ProCom Natural Gas Garage/Workshop Heater - 45,000 BTU, Model# GHBVN50
3.4
5
8
8
workshop heater
This is Good product. It was easy to install and heats the area well. I received it very quickly also.
April 23, 2013
Good for the price, but louder than expected.
I bought this on sale for $150 off a few months ago. I had been looking at garage heaters for a while, and when this came up for this price including thermostat I had to get it. It heats up the two car garage easily, but it's much louder than I had expected. You can hold a conversation, but it's definitely distracting. I put a noise meter 10 feet in front of the unit. Off read 39db, first stage read 52db, and when it got fired up heating with the fan on it read 68db. It doesn't run all the time thankfully. I don't really expect that much from this heater for longevity, but for the price it's worth a shot. So far so good.
April 23, 2013
BE CAREFULL ( thermostat problem)!!!!!
Well I have quite a bit of experience dealing with this type of garage heater setup.
The thing that drew me to purchase ProCom's heater for myself over all of the other manufacturer's heaters that are out there is that ProCom's 45,000 and 80,000 btu vented garage heaters come supplied with a digital thermostat and the lp conversion kit for about the same price as the others out there that do not include these items .
Most of these type of heaters that are out on the market are all made the same way with the same parts for the most part with some minor differences between manufactures.
So when it comes to picking one of these heaters out for yourself I would recommend to lean toward the one that gives you the best warranty because you will likely need it in the future and gives you the most product with the heater.
This is the first heater of this style that I have installed from ProCom. I have dealt with installing and setting up these type of heaters for awhile now and they are not really to bad to install and get set up correctly. They are a little time consuming if you are doing a from scratch install and are running gas lines and exhaust venting etc.
My heater is currently running on lp/propane which I installed the lp conversion kit that is supplied with the heater.
The part that is most critical about converting the heater from natural gas to lp or from lp to natural gas is making sure that you have the proper regulator and set pressure for lp or the proper regulator and set pressure for natural gas in place on your gas supply line to the heater and then having the heaters manifold gas pressure set and adjusted correctly for lp or for natural gas.
I purchased the 45,000 btu heater from Northern Tool and Equipment. I had a problem with the burners not being lined up correctly right out of the box. The heater would not light the last burner and would go into lock out mode after 3 attempts of trying to light all 3 burners.
I was able to get that problem corrected without contacting any manufacturer or tech lines etc by just realigning the burners correctly. (This is a manufacturer assembly quality control issue). After getting the burners realigned correctly I was able to get the heater to fire up and run correctly. The heater itself appeared to work okay but did appear to be a little under powered for my needs. I have a semi insulated garage that is roughly a 18x22 area.
I do feel that the ratings they give these heaters are a bit high for how much area they will heat without breaking the bank on your gas bill especially if you only run the heat as needed and do not run it all the time. My recommendation from experience with these type of heaters is for the 45,000 btu heaters to be installed in a single car garage that is insulated and the heater would probably do pretty good and not give you a really high heat bill even if you run it all the time.
I do have a friend that has the 45,000 btu heater that he bought from Northern Tool aswell in his 2 car fully insulated and attached garage and he turns the heat down to 40 degrees when he is not in the garage and when he plans on being in the garage he turns the heat up to 68 to 70 degrees and he says the heater does okay once the temp gets up there, but it takes it quite a while for the heater to get it there.
I ended up returning to Northern Tool and exchanging the 45,000 btu heater from ProCom for the ProCom 75/80,000 btu heater depending on were you look on the paperwork/advertisizeing etc.Procom states that they only offer a 45,000 btu and a 80,000 btu vented garage heater. Northern Tool was very helpful with the exchange and everything as far as northern tool went was pretty painless and went pretty smooth and they did also tell me that they have heard before from other people as well that the heaters appear to be a little over rated.
The 80,000 btu heater works much better and fired right up on the first shot and works pretty good.
