Electric hobs on boats

[mainshiptom]

Low wattage kettle?

240*6 = 1440 Watts so around 1kw would work but it would be slow!
when I was in St Kats I could not use an electric kettle 3kw 12.5 A so used the hob fitted on the boat with a stainless kettle (remember those). I think it must be around 2kw
So only 8.3A and the limit was 10.


Tom

 

[Trundlebug]

Gas for me every time. There's simply nothing worse than mooring up in a quiet spot then some other boat pulls up, 5 mins later their genny starts and your peace is ruined!

Many boats seem to leave the damn things running for hours - heaven only knows why. Sorry I don't go with the "they're so quiet" claim - they may be quiet on your boat, but they're noisy to everyone else! The constant exhaust spluttering, even if the engine noise is well silenced is an unwelcome racket as far as I'm concerned.

I just don't understand the total phobia about gas. Are you that frightened of gas at home that you isolate the main gas tap after you've finished cooking? What's the difference? They are both naturally odourless but have the odour added for safety reasons, and other than being in an enclosed space and therefore needing to make sure there's good ventilation to prevent CO build-up, (so fit a CO alarm) I really don't get the fear.

Is it any more likely to leak on a boat than at home? Even if you had to replace the hose annually, which you don't, it would still be a lot less maintenance than a genny requires..

 

[oceanfroggie]

I wouldn't have gas at home and certainly not on the boat. All electric is great. Clean, safe, reliable and it is quite, very quite, even for other boats. Our exhaust is under water, so no phut phut noise We only run the geni for short periods when using high wattage appliances. Most of our electrics runs off the batteries and inverter.

Electric hob - way to go

 

[PowerYachtBlog]

while many hear consider electricity safe, all the boats that do burn up is in most cases 90%+ caused because of electrical faults, with the major defiance being the old rugged batter chargers, the new battery chargers are pretty safe
out of 10 boats I know, 9 have burned because of battery chargers and the other because of electrical faults
actually I dont know any which got burned all exploded of gas, but may be they got exploded and did not live to tell the story another day

 

[oceanfroggie]

Interesting, local rescue service manager told me gas cookers/hobs were the most common cause of boat fires.

 

[PowerYachtBlog]

that will surely be a big misuse then a cause for, as with the gas or you get a big boom or close to nothing
local rescue service manager can make a report of what an the unfortunate party will say, my numbers comes from surveyors who actually inspected the boats

 

[Observer]

Has anyone who voted for gas actually had first-hand experience of spending extended time, without shorepower access, on an all-electric boat equipped with a decent sized genny to power an electric hob and oven (and of course the battery charger)? As far as I am concerned, having tried both, there is simply no comparison - electric every time.

 

[MapisM]

Has anyone who voted for gas actually had first-hand experience of spending extended time, without shorepower access...

I spent up to 2 weeks without touching any marina, and I have both electric and gas hobs onboard, plus microwave.
Aside from using just gas for cooking, as I mentioned above, my standard wake up procedure when anchored is:
1) neapolitan coffee maker on gas;
2) go for a swim.
And I would not even consider swimming with the genny exhaust floating around the boat!
I did occasionally turn on the genny for the microwave oven, though.

 

[Trundlebug]

I can't say I've experienced all electric cooking on a boat, no. I do seem to have experienced everyone else's generators running though!

But as for charging the batteries - isn't that what the engine alternators are for? With a decent charging system and suitably large domestic battery bank there's simply no need for a genny polluting the peace, quiet and environment any further. We can go for 2-3 days without needing to charge the batteries, no problem.

As for cooking, you can't honestly be claiming electric is as good as gas, can you?

Having to start an engine (generator) before being able to boil a kettle seems simply mad to me! No wonder everyone leaves them running.

Each to their own of course!

 

[oceanfroggie]

We've used both gas and electric on our various boats over the years, and now we are fully electric albiet with a backup gas system which we never use. We'd never go back to gas, it's a no brainer.

As Clarkson might suggest "gas" is for caravans and caravaners, and we know what he thinks about them!

 

[blueglass]

out here in Greece, shorepower is about as common as rocking horse s*** so at times our all electric boat is problematic. yes we do have a genny and yes it is very quiet but moored stern to with the genny exhaust 6 inches from some poor neighbours porthole is a tad antisocial. We carry one of those little single burner gas rings which is a life saver for a cup of tea, and is ALWAYS used rather than start a genny for a 5 minute cup of tea run. even if out earshot to others this is bad for the genny. Also carry a gas barbecue too. I think the safety factor is a very important bonus, but on balance I would prefer a good safe gas installation.

 

[Observer]

As for cooking, you can't honestly be claiming electric is as good as gas, can you?

Good enough for my culinary talents.

Having to start an engine (generator) before being able to boil a kettle seems simply mad to me! No wonder everyone leaves them running.

The inverter (2.5kW) takes care of the kettle. Of course that (plus lights, TV, two fridges etc) does take energy from the battery bank so the genny has to be run, if no shorepower available, to power the battery charger that recharges the batteries.

I can see that a continuously running genny in close proximity would be irritating. Ours is, genuinely, very quiet. From outside the boat, the loudest perceptible indication that it is running is the cooling water tell-tale. We spent a week on mid-stream pontoon mooring earlier this year, mostly weather-bound in harbour, and ran the genny every morning for 2-3 hours to heat water and keep the batteries topped up and again for ~an hour or so if eating on board in the evening. Running the genny is a lot more sociable than starting up the main engine(s) to recharge batteries, more efficient too.

 

[mjf]

Tim,

The newer units now have gas / water separators that remove the water tell-tale as the water is discharged under the w/l and only gas to atmosphere - thus very silent indeed. No splosh - splosh anymore