Kerosene Heater...To buy or not to buy?

[Miketodd]

Please make sure you have smoke and CO detectors.

That we do. And it would be in the dining room or kitchen, both with adequate emergency ventolation if needed.

 

[Miketodd]

This is the one I am thinking about. RedStone™ Indoor Portable Kerosene Convection Heater, 23,000 BTU - Tractor Supply Co.

 

[mrjarrell]

That's the one I've seen at Tractor Supply. Looks like a good one with plenty of safety features. I think it's made in Korea, so it's not thrown together in some Chinese prison camp.

 

[DougBarnes101]

So, here in NWI it is supposed to get CCCCCOLD this next week. My grandparents like the idea of my family having a kerosene heater. We have a natural gas fireplace that is 98% efficient and more than capable of heating our small house (1070 sq ft.). However, if we are going to be gifted one, would I be stupid to turn it down? My parents have one in KY that they LOVE but their house is much bigger and they are on electric only, so no way of heating their home if electricity goes out.
So I turn to you Preppers of INGO, what would you do?

My two cents not adjusted for inflation - Yes take it. Redundancy is always good. Some contractor digging to repair a broken water line digs thru your mismarked gas line and there is no more fireplace.

 

[Expat]

We keep two heaters and about 50 gallons of kerosene on hand in the winter... just in case.
We don't use them for normal heating. I will probably light one in the basement during that cold snap next week. Just to keep the chill off and use up some of the stored kerosene.

 

[mrjarrell]

Well, if you haven't already got one, you may be SOL. I went by my Tractor Supply today to pick up a special order and they were out of everything heat related. Kerosene and Propane.

 

[dprimm]

How long does kerosene store before needing to be replaced? Oxidizing and such? How about propane? How long can you store it?

Grew up using kerosene heaters in the house. You can turn them off and not get much smoke. But you will need to burn the wick clean periodically and THAT creates a ton of smoke.

I am thinking bout a small propane heater in case the power gos out. We only have electric heat. Propane easier to store and can be gone through via the grill.

 

[Skywired]

That's the one I've seen at Tractor Supply. Looks like a good one with plenty of safety features. I think it's made in Korea, so it's not thrown together in some Chinese prison camp.

LOL.... No disrepsect meant... but do you really think living conditions for "free" Koreans is much different than a Chinese prison camp????

 

[MikeDVB]

All of the propane heater manufacturers pretty much clearly state not to bring it indoors if it uses more than a 1 pound propane tank. I would presume you could set the tank outside and the heater inside and seal the door/window/whatever around the hose but you'd probably be losing a lot of the heat the heater was working to generate.

That said - in an emergency - if I have to bring a propane tank indoors and watch/monitor it and the oxygen levels I will... Just trying to see myself what the best options are. Ultimately for us if the power were to go out, at this point, we'd likely end up in a vehicle idling in the driveway. We do have an SUV with 4WD but, that said, there's no guarantee we'd be able to get anywhere at all if things did really get super bad.

Money isn't really a concern for me when it comes to picking a heater as much as picking one that will do the job well and as safely as possible in emergency situations. Ideally I'd like to also make sure it's something I can use in my 660 square foot garage should I have a project I want to work on in the winter.

@Miketodd I don't intend to threadjack you - I figure this was on-topic in your thread and didn't see the point in making a new one. If you want me to let me know and I'll edit out my post and make a new thread.

 

[Miketodd]

Well, if you haven't already got one, you may be SOL. I went by my Tractor Supply today to pick up a special order and they were out of everything heat related. Kerosene and Propane.

I thought of that today. I called ahead and they are holding one for me. They will hold it for 24 hours and I called at 1700 today. I will be getting it in the morning.

 

[Miketodd]

All of the propane heater manufacturers pretty much clearly state not to bring it indoors if it uses more than a 1 pound propane tank. I would presume you could set the tank outside and the heater inside and seal the door/window/whatever around the hose but you'd probably be losing a lot of the heat the heater was working to generate.

That said - in an emergency - if I have to bring a propane tank indoors and watch/monitor it and the oxygen levels I will... Just trying to see myself what the best options are. Ultimately for us if the power were to go out, at this point, we'd likely end up in a vehicle idling in the driveway. We do have an SUV with 4WD but, that said, there's no guarantee we'd be able to get anywhere at all if things did really get super bad.

Money isn't really a concern for me when it comes to picking a heater as much as picking one that will do the job well and as safely as possible in emergency situations. Ideally I'd like to also make sure it's something I can use in my 660 square foot garage should I have a project I want to work on in the winter.

@Miketodd I don't intend to threadjack you - I figure this was on-topic in your thread and didn't see the point in making a new one. If you want me to let me know and I'll edit out my post and make a new thread.

No threadjacking at all! I will be picking up the unit I linked earlier, tomorrow. It says it is 23,000 BTUs and will heat up to 1000sqft. It has a 1.9 gal tank and will run 8-12 hours depending on how high you have it. It is rated for indoor use so I will be using it also in my garage. If you can find one, I think it is the best solution so far.