I still feel that even the 80.000 btu heater is a bit over rated for the heating area they state it will heat ,but it appears to work good otherwise in my garage.
THIS IS THE THING THAT IS THE MOST DISTURBING THING TO ME ABOUT THE 45,000 AND THE 80.000 BTU VENTED GARAGE HEATERS FROM PROCOM. THE THERMOSTAT THAT THEY GIVE YOU WITH THE HEATER HAS A UNDESIRED OPERATION THAT COULD CAUSE SOME REAL ISSUES IF IT IS NOT CAUGHT BY THE OWNER.
THIS IS WHAT I HAVE EXPERIENCED.
AFTER THE HEATER AND THERMOSTAT ARE INSTALLED AND THE DESIRED TEMPERATURE IS SET IT SEEMS TO WORK GOOD AND IS PRETTY ACCURATE.
HERE IS WERE THE PROBLEM COMES IN, IF YOU SWITCH THE THERMOSTAT FROM THE HEAT ON POSITION TO THE OFF POSITION WHEN YOU ARE DONE FOR THE DAY. WHEN YOU RETURN AND SWITCH THE THERMOSTAT TO THE HEAT ON POSITION AGAIN THE THERMOSTAT WILL DEFAULT TO 79 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT WHICH IS WHAT THE THERMOSTAT IS PROGRAMMED FOR AT THE MANUFACTURER. I FOUND THIS OUT THE HARD WAY WHEN I TURNED THE THERMOSTAT TO THE HEAT ON POSITION ON AND LEFT THE ROOM AND THEN CAME BACK TO FIND THAT IT WAS PRETTY DARN HOT IN THE ROOM AND THE HEATER ITSELF WAS CYCLING THE GAS ON AND OFF BECAUSE THE HEATER WAS REACHING THE MAX RUNNING TEMPERATURE.
(THANK GOD FOR THAT FEATURE).
I WAS ABLE TO FIGURE OUT THAT PROCOM'S THERMOSTAT WILL NOT RUN THE DESIRED TEMPERATURE YOU SET IF YOU JUST TURN THE SWITCH ON THE THERMOSTAT TO THE HEAT ON POSITION FROM THE OFF POSITION.
THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN RUN THE DESIRED TEMPERATURE YOU PREVIOUSLY SET ON THE PROCOM THERMOSTAT IS WHEN YOU SWITCH THE THERMOSTAT TO THE HEAT ON POSITION YOU THEN HALF TO PUSH THE TEMP BUTTON ONCE TO RUN THE DESIRED TEMPERATURE YOU SET. (PROCOM FORGOT TO INCLUDE THAT IMPORTANT PIECE OF INFORMATION IN THE OPERATORS MANUAL.)
IF YOU DO NOT PUSH THE TEMP BUTTON ONCE AFTER TURNING THE THERMOSTAT TO THE HEAT ON POSITION THE THERMOSTAT WILL RUN THE DEFAULT TEMPERATURE SETTING AND WILL RUN THE HEAT UP TO 79 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT.
YOU CAN CHECK THIS BY SIMPLY HAVING THE ROOM TEMPERATURE HIGHER THAN WHAT THE SET TEMPERATURE IS ON THE THERMOSTAT THEN SWITCH THE THERMOSTAT TO THE OFF POSITION FOR A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME. THEN SWITCH THE THERMOSTAT BACK TO THE HEAT ON POSITION AGAIN AND SEE IF THE THERMOSTAT CLICKS AND THE HEAT ON ICON COMES ON WHEN YOU SWITCH THE THERMOSTAT BACK TO THE HEAT ON POSITION. (EXAMPLE - ROOM TEMPERATURE IS 70 DEGREES SET THE THERMOSTAT TO 65 DEGREES SO THE THERMOSTAT SHOULD NOT TURN THE HEAT ON BECAUSE YOU HAVE SET THE TEMPERATURE LOWER THAN WHAT THE ACTUAL ROOM TEMPERATURE IS. NOW SWITCH THE THERMOSTAT TO THE OFF POSITION FOR A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME. THEN SWITCH THE THERMOSTAT BACK TO THE HEAT ON POSITION AGAIN AND SEE IF THE THERMOSTAT CLICKS AND THE HEAT ON ICON IS DISPLAYED AND THEN THE HEAT TURNS ON AGAIN EVEN THOUGH THE TEMPERATURE YOU JUST SET IS LOWER THAN WHAT THE ACTUAL ROOM TEMPERATURE IS.)
