the car in there kept it above freezing pretty much all of the time.

The cheapest, simplest way to keep those pipes from freezing is a plain old electric heater, there are even some specially made for garages.

An oil heater would avoid the issues faced with dust etc with fan heaters, that being said, I put a cheap fan heater in my garage because I had to spray paint some trim and needed to keep it at +10 C or above. It didn't like the dust too much (had a filter though) but whilst it doesn't look too nice anymore, it does a good job. Advantage of the electric models is, they won't consume anything unless they come on, and pose probably less of a spark risk than gas, although, again, the best ones are probably the dedicated garage heaters, although a strip heater'd probably be good too, for a gentle heat.

You only need to stay above freezing, just. That should help significantly with economy. If original poster isn't using the garage that much, maybe they should consider some sort of curtain or something over the main door - I've been considering making drop sheet curtains that run right round mine, so I can spray paint more easily in the future....

The other possibility (one I'm looking into as well, since my bedroom floor above the garage gets so cold) is to look into further insulation in the ceiling of the garage, but it must be between the garage and the pipe, so the pipe's on the 'warm side' or, like I'm considering, putting battens up, sheet foam insulation, and another layer of drywall over it. Poster in theory would only have to do it over the section with the pipes, although the whole ceiling would be better. The advantage of this over directly insulating the pipes, would be it would turn the garage ceiling into the barrier between the cold and warm areas, at the moment, the floor above the pipes is where this is right now.

pjb999, I've got a question 4 U. Do you like to travel? Then you go right ahead and keep on painting in your closed garage with and electric heater going and there's a very change you will! Who knows where you'll land though!

Dont know much about heat and coolinmg, but just wanted to chime in here if you dont mind, hey brown keep up the good work, i ran into that mr hvac many moons ago,,told him he needs to get laid and i see it stil hasnt happended..

fred

Well son of a gun look who's back! Where the heck have you been Fred1944? Obviously not to a spelling bee!
Someone with your mentality on the subject of HVAC probably does think BB is knowledgeable. And why are you so preoccupied with my sex life, what does it have to do with my knowledge of the subject at hand. Speaking of hands, I take it your sex life is thriving? :-)

If pipe with heat tape shouldn't be insulated, nobody told FEMA - Every trailer they installed around here after Katrina has both heat tape and foam insulation on the water inlet pipe . . . . and it seldom ever gets colder than +20 or so down here on the Gulf Coast

Don

FEMA??? Oh now there's a government organization most people have tons of confidence in!!! Try this instead, check with the manufacturers who make the product and see what they recommend. Thats what I did. Matter of fact many say so right in the instructions.

ohn no hvac, not preoccupied one bit. just making an observation. i hate to see frustrated people walking around all day 24-7 52-365,,it then leads to faulty, incompetent shitty advice in other areas. just ask brownie.

Well your spelling is much better this time fred. Either you used spell check or you have someone smarter then you, like a second grader, trying to cover the fact that you're a dope! I find it amazing that you think you know so much about me. You must be a professional ANALyst?

now now now,,sticks and stones.....remember that child? its very easy to analyze the younfg immature andpredictible crowd. yes i know my spelling isnt good, true, i relaize its make s you feel good pointing out faults of others but i know how to treat my fellow man something you just havent quite grabbed yet have you sonny?

you must be some trade professional to have time lounging around all day on the internet, im retired whats your excuse?

"Smarter THEN you?"

Come on - That wouldn't make it past your FIRST grade teacher . . . . It's 'Smarter THAN you'

Don

"you must be some trade professional to have time lounging around all day on the internet, im retired whats your excuse?"
I'm semi at 58 if you really must know. So that gives me time to come in here and attempt to help people with their heating and air condition issues when I feel like. And you? "Dont know much about heat and coolinmg" So you really have absolutely nothing to contribute to this forum do you?
Look fred, I don't log on here to deal with people like you. Contribute something useful or get the hell out. If you think the person you are defending knows what he's talking about most of the time keep in mind you said yourself, "Dont know much about heat and coolinmg"

The best way to heat a garage is with radiant heaters.

Here is a link that might be useful: Heater Shop

This thread needs to die.

I didn't open this can of worms but I agree with you totally blacknumber1.

"i didnt open this can of worms"...

but i want everyone to look above and just review other posts and now tell me who talks like thye walk on water and makes others appear small...for what purpose...

"the messiah from texas" as above, dont worry virgin, i can guarantee you ecveryone in this site knows your an assshole..

Could it be that fred and bob brown are romantically involved???? Hmmmm, hey fred, what can brown do for you??
:-)

Mr HVAC wrote:

"pjb999, I've got a question 4 U. Do you like to travel? Then you go right ahead and keep on painting in your closed garage with and electric heater going and there's a very change you will! Who knows where you'll land though!"

OK I should have clarified that. The only type of spray painting I'm going to be doing, is with water-based paints and an airless sprayer.....and the heater's turned off before I start, and not turned back on til the overspray settles....but thanks for asking. I certainly wouldn't use or recommend the setup with any types of paint that posed a fire/explosion hazard.

As for all the hoo-hah, Crikey! Play nicely, you lot.

OK pjb999, you didn't strike me as someone who would paint with an open flame present,, but then again you "are" from Canada!!! LOL, just kidding. So,,,what the hell is Crikey?

Crikey? Strewth mate. Haven't you heard the late Crocodile Hunter say it? It's a bit like "golly" and is kind of twee, which is why I like it I guess....I was born in Ontario but have lived in Australia and New Zealand since 1974, moving back to Canada only last year....so I kind of picked up a lot of sayings....

If you want mad and eccentric, you can't go past a kiwi- NZ'er....

Take this for example: http://www.asciimation.co.nz/beer/

Or this guy: http://www.interestingprojects.com/cruisemissile/

Aussies have their mad inventors too, but they're not half a patch on the Kiwis, who have produced some brilliant export earners with their innovation. Personally, I think it's the Scottish Engineer influence (lots of the early European settlers in NZ were Scots)

Here is a link that might be useful: THE JET POWERED BEER COOLER