Alcohol cooker (Methylated spirits)

[Mymobo]

Hi,

Out new boat (to us) is a Sea Ray and has one of these cookers onboard. How do you use them with Methylated spirits? There are no instructions for it. Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[PowerYachtBlog]

Had a Spirit Electric combo on my boat and changed it after half a season.

Main reason is that to cook the spirit finishes in seconds, unlike gas which last an average of three months with daily usage.

 

[jhr]

What type is it?

If it's an Origo, you lift up the hinged top of the stove (there's a little catch under the front lip) and you will find a circular reservoir inside, filled with an inert wool-like material. You pour alcohol/meths into this receptacle until it is saturated, put the reservoir back in the stove, close the lid, fully open the regulator and light by holding a (long) match just above the mesh in the top of the reservoir for a few moments, until the heat of the match evaporates the spirit and it catches light.

Iirc, a full reservoir will give you about four hours' cooking with the burner at full tilt.

If it's not an Origo, I'm afraid I haven't a clue

Although they're not ideal, I much prefer spirit stoves to gas, for safety reasons, though the smell of combusted meths can be a bit dodgy for your stomach in a heavy swell....

 

[Nick_H]

Not the answer to your question, but you can now get methylated spirits as a gel, which sounds much safer on a boat to me, though I don't know how well it would work in a boats stove.

 

[DAKA]

What type is it?

If it's an Origo, you lift up the hinged top of the stove (there's a little catch under the front lip) and you will find a circular reservoir inside, filled with an inert wool-like material. You pour alcohol/meths into this receptacle until it is saturated, put the reservoir back in the stove, close the lid, fully open the regulator and light by holding a (long) match just above the mesh in the top of the reservoir for a few moments, until the heat of the match evaporates the spirit and it catches light.

Iirc, a full reservoir will give you about four hours' cooking with the burner at full tilt.

If it's not an Origo, I'm afraid I haven't a clue

Although they're not ideal, I much prefer spirit stoves to gas, for safety reasons, though the smell of combusted meths can be a bit dodgy for your stomach in a heavy swell....

ours used to have a rubber seal that we had to remove first, a saucer of rubber.
replaced afterwards to stop meths evaporating.

to fill you hold at 45' until the meths starts to overflow, hold horizontal and thats full, if you dont follow this procedure you run the risk of it overflowing as it warms and the meths becomes a running wall of fire .

 

[BruceDanforth]

If it is a origo stove you can download a manual here. If it is single burner it's most likely a 1500 if a twin a 3000. There was an older kind with a whole right through the 'cake tin' where you need a little funnel to pour meths into an internal spout down the hole. Meths in swindleries is hideously expensive, you need an old fashioned hardware store that will sell you a 5 litre can. I decant some into smaller bottles which I stash in the galley. Don't pour from the big can whilst down below I usually do it on the pontoon if I can. If it is a different stove post a photo.

 

[AndieMac]

you run the risk of it overflowing as it warms and the meths becomes a running wall of fire .

Been there, done that with a different type of metho stove.....the running wall of fire ran down the galley cupboards towards the underfloor fuel tank, couldn't stop it without a fire extinguisher. The boat was then full of dry powder, and we had to go home

Changed straight to a gas system (with all the safety devices)......it is a thing of great beauty.

 

[nonitoo]

We've used our mains/spirit cooker aboard successfully for three years.

The reservoir in ours holds a litre of meths and seems to last for ever. Easy to operate and never a spill provided you use the tilt test before lighting after filling.

Make sure you have plenty of ventilation (the first time we used ours the the CO alarm went off).

Other than that no problems at all.

Tom

 

[jhr]

ours used to have a rubber seal that we had to remove first, a saucer of rubber.
replaced afterwards to stop meths evaporating.

Oops; forgot about that bit.

Never had the running wall of fire yet - I must try it when I've got tired of knackering my boat in other interesting ways

 

[BruceDanforth]

If the seals are perished you can get new ones as well as other spares from Seamark Nunn

 

[piratos]

Alcohol cooker

Sea Ray used to have the system with pressure. If so there is a tank to fill, a small pump to obtain pressure. The buner must be preheated (first open op to have small amount of alcohol in the burner, shut down and light it) once preheated it will burn as a gasstove.
Problem is that if you do things wrong you willhave a huge flame (read BIG FIRE) - good thing about this is that Alcohol fire can be killed by water.

 

[DAKA]

Oops; forgot about that bit.

Never had the running wall of fire yet - I must try it when I've got tired of knackering my boat in other interesting ways

Running wall of fire might have been a but OTT, I wouldn't want you to be disappointed , its more like a spreading dull mound of purple pilot light.

I was getting mixed up with the time I threw an ignited bucket of petrol out of the bilges onto the River Bank and then watched as it ran down the bank back towards me

 

[Andrew_Fanner]

Had an Origo 3000 on the previous boat, and access to a decent traditional ironmonger who sold meths at sensible prices. I had no troubles with the cooker at all. The smell of meths was not an issue for two reasons:

1 Scandanavian boat so cooking in the cockpit
2. Long time small scale steam enthusiast so burning meths has been part of my leisure time for 35 years or so!

The only thing I missed was an oven, Origo ovens exist but are agonisingly expensive for what is basically a stainless steel box with a single Origo burner at the bottom. If you go inland at all meths cookers are not safety items like gas ones and so a major part of the BSS is not relevant to you.