THIS THERMOSTAT CHECK CAN BE DONE WITH THE THERMOSTAT CONNECTED TO THE WIRING OR NOT CONNECTED TO THE WIRING, ALL YOU NEED IS TO HAVE THE BATTERIES INSTALLED IN THE THERMOSTAT. YOU CAN TELL THE HEAT IS BEING TURNED ON BY HEARING THE RELAY CLICK INSIDE THE THERMOSTAT AND YOU WILL ALSO SEE THE HEAT ON ICON DISPLAYED IN THE LOWER LEFT CORNER OF THE THERMOSTAT DISPLAY WINDOW .
I HAVE BEEN IN CONTACT WITH PROCOM ABOUT THIS ISSUE WITH THE THERMOSTAT AND PROCOM'S TECH SUPPORT STATES THE THERMOSTAT SHOULD NOT DO THAT AND HAVE SENT ME REPLACEMENT THERMOSTATS WHICH ALL DO THE SAME THING. I HAVE CHANGED THE THERMOSTAT WITH PROCOM'S THERMOSTAT NOW 3 TIMES WITH THE SAME RESULT.
I HAVE ALSO INSTALLED 2 OTHER DIFFERENT MANUFACTURERS THERMOSTATS TO VERIFY THE PROBLEM WAS IN PROCOM'S THERMOSTAT AS I SUSPECTED AND NOT IN THE INSTALLATION OF THE THERMOSTAT OR THE HEATER AND BOTH THE OTHER MANUFACTURE THERMOSTATS WORKED WELL WITH NO PROBLEMS.
THE PROBLEM IS FIXED NOW WITH A DIFFERENT MANUFACTURERS THERMOSTAT BECAUSE THE OTHER MANUFACTURERS THERMOSTATS ARE RUNNING THE TEMPERATURE THAT I SET WHEN I INSTALLED THE THERMOSTAT AND DO NOT REQUIRE ME TO ENTER ANY TEMP SET MENUS OR PUSH ANY OTHER BUTTONS ETC WHEN I TURN THE THERMOSTAT TO THE HEAT ON POSITION. ALL I HALF TO DO IS SWITCH THE THERMOSTAT TO THE HEAT ON POSITION AND MY PRESET TEMPERATURE IS NOW RUNNING.
I WILL TELL YOU THAT CALLING PROCOM IS AN EVENT IN ITSELF BECAUSE AFTER SITTING ON HOLD FOREVER AND A DAY ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS THEY SPEND MORE TIME BLAMING THE INSTALLER THAN ACTUALLY TAKING A LOOK AT WHAT THE PROBLEM IS. I ALSO GOT THE IMPRESSION FROM A MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE I SPOKE WITH AT PROCOM THAT THEY WERE NOT REALLY FAMILIAR WITH THE OPERATION AND DESIGN OF THE THERMOSTAT AND THEY NOW TELL ME THAT THEY ARE HAVING THERE TESTING LABS LOOK INTO THIS ISSUE AND WILL GET BACK TO ME ON IT.
Other than the problems with the thermostat and trying to deal with ProCom which has just been a big headache I like the heater and it performs good with a different manufactures thermostat. I would have a hard time recommending somebody to buy this type of heater from ProCom as a result of the issues with dealing with ProCom and there thermostat.
