Ceiling mount heater

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dodge71demon

dodge71demon

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In the process of doing a much needed makeover inside my shop/garage and I'm looking at the Mr Heater Big Max unit (ceiling mount) heater I have fairly good insulation and it's 24X40 with 8 foot ceiling any experience with these or suggestions
 
I don’t have any answers for you. I bet a lot of FABO members do, though.
But, have you checked out www.garagejournal.com? Damn near everything you ever wanted to know about garages, tools, and other stuff.
 
no experience with the big max, there are a lot of options though with many brands, maybe even a used horizontal furnace since you are hanging from ceiling. check local craigslist or even some local HVAC companies since they do replacements all the time. Reznor is a poplar brand as well and probably around the same price depending on size you are after.
 
dodge71demon said:
In the process of doing a much needed makeover inside my shop/garage and I'm looking at the Mr Heater Big Max unit (ceiling mount) heater I have fairly good insulation and it's 24X40 with 8 foot ceiling any experience with these or suggestions
Click to expand...

I never heard of big max , "other than an uncle " , but I have hung and hooked up quite a few unit heaters back when I was plumbing------------
 
I have a a Hot Dawg 75,000 btu heater in mine. Not hardly enough in a 40’ x 40’ with 14’ sidewalls.
 
we can work in the shop comfortable with all the doors open. At times we need to open them to let heat out. Cost for coal last year was a little over $400. We also have oil heat in the shop its two stories with a man cave upstairs. Haven't bought oil in two years since the install of the coal stove downstairs , It never comes on. 3-4 shovels every 6-8 hrs

I have three more of these stoves from the 40's if anyone wants to install one. One of them is half the size.We made the new surround out of stainless. hot air comes out the top pipe . smoke comes out the back through the wall. The last picture is the stove when we bought it from a warehouse.

Anything you put in these stove's turns to ashes. I have seen these stoves in shops where guys hook up drain oil containers hanging on the walls such as motorcycle tanks and drip oil into a tray inside.

Very versatile heater burn what you have on hand. Just a thought for country shops . I am 65 and always had one of these since my 20's. Finally talked my son into one. You can hook more insulated pipes up and blow heat into other buildings if you want. The fan is in the pipe on the wall seen on the forth picture.

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Oldmanmopar said:
we can work in the shop comfortable with all the doors open. At times we need to open them to let heat out. Cost for coal last year was a little over $400. We also have oil heat in the shop its two stories with a man cave upstairs. Haven't bought oil in two years since the install of the coal stove downstairs , It never comes on. 3-4 shovels every 6-8 hrs

I have three more of these stoves from the 40's if anyone wants to install one. One of them is half the size.We made the new surround out of stainless. hot air comes out the top pipe . smoke comes out the back through the wall. The last picture is the stove when we bought it from a warehouse.

Anything you put in these stove's turns to ashes. I have seen these stoves in shops where guys hook up drain oil containers hanging on the walls such as motorcycle tanks and drip oil into a tray inside.

Very versatile heater burn what you have on hand. Just a thought for country shops . I am 65 and always had one of these since my 20's. Finally talked my son into one. You can hook more insulated pipes up and blow heat into other buildings if you want. The fan is in the pipe on the wall seen on the forth picture.

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Wow, I can feel the heat from here! Never burned coal but it sounds like it works well. A lot of shops here have waste oil burners and a few have corn burners.
 
I just hung the same Max Heater in a job where the size was 28x36. It not only heats the garage very well, but it also heats most of the addition upstairs when the door is left open. The sidewalls of the garage are 10’, and it and the addition upstairs are well insulated. It is mounted directly to the celling by unistrut, which provides the needed clearance, and exhausts out the sidewall. IMO, you don’t need to roast the workspace, and in my own garage, which is the same size, I work in about 60* temp.
 
I have a ceiling mounted Reznor heater in my 30 x 30 garage with 10 foot ceilings and it works well I keep the garage heated to 45-50 degrees all winter long and its been great for 25 years. My garage is insulated and it only takes about 10-15 minutes to get the garage up to 65 degrees in the winter.
 
Tamaqua Pa. We go right to the mine with a Dump trailer about 20 minutes away. We had the Duster on the lift. Left it down to pull it front and you could barely touch the car. The digital thermometer read 124 degrees inside the car. The stove is over kill but my son wants to add another two story 32 foot on and put it in that part of the shop and blow heat over. You could actually put it outside and blow the heat in.

