Diesel cookers on yachts

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LouisBrowne

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Gas is highly dangerous and inconvenient in that the bottle usually runs out at the worst possible moment.

Diesel, by contrast is safe and far more convenient since nearly all yachts have diesel tanks for the engine.

In view of these advantages why are diesel cookers so rare? What are the disadvantages? Why do yacht builders specify gas as a matter of course? Why do diesel cookers not even appear on the options list?
 
Diesel cookers are like Agas - they like to run all the time, not fire up for a quick cup of tea then turn off again. Great if you're living aboard in Canada, not so helpful for summer daysailing.

Pete
 
LouisBrowne said:
Gas is highly dangerous and inconvenient in that the bottle usually runs out at the worst possible moment.

Diesel, by contrast is safe and far more convenient since nearly all yachts have diesel tanks for the engine.

In view of these advantages why are diesel cookers so rare? What are the disadvantages? Why do yacht builders specify gas as a matter of course? Why do diesel cookers not even appear on the options list?
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Gas is NOT inherently dangerous or i have been very lucky these past 40 yrs.
Diesel cookers are slow to fire up & more akin to an AGA.
do you want to wait 40 minutes in the morning for that "First Cuppa" well i dont
 
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They are very expensive, the only ones I have come across are Wallas, and a cooker with hob and oven will set you back around £2700. :(
 
Diesel cookers are expensive and require an exhaust.
I don't like gas on boats either so I have a Taylor's paraffin cooker.
It uses odourless paraffin and is very quick and easy to use.
Many people think that they are complicated but that is not true.
If you use meths to preheat and put a kettle on at the same time you can make a cup of tea just as fast as using gas.
However, Taylor's cookers are also expensive to buy.
 
Wouldn't it be fair to say that given the number of boats and caravans etc using bottled gas, the number of accidents is so small that to describe gas as 'dangerous' is wrong?
 
Many years ago there was a boat moored next to me that had (they eventually removed it) a diesel cooker. It seldom worked as advertised and they used to pop by for a cup of tea on my boat because they knew I could boil water in minutes, while they might be lucky to get a cuppa within the next few days, depending on their diesel cooker's mood.

Barge and pole and diesel cooker all fit into the same sentence.
 
oldvarnish said:
Wouldn't it be fair to say that given the number of boats and caravans etc using bottled gas, the number of accidents is so small that to describe gas as 'dangerous' is wrong?
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Agree. Some very basic steps ensure a safe system.
On the matter of diesel stoves, we had one on rival 38 and not only does it use up a lot of space, it makes the inside of the boat like a sauna. Cooking on it is actually ok but we also had a single burner spirit stove for day to day cooking. We crossed the atlantic and never had a bad meal, all but 2 being cooked on the spirit stove. latterly on the passage we did use the big beast to bake bread. very nice it was too
 
At one point I was quite tempted by the idea of a diesel stove, but changed my mind after reading a bit more about them. If I was fitting out a (larger) boat now, I'd have a gas cooker and a Refleks stove. This is a diesel stove for warmth when needed, without any pretensions at cooking. Although it does have a little hotplate on top to keep a kettle warm.

Pete
 
I did a delivery of a boat with a Wallas cooker. What a pain in the cashews that was! Very slow to start. Even slower to cool down again. Made a smell. Not very controllable. Heat control of the 2 hotplates not independent (1 always hotter than the other). Easy to damage by switching off the power when you shouldn't. Uses electricity all the time when on much like an Eberspacher. The battery wasn't too good on the boat and we had to start the engine to get the volts to get the cooker to go.

There are easier and cheaper ways to make a cup of tea, like my on-board biomass powered methane producing banana skin digester that I'm shortly going to patent.
 
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oldvarnish said:
Wouldn't it be fair to say that given the number of boats and caravans etc using bottled gas, the number of accidents is so small that to describe gas as 'dangerous' is wrong?
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Agreed. I think it's fair to say that it is potentially dangerous though. By most measures, diesel is a safer fuel to have on a boat IMHO.

Can diesel not be burned in a pressure stove like parafin can?
 
AngusMcDoon said:
I did a delivery of a boat with a Wallas cooker. What a pain in the cashews that was! Very slow to start. Even slower to cool down again. Made a smell. Not very controllable. Heat control of the 2 hotplates not independent (1 always hotter than the other). Easy to damage by switching off the power when you shouldn't. Uses electricity all the time when on much like an Eberspacher. The battery wasn't too good on the boat and we had to start the engine to get the volts to get the cooker to go.

There are easier and cheaper ways to make a cup of tea, like my on-board biomass powered methane producing banana skin digester that I'm shortly going to patent.
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I had a wallas twin hob on my last boat and loved it. The fact it takes a few minutes to heat is not too bad as on a cold day it also heats the cabin. Now have gas and it is more convenient but I always panic for no real reason incase we have a leak!

I would have a full Wallas set up next, but I have a large battery bank which helps...

Paul
 
I'm not convinced by argument that, because we do not hear of explosions regularly, gas is safe. The reason why there are relatively few explosions is that we all know how dangerous it is and treat gas very carefully.

I use gas myself but I would prefer to use an alternative fuel if a viable alternative were to be found, hence the post.

We'll be in Southern Italy this summer so a marinised aga would not be welcome.

I assume (but maybe I'm wrong) that the aga type diesel cookers are old designs. But even if the modern Wallas cookers are able to provide instant heat as opposed to permanent heat, the fact that they seem to use a lot of electricity rules them out.

So, it seems that, as Minn and others suggest, parafin is the ideal fuel after all. It's ages since I last bought parafin and I think the Esso Blue pumps have disappeared from garages: is parafin still commonly available?
 
LouisBrowne said:
I'm not convinced by argument that, because we do not hear of explosions regularly, gas is safe. The reason why there are relatively few explosions is that we all know how dangerous it is and treat gas very carefully.

I use gas myself but I would prefer to use an alternative fuel if a viable alternative were to be found, hence the post.

We'll be in Southern Italy this summer so a marinised aga would not be welcome.

I assume (but maybe I'm wrong) that the aga type diesel cookers are old designs. But even if the modern Wallas cookers are able to provide instant heat as opposed to permanent heat, the fact that they seem to use a lot of electricity rules them out.

So, it seems that, as Minn and others suggest, paraffin is the ideal fuel after all. It's ages since I last bought paraffin and I think the Esso Blue pumps have disappeared from garages: is paraffin still commonly available?
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Not so much. B&Q have it but its now quite expensive as well
 
Paraffin is now hard to come by; it is usually sold in plastic containers. That is the only serious disadvantage, I find - in terms of heat given out by a burner on "high" and time to boil a kettle it is a good deal better than gas. The less developed the nation, the better the paraffin situation. I am planning to fit a paraffin tank.

I do go in for the simple trick of filling a stainless steel "air pot" which is secured to the galley bulkhead with boiling water at the start of a passage so that hot water for tea, coffee, instant soup and cocoa is available instantly, "one handed".
 
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