Are modern boat cookers much better than older ones?

[stranded]

+ for GN Espace if the somewhat eye watering prices are worth it for you. Performance is superb - grill grills across whole area, oven can get hot hot hot and our four burner ocean chef can accommodate four good sized domestic saucepans or mixture of saucepans and frying pans. We find gas economy excellent but definitely use more gas because I can cook like I do at home. Won’t be showing off with a four curry, tarka dal, pilau rice, made from scratch mango chutney and made from scratch naans for us plus 4 guests in 35 degrees+ in Majorca again in a hurry though - all that heat doesn’t just politely depart the boat once it’s done the business on your food.

 

[johnalison]

Making toast seems to be a very British obsession, since the foreigners generally get by with rolls or croissants. We had to sacrifice an additional work surface to accomodate our need for toast, but the now 20-yr old cooker is still functional. Replacing cookers, from what I hear, depends as much on dimensions as quality or facilities, since there seems no agreement on sizing, unlike domestic appliances.

The old Vanessa worked well enough, but didn't have flame-failure. I see that no-one has put in a good word for the Origo, good though they are when space is limited.

 

[Poignard]

[...]I see that no-one has put in a good word for the Origo, good though they are when space is limited.

See post #4

Space is limited on our 28-footer so the Origo is mounted on gimbals that can be slid back so the cooker is out of the way when not being used.

 

[[70521]]

Camping Gaz is a very expensive way of buying butane.

But brilliant when you can't fit any other bottle in the gas locker.

 

[geem]

We have a Dometic Marine Moonlight stainless three burner stove. It has the grill in the oven. Been installed since 2012. Works well. It is 1/4 price of the GN and does every thing we can ask of it. I am sure it would last as long but if it fails tomorrow and we were to scrap it we would have got 7 years trouble free out of it. So to be worth buying a GN it would have to last 28 years and be trouble free. The cooker is super easy to clean as it has a black glass top under the rings. Down side is that when the oven lid is down, the corner is sharp. Not great if you are making toast onroute and trying to get past the open oven door. We are liveaboards so the cooker gets a hammering. It has stood up very well and still looks like new

 

[bobgarrett]

We had a problem with our ENo oven with it not getting as hot as it once did. The flames did not seem to be as big as we recalled. The rings seemed fine so I wondered whether the pipe to the oven was restricted.
At first I thought I would take it apart to find any joints that might be restricted but I could not see how to get in. Instead I held a bicycle pump to the gas feed into the cooker, held the oven control to on and gave a quick pump. Nothing seemed to happen but when reassembled the oven was fixed.
I did check the flame out device afterwards.

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

My present boat came with an ancient two-burner hob. Problems: enamel finish and rusting, no grill, no fail-safe device and the two burners were both the same size.
I replaced it with an Italian job called Techno(something). *
All stainless - check
Fail-safe - check
One small burner and one medium - check (the base of my Moka is wider than the small burner so the handle does not get burned)
Grill - check (lovely toast to accompany my morning espresso)

It works for me. Only niggle is that the stainless steel is paper-thin (but I am sure that it will outlast me).

*Edit: Techimpex (?)

 

[prv]

I now have two regular crew who are keen cooks, and both pronounce themselves impressed with Ariam's Spinflo Nelson. I can only make two slices of toast at a time (maybe Doug in post #9 uses smaller bread ) but the oven has turned out a variety of successful bread and cakes - we had meringues from it on Sunday

Pete

 

[ghostlymoron]

Toast is indeed a British thing but I don't find beans on croissant so good. Our continental cousins won't accept electric kettles either.

Making toast seems to be a very British obsession, since the foreigners generally get by with rolls or croissants. We had to sacrifice an additional work surface to accomodate our need for toast, but the now 20-yr old cooker is still functional. Replacing cookers, from what I hear, depends as much on dimensions as quality or facilities, since there seems no agreement on sizing, unlike domestic appliances.

The old Vanessa worked well enough, but didn't have flame-failure. I see that no-one has put in a good word for the Origo, good though they are when space is limited.

 

[Crinan12]

Thanks all. I'm just going to stick with what I have. Whether it takes 2 or 4 minutes for water to boil really doesn't matter. And I have decided cereal will do just fine instead of toast. And I can live without an oven. There is no way i would spend 2 grand on a boat cooker.