Kerosene Heater

I bought a used Duraheat DH2302 kerosene heater off CL yesterday to heat my 2 car garage while working on projects a few times in the winter. This is my first experience with a kerosene heater so its been a learning process. The heater would not stay lit and after research I figured out the wick needed to be replaced. Replaced the wick last night and let it soak in kerosene over night.

This morning I lit the heater and it lit right away and remained lit for 3-4 hours and heated the garage from just under 50 degrees to about 60 degrees. It is around 35 degrees outside. Should I expect the heater to heat the garage better? The garage is about 500 square feet. Block walls and insulated garage doors.

The other thing is the flame on the heater never needed adjusted. From what I can tell the flame should need adjusted after 5 and 30 minutes by lowing the wick. The flame remained approx. 1/2" above the entire time, which is where I think is should be. The heater never really put off any soot. There's an odor of kerosene which I assume is to be expected.

 

I wouldnt use kerosene heater in a garage. Im just not a fan of the smell.

 

What is the ceiling like as your heat goes straight up .

Was the wind blowing ?

I quit using kerosene and switched to propane much cleaner lots less work

Have you down loaded the Owners manual??

 

I use a kero heater to supplement the house heater. Light it outside and turn off outside, helps with smell. They also sell pine scent to add to fuel. Also flame should be a 1/2", sometimes you get it right on the first shot..lol. I use propane when camping for ease of use.

 

The quality and age of the Kerosene makes a big difference.

Never use the dyed Kerosene the dye really smells bad while burning

 

The ceiling is sheetrock and 7’. Using fresh (just bought it yesterday) 1K clear kerosene. The flame is always 1/2” without adjustment. Guess I’m just lucky with the flame height.

I was hoping it would put off more heat. I’m burning fuel at the anticipated rate.

 

Not having any idea how often your working out there is a ceiling fan a viable option ??

To push the warm air into the area where your working .

 

I have the same experience with the wick height, I even bought a new high quality wick and got the same results. My garage isn't insulated yet so I run it to take the chill out but mostly to huddle over when I need to warm up. A fan will probably help move the air around.

 

@captainh00k

If you can safely set it under something, so the heat is absorbed, then fed back as radiant and spread by a fan, it will help. This absorbs some heat down low and radiates it more slowly than just the heater itself.

Ceiling fan is definitely a good idea.

 

Ceiling fans help a lot..especially with radiant heaters.

 

I use one in my two car attached several times each winter. A fan on low blowing air over top to circulate it helps a lot. I think they put out about 55,000 btu and really it's just a matter of a calculation of but vs space and insulation.

In mine it will heat up the garage about ten degrees per hour?? then I turn it down to maintain. I don't bother if I'm just going to be out there for a few hours, I just bundle up warm, but for a day in the garage it's worth while. My garage is fairly well insulated and sealed up though.

Lucky13 is right about lighting and snuffing outside. I put mine on a cart with air tires to roll into and out of the garage for lighting/snuffing and move around the garage if i want it close to me.

I actually have a few of them that I keep in the shed as an emergency back up for our house, which is all electric, in case of a prolonged winter power outage. I'm not wild about using them in the house but it's better than the pipes and the family freezing. While I'm not a "prepper" per se, I like to be prepared for at least a month of off the grid for major storms and such.

You can trim the wicks evenly a few times before replacing. To clean off "boogers" or carbon on a wick you can let them burn themselves all the way out without refuelling, but do that outside it will create lots of smoke. Once you do it, trim and refill and you'll be back to good. I've done this on used ones that people have run dyed kero or even diesel through (which will burn but stinks like hell).

 

I have one that I use in the garage, too. I'm burning diesel in mine now because kerosene is hard to find and/or expensive. I never adjust the wick. I typically light mine in the morning (when I need it at all. It is warm here) and let it burn a couple of hours before I go out. By that time it's got the garage to sweatshirt temperature. After another couple of hours, I take my sweatshirt off and shut off the heater.