Dr. Infrared Heater DR-966 240-Volt Hardwired Shop Garage Commercial Heater, 3000 Watt / 6000 Watt

I bought and installed this heater just before the Snow was predicted to hit Southern Alabama in 2025. It arrived well packaged from the manufacturer. Installed it in a 20x40 metal shop building, 10' walls. 3 inches closed cell spray foam in the ceiling and 2 inches in the walls. 3 double paned windows, 2 insulated man doors and a 16' x 8' insulated garage door. Admittedly, a little undersized, but I was hopping to avoid a big wiring expense, and it worked. I picked this heater for several reason, even though it was one of the more expensive models for its ratings. 1- 6000 watts vs 5000 for most of the under 30 amp draw heaters. 2- it came with a sturdy wall mounting bracket, I didn't have to make a ceiling mount. 3-I can add an external thermostat without having to add relays etc. That does require rewiring the supply line however. 4-No complaints of it being loud. It is noticeable when it comes on, but I can still hear the shop radio, and the heater is between my workbench and the speakers. 5- Good previous reviews. Bottom line- It works very well. It would heat the shop to 70 plus if I wanted it too. I turned it off in the evenings after I was done. The coldest overnight was 19 degrees outside, the shop was 49 inside. The day never got above 24 degrees. Turned on the heater, within an hour it was in the 60s inside and steadily warming up. I wired the heater to a flexible cable and ran it to a plug and outlet, In the picture of the heater, behind it is a little black box, that is the garage door opener, it has a thermometer built into it, and its temporarily mounted 8' up. The close up shows it at 76 degrees. The heater is mounted about 7' up. The round thermometer is in the coldest part of the shop, furthest from the heater, and it is 69 degrees or so and that is about 5' above the floor. At those settings, the heater ran about 35-40 minutes of every hour. I also ran a little battery powered Makita fan on low pointed up into the ceiling space to circulate the heated air up there back down, it made a noticeable difference. All in all, I'm pleased with the product and would recommend it.

I've had the Dr. Heater DR966 for 2 weeks. It was easy to install and within about 10 minutes of turning it on I realized it would be a gamechanger for my garage workshop (in Montana). The garage is well insulated but was otherwise unheated. Normally when outdoor temperatures dip to zero, the garage temperature drops to around freezing, which basically made it useless for trying to use hand tools with bare hands. The new Dr. Heater puts out plenty of heat. I generally run it at 6000 watts for about 20 minutes and then drop it back to 3000 watts and back off on the thermostat. Then I stay out there in comfort for hours... My only very minor concern with the construction of this unit is that a sharp sheet metal screw sticks into the enclosure for the wire connections. Although unlikely, I figured that it was possible for a wire to come in contact with the sharp screw point and combined with years of vibration from the fan, the wire insulation could erode and allow a short. I fixed this by simply reversing the screw so that the point was on the outside. I would not at all consider that screw a reason not to buy this unit. The general quality seems very good. I'm sure every garage heater has some kind of manufacturing quirk. I chose this unit because I noticed that there were very few reviews describing outright failures, unlike many of the other space heaters on Amazon. I made a guess that because this one was lower cost and simpler that it may therefore be less prone to failure. So far, so good. I currently have complete confidence in what I've bought. As far as wiring, I noticed 10 gauge wiring in the unit. I already had approximately 15 feet of 10 gauge AWG coming from my circuit box and a 30A 240V breaker. I've used this heater a lot the last 2 weeks without tripping the circuit breaker or heating up the wiring. Would I buy it again???: YES. P.S.: I made the effort to give you a thorough review because I literally read about 100 outstanding reviews about this and other space heaters.

This has worked out great for me so far. I have a 20ftx20ft attached garage with 11ft ceilings that is only partially insulated. (mostly not insulated) So far I have only used this in the low 30's but it performs like I would expect. Within about an hour the room is warm enough that I don't need a jacket. After about two hours the built in thermostat begins kicking on and off. This replaces a Dual Tank Top Propane heater that was listed at a max of 30k BTU's. I would not typically run that wide open because it burned way to much fuel way too fast that way. This unit is around the 20k BTU mark and heats the garage in a similar manor. I have read some reviews where people seem to expect a stream of hot air similar to a big propane/kerosene bullet heater and that is not what you get. This is a steady stream of warm air that is going to take a bit to heat a space. That being said it does exactly what I want and for the money its seems to be the highest power/best cost combination I could find that also had mostly positive reviews. Note: I am not an electrician so please consult a pro and don't take my word for anything: One of the biggest points of confusion for me when deciding to order this unit was the conflicting reviews/posts some indicating the need for a 30 amp service and others a 35 amp services. I can confirm it requires a dedicated 35 amp service (not 30 amp). If I am not mistaken this heater is considered a continuous load. With a continuous load you are only allowed to load a circuit to 80% of its listed capacity. At 6000 WATTS that's 25 amps. 80% of 30 amps is 24 not 25 amps and thus the need to go up to a 35 amp service. With that in mind I can see why some people report plugging it into a 30 amp service with no problem but it would (in my limited understanding) be wrong and depending on circumstances potentially dangerous. Again don't take my word for it - the manual says 35 amps

