Propane saftey - running burner in garage

jhubert · 12-19-2011, 11:37 PM

I was worried about carbon monoxide levels in my garage due to running my propane burner in the garage in the winter months. Actually what I do is have the garage door all the way open and have the burner at the edge of the inside portion of the garage. I am fairly confident I am not going to have issues being in the garage with the door all the way open. What I want to do is actually do this with the garage door closed or mostly closed when brewing in the sub-freezing months. I was told by a person that works in the HVAC world that propane if burning correctly will not really give off CO, it will just keep robbing the area of oxygen. He said the CO levels could go up if there is bad or incomplete combustion of the fuel. So basically I could do my boil on my turkey fryer stand in the garage with the garage door closed or mostly closed, and not have to worry about CO levels? I have a good digital readout CO detector in the garage but not sure that is enough to know if I am being safe about this.

Patrick604 · 12-19-2011, 11:46 PM

While I am not saying I've never done it, I wouldn't recommend brewing in the garage with the door closed or just cracked open. In addition to the CO you mentioned, you have an oxygen problem. If your fire eats up all the oxygen you are a dead duck, even if there is no CO.

I still brew in my garage in the winter to keep the snow out, and to get out of the wind, but I keep the door open and a wear heavy coat on to keep me warm.