Mr. Heater MH12T Single Tank-Top Propane Heater
by Mr. Heater
|
List Price: Our Price: $40.99 You Save: $22.70 (36%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Kitchen See more product details |
|---|
Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Mr. Heater MH12T Single Tank-Top Propane Heater
Customer Review: works just fine
Summary: 4 Stars
Used it while staining some wood in my garage during the winter and worked just fine. When we moved it into the house which we are remodeling and had no heat it just did an ok job due to the large amount of space. But it isn't meant to heat that large of a space. But it did enough to enable us to get some work done. Worth the price though and would recommend. Customer Review: great product
Summary: 5 Stars
this puts out alot of heat! this was purchased for a friend who liked ours. my husband uses this in the boat when he is duck hunting!Customer Review: Cheap, Low Radiance
Summary: 3 Stars
This one does not have the electric starter. I bought the one from Target through Target's website (they also affiliate market through Amazon) for a about two dollars more because it does indicate it is the model with a starter - it also is the MH12T model and not the MH12TS. It does not have the starter. A potential advantage of Target is the possibility of in-store returns though you'd have to prove they accept these that way.
This unit is low cost when compared to natural gas radiant heaters we see in commercial buildings and so on. I would expect to pay 10 times more, possibly even a thousand dollars to get a really good one, but how does this one work? Some reviewers dissed it, and others write that it's great. I wanted it for myself when I'm working in my workshop (in a 3 car garage). I figured the bad reviews were expecting it to heat a room, not understanding how an infrared radiant heater works.
I was torn between an infrared radiant heater to heat me, and a convection heater to heat the shop. I decided on the radiant heater because it should allow me to start working in warmth without having to heat the whole shop first. The convection heater has the advantage of heating the whole shop, which would make it more comfortable for other people to hang out in there. Convection heaters heat the air and they work best when the air is not moving away through open doors, windows etc. Radiant heaters on the other hand, are intended to heat objects that absorb infrared radiation. I do, and so does the concrete slab floor in my shop.
If I were to heat the slab floor well enough that it would subsequently heat the air in the shop, it would keep the shop comfortable for a very long time -- it would also take a tremendous amount of time and fuel to heat that slab. This is why I thought reviewers were slating this heater -- I believed they expected it to heat the air, but gave it the futile task of doing so by some massive cold object. Some wrote that they put a fan blowing on the back of this heater -- indicating they actually expected it to work by convection to heat the air. Therefore I figured it would work better for me if I used it the way it was intended.
In actual practice, I found this heater works very poorly to provide infrared radiation at objects it's pointed at. Nearly all the heat is just convected above the heater itself. Because of this, it did poorly at heating me even though it was only a few feet away. It did quite well at heating the air in the garage, except that this is a task which understandably takes a lot more time, fuel or both.
Some people are trying to size this for their space. I use mine in a 3 car garage that has drywall and insulation all around. The doors are weatherstripped, and the large sheet metal roll up doors have foam inserts on the panels. Still, it's nowhere near as tight as the house and the floor is concrete slab. This little heater makes it possible to
do minimally aerobic work (like sharpening tools on a whetstone) when it's 15 degrees F outside as long as I'm dressed warm but short of fully insulated outerwear that would be too cumbersome. A larger or less sealed/insulated space would need a larger heater or multiple heaters.
My garage is ventilated. It has open vents under the eaves, some of which are exposed to the interior of the shop (others only ventilate the attic above the drywall). I can also ventilate it by cracking either of two rollup door or the swinging door. I recommend having a low source of clean air and a high vent for polluted air to escape. Consider other combustion appliances: I have a gas heater (for the house) and a water heater that use garage air for combustion. I use a CO monitor with a digital readout of levels in PPM and alarm as well as a GAS detector that indicates natural gas or propane in the room. I use these in the garage, kitchen and laundry rooms. They do not indicate O2 levels, so I still need to be conscientious about providing fresh air to breathe.
The heater I received is quiet - just a little hiss of the propane coming out. There is no great suction sound, and obviously no fan noise.
Because I do not expect the combustion is any less complete, this heater should not be any less efficient than a convection model provided the small part that is radiated is not directed into some black hole. It is possible that a convection model could make better use of air and thus oxygen for higher combustion temperatures but it would probably whistle in so doing.
My advice is to figure if you are better served by convected or radiated heat, and select a heater accordingly. This one is designed to be radiant, but because of shortcomings it does poorly and most of the heat goes up into the air like a convection heater. If you are outdoors, have a large space, high ceilings etc. this will be lost unless you can bring that warm air back with ceiling fans or something.
I still rate it somewhat high because it does actually function for the same price as a handful of bunsen burners.
Customer Review: Portable propane heater
Summary: 5 Stars
This item works very well. I've used it on my deck and in my workshop. My 12X20X10 workshop heats up in the coldest weather within an hour.Customer Review: DANGEROUS- DO NOT USE
Summary: 1 Stars
this product burned down my tent in cold weather. It spits propane balls of fire when the tank gets cold, then catches fire. Glad i was awake or i wouldnt be writing this. This Product is god awful dangerous if used for camping.The sunbeam version is what we had. DO not use in an enclosed cold area. I switched to Mr Buddy Heater brand.