I have been in houses under construction where the space was heated by a
propane torpedo type heater (salamander). Generally, there is an unpleasant
odor associated with these. Question is ....is the smell only with some
devices or do all propane salamander heaters stink. I am preparing to build
a boat in an unheated boathouse and have been thinking of buying a propane
salamander. Thanks for input.
Dave

Fri, Jan 12, 2007, 2:24pm (Dave*W) doth
query:
I have been in houses under construction where the space was heated by a
propane torpedo type heater (salamander). Generally, there is an
unpleasant odor associated with these. Question is ....is the smell only
with some devices or do all propane salamander heaters stink. I am
preparing to build a boat in an unheated boathouse and have been
thinking of buying a propane salamander.

I've only limited experience with 'em, and that was a long time
ago. Plus I don't really recall if propane or kerosene was being used -
however, inclined to believe it was propane. I didn't get any smell.
You sure they weren't using kerosene? And, what do you mean by
"generally"?



JOAT
I do not have the huge amout of faith needed to be an Atheist.

"Dave W" wrote in message
...
I have been in houses under construction where the space was heated by a
propane torpedo type heater (salamander). Generally, there is an
unpleasant odor associated with these. Question is ....is the smell only
with some devices or do all propane salamander heaters stink. I am
preparing to build a boat in an unheated boathouse and have been thinking
of buying a propane salamander. Thanks for input.
Dave

The one I have has no odor. It is proclaimed to be 99.9something% efficient
and needs no venting. Mine is a 30K Btu Reddy heater. I do, however, get
an odor if I try finishing in the open flame heated shop. The fumes from
the paint or poly go through the flame and will smell.

The older kerosene heaters had a smell to them. New ones are better

If you have CLEAN, FRESH Kero - and keep the heater wick clean {'burned
off'} you should have almost no odor.

Propane is similar to 'home use' gas - there is ordinarily no odor
associated with it's combustion. What you smell - when you are using
'solvent based' materials - is burned & partially burned hydrocarbons. This
is one of the reasons I prefer H2O based finishes when I do work in the
house.

The other problem with Kero {and possibly Propane} is the production of
water vapor. I know it plays havoc with steel tools. Depending on the amount
of use, temperature, and area of confinement, it may also have an effect on
your epoxy.

Regards & Good Luck,
Ron Magen
Backyard Boatshop

"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in message
news:PbSph.26$dV1.25@trndny02...

"Dave W" wrote in message
...
I have been in houses under construction where the space was heated by a
propane torpedo type heater (salamander). Generally, there is an
unpleasant odor associated with these. Question is ....is the smell only
with some devices or do all propane salamander heaters stink. I am
preparing to build a boat in an unheated boathouse and have been thinking
of buying a propane salamander. Thanks for input.
Dave

The one I have has no odor. It is proclaimed to be 99.9something%
efficient
and needs no venting. Mine is a 30K Btu Reddy heater. I do, however, get
an odor if I try finishing in the open flame heated shop. The fumes from
the paint or poly go through the flame and will smell.

The older kerosene heaters had a smell to them. New ones are better

Dave W wrote:
I have been in houses under construction where the space was heated by a
propane torpedo type heater (salamander). Generally, there is an unpleasant
odor associated with these. Question is ....is the smell only with some
devices or do all propane salamander heaters stink. I am preparing to build
a boat in an unheated boathouse and have been thinking of buying a propane
salamander. Thanks for input.
Dave

I use a torpedo type propane heater to get my shop up to a comfortable
temperature quickly, then turn it off and use a propane infra-red
heater plus a 220 volt electric heater to maintain temperature. I'll
crank everything up in the morning and go back in the house for
breakfast while the shop warms up. Sometimes when I first enter the
shop after breakfast, I can detect a faint propane smell, but it's not
bad. I don't even notice it after the first whiff, and it's never
caused any headaches or anything. I have a carbon monoxide detector in
the house, and I took it out to the shop for a couple of days. The CO
never even registered on the digital display.

I've been very happy with my heater combination. The only complaint
about the torpedo heater is that it's fairly noisy, and you can't
really back up to it to get warm. I'd highly recommend an infra-red
too if it's in the budget.

DonkeyHody
"Every man is my superior in that I can learn from him." - Thomas
Carlyle

DonkeyHody wrote:
Dave W wrote:
I have been in houses under construction where the space was heated by a
propane torpedo type heater (salamander). Generally, there is an unpleasant
odor associated with these. Question is ....is the smell only with some
devices or do all propane salamander heaters stink. I am preparing to build
a boat in an unheated boathouse and have been thinking of buying a propane
salamander. Thanks for input.
Dave

I use a torpedo type propane heater to get my shop up to a comfortable
temperature quickly, then turn it off and use a propane infra-red
heater plus a 220 volt electric heater to maintain temperature. I'll
crank everything up in the morning and go back in the house for
breakfast while the shop warms up. Sometimes when I first enter the
shop after breakfast, I can detect a faint propane smell, but it's not
bad. I don't even notice it after the first whiff, and it's never
caused any headaches or anything. I have a carbon monoxide detector in
the house, and I took it out to the shop for a couple of days. The CO
never even registered on the digital display.

