I'm about to go pick one up, but my wife is nervous that we need a permit, or that our homeowners insurance might drop us or something. Anyone else have one in their garage? I'm just planning on getting a small one from Fleet Farm or Northern Tool. Do I need some sort of barrier between it and the wall - like a cinderblock wall or something?

There's no way I can work on the truck in this weather. I was planning on working on it all day today, but Oh!, it's only 6 below out. That means its about 10 above in the garage. The heaters I have out there are only good for thawing my hands after they've gotten too cold to move.

Thoughts?

-Tim

I would go with a propane or kerosene type heater. 40,000 BTU should suffice.
Much safer and you won't have to cut a hole in your garage. Another good thing to do is insulate your garage, including the door.
Carlton? Got any input? You have to go outside sometime! Carlton?

If you go with a wood burner, you need to have a separate concrete pad to set it on, it also needs to be atleast 3 feet from any wall, sides and rear. Also you need to vent it through the roof or side like BN300 said. Very nice to have, but a pain in the butt chopping wood and all that.

Propane is just as nice, but you need a good vent in the garage. Kerosene is very stinky and lots of soot. I have a 250,000 btu propane heater and once the tank gets about half empty you get alot of fumes, I don't like it. I would go with the wood burner. Wood is cheap and always around.

Yeah, I thought about propane or natural gas, but there used to be a stove in there, so there's already a hole in the roof (with a patch over it), and we have tons of wood and branches sitting on our property that I would just have to break up.

If I had a garage large enough to work on my truck in :p I would get a radiant heater like this (click me).

They work by radiating the heat instead of trying to heat the air - it's instant, efficient and even heat. If you have a steady supply of wood, then a wood stove can make sense, but having lots of wood is key....

Well, I ended up getting a convection kerosene heater at northern tool. My wife ended up giving the thumbs down to the stove. I have a smaller radiant heater already in there, and this new one heats up to 1000 sq. ft., so it should do the job - and it was 20% off.