My garage is a slightly oversized 2 car garage. Vinyl plank on the floor, insulated and drywalled walls, insulated ceiling without drywall, doors and windows are sealed. The garage door is solid wood and is sealed at the top, bottom and the sides. I would say my garage is very well insulated. I ran a dedicated circuit to the heater and I have 200 amp service to the house. I honestly am not that happy with the unit but now that is it installed I will keep it, if it dies I will get the Fahrenheit unit. The hanging bracket is a little flimsy. The built in thermostat is ok. You can turn it off on the thermostat if you turn it all the way counter-clockwise, so no need to use the breaker. Now for the heat. We are having a very mild winter in PA and I have never put it on low. It is always on high. The fan is fairly quiet. It does not throw the air far at all, maybe 8 feet and that is being generous. I feel it should cook you at 3 feet if you stand there for a minute but it doesn't. It is like a powerful hair dryer. It does get the garage to 65-70 degrees after 30 minutes when it is 40 degrees in the garage. I feel as if it should do it faster and maintain it better for the amount of power getting to the unit. You really should mount this unit near your main working area. It is 10-15 degrees colder on the opposite side of the garage. The coils after running for 15 minutes or so reach 320 degrees, as tested with infared temp gun. I feel like it should get hotter. I called the company to verify if the temperature at the coils is correct. They couldn't answer the question and said no one has ever asked. They asked the tech department and they didn't know the answer. They said they would call me back with an answer. They never did. I called back a week later and they quickly answered yes to get me off the phone. No too happy about that. It does work better than my kerosene heater without the bad smell and costs less to use. It does not work better than my small propane jet heater, but is more quiet and doesn't need venting. So far the cost to run the heater is between $10-$30 a month. It's nice not to have to run out and get propane and kerosene. Overall, I am happy I switched to electric, I just wish the unit performed better but maybe I am expecting too much.

I have a summer house with a basement that is damp. I wanted a heater that could prevent the water heater and pipes in the basement from freezing and also help with the damp floor. This unit is perfect for this application. The instructions say it is not for indoor use. I assume this is due to it not meeting all the tip over kill switch requirements. I wanted a simple unit that would work without needing to be programed after a power outage. We have a security camera in the basement along with a large outdoor thermometer. The heater has worked great and kept the basement at 57-65 F even when it is below zero outside. It used 287$ of electricity last month but is worth it. It is mounted to underside of floor beam. We can see the light on the front to show when it is on and camera can hear it. It has an 8 ga romex cable directly to dedicated 220v 30A breaker. It has been running three months now. I got these photo from 1100 miles away using the security camera.

I searched and searched for a heater for my well insulated 350 square foot shop and I finally decided on this one for the reviews and money. I wasn't disappointed. Heats up my shop (40 degrees outside) to nice and toasty and then I switch it from 6000 to 3000 and turn the knob to halfway and it kicks on and off intermittently and keep the shop warm. T-shirt warm. I wanted to wait till I got an electric bill before leaving a review but it won't matter either way as I only run it when I'm in the shop. I simply go out and turn it on when I get home (or up in the mornings on weekdays) and then put all my stuff away and go other there and it's already comfortable. It's built very well and I didn't have any issues whatsoever when I installed it. I did use a 30amp breaker with 6 gauge wire because that's what I already had and so far it's working without issue. On 6000 watts it runs about 22-24 amps and on 3000 it runs about 11-12 amps. So you can figure the electricity it uses just by those numbers if you want to figure it for your usage. My small space heater that I was using (that didn't do very good a job) was using 12 amps. All in all I love this heater. And would recommend it. Edit March 16 2020 I wanted to talk about the electric bill. I run this unit all weekend and every evening on the 3000w setting (sometimes 6000w till room is warm) I also leave it on the lowest setting at all times. My electric bill has went up slightly. Mayne 30 or 40 dollars a month max. I sued 6 Guage wire with a 30 amp 220 breaker. Absolutely LOVE this heater! Definitely recommend!

