What’s your garage heater cycle time at these temps?

Currently -5 in the northern suburbs, my garage heater thermostat is set at 50 degrees and it’s turning on every 35-40 minutes or so, runs for about 5 minutes, then shuts off (this is with the doors being closed all day)

Curious what others are seeing for cycle times at these temps? Wondering if mine is good or bad?

My attached 4 car garage is fully insulated & sheet rocked, about 1,100 sqr feet, 12′ walls with a 52″ ceiling fan in the middle pushing air down, thermostat is on an interior wall about 5′ up off the ground, heater is a Reznor 50k

I have no idea but that’s a neat question. My temp is holding at 41 degrees 4′ off the floor every time I look out there. Im not in a position to hear it going on and off in order to time it.
3 car garage insulated. However my large garage door is not sealing on the floor for about 3 feet after installing a new gasket so there is a little gap there.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Currently -5 in the northern suburbs, my garage heater thermostat is set at 50 degrees and it’s turning on every 30 minutes or so, runs for 5 minutes, then shuts off.

Curious what others are seeing for cycle times at these temps?

My garage is fully insulated and about 1,100 sqr feet, heater is a Reznor 50k

There are tons of variables. Is the garage attached or detached? Do the big doors get opened multiple times a day? How tall are your sidewalls?

Our 3 car garage is attached, fully insulated, and about 980 square feet. I’m curious about ours now as well. This will give me something to go time tonight with a couple beers, then again with a couple more to verify my calculations

buckybadger wrote:

There are tons of variables. Is the garage attached or detached? Do the big doors get opened multiple times a day? How tall are your sidewalls?

agreed, I updated my post info but there’s no 2 garages perfectly alike…just looking for a general cycle time number is all…

2 car garage 9ft ceilings (I think). I am at 45-50temps, I think I am around 20min cycle times, that is if I don’t open the door up.

Whats the swing set on the thermostat? Mine came on about every 35 minutes or so last night set at 63 degrees. Mine is +/- 3. Was only set at 50 when I got home so that makes a difference. And kids going in and out.

Makes a difference if you live in wide open spaces where the wind can howl. When it is very windy and blowing directly at garage door mine runs a lot more often. The wind pushes my door in and doesn’t seal as well. I keep my garage at 48.

Wait you have a heated garage, What’s that like?
My car barely cranked over this morning. -11 on the dash

Finished garaged but no insulation, not sure why the previous owner didnt at least do the wall stud spaces before sheet rocking.

Maybe I’ll insulate and heat someday.

bigcrappie wrote:

Wait you have a heated garage, What’s that like?
My car barely cranked over this morning. -11 on the dash

My only complaint about living in the city is a detached garage that was built in 1938. It’s not feasible to insulate and heat it…I get very jealous when I go to my friend’s places in the suburbs with attached, heated garages.

mxskeeter wrote:

Makes a difference if you live in wide open spaces where the wind can howl. When it is very windy and blowing directly at garage door mine runs a lot more often. The wind pushes my door in and doesn’t seal as well. I keep my garage at 48.

^Agreed.

We are in the country with a Westward facing garage and a 15 acre bean field providing no wind break across from the garage. The wind is a big factor in the garage temp. Even with the highest R-value Midland garage doors that are a few years old with good weather stripping and gaskets…wind can create air gaps as the door flexes.

I have my attached 980 sq ft garage with 12′ sidewalls set at 56 degrees mainly because my 2 and 4 year old play out there nonstop. If I had to guess I’d say the heater is currently cycling on every 30 minutes. I will probably drop it to 48-50 degrees if we have prolonged cold spells like this in January-February that last more than a day or two.

I have a very similar set up as the op but I think my Reznor is 60k. The cycle time seems about the same as mine when set at 50 on these really cold days. What I have noticed is if I put it at 45 when it’s really cold there must be enough heat from the house wall and upper level and basement doors that leak enough heat out that it barely runs at all. I’ve turned it off for the day a few times just to see and I can’t remember it going below 40 out there unless you were opening the garage doors alot.

bigcrappie wrote:

Wait you have a heated garage, What’s that like?
My car barely cranked over this morning. -11 on the dash

LOL my wife usually parks in the garage however I have been cleaning the garage so her car is outside until I am done.

