I'm not overly impressed by it either. The torpedo helps get it up to temp fast then this made it comfortable to work while I shut down the torpedo for 30-50 min. Seeing the numbers makes me want to not use this at all until I shut down the torpedo. At this point tripling my electric bill doesn't sound fun. I'll pay the 2.99 a gal for kero. Granted that was the day I was putting up insulation.
My friend upgraded his torpedo heater a few years ago,and was going to put his old 110,000 btu Reddy Heater in his scrap heap--it had started "flaming out" after it would start and run OK,but after a few minutes it would start puffing and the flame would blow out--them it shot dense white smoke out,and would suffocate you..
He tried completely dissasembling it and cleaned it good,all the tank,fuel system parts,etc,and tried a new spark plug (its the type that takes a super long reach plug)...but it only worked OK for a few days and started doing it again..
I dragged the heater home,but had the same results--some days it would run all day without acting up,others I was lucky to get 10 minutes out of it...not wanting to spend money on it,I just put it aside..
I already had a 55,000 btu Reddy Heater I had got off Craigslist that was like new for 40 bucks--that one has the "glow wire" type ignitor and worked great,but took much longer to get my quonset up to temperature and would only get it to about 50 degrees,if it was below freezing outside..but combined with my barrel stove,it kept it comfortable enough to work out there..
I found the smaller heater could run all day and never reach the thermostat limit and shut off,unlike the larger btu one,but it also used at least half the fuel the big heater did..
I used to have a old house oil furnace,a forced hot air one,that was great--in 20 minutes I could get it 70 degrees in the garage and it would only kick on a few times an hour..but the heat exchanger rotted away and I had to scrap it before it killed me with CO poisoning..it took a lot of room up too,but I miss it..
I would never be able to heat the quonset with an electric heater--it would have to be as big as the garage,and would cost a fortune to run..the bare steel arches dont hold heat well at all..
Lately my lungs cant deal with diesel fumes,I have athsma and if I breathe in car exhaust or heater fumes I start gagging immediately..even the wood stove can set my lungs off if I get a good whiff of certain woods...so I dont spend as much time in the garage as I once did in winter--only if I have to be out there..
