Benefits of a Taylor's cooker

[Lady Campanula]

I have a Taylors paraffin cabin heater - which is a satisfactory piece of kit - and, as I have some experience of similar things ( HM jets ran on burning paraffin! ) I'm considering the merits of replacing the fairly-new gas cooker with a Taylors paraffin or diesel model.

Wha'd'ya think? Cost/benefits analysis? Or simply anecdotal experience....?

 

[pyrojames]

I replaced an old gas cooker with a Taylors a long time ago, primarily on safety grounds. (Parents had a gas explosion on their boat) Reasonable engineering generally, burners were flakey old 50s engineering. It was fine in warm climes but a PITA in colder ones. Sold the boat and the replacement had gas. Modified the installation to minimise risk and wouldn't ever go back to a Taylors.

Benefits - ease of knowing how much fuel you have, safe(ish) as long as you aren't scared of flames.
Disadvantages - can be smelly, can be a PITA to light, burners have a short lifetime if living on board, requires significant routine maintenance, have to carry two fuels.

 

[oldvarnish]

Disadvantages - can be smelly, can be a PITA to light, burners have a short lifetime if living on board, requires significant routine maintenance, have to carry two fuels.

Agreed

 

[sarabande]

EDIT> Superfluous stuff removed.

A single fuel, such as diesel, on a boat would mean that even greater care would have to be taken with filtration, and management of fuel health in the tank(s).

The idea of reducing the number of potentially explosive or flammable containers on board has much merit.

What about a diesel cooker which can double as a space heater ?
Webasto make diesel cookers, heaters and fridges, with combustion by-products being vented outside the cabin:-

http://www.open-air-feeling.com/fileadmin/user_upload/downloads/2010_EN_OUTDOORS.pdf


Wallas are also in the field with combined units:-

http://www.wallas.com/campaign/us2/


EDIT
Kuranda have comprehensive list of cookers/heaters for paraffin an ddiesel:-

http://www.kuranda.co.uk/chandlery/lofoten-diesel-heater.html


The Dickinson Bristol looks very effective, with a water heater as well.

 

[Tranona]

Love my Taylors for its looks, flexibility of use and safety as my boat has no way of safely storing a gas bottle to latest standards. But you need care in operation and need to be able to deal with the odd flareup. Very expensive new, particularly when compared with the perfectly satisfactory budget gas cookers. Not sure I would choose one for a modern boat.

 

[Simes]

Dickinson Love it!

We run a Dickinson Adriatic, Diesel fired it also runs 4 half kilowatt radiators and a 40 litre calorifier. It does all this for 5 litres a day.

The real benefits are in what it does for the atmosphere on board.

We have little or no condensation, the boat always feels warm and welcoming. Because the stove is "on" all the time the kettle is always ready for tea. Stews are a delight as is bread making.
The stove draws its combustion air up from below (ie the bilges) so the air is being circulated al the time. The bilges are sweet and any moisture is vented via the chimney.

Gotta say we love it, the Dickinson has become the heart of our life on board.

Simes

 

[prv]

Webasto make diesel cookers, heaters and fridges, with combustion by-products being vented outside the cabin:-

http://www.open-air-feeling.com/fileadmin/user_upload/downloads/2010_EN_OUTDOORS.pdf

No diesel fridges in there as far as I could see.

You could make a diesel fridge on the same basis as the old paraffin-lamp ones or the gas ones in some caravans. The problem is that you couldn't then use it on a boat. I looked into this a while ago (not for KS!) and the absorbtion cycle that these heat-driven fridges use requires the pipes to remain at a constant angle (ie the fridge has to stay level) within a fairly close tolerance. More modern ones (for camper vans) have a wider tolerance, but we're still talking 5º or so off horizontal. I found a handful of Americans using gas fridges on big steady catamarans that rarely bother to sail, but that's it.

Pete

 

[Lady Campanula]

Here's a wee story, 'cos I feel like it...

Not so long ago and not very far away, I found myself helping to take a new-build lugger up the Irish Sea. The boat’s owner/builder – an impressive young man – had a passion for all things traditional, including a tiny deck-fitted brass bilge pump with leather washers, and a huge paraffin cooker fitted portside below.

I was helming, and the others, discovering they’d run out of pork pies and pasties, decided they wanted something cooked. It was time to fire up the cooker. I was aware none of them had ever used a paraffin-fed appliance before, so I watched with interest from the safety of the steering bench, long tiller tucked under my arm….

…and steered a little closer to the shore.

Peering down the hatch, I noted them pump hard to get some paraffin into the burner’s heating ring-cup, then light it. After a minute or so, startled yells told the neighbourhood that more paraffin was now spurting from the burner down into the already-full ring-cup, catching alight, and then overflowing down onto the tank, the pressure relief valve and the pressure pump handle. The flames were rising, the controls inaccessible.

Within half-a-minute the flames were four feet high and licking the deckhead. The noise from the ‘Three Musketeers’ was rising in volume and pitch. They were disturbing the peace of the morning. It was time for older, wiser counsel to prevail…..

Slipping down the ladder and pushing aside the smallest of the three, who was fumbling with an out-of-date powder extinguisher, yours truly picked up a handy sock and used it to release the pressure valve. The overflow stopped, the flames subsided and, when they were just about out, I closed the px. valve and the burner caught properly, purring away as intended.

Your wizened and thirsty correspondent climbed stiffly back up the companion ladder, pulled the helm back onto course, and called down the hatch “Two sugars for me, please, and a dash of milk….”

 

[jeanpaulcopie]

I have a Taylors paraffin cabin heater - which is a satisfactory piece of kit - and, as I have some experience of similar things ( HM jets ran on burning paraffin! ) I'm considering the merits of replacing the fairly-new gas cooker with a Taylors paraffin or diesel model.

Wha'd'ya think? Cost/benefits analysis? Or simply anecdotal experience....?

The cabin heater is fine, but I bought a Taylor's cooker some ten years ago (paraffin). Went round the world with it. Nice piece of work (if you like polishing). You get stains difficult to get rid off (especially sea water) -- Would have to clean it everyday. Whatever the makers say, the burners are not reliable for an everydays use. In rough weather or at night you have to play with a blow lamp a minute or so to get the burner started. Spares are out of price and difficult to get in remote areas. Sold it (well) when I got back. Turned to gas and wouldn't even think of that type of stove any more... except on a classic boat and only for the look of it. Nice in a museum!

 

[Caer Urfa]

I have a Taylors paraffin cabin heater - which is a satisfactory piece of kit - and, as I have some experience of similar things ( HM jets ran on burning paraffin! ) I'm considering the merits of replacing the fairly-new gas cooker with a Taylors paraffin or diesel model.
Wha'd'ya think? Cost/benefits analysis? Or simply anecdotal experience....?

My boat already had a Taylors oven installed when I bought it, would I pay nearly £2,000 for a new one?, no way.
But would I replace it? also no way, yes it can be a pain in the backside to light, but on the plus side it is sure economical, and I also use it to heat the cabin and you can get some great meals from it.
Yes you have to keep the bloody thing polished and clean, but so what,you have to do that with any oven and it also looks great and most visitors onboard want one.
MIKE