 

[MikeDVB]

No threadjacking at all! I will be picking up the unit I linked earlier, tomorrow. It says it is 23,000 BTUs and will heat up to 1000sqft. It has a 1.9 gal tank and will run 8-12 hours depending on how high you have it. It is reated for indoor use so I will be using it also in my garage. If you can find one, I think it is the best solution so far.

Yeah, the store look-up says that one semi-near me has some but no idea how many... I figure I may want to get up early and give them a call because with this terrible cold weather coming, at this point, we have no backup other than our wood burning fireplace [and no wood to burn].

That said - I have no HVAC in the garage and I do plan on insulating it so I'd like to have a heater for the garage anyways - so it would primarily be my garage heater and, if needed, an emergency indoor heater.

 

[MikeDVB]

These two look very similar to the one listed here at TCS.
Amazon.com - Dura Heat DH2304 Convection Kerosene Heater, Portable, Indoor - Space Heaters
Amazon.com - Sengoku CV-2230 KeroHeat Convection 23, 000-BTU Portable Kerosene Heater

The DuraHeat is also sold at the Home Depot:
DuraHeat 23,000 BTU Kerosene Portable Heater-DH2304 at The Home Depot

I'm having a bit of a hard time determining which of the three is the best choice. The RedStone is $10 cheaper but in the grand scheme $10 isn't a huge deal for emergency heat versus having none at all. Would have no issues making the drive to TCS or Home Depot to pick it up and/or ordering it on Amazon as a last resort [could be delivered Monday, barring bad weather preventing deliveries obviously].

 

[stevee]

Just decided to fire my kero up in the garage and get ready for uber frigidity. Last years kerosene seems to be burning great and always has for me. Ran down to Meijer and added ten bucks of kerosene to the can at $4.29 a gallon. We have a natural gas fireplace and haven't turned on the gas furnace so far this year. Kerosene smells and really stinks the place up when you shut it off. I usually set my kero heater outside for a few minutes when I turn it off. If all else fails it is always there, but I don't want to use it in the living quarters except in an emergency. We have a Life Smart electric infared zone heater that uses 1500 watts on high for occasional heat in the outer reaches of the house when using the gas fireplace. Both the kero and the electric heaters cost about $4.50 a day to run 24 hours and combined they would never come close to putting out the heat of our gas fireplace, which heats our entire house for less than either of those cost. My lazy-boy recliner and laptop are next to the fireplace and I'm
starting to get a little to hot as I'm typing this, although it might be those two glasses of vino flushing me. That said if it is free by all means accept and enjoy. Our Life Smart was a welcome gift as well.

 

[Miketodd]

For me, it is easier and closer to go to TC and get the Redstone. My nearest Home Depot is 45min-1hr away depending on traffic and TC is only 20min. The specs are so similar that unless there were some type of consumer report going against one or the other, I don't think it will make a difference. I know that the one at TC will be there in the AM so that is the one I will be going with.

 

[MikeDVB]

For me, it is easier and closer to go to TC and get the Redstone. My nearest Home Depot is 45min-1hr away depending on traffic and TC is only 20min. The specs are so similar that unless there were some type of consumer report going against one or the other, I don't think it will make a difference. I know that the one at TC will be there in the AM so that is the one I will be going with.

Yeah, I don't know that mine will be there which is why I'm evaluating my options still .

Lowes and Menards are very close to me [5 minutes] but I haven't looked to see what they stock just yet.

Edit: Best one I see at lowes.com is this one: http://www.lowes.com/pd_93043-88644...=1&currentURL=?Ntt=kerosene+heater&facetInfo= and it's out of stock everywhere locally.

 

[Hoosier8]

I have an old drafty house so need some extra heat sometimes. I have a 23K btu kerosene heater and a 16K btu LP heater and by far the LP heater is more comfortable because it has radiant heat. The kerosene heater just heats up the air above and does not radiate heat like the LP heater does. Using it right now. The LP heater will run for something like 24 hours on a tank. I guess if my heat went out, I might be using both of them.

The kerosene heater (seen in the background).

 

[MikeDVB]

Propane is attractive from the way it heats but to keep warm for an extended period I'd need quite a few spare tanks around - if I'm using emergency heat I doubt I'm going to be making many trips to the store although ideally I would refill a few if I knew bad weather was coming.

Either would *probably* be fine and the upside to the propane is that I can keep a couple of spares on-hand and use them for the grill as needed. The only downside is remembering to swap them out instead of letting them sit empty [because once it's empty - it'll do no good for emergency heating].

 

[churchmouse]

This is the one I am thinking about. RedStone™ Indoor Portable Kerosene Convection Heater, 23,000 BTU - Tractor Supply Co.

WE had one of these for a while. Used it but it stunk. No matter how we used it we could smell it when coming in from outside. Did not like it in the house but when used in the shop to warm it up when a cold car was first brought inside it was great. Sucked in the house.
Gave it to a friend that is a mechanic. He uses it to thaw cars out in his shop.

He calls it R-2

 

[Ademus]

I have one that's shown in the previous post. Works great