COOKING ABOARD WITH A PETROL STOVE?good idea?

[trouville]

My new sailboat as yet hasent got a cooker.First i considered:

PARAFIN STOVES and rejected them as to expensive to buy, to fiddly to light easly and too few shops stocking parafin and far to expensive! plus i would need gas blow lamp or alcohol to get it going.and sometimes both. It soots the pans in the long run too.

GAS STOVE inexpensive even for a good solid one with grill,easy to light boils water quickly, clean.But needs two gas bottels which need storeing safely to let me choose where to go looking for a refill.Camping gas is very expensive but less than parafin.

ALCOHOL recomended by almost everyone that dosent use gas! even a tip about adding water to the alcohol to help get rid of the smell,but then burns even cooler.30 mins to boil a liter of water????

alcohol is far less expensive than parafin, but about the same price as camping gas,cooking time per liter and cooking time needed.In France 5liters cost 5.20Euros in Swedem 2/3Euros per liter

Fuel price varies widely through Europe as dose the quality,best in France where surples wine is used!!
Price of the cooker between £130/£150 for a nice looking two burner stove!!Or three gas cookers! just throw them overboard when they rust or the inox ones seals go!!

DIESEL OR WOOD to big to expensive for a small 7meter sailboat!

PETROL At about £50 a solid two burner stove cost about the same as a good quality gas cooker, LPG or P(petrol) have about the same heat output, but petrol uses less quantity for the same time cooking range.

Petrol and gas have 2200w and 3800w burners, and bigger or smaller can be found. Half a liter of petrol will run a 2200w burner for about 8 hours Petrol costs about 1.4 Euros throughout Europe
Petrol cooks cleanly and modern cookers have anti flair which works in told even if it fell on its side? Theres no pre heat needed, and can be relite directly after being used no cooldown time.And petrol can be found any where.

All in all Petrol would seem the very best for my new boat??

I will only need one type of fuel petrol, for cooking, heating and the two stroke petrol engine. i will in any case keep two 10liter fule containers to get fule when it cant be found in a port.

Does anyone use a petrol cooker?? is it not the best for me?

Any comments suggestions or advice, and which cooker would anyone else recomend and from where?????



/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[ColinW]

Doesn't it come down to a safety issue? Petrol has a flashpoint of -40 degrees so any spillage is an explosion waiting to happen. Propane is equally explosive but once the system is plumbed in, the only connection ever likely to leak is outside the cabin.

 

[snowleopard]

you won't get a lot of sympathy round here for the idea of setting fire to petrol below decks. ok maybe the stove has a clever design that prevents the flare-ups we used to get with the old army camping stoves, but if you have to fill it in anything other than totally flat water you're bound to spill a bit which will end up as heavy vapour in the bilges, ready to be ignited by a spark or the match you light the stove with.

 

[AngusMcDoon]

I'd go further than that and say it is not safe even to take it below decks, let alone try to burn it there.

 

[AngusMcDoon]

Read this before considering petrol further...

http://www.mcga.gov.uk/c4mca/mcga-dops_p...7&year=2004

 

[jamesjermain]

No

I'm astonished you can get marine petrol stoves. I certainly wouldn't go down that route - too dangerous.

For a boat your size the only options as I see it, are gas or alcohol. I had an Origo two burner on my Sonata which worked OK though it was slow and a bit smelly.

I would always choose gas though it has its problems. There tend to be no half measures; either you're safe or you're sitting in a pile of wreckage. Properly installed and maintained gas is as safe as any other fuel but the penalties for getting it wrong can be severe.

 

[AlexL]

[ QUOTE ]
COOKING ABOARD WITH A PETROL STOVE?good idea?

[/ QUOTE ]

Nope.

In the words of Edmund Blackadder

"That is the worst plan since Abe Lincoln said to his wife, I'm sick of sitting around the house, let's catch a show"

 

[Das_Boot]

I have just lost my reply here goes again

To engineer a tank that is both puncture proof and leak proof would cost a lot.
If you leak parafin it is not as dangerous as petrol or gas. Even with the thick walled gas cannisters they are kept outside and need to be checked for rust etc every so often.

You need positive pressure at the flame. If it goes out and you do not notice it it will leak. This would be ok if you were outside but in a confined space it wont be.

What applies to petrol applies to gas so maybe if you kept your tank outside it might help. IF I had either on board I would need to install a non spark extraction fan in the bilges and seriously suggest you do so if you put in a petrol stove.

I use parafin I know it is a pain but have a small gimballed gas ring that I keep in the bosuns locker for the quick cupa.

 

[trouville]

Petrol engines use petrol as well and vapor comes from the carbereter bowl,should Stuart turners and Dolphins, be taken out and thrown overboard, and diesels fitted in place?

I get the impression the concensus so far is not in favor of cooking with a petrol stove?
Pity as i still need covincing its a good idea myself! Ive been several times to look and buy but so far havent bought,as each time i look i find a much better gas stove with grill!!

I hoped to that if i bought a petrol stove when i had filled it lit it several times without blowing myself up or getting singed,id feel better about it?