I've been very happy with my heater combination. The only complaint
about the torpedo heater is that it's fairly noisy, and you can't
really back up to it to get warm. I'd highly recommend an infra-red
too if it's in the budget.

DonkeyHody
"Every man is my superior in that I can learn from him." - Thomas
Carlyle

Investigate propane shop heaters more , there are much better solutions
than the torpedo heater.

Dave W wrote:
Question is ....is the smell only with some
devices or do all propane salamander heaters stink.

Propane (LPG, with stenching agent) stinks. Kerosene salamanders smell.
Burned propane should never smell and burning kerosene might not smell
if it's in a small and well-trimmed wick heater.

If it's really propane and it's smelly, then I'd be worried. You've
either got a gas leak (that distinctive odour of weasels) or the
combustion isn't working right and it's propbably poisoning you with
carbon monoxide too.

OTOH, I still don't like this sort of heater in a workshop because of
the moisture they produce. English winters are wet enough already!

Dave W wrote:

I have been in houses under construction where the space was heated by a
propane torpedo type heater (salamander). Generally, there is an unpleasant
odor associated with these. Question is ....is the smell only with some
devices or do all propane salamander heaters stink. I am preparing to build
a boat in an unheated boathouse and have been thinking of buying a propane
salamander. Thanks for input.
Dave



That I recall I have never seen a propane torpedo/salamander heater
designed for indoor use. A quick "Google" search shows them all to
designed for outdoor use as well.

--
Jack Novak
Buffalo, NY - USA

Kerosene in a salamander can stink quite nicely. Propane heaters as a
whole generally don't. I remember the old kero heater we used on the farm.
Stunk when you started it but was mostly odor free after an hour. I heat
with 15KW electric. It is a dual heater setup so I can shut down one when
the shop is warm and the second one is on a thermostat so that it just
mantains 60F when I am in there. Also I just added a timer in the circuit so
that I can set it to come on the next morning (or night) 1 hour before I go
out to work. By the time I get out there, I can usually shut one off. (Yes I
can make the meter spin really, really fast but is cheaper than NG and they
were NEW & FREE)
But before I added all of this, I used to heat with kerosene. I still use
it when the temp goes below 10F. Just had to switch when the price of kero
went nuts and it was costing me $12 to heat the shop for a day. And the
village in which we live won't allow propane tanks out in the open. They
have to be fenced in with something to hide them and they have to be mounted
on concrete. Ruined my chance at putting in a good unit heater for next to
nothing.

Allen
"Dave W" wrote in message
...
I have been in houses under construction where the space was heated by a
propane torpedo type heater (salamander). Generally, there is an
unpleasant odor associated with these. Question is ....is the smell only
with some devices or do all propane salamander heaters stink. I am
preparing to build a boat in an unheated boathouse and have been thinking
of buying a propane salamander. Thanks for input.
Dave

Kind of expensive to heat the atmosphere isn't it?

"Nova" wrote in message
news:MEVph.946$tZ.919@trndny05...


That I recall I have never seen a propane torpedo/salamander heater
designed for indoor use. A quick "Google" search shows them all to
designed for outdoor use as well.

--
Jack Novak
Buffalo, NY - USA

On Sat, 13 Jan 2007 03:27:06 GMT, "CW" wrote:

Kind of expensive to heat the atmosphere isn't it?

"Nova" wrote in message
news:MEVph.946$tZ.919@trndny05...

That I recall I have never seen a propane torpedo/salamander heater
designed for indoor use. A quick "Google" search shows them all to
designed for outdoor use as well.

Depends on whether you been working in outside in January. Worth every
penny when it is 20 or lower to have one pumping hot air out into the
fresh air.

Mark
(sixoneeight) = 618

Last time I had to work outside, heat was often provided by an M1 Abrams
tank. You can feel good in knowing that you helped pay to keep me warm.

"Markem" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 13 Jan 2007 03:27:06 GMT, "CW" wrote:

Kind of expensive to heat the atmosphere isn't it?

"Nova" wrote in message
news:MEVph.946$tZ.919@trndny05...

That I recall I have never seen a propane torpedo/salamander heater
designed for indoor use. A quick "Google" search shows them all to
designed for outdoor use as well.

Depends on whether you been working in outside in January. Worth every
penny when it is 20 or lower to have one pumping hot air out into the
fresh air.

Mark
(sixoneeight) = 618

CW wrote:

Kind of expensive to heat the atmosphere isn't it?

Check out the pro football games this weekend.

With the cold snap we are experiencing this week end in SoCal, might
even see on in San DiegoG.

BTW, they are not confined space heaters.

Lew

On Fri, 12 Jan 2007 14:24:46 -0500, "Dave W"
wrote:

I have been in houses under construction where the space was heated by a
propane torpedo type heater (salamander). Generally, there is an unpleasant
odor associated with these. Question is ....is the smell only with some
devices or do all propane salamander heaters stink. I am preparing to build
a boat in an unheated boathouse and have been thinking of buying a propane
salamander. Thanks for input.

