Best Way To Heat a Garage Gym

In this post I’m sharing a list of the best ways to heat a garage gym.

After owning a garage gym for a few years now, I know what you’re going through.

We all wanna continue making gains over the winter but owning a garage gym exposes you to the elements year round.

During the summer you’re dripping in sweat.

And when it’s winter, you can’t find enough layers of clothing to throw on.

When those temperatures start dropping, you’re gonna be dealing with barbells that feel like dry ice on your hands, a dry throat, and constant shaking.

Your choice of heating is going to vary based on many factors such as the size of your garage and your location (some areas get much colder than others).

Lucky for you, I’ve tried a few things over the years and my neighbor owns a heating and air company so he knows quite a bit about the best ways to heat a garage.

BEFORE you even think about buying a garage heater, you need to check your insulation and garage door.

Think of your garage like an oven.

You want to keep it insulated and as tightly sealed as possible to retain all the heat you can.

Let’s get started…

Check Wall Insulation

If your walls are finished, they’re most likely insulated but if you’re not sure or if it feels too cold in your garage, here’s how to find out whether they are or not.

If your walls are paper thin and don’t have any insulation, even the best garage heater won’t help much.

Insulation helps prevent the escape of heat from out of the walls during the winter and vice versa during the warmer months.

If you’re not sure whether your walls are insulated or not, talk to a professional so they can inspect them for you.

How To Insulate Garage Walls

In case your garage gym walls aren’t insulated, below is a video showing the easiest way to insulate unfinished walls.

When shopping for insulation rolls, you’ll see the packages have an R value.

R-value is the capacity of an insulating material to resist heat flow.

The higher the R-value, the greater the insulating power.

You can find the insulation rolls seen in the video here.

Garage Door Insulation

And of course, then there is your garage door.

Even thinner than your walls, the garage door is just as important as your walls when it comes to insulation.

Not only do you want insulation on the door panels but you also want to weatherproof the sides and bottom of the doors to prevent air drafts.

You can pick up a garage door insulation kit at your local hardware store or click here to find one on Amazon.

Garage Door Bottom Seal

If the sides and bottom of your garage door are not sealed correctly, you’ll have a hard time keeping your garage gym warm.

To prevent air drafts at the bottom of the garage door, you can easily add a bottom seal.

This is a simple project you can do yourself in less than an hour and it will help you keep cold air drafts, rain water, and bugs outside of your garage gym.

Click here to check out the bottom garage door seal on Amazon.

Garage Door Weather Strips

To create a tight seal on the top and sides of your garage door, you’ll need some weather strips.

Now that you’ve checked your walls and door insulation and made sure your doors are tightly sealed from all sides, it’s time to move on to what you can do to heat up your body and garage.

Thermal Clothing

If you live in an area that doesn’t get too cold, you may do fine with just throwing a few layers of thermal gear on.

You want to use thermal wear that will wick away sweat or you’re going to feel colder wearing a wet top.

You can find thermal wear on Amazon or if you want to go with a brand name, Under Armour has sports wear specifically for cold weather.

Best Heater For a Garage Gym

When it’s time to pick up the best heater for your garage gym, you first have to measure the size of your garage to see what will work best for you.

Calculate Garage Square Footage

To calculate the square footage of your garage, just multiply the length x the width in feet.

For example, a room that is 15 feet long and 10 feet wide, is 150 square feet.

Now that you have your square footage you can start looking for a heater with the right amount of BTU’s.

BTU’s

BT what?!

Simply put, heaters use a unit of measurement called BTU (British Thermal Unit).

The bigger your room, the more BTU’s your heater will need to make a change in temperature.

A heater with insufficient BTU’s won’t adequately heat your garage on the coldest winter days.

A heater with too many BTU’s will waste energy and increase your utility bills.

Now that you have your square footage, use the chart below to get a rough estimate of the BTU’s you need.

NOTE: Even if your heater doesn’t mention any BTU’s, you still want to know the square footage of the garage because some heaters will mention the recommended room size in the packaging.

Now that those numbers are out of the way, you can start looking at the different types of heaters available for your garage gym.

WARNING

Any heater that works with propane, kerosene, or gives off strong fumes, requires proper ventilation.

Make sure you crack open a window or your garage door to avoid inhalation of those toxic gases.

Electric Space Heater

Electric space heaters are a good option for small garages.

This space heater has a heating range of about 150 square feet (around 5000 BTU), comes with a remote control, oscillating function, overheating and tip over proctection.

You can find these for under $100 on Amazon.

Radiant Propane Heater

Propane heaters are some the most affordable heating options.

These come with an auto shut-off if they are tipped over, if pilot light goes out, or if detects low oxygen levels.

Just add propane to it and you’ll start to feel the warmth quickly.

If you already own a propane tank for your grill, you can invest in a Tank Top Heater.

You add these to the top of your propane tank and just turn the gas knob to get it started.

Forced Air Heater

For harsh winters, a forced air unit is one of the best ways to heat a garage gym.

These are usually ceiling mounted and work by blasting hot air into your garage and they tap into your gas line (you may need a pro to install it).

Their price is higher than an electric space heater but the difference is night and day.

Click here to check them out.

Mini Split for Garage

Mini splits or ductless heating and cooling systems, are more expensive but you can also use them for cooling your garage during the summer.

So you only have to invest in one system and you can use it year round.

They’re energy efficient so they won’t cost an arm and a leg to operate and many companies even sell units you can install yourself.

Check out the mini splits here.