Any Experience of Diesel Stoves?

[Simes]

Hi Folks, Whilst I do not get here very often I have been very impressed with the quality of the replys.
The rebuild of Talisman is going OK if a little behind schedule.
The engine has been rebuild and fitted (sans exhaust system), the new battery box is built and the engine box has been designed. The new floors are down, the Galley cupboards draws and worktops will be in by the end of this week.
However, the stove has to go in soon, at the So'ton BS we ordered a Dickinson Adriatic stove. This does seem to be the ideal stove for a liveaboard vessel. The general plan is to fit a 25 ltr "day" tank and to supply this with either a power or hand pump to resupply from main tank. We hope to run 4 1/2 meter radiators and a 50 gallon calorifier from this as well.
Does anyone run these stoves or maybe a similar system. And help advise (good or bad) will be very welcome.
We are also just starting to design the 12 volt system, the plumbing system and the deck layout.
Every job seems to produce at least three new jobs, we hope to be living on board by August!

Many thanks for your help,

Simes

 

[alant]

There was a thread on these about 9 months ago

 

[Abigail]

I don't know the dickinson adriatic but we have a wallas deisel stove. It's great to cook with, and it's lovely not having gas. But, and it's a big but, they are not IMHO really the right thing for a cruising yacht. 2 reasons - (i) they are too complicated, so you keep the KISS principle with one fuel but lose it in the actual kit. and (ii) the service network is not that extensive. Until v recently our nearest centre fromIpswich was High Peak, although a new supplier has opened on the Broads.

So we are keeping ours - v expensive and we've invested a lot of time and effort in it. But I would think v hard about buying one again.

HTH

 

[pernoll]

Hi Simon
Dickinson Adriatic is a perfect choice. We've had one on board some 11 years, of which 6 as liveaboard, wintering 1 year in Howth, Ireland, next in Lisbon and last winter in the Venetian lagoon. For our Warrior 40 it is even on the upper side. We've no experience using the coil for heating water. It might be a bit too much to supply 4 radiators and a calorifier. Finally they are stupid simple and work without any noice. Ours has only been cleaned (regulator) 2 or 3 times.

 

[Trevethan]

the dickinson is drip fed --- not like the pressured parafin/diesel types -- all ours needs is a decoking after about two weeks use and that's it.

Much prefer teh system to our taylors parfin cooker.

In the summer I would be tempted to supplement with a methsh burner just for quick heating of water etc.

We don't have a coil either but I understand its only really good for the calorifer and one or two rads/heater matrices.


Don't forget all that heat will percolate through the boat, unless like us you have a pilot house -- the the saloon get nice and warm, and the pilot house, but little heat seeps back t the aft cabin so we have fitted a webasto for that area. I guess I could have fitted coils and rads for that, but....

anyway best of luck!"

Nick

 

[Simes]

Hi Pernoll,

Many thanks for your reply. We are going to go ahead with the Adriatic. Just have to pay for it and figure out how to secure such a large and heavy object in to the galley on our schooner.
Love the Warrior 40, what a great boat, our last yacht was the trident Challenger 35 so we know all about the fantastic build and design quality.
Any tips or advise on what to do / not do in the installation of the stove?

Many thanks Simes.

 

[Simes]

Hi Trevethan,

We are going to get the Adriatic, thanks for your supporting advice and comments.

We are going to fit two coils and three rads. so hope to get them all hot.
I will keep the forum upto date on the progress.
Many thanks
Simes

 

[ianabc]

We have a Dickinsion Pacific. We had the aluminium top replaced with a cast iron top. (The aluminium tops tend to droop when they get very hot!)

Also we removed the sea rails, rilld and tapped holes for a fabricated 4 mm stainless steel stroing rail like assembly that has vent, but ries 20 cms from the top opf the stove.

As the stove cannot be expected to have a diesel line and gimbal, we aligned the stove across the boat so that the oven door opens down towards the stern.

We fitted a double coil stainless steel tube that leads to the heat exchanger tank which also has a threaded connection for an electric heater and a closed loop for the engine water to flow through.

Diesel supply is from day tank ( 10 L) that is slung under the deck, forward of the stove and some distance away. Diesel drips from this to a Racor MAM fire retardant foilter that is closer to the stove. Clean diesel is essential as water puts out the fire!. We used the diesel filter designed for petrol fueled stoves. A regular Racor would be foine (120 model) if it far from the stove.

Older Dickinsons had a rather poor caravan type carb. fitted and the nedwer rectangular model has I believe a fuseable/ metable link with a spring that cuts off diesel flow if the carb. is too hot.

We run the stove all winter.

Fuel is hand pumped (Whale Gusher 10 with nitrile) to the day tank and the day tank overflowsback to the main diesel tank so that no meter is necessary.

Whale tells me that instead of coding the diagphram with a moulded in number, a blue dot is used to ID a nitrile.

Ian

 

[Simes]

Hi Ian,

Many thanks for your advise. I am only just starting to think through the installation. We plan to have a day tank mounted 1m above the stove and about 1.2m away behind a bulk head. Had not thought about the fuel pump any further than having one! I will probably fit the same filters as the main engine and cut down on spares carried that way. We are thinking about using a meter of some type to assess our Diesel usage, hand pump is the way to go, probably a Henderson MkV.
Have you had to build the floor up. The Adriatic is only 51 cm height so we will need to build up by 40 cm.
I could go on for hours here.

Many thanks

Simon