The three large stoves like this we have . One in my garage now came from a warehouse in Frostburg MD. the other two came from 4 story brick hotels. One the Northampton hotel the other the Bath hotel. The half size was in a big farmhouse basement. There is a guy in Towanda Pa. that has a large collection of them for parts on Craigslist. You can find them forsale for about $200 but then you have to take them out. The heaviest parts are the base and the top. about 200 lbs each. The one in my garage was the only one that was easy to get . we took the skid loader with forks and were able to drive into the ware house with some maneuvering,

The half size has a funny story. It was on craigs list and was already in the mans barn from the basement. The pictures looked like it was just like ours, So we took the skid loader. When we got there and he opened the door we started laughing. My son carried it out piece by piece by hand. Its a pretty cool little thing.

They also made desk tops exactly like ours that were only about 18 inches high. They were sales models and would burn rice coal. Ours burns nut coal. the house model burns Pea coal.

There was a desk top on craigs list in Virginia I was going to buy it for a conversation piece but that was when I got sick.

moncrieffurnace.jpg
 
You will not.go wrong with Big Maxx. I have one, what size and what fuel? Or electric? If fuel(ng or propane) you will need to purchase venting. When I bought mine it came with propane burner. At same time I bought the orifice for NG. Only about $30 to have both orifice.
 
Oldmanmopar said:
we can work in the shop comfortable with all the doors open. At times we need to open them to let heat out. Cost for coal last year was a little over $400. We also have oil heat in the shop its two stories with a man cave upstairs. Haven't bought oil in two years since the install of the coal stove downstairs , It never comes on. 3-4 shovels every 6-8 hrs

I have three more of these stoves from the 40's if anyone wants to install one. One of them is half the size.We made the new surround out of stainless. hot air comes out the top pipe . smoke comes out the back through the wall. The last picture is the stove when we bought it from a warehouse.

Anything you put in these stove's turns to ashes. I have seen these stoves in shops where guys hook up drain oil containers hanging on the walls such as motorcycle tanks and drip oil into a tray inside.

Very versatile heater burn what you have on hand. Just a thought for country shops . I am 65 and always had one of these since my 20's. Finally talked my son into one. You can hook more insulated pipes up and blow heat into other buildings if you want. The fan is in the pipe on the wall seen on the forth picture.

View attachment 1715438094

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View attachment 1715438100

View attachment 1715438104

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Click to expand...

Now that's Kool,
Good thing Billary didn't get in there or ya wouldn't be able to get fuel for that monster heater!
 
My shop is 30x40, with 12' sidewalls and open overhead to an 18' peak. It is fully insulated on the 2x6 walls and ceiling. I have a built-in room going down one of the long sides, so my working shop area is 20x40 with all the overhead space. Temps out here are pretty moderate, lows in the 20's to 30's and highs in the upper 30's to mid 50's all winter. We do get colder snaps but not for more than a few weeks and maybe a couple of times a year. The shop is somewhat leaky, as the sliding door's gap pulls in outside air (the door gap is 75% blocked off when I'm working inside), and the peak is open to let out moisture.

That's a lot of back story, but when I retired and started playing with cars, my plan was to put in the old wood burning stove I took out of the house. However, as a short-term fix I put in a pair of 60" industrial ceiling fans to push the warm air down, and fired up a smallish (30-40K) propane heater. Much to my surprise, it keeps the place nicely warm, in the upper 50's to mid 60's. On milder days in the 40's, the 30K setting is too much and I use a smaller 9-15K propane heater. I haven't changed this set-up yet because it works so well. Good air circulation and insulation may help you a lot with your situation, whatever heat source you choose.
 
Demonic said:
It's Pennsylvania. It's full of coal.
Click to expand...

Pennsylvania coal is best. Back in the day, there were three grades of coal, from what I'm told. Pennsylvania coal is the hardest by far, and the coal yards charged a premium for it. This information was relayed to me by a woman, now in her late 90's who ran the books for her brother at his coal yard. She can still quote the prices they charged when they switched over to a supply house as gas equiptment became prevalent.
 
Generally I don't like overhead heat because my feet are always cold. But it is too late for that. BEST way to heat a shop is to install redundant liquid loops into the floor when it is poured. You can heat the liquid (essentially anti-freeze) in a number of ways.........a furnace like Steve in PA showed, with heat exchanger loops in the stove/ furnace.......some type of boiler, some guys around here even use just a water heater and a circulating pump. The floor does not have to be very warm to make a big difference in the shop

So far as overhead you want it to be quite a bit OVER sized for the building compared to "if it was a house." This is obviously because the shop is never that tight nor insulated, but also because you want quick heat up so you don't have to have it "up" all the time, and also because there will be times you have to open the door........and want quick recovery.

Be sure to think over the location. There is only so much you can do in terms of directing the fan, so you don't want to be working in the coldest corner, nor do you want to be working in the direct close in heat blast.

