Learn me kerosene heaters

What are your thoughts on these?

The recent winter storm got me and my wife thinking about a backup heat source if the power goes out during the winter. We dont lose power often so I didn't want to invest a ton of money in the heater or time in installation. Also, I dont need something that can keep the house at 75 degrees for days on end, I just want to keep it inhabitable and keep the pipes from freezing. My thinking is with one of these I could use it as a shop heater and if the power goes out I can just bring it in the house. My current shop heat source is a torpedo heater which makes gobs of heat but is very loud, and kind of smelly. I thought this could be a lot nicer for that.

I have no experience with these. Who has or had one of these or one similar and what do you think of it? Would you buy another?

Thanks

Growing up we used those all the time. We still have one in the garage. The biggest problem now is sourcing clean K1. Everything we find now is so dirty it soots the ceiling in no time. Its the main reason we installed an LP fireplace.

I still love those, the heat they make feels so good. But without clean fuel its no usable in confined spaces. 

They stink on startup and shutdown. I have one but since my source of cheap kerosene is gone I don't use it. Kerosene, at least around here, is an expensive way to heat.

I would recommend a ventless propane, or NG if you have it,  heater. I paid $300 for my 30k BTU with all the options

I have one for emergencies and for my shop.

Nice, clean, dry heat and it doesn't smell that bad (I like the smell of burnt Jet A) and only smells on startup and shutdown.

Home Depot sells very clean K1 Kerosene but it's not cheap.

I would not run one of those inside my house, due to the smell, oxygen depletion danger, and carbon monoxide danger.

In reply to dculberson :

I lived with these in the house from the time I can remember. 30 years? If you have a very small and air tight house maybe. 

The efficiency of propane burning is much better than kerosene.  What heat do you have?  Maybe justa small generator to keep the heater running.

bobzilla said:

In reply to dculberson :

I lived with these in the house from the time I can remember. 30 years? If you have a very small and air tight house maybe. 

now that I think about it this may explain my.... mental development or lack there of....

bobzilla said:

bobzilla said:

In reply to dculberson :

I lived with these in the house from the time I can remember. 30 years? If you have a very small and air tight house maybe. 

now that I think about it this may explain my.... mental development or lack there of....

Ha! I didn't say that, or even think it, but I do think we put up with a lot of stuff when younger that maybe we shouldn't have. Millions of people - including me when I was a child - put kids in their cars with zero safety seats and no seat belts and most of them made it. I put my kids in safety seats. I won't use a kerosene heater in my house even to prevent frozen pipes. I'll turn off the plumbing and drain it first if I have to.

I would be more inclined for one of those Mr. Buddy heaters that run on propane.  You can also run them off a gas grill bottle with an extension.  One of those plus a CO monitor I would feel comfortable with for short term use indoors. 

The Mr. Buddy Big Buddy is 18000 BTU which should do OK.

Alternatively, why not a generator?  Unless you have electric heat, a furnace doesnt use a whole lot of electricity.    Even if you don't want to run through the hassles of backfeeding a whole house you could get a cheapo depot transfer switch to run key circuits.  

Plus a generator runs your fridge, sump pump, computers, tv, A/C, etc.  

dculberson said:

I would not run one of those inside my house, due to the smell, oxygen depletion danger, and carbon monoxide danger.

And soot.

I sometimes wonder how I got this old.  Growing up huddled around a kerosene heater indoors hoping not to freeze.   Like Bobzilla said, it might explain a lot of resulting behavior.     Of course the house was far from airtight, no insulation, and indoor plumbing was in the future.  LOL

Now, I wouldn't have one in the house around my grandkids...

I used to use one of those for garage heat. I finally got smart and changed to propane. I picked up enough empty bottles from people's curbside trash to never run out over the winter.

I grew up with a kerosene heater back in the 80s when we lived in an all-electric townhouse apartment with terrible insulation.  After one winter and a couple of $200 electric bills (over $600 today), we found out many of our neighbors had kerosene heaters. The management hated them, of course.  My father smoked at the time, so I don't know if the heater added any more wall discoloration than he did.  We ran it every season for the 8 years we lived there.  It sat in my shed for years afterwards, but I eventually put it to the curb. 

Yeah, I'm in the "grew up using them" camp, as well. We had a tri-level where the bottom floor was the living room, concrete slab floor and everything. It got pretty cold down there, so my folks got a kerosene heater like the one pictured above. It worked well. Might have had some nasty side effects, but the house was old enough that it was probably full of lead paint too, so.......

But I probably wouldn't use one now, either. At least, inside the house. I have a big torpedo kerosene heater out in the pole barn, which does a great job getting things hot in a hurry, but it does use up the oxygen, even in my far-from-sealed barn. So I position it near the garage door and leave it up a foot or so, that way it can draw air from outside.

Always keep Butterfly McQueen in mind when around them, she died in a fire while filling a kero heater that was hot.

BTW: You know her,   "Miss Scarlett, I don't know nothing 'bout birthing no babies."

914Driver said:

Always keep Butterfly McQueen in mind when around them, she died in a fire while filling a kero heater that was hot.

That's not the fault of the heater...

Agreed - just a warning to be careful.

In 1979 we moved into a 1770 frame farmhouse with no central heat, just a few fireplaces.  At that point the Kero-sun heaters were just appearing on the market and we used a couple for 3 or 4 years.

They did work well, but they smelled a bit, and we were in a house leaky enough that fresh air wasn't too much of an issue.

But we always tried to be careful and they did soot everything up lightly, even when burning right.  We used them about 4-5 years until we got central heat installed.