It's been my experience that if you smell the propane from a torpedo
style heater it's either almost out of gas or it's being used with too
small of a propane bottle. Most of the larger tope dos recommend a
100lb bottle and perform much better with one. I think they are best
choice if you need to get things heated quickly.
Personally I hate having to use one while trimming a new home. The
propane heat is not nearly as dry as the air from a furnace. Once the
furnace kicks in you can see a lot of wood movement. It's something
I'll warn a builder about.

Mike O.

I heat with a propane heater in my gara... shop. I find that when
the tank runs low, the pressure drops, the flame slows down and it
begins to stink. These things are Ok when the tank is full but seem
to lose efficiancy (creates monoxide) when fuel is low. Perhaps
that's the stink your getting.

Pete

On Fri, 12 Jan 2007 14:24:46 -0500, "Dave W"
wrote:

I have been in houses under construction where the space was heated by a
propane torpedo type heater (salamander). Generally, there is an unpleasant
odor associated with these. Question is ....is the smell only with some
devices or do all propane salamander heaters stink.

Don't know about "salamander" heaters, but most do not stink.
Kerosine used to stink, but now you can buy an "odorless" version. I
haven't tried that out myself, but I'd imagine it's fine.

I am preparing to build
a boat in an unheated boathouse and have been thinking of buying a propane
salamander. Thanks for input.

Here's the real imput- while the propane heater will be pretty
efficient if you buy new and won't kill you if it's not vented, it
will produce carbon dioxide and water vapor as by-products. Add that
water vapor to repeated heating and semi-rapid cooling, and you've got
an absolutely perfect situation for making your tools rusty very
quickly.

So, either take precautions against that buy coating expensive tools
with something like topcote regularly, or try and find a heater with a
vent.

On Fri, 12 Jan 2007 21:32:27 -0600, Markem
wrote:


Depends on whether you been working in outside in January. Worth every
penny when it is 20 or lower to have one pumping hot air out into the
fresh air.

I disagree- having been out in the elements working for the past
several years during the winter, it's been my experience that warming
up at a heater or burn barrel just makes it worse when you have to go
back out into the cold. Best solution is to keep moving as much as
possible at all times and eat a lot of food.

That being said, it sure is nice working in a shop where the machines
produce enough heat that we need to open the doors to keep it below
80* this winter.

On Sat, 13 Jan 2007 04:21:53 GMT, wrote:

I heat with a propane heater in my gara... shop. I find that when
the tank runs low, the pressure drops, the flame slows down and it
begins to stink. These things are Ok when the tank is full but seem
to lose efficiancy (creates monoxide) when fuel is low. Perhaps
that's the stink your getting.

Pressure loss can come from the tank freezing up as well- I don't
recall that ever happening that I noticed with a 20# tank on a
Remington jet heater, but depending on the amount of propane it's
burning, a guy could have that problem.

The guy who helped me figure out how to build my forge suggested
setting the tank in a bucket of water to keep the pressure up when
running at high gas pressure. He's had his for about 12 years, so I
figure he's probably found the best way to take care of the issue.

Also, FWIW, I ran a less powerful forge for a short time that was
*not* efficient (no forced air mixing with the gas), and it set off
the CO detector several times- there was no odor associated with that
that I could detect, but it may have been because I was immersed in it
from the time it started up, and was just used to it.

On Sat, 13 Jan 2007 03:40:46 GMT, "CW" wrote:

Last time I had to work outside, heat was often provided by an M1 Abrams
tank. You can feel good in knowing that you helped pay to keep me warm.

Not a problem happy to do it.

Mark
(sixoneeight) = 618

B A R R Y wrote:
On Sat, 13 Jan 2007 03:27:06 GMT, "CW" wrote:


Kind of expensive to heat the atmosphere isn't it?


My father used to change engine instrument senders on KC-135 and KC-97
aircraft, outside during winter nights, while stationed at Thule AFB
in Greenland. Wearing gloves isn't possible while doing this.

It didn't matter how much it cost to heat the atmosphere during those
repairs. G

I think it would be difficult to splice a fiber optics cable (human hair
diameter) wearing gloves as well.

When we use salamander/torpedo heaters the unit is kept outdoors and the
heat directed as needed into a well ventilated area. An example would
be setting the unit about 5' outside an wide open garage door with the
heat directed inside the garage.

When working in enclosed areas (manholes) we use portable propane
heaters that have a heat exchanger and work in conjunction with manhole
blowers to direct the heat.

http://www.pelsue.com/heatingAC/heatingAC/1690D.html

--
Jack Novak
Buffalo, NY - USA

Prometheus wrote in
:

snip
Also, FWIW, I ran a less powerful forge for a short time that was
*not* efficient (no forced air mixing with the gas), and it set off
the CO detector several times- there was no odor associated with that
that I could detect, but it may have been because I was immersed in it
from the time it started up, and was just used to it.


CO is odorless. That's another reason you need a detector for it.

Patriarch