IF THIS IS combustion, IE gas/ LP think carefully and heed the install specs. IS THE BURNER "sealed" that is "outside air for combustion?"

THIS IS IMPORTANT. Back when I worked on this stuff, I was in several buildings where A SITUATION WITH AN EXHAUST FAN caused a negative pressure situation in the building, causing the heater to "reverse" vent DOWN the vent. This puts combustion fumes INTO the building, or if the burner has "spill" safeties, it will shut down the burner.

Be sure to install it with plenty of clearance under it for tall vehicles, as well as "someplace" you can access it with a ladder for service. You don't want to have something difficult or impossible to move under it, later. As a then service man, I've dealt with this and it's no fun. I walked away from a couple of jobs because of obstructions unsafe or impossible to deal with. Also heed clearance rules I don't remember anymore........I think overhead unit heaters are supposed to have 8' clearance to floor minimum, but check things like that. You leave yourself open to trouble in case of insurance/ claims.
 
4spdragtop said:
You will not.go wrong with Big Maxx. I have one, what size and what fuel? Or electric? If fuel(ng or propane) you will need to purchase venting. When I bought mine it came with propane burner. At same time I bought the orifice for NG. Only about $30 to have both orifice.
Click to expand...
Natural gas found output formula square footage x 60 wich puts me at 57,600 so I'll go with the 80000 which is output and Menards has it on sale for $400
 
I bought mine about 10 years ago. Cant remember the size for approx same price. Good deal! Make sure to get both a propane orifice and a ng orifice. Ya never know what life brings down the road. For the $30-40 it's worth it.
dodge71demon said:
Natural gas found output formula square footage x 60 wich puts me at 57,600 so I'll go with the 80000 which is output and Menards has it on sale for $400
Click to expand...
 
I have a Big Max heater in my 24x16 garage. It's a good unit and moves alot of air. Definitely overkill for my small space but it seems to be a good unit. I need a heater for my 24x24 attached garage and I'll get another one of the same when I can find one on sale.

Cley
 
Watch TSC (tractor supply company), that's where I got mine from.
89on35s said:
I have a Big Max heater in my 24x16 garage. It's a good unit and moves alot of air. Definitely overkill for my small space but it seems to be a good unit. I need a heater for my 24x24 attached garage and I'll get another one of the same when I can find one on sale.

Cley
Click to expand...
 
67Dart273 said:
Generally I don't like overhead heat because my feet are always cold. But it is too late for that. BEST way to heat a shop is to install redundant liquid loops into the floor when it is poured. You can heat the liquid (essentially anti-freeze) in a number of ways.........a furnace like Steve in PA showed, with heat exchanger loops in the stove/ furnace.......some type of boiler, some guys around here even use just a water heater and a circulating pump. The floor does not have to be very warm to make a big difference in the shop

So far as overhead you want it to be quite a bit OVER sized for the building compared to "if it was a house." This is obviously because the shop is never that tight nor insulated, but also because you want quick heat up so you don't have to have it "up" all the time, and also because there will be times you have to open the door........and want quick recovery.

Be sure to think over the location. There is only so much you can do in terms of directing the fan, so you don't want to be working in the coldest corner, nor do you want to be working in the direct close in heat blast.

IF THIS IS combustion, IE gas/ LP think carefully and heed the install specs. IS THE BURNER "sealed" that is "outside air for combustion?"

THIS IS IMPORTANT. Back when I worked on this stuff, I was in several buildings where A SITUATION WITH AN EXHAUST FAN caused a negative pressure situation in the building, causing the heater to "reverse" vent DOWN the vent. This puts combustion fumes INTO the building, or if the burner has "spill" safeties, it will shut down the burner.

Be sure to install it with plenty of clearance under it for tall vehicles, as well as "someplace" you can access it with a ladder for service. You don't want to have something difficult or impossible to move under it, later. As a then service man, I've dealt with this and it's no fun. I walked away from a couple of jobs because of obstructions unsafe or impossible to deal with. Also heed clearance rules I don't remember anymore........I think overhead unit heaters are supposed to have 8' clearance to floor minimum, but check things like that. You leave yourself open to trouble in case of insurance/ claims.
Click to expand...
if you look to the left of the door you can see where the water pipes came out for the water circulater . Tony Hirschman a NASCAR shop has his hooked to heat in the floor as mentioned. His son Tony Hirschman Jr. is Kyle Bush's spotter. They build the Troyer modify NASCAR cars there. There are days in the winter we sit around there, The floor is so warm you can take your shoes off. Matt Hirschman is well known racer also. If you type his name in you may see some photos in his shopand the stove. Our addition will have PEX tubes in the floor.

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