This heater far exceeded my expectations given the numerous reviews here that slam this little guy as a no good heater. All I can think is that those with trouble either wired it wrong, have very drafty garages, or were expecting way too much out of it in the first place. I purchased this unit to heat a dethatched fully insulated (walls, ceiling, and garage doors themselves) 24x22 garage that I use to store two collector cars. My first and continued impression is WOW. It looks great, seems well built, installed with ease to one of my garage door track angle iron drops (great location by the way) and manages to keep my garage at a more than comfortable temperature on the LOW setting with the dial set at somewhere less than half of its highest rotation. It is a fully analog control panel so setting it to a specific temperature is not an option, although another poster did mention use of a Honeywell Thermostat for such precision. I did also buy the separate Honeywell Thermostat but decided not to use it due to the added hassle and also figured I just want to run it as low as it will go. That thinking is working out great for me as the garage is always plenty warm and the heater never seems to be running when I go in at random times, so its not working too hard. Regarding the install, I took the book to my local electrical supply store where an old head who knows his stuff pulled out a calculator and ran some load calculations and determined that 10 wire and a 30amp breaker were in fact sufficient to run this puppy. After install I did run on its highest setting for about 30 hours and the breaker never tripped and my garage got up to about 80 degrees on a day when it was about 35 outside. I like the unit so much I have decided to get two more for my 40 x 28 foot garage that serves as our primary garage. This one has insulated doors but the walls and ceiling are totally uninsulated so will be an interesting test, but again, just looking to take the sharp edge off the cold so I anticipate a good outcome. Will update in a couple weeks once these are installed.

Overall the heater has been used in my garage keep things from freezing and make it a bit more comfortable to work in. Installation was simple after buying a plug and wiring to install to a 220 breaker. Output is great but that also comes with a big spike in the power bill when this thing has been running a lot. My biggest beef with the heater is that the thermostat is garbage and very inconsistent. Some days it will be 40 degrees in my garage and the heater won't kick on and then other days it will be over 60 degrees and it will randomly fire up. I can't really recommend it because of this reason and once the weather gets remotely warm I turn off the breaker to avoid a $300 power bill in summer.

Installed into a 650 Sqft, 3-bay Insulated garage. Unless its below -20 degrees Celsius, it does a fine job of warming up garage to work in or melt snow off the cars. If you have steel garage doors that are not insulated, you should at a minimum start there with 4'x8' sheets of foil-backed styrofoam insulation that you can cut into pieces to snap into the door sectionals and tape the seams. Throwing up fiberglass bats between the wall studs is a very quick job. Drywall is an added bonus. This is an expensive unit to run, so you will make back what ever you spend on insulation. Highly recommended you use 10/2 or 8/2 armored cable to hard wire it. At 240v, you don't want to ever nick a a flexible dryer type plug cord. That voltage is enough to knock your balance off a ladder. I installed a mini 2-space breaker panel in the garage, wired to the main panel with 10/3 wire. (You should not bunch high current cables with other cables back to the main panel. Stove and Dryer runs are always given their own stud holes and space to avoid over heating). In the mini-breaker panel I plugged in a 15-30-30-15 quad breaker. The 30-30 is tied together for 240v and acts like a switch for the heater. Extra piece of mind, the heater has no power. The other two 15 breakers, I use for 2 additional 15a dedicated 120v outlets for tools. Obviously, I can't use them when the heater is in 6,000w mode, but they can be used at same time at 3,000w mode, or whenever the heater is off. The heater looks great and runs quiet, and the thermostat works accurately. I have left it on for 3 days at a time with no issues. You should run at 80% capacity for a 240v-30a (7,200w) circuit. And 6,000w is very close to that. As others have mentioned, you won't find a 35a breaker. Highly recommended purchase.

Great heater, heats up a 2 car garage in minutes. Not super quiet but acceptable fan noise. Easily installed and works very well. Needs a 35 amp breaker and 8 guage wire.

So far, so good. Installed a day ago in my insulated garage. (an over-sized double garage) I had to run a separate line to my panel so I went with a 40A breaker - manufacturer recommended 35A but those don't exist. This is the first time heating the space and so far I'm really happy with the performance. It was 0 degrees C and went to 10 degrees C in less than an hour - so basically I can work in my garage with a t-shirt on cold days -- expect to wear a light jacket on really cold days like -20. Important - this thing does NOT have a power switch so I ran the power through a high current wall switch - also installed yesterday. It does power off if you rotate the knob all the way to the left so this was just me being particular. I don't plan on running it all the time and I really wanted to make sure I could easily kill the power to it when the garage was not in use. I found it odd the manual recommended switching it on and off by cutting the breaker --- circuit breakers are not meant to be used as a switch.

Internal fan motor broke, after 12 months and 1 week of age. It was used approximately 5 to 6 times maximum. The unit does provide great heat, and appears to be built with quality. Customer service was fantastic however.

Easy install , wired it with a NEMA 14-30 plug since that's the plug I had available. 30A breaker , no issues on 3000 or 6000w high setting. Over all impressed for the price. It's heating my 32 x 24 (insulated walls , vapor and drywalled ceiling ) in -20°C to -25°C temps and maintaining ~+5°C