Torpedo/Salamander heater best practices?

[newbury]

^^^
You do realize that this is a two year old thread?

Yeah, but it's getting cold out and is interesting.

I've a small salamander I use in my "big shop", area about 40' x 40' x 12' no insulation. I'm in Mississippi. Years ago I bought a diesel/kero salamander of about 80K BTU. Small, no wheels, some real low price, like $100 or $150. Put it on an HF small dolly ($8). Works great on ULSD diesel. Probably have put 20 or 30 hours on it.

Best practices - keep clean fuel, get a CO detector.

When I grew up in Vermont in the early '60's several of the neighbors burned kerosene for fuel, their clothes stank all spring, fall and winter.

 

[sixdogs]

View attachment 578145

I always wanted one of these and finally bought a bunch at an auction.

It did melt my snow pants and burst a favourite air hose, where I didn't even think it was making heat!

I want to work on something in my drive shed today, but this thing is kind of overkill. I would like to see about getting an electric quartz patio style heater.

I also have a kerosene salamander heater, but as with the heater in the picture, they are too noisy to enjoy working close by. Plus the salamander likes to drink a lot of very expensive kerosene! The big radiant heater runs on diesel and does not smell.

That's a VAL6 diesel heater and probably the best heater out there. No fumes, no muss and I can take the chill off a 40x60 metal pole barn pretty quick. It radiates heat as opposed to blasting it with air so it's more pleasant to be around. Do you recall what you paid?

 

[oosik]

I have a propane fired torpedo heater out in my wood shop. I am very careful - I think - in that I turn it off if I'm doing any high volume sanding, anything that would aerosolize wood dust or when I use wood finish products that are flammable. So far - no explosions. I saw the immediate aftermath of a grain elevator explosion. Two massive concrete storage silos burned for three day - after the explosion. Because of all this - most of my wood working projects are summer time affairs.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I could not afford one generally speaking. My friend bought one new for a few grand. I came across mine at auction, from a film set rental place and got three. Sold two, kept one. They were quite cheap. There was another at the same auction a few days ago. It also sold for a couple hundred bucks, but I didn't bother. Musn't be too greedy!

Great heater if you need to work out on your D9, at thirty below in a blizzard!

 

[Looking4new]

I could not afford one generally speaking. My friend bought one new for a few grand. I came across mine at auction, from a film set rental place and got three. Sold two, kept one. They were quite cheap. There was another at the same auction a few days ago. It also sold for a couple hundred bucks, but I didn't bother. Musn't be too greedy!

Great heater if you need to work out on your D9, at thirty below in a blizzard!

What auction? Where is it located?

 

[Industrial Toys]

Bryans Farm Auction, in Ontario. Now just on-line auctions, no more in person.



A side shot. These from the film set are a version I had never seen. They swivel around. I don't think that is of any advantage at all. All of them rust like that from the heat.

Most of the VAL 6, like sold last week are of the conventional fixed type.

 

[3930dave]

Great heater if you need to work out on your D9, at thirty below in a blizzard!

When I first saw your pic, I was thinking..... "Radial aircraft engine, high Arctic....."

I could see needing a lot of clearance around that.

Someone mentioned noise..... years ago I went into an empty basement of an old building under renovation. When I opened the basement door, it sounded like a jet was taking off ! Aside from annoying, some of the big salamanders are probably loud enough to cause hearing damage.

Rgds, D.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Yes, lots of clearance. I also melted my boot laces! We were doing some carpentry in the barn, using my friends VAL 6, and all of a sudden the air hose blew, that was lying on the floor some distance away. One of my best (of course).

I only have it, if I absolutely have to work on something in the cold. Not just to provide warmth for tinkering.

However, last winter My Dad and I were doing something outside while his GF looked on, obviously cold. I dragged out that heater, and remedied that situation in a hurry.

 

[Looking4new]

Bryans Farm Auction, in Ontario. Now just on-line auctions, no more in person.

View attachment 578182

A side shot. These from the film set are a version I had never seen. They swivel around. I don't think that is of any advantage at all. All of them rust like that from the heat.

Most of the VAL 6, like sold last week are of the conventional fixed type.

Thank you.

 

[Jstpssng]

Still relevant to me. Good info here, that is on the mark, whenever cold weather hits

True. I just dont know what can be accomplished by answering a two year old question. There's a dfference between that and a discussion.

My father had several kerosene heaters for backup if the furnace kicked off in the greenhouses. He gave me a small Knipco (40,000 btu?) which was light enough to carry around if I needed to warm something. One day I was installing the fourth or fifth block heater in the radiator hose of my 275. It was about 10 below zero F and the wind was howling. With that heater blasting it was toasty warm. I plugged the block heater in but it was defective. I didn't even bother to return it, removing the unit required taking the radiator out again so I just ran the Knipco in cold weather. I'm not sure why I have such lousy luck with engine heaters- I installed 5 in my old L275 in a 9 year period before giving up, and the block heater in my 3301 has never worked.