HOPE THIS MAY HELP SOMEBODY OUT IN THE FUTURE.
THANKS
JN
April 13, 2013
Good Price
I bought this heater from Northern Tool when it was on sale. I don't think you will find a cheaper heater in this size if it is on sale. After getting the heater all hooked up it worked great. The problem I had was the fan would come on randomly even when the thermostat was shut off. It would run for about 90 seconds and then shut off. I called customer service and they sent me a new board. After installing the new board it has been working fine. it does appear that they do have issues with the boards on these units. One thing you will want to check if replacing the board is how the thermostat wires are soldered for the new board. The new board was soldered differently than the original one. Two of the wires were crossed. This meant that I had to hook the two wires up according to how the board was soldered. I do like the heater and loved the price. It heats my two car garage very well. I think once you get one of these heaters set up with a good board it should work well.
April 12, 2013
UNBELIEVABLE
Where do I start? WOW, what a piece of junk! I bought three, yes three of these beasts and I can say with certainty that these will be the LAST PROCOM anything I buy. Out of the three, only one actually worked out of the box. The first one would not fire at all. It simply gave us the" three rapid flash" code. Contacted PROCOM, which by the way is an experience in itself. Do yourself a favor and try to call the customer service line for tech support BEFORE you buy one of these things. I assure you that you had better have all day to wait on hold. Two and a half hours later I speak to a rep who tells me its the pressure sensor, but they are back ordered. Thank Heaven for the good people at Northern Tool in Sioux Falls who really stepped up to the plate. They simply gave me a new heater and after I uninstalled the old one, they took it back. Much to my dismay however this unit had similar problems except it would fire up for about 20 seconds, then quit and give me the "three flashes of death" warning code. The service technician I had hired to come out and set the manifold pressures after I had Installed the heaters had no other suggestions except replace the circuit board and the pressure sensor. Northern Tool was ready to give me another heater, but I am tired of installing/ uninstalling and hiring techs to set pressures and it doesn't seem to make any difference anyway (same results). Now I'm waiting for those parts instead. The third heater is in my other garage and it is working now although when I installed it, I had to pilfer an LP orifice from another source since this unit came packed with only two not the required three to do the conversion to LP. I couldn't tell you if these things do a good job of heating yet because I have not been able to keep one running long enough to find out. I have very little hope of longevity for either of these units and fully expect to be back at Northern Tool soon to bury these things and try a real heater instead.
March 26, 2013
Great for the price.
I bought this heater pretty much based on the price and I have to say I'm happy with it.It makes good heat and runs very quiet.It heats my small shop very well and beats the noisy stinking ready heater I used to use. My only complaint about the heater is the thermostat.After getting the heater hung up,piping the gas and wiring the electrical and thermostat i went to fire it up...nothing happened. Ok I double checked all my connections and everything was right. Ok so what the heck? Well just for chits I switched the thermostat to the "cool" setting and what do ya know? It fired up....and ran well. Guess I'll be buying a new thermostat. Hopefully this will be my only problem with my procom for a long time. I hope this review helps anyone looking to buy one of these heaters.
February 9, 2013
procom heater
This unit is great i got it to heat my 2 car garage i seen the other review on this unit but i said why not try it glad i did great price and a great unit and easy to set up for propane.
January 13, 2013
NOT HAPPY
I purchased this 45,000btu Procom heater because of the poor reviews of the Mr Heater in regards to having to constantly replace the circuit board., In fact I was told by Northern that the Procom was replacing the Mr heaters because of that fact. I purchased the heater directly from the store and brought it home and started installing it. About 8 hours later it was completly hooked up and vented out the roof. Turned up up the thermostat and it fired right up, then after about 10 minutes it shut off and never worked again. I called customer and sure enough after I told him what happen, they are sending me out a new circuit board. And on a 2nd note, it is loader then I was expecting. Should have spent the extra money on something else. NOT HAPPY
October 18, 2012
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