It does begin to seem as if i will be installing a gas stove.I should add i always turn the gas off at the bottel,when finished.So where to put the bottel?

Unless several new posts say how safe god and ecomomic petrol is????

Alcohol ones are out as if i buy the stove i wont be able to aford the food to cook on it!!

 

[jenku]

Now, come on it's not THAT expensive...

http://www.blocket.se/view/4486311.htm?caller=shl_s&l=0&c=1&city=0

 

[trouville]

I agree it looks very good but i found a new one for £130 and the other is £136!A good 2 burner gas stove costs £36 leaving £100 which is enough to eat for 3Months??!!

I havent decided yet but perhaps if i use petrol other boats might decide that they would prefer me to stay alone anchored well way for any other boat??!!

 

[snowleopard]

have you checked with your insurance company what htey would say if you had a claim for fire on a boat with petrol for cooking?

about the old petrol inboards - remember they are internal combustion.

 

[jimbouy]

Where are you finding a 2 burner stove for £36??????

IMO the Origo compares pretty well price wise to a similar gas job. By which I mean something that can be gimballed rather than a camping stove.

I didn't have a drained gas locker so add the cost of a full gas install and the Origo made sense.

It's early days as to how I get on with it but it boils a full kettle of water in far less than half an hour.

Jimbouy

 

[Colvic Watson]

30 mins for a liter of water? Not on our Origo! Slightly longer time than gas - about 5 minutes for a kettle - but it's easily to refill the burners and a two burner costs £150 (Compass24 have free pan holders at that price as well). The meths isn't too expensive, considering how long it lasts. Main benefit is incredible safety, meths can be put out with water, requires no lines and no gas lockers. Insurance company wanted a CORGI inspection and that was two thirds the cost of an Origo.

 

[StugeronSteve]

The Origa on our last boat was great, could smell meths a little in summer though, when the ambient temperature had the spirit boiling off. Also tended to flare on lighting in summer, for similar reasons.

 

[graham]

Re:Origo Meths stoveS are OK

We have used an ORIGO 2 ring gimballed stove for 5 years,very pleased.All Stainless and aluminium construction and takes not much longer than gas. Very safe no gas pipework or locker required.

fuel costs about £1 for a weekend .

I once saw a bad flare up with a petrol stove. Man with hair face and clothes alight is not a pretty sight before breakfast!

Fortunately a chap nearby was washing with a bowl of water so grabbed his jacket soaked it in his washing water then smothered the flames.The injuries were mostly just cosmetic but that was in an open field,in the confine of a boat I think a catastrophe would have occured.

The man who saved the day with a wet jacket was a staunch Orange order and Rangers supporter he was aghast when he found out the guy he saved was a Celtic supporter! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[ZuidWester]

The Spark

Tuesday, July 6, 2004
YACHT CATCHES FIRE AND SINKS OFF WEST COAST OF SCOTLAND

At 3.35 p.m. this afternoon Clyde Coastguard received a ‘999’ call from a yachtsman who had abandoned his 30 foot wooden yacht ‘The Spark’ which was on fire, and had taken refuge in his rubber dingy.

Clyde Coastguard requested the launch of the RNLI lifeboat from Islay and requested vessels in the area to assist.

Tarik Yassin, Clyde Coastguard Watch Manager, says:

“The yachtsman had been sailing between the Mull of Kintyre and the Island of Jura when he was refuelling his petrol generator and a splash of fuel was believed to have entered the galley, where a stove was alight and a fire resulted.

A passing yacht picked up the yachtsman and later transferred him to the lifeboat where he was taken to Kennacraig Ferry Terminal. The yacht has now sunk in deep water.

We urge the public to be very careful when using volatile liquids such as petrol.”

The weather on scene was calm.


Posted by: Fiona Warren

 

[GeorgeP]

I saw one boat with a 240v cooker powered by a big generator. Didn't seem like a good idea to me. OK in harbour, but at sea?

 

[seacat]

To me a petrol stove in a boat = BOOM. No way. I think anyone with a petrol stove in a boat (or out of a boat even) has got to be mad.

Paraffin is very good, plenty of places sell it and the meths to start it, and if the pre-heat process is carried out properly then the stove is a joy to light. Paraffin stoves get a bad press from impatient plonkers who try to rush the process and get flare-ups. You MUST heat the burner properly first, takes a good couple of minutes perhaps plus - I've never timed it - but its so easy. And safe. I've taken gas off the boats I've had because of the safety angle.

 

[trouville]

Im convinced its not my best idea to cook with petrol!!I called my insurence agent who dosent have much interest in boats,and i was sure would simply leave the choise of cooking fule to me.

But no!The word alone together with cooking stove was enough, when he was sure he really understood that he hadent misunderstood and i had ment "petrol" the same fule some in France still use to power their car. No insurance.As for gas there are rules??

With the general direction of the posts tending to be opposed to useing Petrol, the final point of insurance,has tiped my desion in favor of alcohol or parafin?

Now where is my stainless optimist?? Did i throw it overboard???? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif