NewAir G56 Portable 240V Garage Heater Review

The King PSH2440TB is our pick for plug-in 240V heat, but at 3,750 watts it's honestly a one-car-garage heater. The NewAir G56 is the same idea with 50% more output: 5,600 watts, about 19,100 BTU, from a box you carry in one hand and plug into a 30-amp receptacle. By the 10-watts-per-square-foot rule that's roughly 550 square feet of insulated space — a full two-car garage — and it gets there without anyone drilling into a ceiling joist or pulling new wire, provided the outlet is already there. That last clause is the whole decision. Adding a 30A / 240V circuit costs about what hardwiring a ceiling unit does, so the G56's advantage belongs to people who already have the outlet: a welder circuit, an old dryer outlet, an RV hookup.

In use it's a shop heater in the traditional sense. A knob sets the thermostat between 45 and 95°F, the fan pushes warm air off a stainless-steel coil, and it cycles once the space is warm. Aim it across the floor from a corner and a cold two-car garage is workable in well under an hour. There's no remote, no timer, no low setting — the King doesn't have those either — and the fan is loud enough that you'll hear it over a radio. The housing stays cool enough to grab, the overheat cutoff and construction are ETL certified, and the cord wraps onto the back so it doesn't get run over on the way to the truck.

Two cautions. First, the plug: it draws 23.4 amps, which is why it needs a real 30A receptacle on its own breaker — never an extension cord, never a 20A-to-30A adapter, and not shared with the compressor. Second, floor placement: keep it out of sawdust, off the path of the car, and three feet from anything that burns. If you'd rather have the heater up and out of the way permanently, the Comfort Zone or DR-966 on a hardwired circuit is the better long-term setup; if you want the most heat you can get from a plug, this is it.