Dayton G73 Heater

For the size of this heater, it certainly does a good job. It is fairly quiet, and if I have the radio on in the background I can't hear it running at all. A friend of mine hooked it up with a double pole 30-amp breaker, and he said it was easy for him to hook up.

I installed it in the shop work area corner of the new 20' x 40' garage. There are two different ways to mount it. To make it more sturdy, we drilled a hole through the truss and used a long bolt so that the heater swivels. That's a good option so that you can direct the heat to wherever you are working if need be. The fan kicks out pretty good, and you can feel it across the entire garage.

So far I only have the walls insulated. I have only stapled up some plastic on the ceiling for now to hold in the heat, and will insulate that when I save up some more money.

Half of the new garage is used to park a pick-up and 4 wheeler, and the other half is used for my woodworking shop. I hung another sheet of plastic between the two areas, from wall to wall (20') and from the ceiling to the floor for two reasons. My pick-up was getting all full of sawdust, and I didn't need to heat that side of the garage. After putting up that plastic divider, it was easy to maintain a little over 50 degrees in the work area. The temperature outside was below zero. (northern Minnesota). The work area is about 20' x 20'. I have slits in the plastic so that I can walk through to the other side.

I only heat the garage when I am working in the shop. To get it heated up quickly, I run my 100,000 BTU salamander for a few minutes, then let the Dayton G73 maintain the temperature. It does a good job. I am glad I got it.

I live in the boonies. I have a woodworking business. I wanted to have a wood stove, but my insurance agent said I couldn't have one. That would have been a great way to get rid of my wood scraps, but I can't put one in. I had two options; filling propane tanks or going electric. I am glad I chose the Dayton heater.

When mounted on the ceiling, it is completely out of the way. I can swivel it in any direction, or tilt it up or down, and the louvers in the front allow you to aim the heat where you want it. Each louver has its own hinge.

Before I bought it, I read some reviews, and some people said that it kept turning on and off. According to the directions, it will do that if the temperature is under 50 degrees. My inside garage temperature has been 15 degrees when I turn on the Dayton, and it has never ever cycled on and off. It just keeps running until I shut it off. The salamander definitely helps bump up the temperature quickly so that the Dayton can take over.

When you first start the Dayton, it doesn't seem like it's working, but what it does is heats up a little before the fan kicks in so that it's not throwing cold air. When you shut it off, the fan keeps running a minute or two so that the heat is expelled before it shuts down. It has a simple one knob, high and low setting. Mine is set to high all the time.

I am really pleased with this unit. I haven't received my latest electric bill yet. I think that the convenience will be worth the increase in electricity since I don't have to mess with LP tanks.

Dayton G73 Utility Heater

I am using this in a 400SF attached garage in Cleveland, OH. There is a bedroom above, a 70 year old wood door, two man-doors to outside, a large single pane window and the inside walls are finished but there is no insulation in them. The doors are a bit drafty especially the big car door. The coldest it's been since I installed the heater is high teens to low 20's. I can get the garage to 65 degrees with the heater at it's 2nd highest output level. There is a thermostat on the unit. You have to set some jumpers inside the unit to select the output level. When it's 25-30 outside it runs 60 to 80% of the time. At 5.6 cents/KWH cost is less than 20 cents per hour to run at level 3 running 60 to 80% of the time. That is about 1/5 the cost for the propane heater I was using and the electric doesn't add moisture to the air which is better for my tools. In the morning if the garage is down to 45 or so it takes about an hour to get it back up to 60.

The unit is meant to be hard wired to 220V. I put on a cord like for a dryer and plug it into a 220 outlet. It uses less power than my electric dryer. Build quality is very good and mounting is pretty easy. It's not too noisy though it isn't silent. There is sometimes some vibration of the housing. It's usually the drop door on the bottom and it could be dampened with some foam along the edge.

Granger sells this unit. I found an ebay dealer from CA with a price ($265) that was more than $100 less than Granger. The unit was drop shipped from Granger in two days.

Overall this unit is an excellent match to my garage heating needs. It would probably do fine with a garage that was 50% larger and maybe more if it had good seals on the doors and was well insulated. That makes a large difference.

I have a well insulated 2 car garage(24x24)with 8' walls, it's 18 outside and 62 in the garage with the thermostat set 1 click above the low setting,2 more clicks puts it half way between low/high and it's 72 degrees witch is as hot as i would ever want it.I have'nt tested to see how hot it can get,and i have'nt seen an electric bill yet.It's mounted on my ceiling in the corner diagnaly and i can feel heat blowing in the opposite corner,i have'nt had to run my ceiling fan to circulate heat.Very small unit but does the job,and i would definatly buy this product again!NOTE"i up graded from a glowarm ventless propane heater on high would only keep it 60 degrees and very fumie/as always having good insulation and door seals really helps and dont forget the heat loss though the 1/8 thick glass in your overhead door and windows that you can pack with 1" foam for winter"

I have a 500 sq. ft. factory and the walls are all block. I roast coffee there and I can tell you that Ohio weather in the Winter can get down right cold. The last 2 Winters in there I suffered while having to roast as the space was cold enough to see your breath sometimes. I used a radiator heater and a large space heater around my desk and always left work with my toes frozen. I always had to wear layers and a coat.

I took a chance buying this G73 thinking it wouldn't be anymore effective, but figured I could add it to the collection to help warm the environment. The last couple of nights have been in the 30's and with my old set up that warehouse would have been damp and chilly. This little heater kicks out a nice, very quiet, warm flow at a very nice rate and I barely touched the thermostat... it is set VERY low and that room feels great so far. I know if I turn this baby up a bit it will easily make my Winter far more than just survivable... it'll be darn right cozy! The price is better than everything else on the market and believe me I have researched.

BTW, I decided not to mount the unit on the ceiling. I had my electrician hook up a 12' chord and I rest the unit on top of my metro shelf (away from the wall, which is block anyway, and nothing too close). The unit exterior doesn't really get hot anyway.... but better safe than sorry. One unit covers my warehouse perfectly, although I have yet to receive my electric bill. Can't be as bad as the other two units running continuous...which I have taken home and no longer will need.

I recommend it!

I've had my G73 installed for about 3 weeks and it's doing a great job heating my 24' x 24' x 10' ceiling two car garage. No insulation in either the ceiling or walls, but it's sheet rocked, with well-insulated garage doors. So far I've had no trouble getting the temps up to 65 when it was in the 20's outside, and 70 when the temps are in the 30s. It was very easy to install by myself (I have a 100amp sub-panel in my garage so pulling a 240v/30amp line to it was a snap). Quiet, and with the thermostat it doesn't run much once the room gets up to temp. I've tried various propane heaters in the past (wife was bothered by the fumes getting into the house) and the small 5100 btu cube heater I had just didn't cut it. I wish I had bought this unit years ago - the best thing I bought for my shop in a loooong time. Highly recommended!