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What to know about- Kerosene heaters before buying torpedo heater - $1
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There hasn't been a U S made Kerosene Torpedo heater since 2008 when DESA International filed chapter 11 bankruptcy and liquidated in 2009.
DESA International (REDDY and a dozen+ more trade names) in Bowling Green Ky. was the last, and there will never be another.
The big box stores have been carrying MASTER, REMINGTON, DAYTON, JOHN DEERE, ALL-PRO and CRAFTSMAN have nothing to do with the U S made heaters of those names by DESA prior to 2009. The six I mentioned are imports from China, possibly Korea. They are significantly inferior and have no durability when stacked up to the U S made heaters, no surprise there right!
Parts, customer service and warranty are all issues as no one wants to do warranty on these.
Sure there are tons more names out there that are also imports and have the same issues with those as well. I'm just pointing out the names that were used for the foreign made units. that get confused as being the same as the originals made here.
Any money you were going to spend on an import is better spent having the old one fixed up by a repair shop or to purchase one off eBay or Craigslist and never loan it out, not even to family.
Because if you even get it back, they'll have likely screwed it up and then leave you with having to get it serviced. I've seen and heard it a hundred times.
Many mower/small engine shops are already familiar with the DESA heaters and know what to look for, and finding parts online websites or eBay for these is simple. Some even have a small inventory of parts they've accumulated over the decades.
I might ad that the propane Torpedo style heaters sold now with those names are of the same problems.
There were other U S made low pressure forced air heaters mostly out of the Midwest that are also worthy of fixing up instead of buying new. Names like Amoco,Cenex,Dart, Husky, Handy Master, L.B. WHITE, Scheu, Toro, Gilson, Central Tractor, Champion, Century Engineering, Lawnboy, Universal.
The imports make these heaters above almost construction grade.
All USA made DESA construction heaters parts and owners manuals are listed at (desatech dot com)) by model number drop down box under construction heaters at the top left. Download and print the pdf file to have on hand.
These were all from the same U S company; DESA
Reddy/Master/Knipco/Remington/Dayton/AMCA INT./ ATOM/Atomaster/Queenbee/Agway/Koehring/Homelite/Ford/Sears/Certain-ALL-PRO/DESA INT./CO-OP/ John Deere/CRAFTSMAN