Alagnak Pete wrote:

I have a very similar set up as the op but I think my Reznor is 60k. The cycle time seems about the same as mine when set at 50 on these really cold days. What I have noticed is if I put it at 45 when it’s really cold there must be enough heat from the house wall and upper level and basement doors that leak enough heat out that it barely runs at all. I’ve turned it off for the day a few times just to see and I can’t remember it going below 40 out there unless you were opening the garage doors alot.

yeah, all the stuff in your garage will retain that heat for awhile…i’ll test out lowering my thermostat to 45, see what kind of a difference it makes…50 just always felt good to me…

I usually leave it at 50 as well. A little off topic but what I realized I appreciate even more than the heat in the winter is the portable AC unit I vented out a crank window that drips to the floor drain. If I’m working out there I leave the vehicles outside until I go to bed and shut it off- just the humidity reduction alone makes it so nice.

side topic, but a nice feature I have on my Reznor is that I can just turn the blower fan on from a switch on the thermostat. This allows me to open the doors and quickly blow out all of the hot garage air in the summer time…check if your heater has that capability (relay) it’s worth hooking it up…

Thanks for sharing that info, I’ll take a look!

Just for a data point, my fully insulated NOT heated 32′ x 32′ detached garage stays around 35-40 almost all winter. Even this morning it was 35 while it was -15 outside. I don’t think it’d take much heat to keep it at 45 or 50.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

side topic, but a nice feature I have on my Reznor is that I can just turn the blower fan on from a switch on the thermostat. This allows me to open the doors and quickly blow out all of the hot garage air in the summer time…check if your heater has that capability (relay) it’s worth hooking it up…

On mine I can switch my thermostat to have the fan run constant. Did that for a few days during a warmer slushy stretch when the heater wasn’t kicking on as much and the garage was a swampy mess to dry out. A couple days in I noticed the garage wasn’t warming up to the set temp but the fan was still running. Messed with it but couldn’t get the heat to kick on. Opened up the control panel and find the circuit board is blaring hot and a few components are burnt up. Come to figure out the circuit board and other electrical components are cooled by the combustion intake air flowing over it. That was $150 mistake I’ll never make again. So word of warning, check how your circuit boards are cooled before attempting for extended periods.

And my garage sounds a lot like Bucky’s, westward facing at the end of a cul de sac and the wind gets whipping down the street directly into the garage doors. I’ve watched the doors bow in an inch at the top on crazy days. Mine runs for about 20 minutes every hour, attached 3 car garage, with 12ft ceilings, insulated extremely well. 50kBTU

munchy wrote:

So word of warning, check how your circuit boards are cooled before attempting for extended periods.

I know Reznor heaters provide the relay for this exact use, my thermostat also has a specific button for this feature and I was proactive and ran an extra spare wire from the heater to the thermostat when I roughed it in. I’m also just running the fan for a few minutes, just to blow out the hot stale summer air…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>munchy wrote:</div>
So word of warning, check how your circuit boards are cooled before attempting for extended periods.

I know Reznor heaters provide the relay for this exact use, my thermostat also has a specific button for this feature and I was proactive and ran an extra spare wire from the heater to the thermostat when I roughed it in. I’m also just running the fan for a few minutes, just to blow out the hot stale summer air…

Mine does as well. But for some reason they didn’t think of this during design. It shouldn’t be any issue for running a few minutes, I would just double check that your okay if you want to run for an hour or more.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Currently -5 in the northern suburbs, my garage heater thermostat is set at 50 degrees and it’s turning on every 35-40 minutes or so, runs for about 5 minutes, then shuts off (this is with the doors being closed all day)

Curious what others are seeing for cycle times at these temps? Wondering if mine is good or bad?

My attached 4 car garage is fully insulated & sheet rocked, about 1,100 sqr feet, 12′ walls with a 52″ ceiling fan in the middle pushing air down, thermostat is on an interior wall about 5′ up off the ground, heater is a Reznor 50k

whats your OH door R value? Doesn’t seem too bad of a cycle time. Usually the over head doors is your major loss