Is It Safe to Heat My Garage All Winter While I Am In Florida?

I was born and raised in Miami so I don't know much about cold winters and the use of space heaters and such. I stored my '63 BJ7 in a car capsule last winter in my Vermont garage but the garage is unheated and not insulated. I'm wondering if I were to install a ceramic space heater near the air pump of the capsule so as to recirculate warm air all winter inside the capsule would be too risky? It's a risk versus reward question: is being freezing for months on end worse than the risk of a catastrophic failure of some sort which causes a fire?

Thanks in advance to all cold climate forum members for their advice.

Best,

Jeff

The thought of a ceramic space heater left alone for months on end would just scare me. I've seen them short out, overheat, burn up, you name it.

You'd be far better off insulating the garage and then having a thermostatically-controlled electronic ignition natural gas furnace installed. Believe it or not one of those is much safer. 40-45 degrees is enough to prevent problems.

Or, find a friend with a heated garage or barn, and rent storage.

The heat might encourage little critters to take refuge in your garage. I store my car all winter in an unheated garage all winter in PA and have never had a problem.

So, no cracked tires or other rubber/vinyl?

61TR3A said:

So, no cracked tires or other rubber/vinyl?

Click to expand...

No, not for me.
How did your car do last winter stored in the capsule? If there were no problems, why are you looking to heat the space?

I figured that over time, the cold would cause issues, though there were no noticeable problems from last year's storage. In previous years, I paid to store it in the same capsule but at a machine shop that's heated.

As for critters, they do get into the garage, anyway but at least, not into the car capsule.

I forgot to mention.... When storing over the winter I remove the battery and place the car on jackstands.

Last year was the first year I stored in my unheated garage and the first year not on jackstands. I've never put it up on stands though I own two sets. I just turned off the battery and after 9 months it started right up. Does removing it make any difference? Do you store it inside where it's heated?

I'm going to look on YouTube for a video about how to set up a car on jackstands but I doubt I'll find one about the big Healey. I don't want to do it wrong.

Yes, I store the battery inside my house. As for jack stands, that's what I do but I can tell you that I've spoken to other Brit car owners who think there is no need to put the car on the stands. It's just my choice to do it that way.

Thanks, Gliderman. I was planning to just pump up the tires to 45PSI and avoid the potential for disaster since "DIY" usually means in my case, "Destroy It Yourself". Does the batter live longer or hold its charge better if out of the cold?

The battery will probably do fine if left in the car hooked up to a battery tender over the winter. Again, it's just what I've always done.

Since it hasn't been mentioned (yet), if removing the battery, I've been told to NEVER store it on the floor. It will go dead! True or Fiction?

In reading about storing the battery over the winter I came across mention of this but it doesn't apply to modern batteries that are plastic encased. The thing people had been told in the past was to store it on wood blocks to keep it off floor moisture but that is irrelevant for modern batteries, I read.

The biggest thing to be worried about storing in an unheated garage in the winter in VT is you have adequate anti=freeze protection for temps down to about -40 below zero (no kidding, the record is in the 30 below area) If you don't know how to check it yourself, take it to a local station that can. A cracked block will really wreck your springtime return.

I live in Vermont and keep my Healey under a car cover in an unheated barn....

Other than making sure the antifreeze is good, and adding Sta-Bil Marine to the gas, I do nothing for the looong winter. I leave the battery in place (with the battery cutoff switch "off"), and let it sit on its Vredestein tires. (If I remember, I roll the car a few feet and recharge the battery come, say, March, but plenty of years nothing happens to it until June.)

I find mice are the biggest problem. I've packed the car with Bounce dryer sheets; I think they work for a while, but eventually mice start making nests out of them.

I would be scared of an un-supervised heater, and, as mentioned above, it might be extra attractive to animals.... And I'm not sure if it would really keep things drier - overcoming the ambient humidity and condensation on the car on warm, rainy spring days after freezing nights is really tough. (I figure sunlight and humidity hurt the car, not cold temperatures.)

I actually always wondered if a car capsule helps things.... Have you noticed any corrosion growing anywhere?

I've used the car capsule for 5 winters, four of which were heated and corrosion is the least likely thing to happen. You can put your car away drenched and overnight it will be dry as bone form the constant recirculation of air, so just the opposite is true: corrosion is impossible if the capsule is working. Not only does it protect against corrosion, it keeps the vermin from nesting inside the car.
I just bought the newest version of the car capsule and this one has inflatable corners and bottom and top rails so it stays up even if the power goes off. In the old version, the air pressure of the fan would keep the capsule inflated but as soon as the power goes off, the whole thing collapses and usually won't re-inflate unless someone holds the fan upright; otherwise, the fan falls on its face and can't inflate the capsule. In the new one, there's a pump that fills the skeleton and a fan to recirculate the air inside so I can leave it up all year long and drive in and out of it through the zippered front. I probably won't do that because it might cause too much wear & tear on the base, though. Even better, it costs about half what I paid 5 years ago for the original bubble-type.

I spend 4 months in Florida each year. My TR6 stays in my garage that has a heat duct but I turn the thermostat down to 58F so its practically unheated. I put in a can of drygas and some Sta-Bil and that's it. No jack stands or battery charger. Battery has never gone dead and car always starts right up when I come back. An occasional mouse but no damage. I live in SW CT.

If you don't keep the tires off the ground you will get flat spots unless you rotate them every two weeks or so. If you suspend the wheels you need to put blocks on the front "A" to take the stress off the shocks. Use jack stands on the rear axle. I live in snow country and it is not uncommon to leave a 60 watt light bulb burning 24/7 (the old type bulb) as it is just enough to keep the space above freezing and is cheap to run. Definitely use the Sta-bil and green anti-freeze.

FYI, you're doing more damage than good to a car to put it on jack stands for the winter.

By placing it up in the air, you're putting the bushings and suspension under stress.You are much better off to put extra air in the tires for the winter, or use the rounded tire support platforms, than to stress the suspension.

I always recommend placing plastic under the cars for the winter, with cardboard on top under the main portion of the car. The plastic acts as a vapor barrier, and the cardboard catches the oil drips