Anyone have a preferred ground thaw brand and size? Why? I am looking at buy two for our winter construction.
we had some BIG hot dog heaters... they were about 3' in diameter and 8 to 10 foot long... they used 3 of them to heat a 40,000 sf basement so they could pour the slab... had the fiber glass panel temporary walls, plastic concrete blankets laying on the second floor sheeting they were 2 propane tanks , maybe 2000 gallons each... every morning before the shift started they tested the low lying areas of the basement for propane vapors..
I use a Heat King 500 made by Crown. Supposedly its the biggest on the market. I can do about 10,000 sf of thawing 1' thick per 24 hour period with concrete curing blankets on top to keep the heat in. If your handy you could build your own. Its just 2 large oil burners in a trailer with some pumps. The hose runs are just 1" hose. Generators is normally an option so make sure you have power available otherwise you will need a small generator too. 2 winter seasons on rent pays for these things. They go for about $15000 a winter.
we found a couple good deals on some heaters. we already had a brand called "ground heaters." they are now owned and made by Wacker. they use a oil fired burners that a company about 120 miles away has parts on hand for. the pumps are made by Procon. they are not a great pump but they are self priming. we found a company called JC Beverage in minnesota that will rebuild these pumps very reasonably. we went with it and have picked up two more ground heaters. we use them to thaw ground for trenching. we also pump water, mostly for oil field use, and use them to keep our pipes and pumps thawed.