This unit is exactly what I needed for keeping a garage above freezing, and for warming it up occasionally for work. It is adequate for a well-insulated double garage. The heater, while very basic in design, is of good quality. (Made in the USA!) I emailed a question about adding a remote thermostat to the manufacturer and received a prompt and helpful reply. It pays to shop around online, because the same unit sells for a range of prices under slightly different model numbers--check the specs. The local big-box home improvement stores have nothing comparable.
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I've had this heater for over 2 years now and have had no problems with it whatsoever. This is very well built product. All the connections are very solid and secure, using heavy duty materials. The heat settings are adjustable via easy to access jumpers. I have it on the factory standard setting and it heats my 20' x 20' garage in less than 10 minutes. Highly endorsed by me.
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Have been using this heater for a month or so. It meets all our needs. No odor or excessive heat. Very quiet, and looks good. We are using this in an insulated sun room... about 300 sq ft., the room is still very pleasant even when the temps were below zero last week.
Honest reviews on 240V GARAGE HEATER (Fahrenheat/Marley FUH54)
Electric Garage Heater
Step 1: I wanted to work comfortably in an attached 22 x 22 (9 foot high drywalled ceiling) garage in the winter. Figuring I'd need lots of heat, I bought a portable 40,000 btu propane heater. It exhausts lots of carbon monoxide, so you have to partially open a door or window to the outside to let [cold] fresh air in -which seriously lowers heater efficiency. The heater warmed the garage, but the approach wasn't satisfactory -i.e., the fumes were so bad, I stopped using it. It was also very loud, like the hissing of escaping air from a large air boat; plus, when the propane tank ran out, the heater stopped; each time you needed heat, you had to drag it out, connect it to the tank, leave plenty of floor space around this self-contained-blowtorch; put it all away when you were done; and of course find a place to store it. Also, there was no thermostat. All in all, a royal pain in the keister. (Google search on: "propane heater carbon monoxide" to read about the serious risk of carbon monoxide from propane heaters.)
Step 2: I bought one of these electric heaters. It has only half the btu's of the propane unit, but there is no need to open a window or door for ventilation. It also has a thermostat, so you can set it (to a number, not a temperature), and come back 30 minutes later and be in relative comfort. On days in the low 30s, it will keep the garage in the 60s, which is fine for working.. (My attached garage ceiling and 2 walls are insulated.) My heater is mounted high up on a wall, but it can also be mounted to hang from the ceiling, as long as the clearances laid out in the instructions, are followed. In any case, once mounted, it is out of the way, and always ready. There's nothing to haul out or set up when you need heat -just turn it on. When done, just turn it off. This heater needs a dedicated 30-amp 220-volt circuit. You wouldn't want to use this every day, due to electricity costs, but for occasional use, it is perfect.
My advice is to skip step 1.
Note: As of this writing, Amazon sells this heater under several names:
Fahrenheat Ceiling-Mount Automatic 5000 Watt Electric Heater, Model# FUH5-4
Fahrenheat/Marley FUH54 Suspended Electric Heater
Dayton G73 Electric Garage Heater
Multi-Watt Horizontal Downflow Unit Heater With Thermostat 208/240v
These are all the same heater; it is manufactured by Marley Engineered Products of Bennettsville, South Carolina.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for 240V GARAGE HEATER (Fahrenheat/Marley FUH54)
My garage is about 7' tall, 20' long and 10' wide, so not a big garage by any means, but enough to do work in. I set out to find the most powerful heater I could reasonably install, for a reasonable amount of money. So far this heater heats up the garage in a few minutes which is perfect, and judging by other comments here it has no problem with larger garages either. I have yet to do a proper degree/minute study but I will save that for when it is really cold outside.
The manual that comes with the unit has some restrictions on where you can mount it, such as spacing away from walls and ceiling so make sure you have a fair amount of room, or a cleared away area to place it.
The only gripe with this heater is that it doesn't come with any wiring hardware at all. I can understand the plug doesn't come with it, but it would be nice if a pigtail came out of the box that you could splice your own plug onto. I can understand why they don't, since they can't assume their pigtail would be long enough for your installation.
I ended up buying perhaps $60 extra stuff to wire this heater into my garage, which includes putting a receptacle on the wall and a plug onto the end of the wire I ran out of the heater unit. It's something to keep in mind if you have a budget. On the plus side, I now have a 240V outlet in my garage that other things can be plugged into in the future.
