Cooking on board.

[TQA]

Ive just been reading what Morgans cloud had to say about his Force 10 and he had many many problems with it.
Shame because my Taylors 41 is getting old and I like the idea of a force10

I have a Force 10 4 burner fitted by the PO in 2006/ It has been in daily use for the last 8 years.

Cosmetically it is still in excellent condition.

Up until this year the only issue I had with it was the auto ignition system.The switches behind the knobs get gummed up and it is a faff to get them cleaned out and working reliably. So a barbecue starter now does the job for little money and no hassle.

However this year the flame failure device on the big burner failed. I called out the local cooker guru and he said that he can try but the screws that hold the burners in will break off or the heads strip. He said the fix is to buy 4 new burners with new screws as the old ones all need to come out to access the flame failure device.

I don't see anything better so that is what I will be doing for about $500 US A new one is $1900 US

 

[boatmike]

Well 10 years is not bad but the problems getting it apart indicate that the burner caps are not stainless steel? The things that I was looking for in an oven were 1. ease of cleaning and maintenance where many were let down by exposed workings under the grill in particular 2. Stainless steel burner caps to avoid the rust that gathers under some. 3. Auto ignition 4. Not having to take out a mortgage to buy the damn thing! I thought I had cracked it when I saw the new Dometic Moonlight which has 3 burners and a grill inside the oven making it easier to clean and maintain. I saw the "demo" model in Marine Superstore advertised at around £400 which I thought was a real bargain as elsewhere it was up to £200 more but was totally disappointed to find that the model I was looking at was obsolete and the new one does not have stainless burners! Bloody "value analysis" again reducing a perfectly good product to a lesser quality to get the price down..... So I had a brainwave and made an offer for the old one on display which had a knob missing and got it for £235! Got a new knob and hey presto an excellent result! Smug! More money to spend on other stuff!!

 

[Artic Warrior]

You say about the burner caps not being stainless, thing is the steel ones must be cast iron and I suppose for them to be st/st it cost too much to fabricate

Well 10 years is not bad but the problems getting it apart indicate that the burner caps are not stainless steel?

 

[TQA]

Well 10 years is not bad but the problems getting it apart indicate that the burner caps are not stainless steel? The things that I was looking for in an oven were 1. ease of cleaning and maintenance where many were let down by exposed workings under the grill in particular 2. Stainless steel burner caps to avoid the rust that gathers under some. 3. Auto ignition 4. Not having to take out a mortgage to buy the damn thing! I thought I had cracked it when I saw the new Dometic Moonlight which has 3 burners and a grill inside the oven making it easier to clean and maintain. I saw the "demo" model in Marine Superstore advertised at around £400 which I thought was a real bargain as elsewhere it was up to £200 more but was totally disappointed to find that the model I was looking at was obsolete and the new one does not have stainless burners! Bloody "value analysis" again reducing a perfectly good product to a lesser quality to get the price down..... So I had a brainwave and made an offer for the old one on display which had a knob missing and got it for £235! Got a new knob and hey presto an excellent result! Smug! More money to spend on other stuff!!

The problem lies in the screws. The ones holding down the caps are made of something resembling cheese. The ones holding the burners in corrode into the housing and break when turned. Despite heat and PB Blaster.

 

[boatmike]

That's why I prefer to see SS caps and screws (and to answer AW they ARE stainless on my Dometic so it can be done) Most cheaper range boat (and caravan) cookers are either cast iron or more commonly pressed mild steel that has been stove enamelled.
I had hoped for your sake that the very expensive F10 cookers were better but your post seems to suggest not I guess. Cant see how they justify the price. I know it's low volume manufacture but we recently bought a double oven Rangemaster cooker for home with induction hob, grill, warming drawer etc for not much more than the price of a F10...

 

[michael_w]

On your new cooker take the burner cap screws out and add a dab of high temperature copper grease. Then they'll come out when you want them to.

 

[dslittle]

Supplimentary question then. As there are microwave ovens available with grill and conventional convection oven features do any of you lot use a microwave on convection rather than a gas oven? Trying ours at home it appears to bake totties very well (Yes I know you can microwave them but I like crispy skin) but we have still to experiment with other things. Frankly if it will roast a small joint or a chicken using less than 2500w it is a contender for replacing the gas oven. We don't use it at home very much as we have a twin oven Rangemaster, but that might be a bit heavy for a 33ft boat so we will experiment further with the microwave as a convection oven at home before shipping aboard.

We have got a 2 ring induction hob and a combination oven that fits into the space of a microwave. All meals have been prepared on board with ease. As originally stated by OP, only used when on shore power although we can run the small induction hob ring off the inverter/solar and the microwave as long as the sun comes out!!! Small electric kettle and toaster works well too. After a couple of cloudy days last summer (hard to imagine in the UK but true) the amps were down too low to run the inverter. It took a while to remember that we could still cook and boil a kettle on gas...

 

[Bertramdriver]

Last five years we lived aboard (7 months a year) and had a comfortable life with a wide range of cuisine using only a cheap lidl sourced induction cooker and a Cobb barbecue. Most harbour/ marina levy supplies are at least 8 amps so the induction cooker supply demands were no problem and the Cobb works well using freely available lump charcoal. Anything else just becomes an ornament.

 

[BigJoe]

Just an example of why I like diversity in energy.

In December 2001 We ware under way from Santa Maria Di Leuca to Corfu.

In those days weather forecasts ware not what they are now, and hard to get. Mid December, so even the coastguard station in Leuca was closed, had to rely on navtex and SSB broadcasts.
Anyway, we made a dash for it, starting late afternoon, sail trough the night and have daylight to pass the narrow between Albania and Corfu.
Met some very bad weather, had to seek shelter behind Othenoy island.
I had never before sailed in 30 knots of wind at night, boy oh boy.
A bigger yacht that left with us had even more problems. The poor guy never sailed again after arriving at Corfu 4 days later.
We ware stuck two weeks on the deserted island. Not quit deserted, maybe 10 people living there in Winter. No ferry´s due to the storms, no phone, no water, no leccy but lots of fresh oranges.

Not even a shop. Pericles from the taverna loaned us whatever he could miss food wise, up to the last chicken on the island.
Our first contact with Greek hospitality.
Snow on deck each morning.
To cold in the morning for gas to burn. That island is where we learned to cook on the wood stove.
We had a very enjoyable time on Othenoy.

I realize most people are not so stupid as to get into situations like that, still we remember Othenoy as a lovely island, after all, if you want plain normal life you´d better stay at home.

Great post ................