Techimpex cookers - thoughts good and bad

[rogerball0]

Making a list of the last few shiny bits i need for the insides of my Centaur, cookers top of the list. The problem is apart from wanting something both capable and durable i want something modern-looking too and from what i've found thats either a GN espace or a techimpex from what google's returned.

The GN espace will require the sale of a vital organ or indeed limb........maybe even my own!.............I'll have to consider what i can do without the most over the holidays unless theres some serious discount at LIBS and thats led me to Techimpex.

Having a look around their website i found some really great looking products - even their top end models are considerably less than the GN so within my modest budget, however i then read the comments on here about problems owners have had - i'm now a little skeptical and wondered if they're all bad or just certain models?

Any thoughts?

 

[JumbleDuck]

Having a look around their website i found some really great looking products - even their top end models are considerably less than the GN so within my modest budget, however i then read the comments on here about problems owners have had - i'm now a little skeptical and wondered if they're all bad or just certain models?

You may have seen my feedback already ... I'm very pleased with my Techimpex, which came with the boat. It has two burners, a grill and and oven. The only cooking drawback is that the area heated by the grill is a little small. Otherwise it's great and I would certainly buy another.

 

[Tranona]

Got rid of my Techimpex and replaced with a Plastimo. Complaints about the Techimpex were poor quality grid, silly door catch and inefficient oven with no thermostat. Difficulty in getting spares, although this may now be better with Penguin as distributor. Despite this Have another one - but only because there was no choice with my new boat!

My choice,if you have room would be a Spinflo Nelson which consistently gets good reviews in the regular tests in the mags. UK made, as good quality as any of the others in the price range, readily available spares. Would not fit my last boat as it is too tall with the grill, so fitted an oven only Plastimo which is now sold as a Neptune.

 

[BobnLesley]

The usual forum result for such a question: Two replies and divergent opinions:
We bought our Techimpex less than two years ago and consider it to be the biggest disappointment/waste of money on the boat. I accept that as livaboards our cooker gets a lot more use than the average weekends and holidays yacht, but it's still disappointing to have the pan-stand/clamps unit rot away completely (chromed-steel) to be replaced for about £40. The threads on the bolts of three out of the four pan clamps also corroded away, but upon discovering that new pan clamps were a further £30-40/pair I drilled, tapped and fitted new stainless bolts into them. The burner caps have also deformed and replacements for these are only available as part of a complete burner unit - about another £40 each. We too have found the grill area too small to be of much use and the oven takes so long to reach even luke-warm that we've just given it up for a bad job; on the up-side, the oven and grill have stayed clean though.

 

[mainsail1]

Another vote for the Spinflow Nelson.

 

[Seven Spades]

Techimpex are both rubbish and fantastic. They have made the classic mistake of trying to cover both ends of the market using the same brand So you can buy a bottom end version as fitted to Bavarias in the past and you can pay £1000 or more. I have a plastic neptune 2000 that needs replacing and I could buy the spin flow, but the one I really like is the Techimpex but it is about £650-850 for the good one. Talk to Graham at Penguin Marine, they are the agents and the chap there is really helpful and will explain it much better than I can.

However you can get a force 10 for a little more also from Penguin:-

http://www.marineoutfitters.ca/index.cfm?category=11377|10360&product=32542541&code=723665632699

 

[Lucky Duck]

I had one on my last boat which I owned for almost 10 years from new

Two main gripes were that the clip holding the oven door shut broke quite early on and at the time it was difficult to source a replacement which was not cheap!

Also the design of the grill leaves a bit to be desired.

Otherwise perfectly satisfactory

 

[Serin]

I think it rather depends on how much cooking you intend to do. For us, good food (and wine) is an essential element of our enjoyment of the boat and a lot of cooking goes on. We sold a few limbs some years ago and bought a GN Espace Levante (four burners) and have never regretted it.

I've cooked with quite a few different boat cookers, including Force 10, but not including Techimpex. However, the Levante beats all the others into a cocked hat and is really more comparable to a domestic cooker in performance. And if you like proper toast, there's no grill to touch it, in my experience. The Levante does have the advantage of being quite compact and is very well built.

 

[rogerball0]

Cheers for the replies, do keep them coming, also what model of cookers were these which had the problems mentioned above? Were they like any of the ones below?, The fact that these are fitted to custom-built yachts and brands like Solaris and Ferretti must mean one or two of their products are decent? I see the one cooker they do thats fitted to a lot of production boats, think its called the XL2 is that the one giving the most problems?

XL2

TOP 4

TOP3

Mariner 2 / 3

cheers

 

[prv]

Another vote for the Spinflow Nelson.

And another.

The oven is good by boat standards, more even heat instead of burning at the back and cold at the front, and the thermostat works. The grill makes good toast. The burner caps are held down by dimples on the bottom of the pan rack, rather than by screws that rust and jam on some other cookers.

Only downside really is that the glass door makes it hard to fit the usual gimbal locking bolt. The manufacturer's solution is to make the gimbal pivots threaded, with a sort of wing nut that tries in vain to clamp the cooker to the supports and stop it swinging. That works about as well as you'd imagine (ie hardly at all) but I'm sure you could come up with something else, or just not bother with a gimbal lock at all.

Pete

 

[wully1]

I had a Techimpex on my last boat and have a Plastimo on current boat. Both are fine.

I prefer the Plastimo as it seems better made.

Edit - it was the XL 2 model I had and it lasted well- I did have to replace the fiddle rail as the hatch above leaked over one winter when I was away and the rust was too ugly for me to live with. When roasting I turned the chook round every once in a while as the front of the oven was not very hot... apart from that it was OK.

 

[prv]

I see the one cooker they do thats fitted to a lot of production boats, think its called the XL2 is that the one giving the most problems?

XL2

I *think* that's the one that was on Ariam when we bought her. Disposed of largely because of the lack of grill and the useless fiddles with no back, so that you have to actively clamp each pan in place every time or risk losing it.

Pete

 

[rogerball0]

I *think* that's the one that was on Ariam when we bought her. Disposed of largely because of the lack of grill and the useless fiddles with no back, so that you have to actively clamp each pan in place every time or risk losing it.

Pete

Cheers Pete thats that one ruled out then, so does anyone here own one of the more 'fancier' ones pictured and if so any good?

 

[Wandering Star]

I fitted a new Techimpex to my (then) Westerly Longbow which I was preparing for a Transat. Not sure which model it was but probably the cheapest for that reason alone. It was rubbish, as well as everything else mentioned here, it suffered from corrosion and fell to bits. I had to replace it after 18 months or so and complained to the supplier and the manufacturer but got nowhere with either of them. I did post about my experiences on these forums at the time (12 years ago possibly).

Recently fitted a Nelson Spinflo in my Vancouver 27 and very pleased with the thing. Totally different build quality to the Techimpex.

 

[Tranona]

Cheers Pete thats that one ruled out then, so does anyone here own one of the more 'fancier' ones pictured and if so any good?

Yes, that is the one fitted to Bavaria (and many other, even so called High end boats). It is popular with builders because it is very cheap and looks good. However, buyers of many new boats do not do much cooking on board so rarely find the downside. My first one was used as a charter boat in Greece and the top rack needed replacing every year as it was constantly used for heating water to make coffee etc, but the oven had little use - but was not very good anyway. The burners were a pig to replace and the oven catch broke.

Unless you do lots of cooking and value 3 or 4 burners the Nelson or Plastimo really are difficult to beat for price and quality - and both are made in the UK (if that interests you!).

 

[BobnLesley]

Ours is similar to the XL2 photograph, but with the addition of a separate grill; like this one:
http://www.techimpex.co.uk/ModelMastergrill.html

 

[Boo2]

Cheers for the replies, do keep them coming...

IMHO the single most important factor in cooker choice is the material it is made from. You want 316 stainless everywhere possible. In that respect the Nelso Spinflo (which seems to be well regarded) is deficient as substantial parts are made from either chromed (non-stainless) steel or miscellaneous other materials.

You will need to pay more for a cooker where the rails etc won't rust and where the burner inserts won't corrode but that seems to me to be worth while and I do regret buying the Spinflo.

Hth,

Boo2

 

[rogerball0]

Its interesting isn't it? And i've found this to be true for so many aspects of project Centaur, you either buy the not-so-good and put up with the inherent faults as its available and realistically priced or sell a kidney and buy the best of the best that's probably way more than needed cos you dont want the hassle of replacement in two years time.

There seems to be very little middle ground with component manufacturers of the boating industry........

 

[Tranona]

Problem is that some of the high priced stuff is not good or not good value. Think this is particularly true of cookers. However, if you really want the best go for a Taylors 030 or 030L. Saves you messing about putting in a gas installation and once you get used to using it your culinary standards will improve. To finance it I will buy one of your kidneys off you as I am in need of one - assuming it is compatible!

 

[Yngmar]

I'm using the Techimpex that came with the boat. It looks a lot like the XL2 depicted earlier here. It's around 15 years old and apart from a few minor issues, its' working fine. I cook and bake on it all the time.

The minor issues are some rust in the oven, the gimbals have worn out a bit so to engage the locking bolt (to lock the gimbals) I have to lift one side of the unit a bit. The burners on top are rusty too and the screws holding them are rusted and rounded off so it'd take some fiddling to get them out to restore the burners (made a failed attempt at getting them out the other day). There's no thermostat (only a thermometer), but the oven seems to top out around 180-200°C anyways, so there is no real need for one. All the flame failure devices are still working reliably.

I think after 15 years that's all very reasonable for a low-cost unit and it still does the job. Although I do want to look at the Wallas diesel ones - just because it would permit me to get rid of the LPG system entirely.