Heaters tested

Winter is the toughest season on your car – and it’s not great for the DIY mechanic who has to put any auto problems right, either. Working on a motor at this time of the year can be miserable. But you can spend less than £15 on a heater, and make your garage much more comfortable when the temperatures plummet.

There is essentially a choice between gas or electric space heaters and radiant versions. The former are best suited to well insulated garages as they heat the interior and can get expensive if the air is allowed to escape. Meanwhile, radiant heaters are like miniature suns giving out infra-red rays, which are soaked up by nearby objects. They can keep you cosy even if the air is cold, but you have to be close to feel the benefit.

So, which is the winter warmer for your workshop?

The test
We tried our heaters in two garages – one well insulated and the other a stand-alone building with a sheet steel roof. We used each unit to raise the temperature by eight degrees Celsius and maintain it for an hour. By monitoring how long each took to do this, we worked out the cost in terms of gas and electricity used.

Additional points went to heaters with thermostats, as well as those with more than one power level, plus decent-length leads and hoses. For the radiant units, we also looked for instant warmth and how far away it could be felt. We preferred products equipped with emitters that could be accurately positioned, as the key to these is to get them exactly the right distance from you. Our final check was to measure the heat intensity half-a-metre away from the unit.

Verdict

Among the space heaters, Sealey’s small, propane-powered LP351 is our pick. It will easily make even the draughtiest, coldest garage usable throughout winter. If your workshop is reasonably well insulated, though, Draper’s 43868 is a cheap and cheerful way of removing that chilly edge. It’s a similar story for the radiants. Cromwell’s PRO-828-0009A is our Best Buy as it’s well priced and does everything you’d expect from a good heater of this kind. But Clarke’s GRH35 is a fiery beast that’s so powerful it could be used in place of a space heater for warming a large area.

Our top two's in both categories:

Space heaters
1. Sealey LP351
2. Draper 43868

Radiant heaters
1. Cromwell PRO-828-0009A
2. Clarke GRH35