Mr. Heater MH12T Single Tank-Top Propane Heater
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Mr. Heater MH12T Single Tank-Top Propane Heater
Customer Review: Be careful it gets really hot
Summary: 4 Stars
Works great for taking the chill out of the shop. My shop is a Tuff Shed 8' x 20' and this little guy heats it up quick. I use it to take the chill out and then turn it off and use an electric heater to stay nice and warm. I'am to concerned about burning up all the good air to keep it on in the shop. In the open garage it is great for keeping the guys warm when they drop over for a cold beer or cocktail during the winter months. Camping - it is great when you step out before the sun is up to warm the day. Amazon beat all the prices I found for this item. I waited for the price to drop before buying though. It pays to be patient when you are looking for an item that is seasonal.Customer Review: Best at what it does
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently purchased this brand and type after checking several others for the purpose of heating my 2-car, 440 sq ft, insulated garage. After spending literally hours poring over other suitable types, I decided on this radiant heater. It is very conservative on usage of propane, even left on medium and high. I had it in a 1200 sq ft area in below freezing temperatures for about 10 hours and though it wasn't terribly warm while I was working it was enough to keep the chill off and I wasn't even shivering! It heats up fully in a matter of a couple minutes and even when I knocked it over it didn't damage it at all. Most of the other units I looked at were in the $200-$300 range for the area desired and were electric. I am very happy with this little heater and I'm sure you, given similar needs, will find it to be reasonably priced, effective and efficient.Customer Review: Besurre its outdoors
Summary: 1 Stars
I ordered this hurriedly in the middle of a really cold snap when I needed a heater for my workshop. My workshop is in a schoolbus. This heater throws off good heat! No doubt about it. I ran it for about a half hour and it was warm enough to work so I shut it off. Within the hour I was disoriented, had a severe headache, and as my knees began to give out I thought "carbon monoxide poisoning!" I got out and after a few hours I was OK. Be sure not to use this indoors!!!Customer Review: Cheap, Low Radiance
Summary: 3 Stars
This one does not have the electric starter. I bought the one from Target through Target's website (they also affiliate market through Amazon) for a about two dollars more because it does indicate it is the model with a starter - it also is the MH12T model and not the MH12TS. It does not have the starter. A potential advantage of Target is the possibility of in-store returns though you'd have to prove they accept these that way.
This unit is low cost when compared to natural gas radiant heaters we see in commercial buildings and so on. I would expect to pay 10 times more, possibly even a thousand dollars to get a really good one, but how does this one work? Some reviewers dissed it, and others write that it's great. I wanted it for myself when I'm working in my workshop (in a 3 car garage). I figured the bad reviews were expecting it to heat a room, not understanding how an infrared radiant heater works.
I was torn between an infrared radiant heater to heat me, and a convection heater to heat the shop. I decided on the radiant heater because it should allow me to start working in warmth without having to heat the whole shop first. The convection heater has the advantage of heating the whole shop, which would make it more comfortable for other people to hang out in there. Convection heaters heat the air and they work best when the air is not moving away through open doors, windows etc. Radiant heaters on the other hand, are intended to heat objects that absorb infrared radiation. I do, and so does the concrete slab floor in my shop.
If I were to heat the slab floor well enough that it would subsequently heat the air in the shop, it would keep the shop comfortable for a very long time -- it would also take a tremendous amount of time and fuel to heat that slab. This is why I thought reviewers were slating this heater -- I believed they expected it to heat the air, but gave it the futile task of doing so by some massive cold object. Some wrote that they put a fan blowing on the back of this heater -- indicating they actually expected it to work by convection to heat the air. Therefore I figured it would work better for me if I used it the way it was intended.
In actual practice, I found this heater works very poorly to provide infrared radiation at objects it's pointed at. Nearly all the heat is just convected above the heater itself. Because of this, it did poorly at heating me even though it was only a few feet away. It did quite well at heating the air in the garage, except that this is a task which understandably takes a lot more time, fuel or both.
Some people are trying to size this for their space. I use mine in a 3 car garage that has drywall and insulation all around. The doors are weatherstripped, and the large sheet metal roll up doors have foam inserts on the panels. Still, it's nowhere near as tight as the house and the floor is concrete slab. This little heater makes it possible to
do minimally aerobic work (like sharpening tools on a whetstone) when it's 15 degrees F outside as long as I'm dressed warm but short of fully insulated outerwear that would be too cumbersome. A larger or less sealed/insulated space would need a larger heater or multiple heaters.
My garage is ventilated. It has open vents under the eaves, some of which are exposed to the interior of the shop (others only ventilate the attic above the drywall). I can also ventilate it by cracking either of two rollup door or the swinging door. I recommend having a low source of clean air and a high vent for polluted air to escape. Consider other combustion appliances: I have a gas heater (for the house) and a water heater that use garage air for combustion. I use a CO monitor with a digital readout of levels in PPM and alarm as well as a GAS detector that indicates natural gas or propane in the room. I use these in the garage, kitchen and laundry rooms. They do not indicate O2 levels, so I still need to be conscientious about providing fresh air to breathe.
The heater I received is quiet - just a little hiss of the propane coming out. There is no great suction sound, and obviously no fan noise.
Because I do not expect the combustion is any less complete, this heater should not be any less efficient than a convection model provided the small part that is radiated is not directed into some black hole. It is possible that a convection model could make better use of air and thus oxygen for higher combustion temperatures but it would probably whistle in so doing.
My advice is to figure if you are better served by convected or radiated heat, and select a heater accordingly. This one is designed to be radiant, but because of shortcomings it does poorly and most of the heat goes up into the air like a convection heater. If you are outdoors, have a large space, high ceilings etc. this will be lost unless you can bring that warm air back with ceiling fans or something.
I still rate it somewhat high because it does actually function for the same price as a handful of bunsen burners.
Customer Review: Common sense selection
Summary: 4 Stars
I have a 12x12 wooden shed (uninsulated) with an upper deck for storage. I use the shed for a small business that I own and operate. I am dead in the center of Kansas and we have mild to somewhat severe winters. Yesterday (October 30), our low was 28 degrees. I fired up Mr. Heater; turned it on high, and one hour later, it was workable in the shed. Around 55 degrees. And, as I worked, it continued to rise until I shut it down to low about 30 minutes later. I read reviews where owners leave their units on all night. I cannot imagine doing anything like that. After all folks, we're talking about a flame on top of a propane canister. Just my hangup I guess, but I digress.
My point is this: don't expect a single top propane heater to perform miracles, i.e. heat my 12x12 shed from 28 degrees to 70 degrees in 15-20 minutes. Ain't going to happen. However, I am very satisfied with this unit as I researched enough heaters to know what to expect. Now, if I had gone with the double or triple top unit, it would merit a different review with different rexults, would it not?
I thought I was ordering the model with the electronic start as stated in the description, but the unit I received must be started manually. No big deal, but if you are ordering, just be advised that you will need to light the unit by hand.
In all honesty, before I would order a double top, I would go with an additional single top on another tank as I feel I could control the temp in my shed much better.