Electric hobs on boats

Powersalt

Well-Known Member
Joined
17 Oct 2005
Messages
1,799
Location
Kent
Visit site
It seems to me the market is going for all electric cookers and hobs on mobo,s these days with safety in mind I am told.

So can anyone tell me how you can boil a kettle at anchor, or in a berth without lece or say in France where many marinas only have 6 amp supply????
 
Last edited:
genny or try to order a gas cooker, Fairline has switched back to gas on there smaller Targa models with electric hob as optional
my boat had a hybrid electric or alcohol spirit two burner hob, but this year in less then six months of ownership I changed it too gas as I think is more easier and convenient to use
my previous boat had a gas system and I always felt pretty safe with it
 
yes genny circa £8,000 and wouldent be used much. I cant see what was the problem with gas as long as your careful.
 
yes genny circa £8,000 and wouldent be used much. I cant see what was the problem with gas as long as your careful.

I'm not sure I agree with this. As I understand it the problem is that you can't smell the gas, and and it's heavier than air, so if you've got a leak it sinks into the bilge and gathers until you get rid of it, quickly, with a convenient spark. So while the chance of having an incident might not be huge, the consequences are pretty disasterous.

We had gas on the T37, and I was always slightly uneasy about it. On the P42 we had a generator, which was fab - no gas, so safer, and much easier (and quicker) to boil an electric kettle than on the gas hob. It was v quiet, and I also liked the idea of having the facility to charge up the batteries without needing shorepower. The downsides are obviously the cost and the weight - but overall for me the generator is definitely the way to go. Good for resale as well. I'm so convinced that I'm about to place an order for one to go into the T40.

Cheers
Jimmy
 
Last edited:
Gas every time, it always works. I've never seen it broke. Leccy has far to much to go wrong. Plus you have a back up system. We have a microwave and leccy kettle if needed. They never get used.
 
Gas every time, it always works.
Seconded, also for another very important (to me) reason.
When cooking, gas allows a much better and more immediate temperature regulation.
No serious cook would ever consider electric for anything but boiling a kettle.
 
But a second hand boat that has all the gizmos already fitted!! The 2001 S48 we have just bought has 6.5KVa genny, TWO built in microwave ovens (i.e ovens as well as microwave/grills), and an electric hob, no gas necessary according to my cordon bleu chefette! OTT maybe, but we didn't pay for the build costs.

Our previous boat had gas and I was always wary of it - the moment we had finished with the cooker/hob, I would immediately switch off the gas at the bottle.
 
I've got one of those too Whitelighter! Changed from gas two years ago.
By the way LPG does smell, it's natural gas that doesn't.
I also have a 2kw inverter and boil a 2.5 Kw kettle using that. Travel kettles are about 750 watts so work OK on smaller inverters.
 
Seconded, also for another very important (to me) reason.
When cooking, gas allows a much better and more immediate temperature regulation.
No serious cook would ever consider electric for anything but boiling a kettle.

Actually, AIUI induction hobs are moving into restaurants. Means the kitchen isn't nearly as hot. The Dashew's are using induction on their new boats.
 
Actually, AIUI induction hobs are moving into restaurants. Means the kitchen isn't nearly as hot. The Dashew's are using induction on their new boats.
Good point, induction definitely makes sense: my comment was related to traditional leccy jobs.
That said, any restaurant using induction invariably keeps also some gas cooktops, 'cause they're necessary for some recipes. Whilst it's not true the other way round.
I didn't know that the FPB has an induction cooktop, but I'm not surprised to hear that. Even if as I said I'm in favour of gas generally speaking, maybe I'd also prefer not to have a gas cylinder on a self-righting, go-anywhere-anytime kind of vessel...
 
I'm not sure I agree with this. As I understand it the problem is that you can't smell the gas, and and it's heavier than air, so if you've got a leak it sinks into the bilge and gathers until you get rid of it, quickly, with a convenient spark. So while the chance of having an incident might not be huge, the consequences are pretty disasterous.

We had gas on the T37, and I was always slightly uneasy about it. On the P42 we had a generator, which was fab - no gas, so safer, and much easier (and quicker) to boil an electric kettle than on the gas hob. It was v quiet, and I also liked the idea of having the facility to charge up the batteries without needing shorepower. The downsides are obviously the cost and the weight - but overall for me the generator is definitely the way to go. Good for resale as well. I'm so convinced that I'm about to place an order for one to go into the T40.

Cheers
Jimmy


The weight... never thought of that... one more thing to worry about
 
We have a three burner induction hob on our Sea Ray, along with a Microwave/Convection oven. The boat is fittefd with a 630amp domestic battery, 7.6kva generator and a 3000W inverter.

We can boil a jug, run the coffee maker, microwave or toaster all on the inverter, and we run the gennie if no shorepower available for the convection oven and hob.

If we want to cook in a Wok, we have a small single burner camping type gas cooker (cost £14) that we use for that, and always remove the disposible type gas cylinder when not in use. It folds up into a very small plastic case that is easy to store when not in use, and can be used in the galley or outdoors in the cockpit.

We also have a gas barbeque on board that mounts in a rod holder at the back, and uses disposible cartridges.

Works very well for us.


Graham
 
yes I was wondering about inverters and boiling a kettle. And the idea of an emergency gas ring is excellent, I think I will go with that.

I wonder if you can retro fit generators later
 
I wonder if you can retro fit generators later
Yes, quite a common practice, and relatively easy for a pro to do once boat is lifted out of the water.

PS: Inverter size is limited by the capacity of the domestic battery bank. No use putting a 2kw inverter on a small battery bank.
 
Gas in the bilge

There are gas detection systems for bilges,dont the larger boats have them fitted?Do they detect all Hydrocarbons ?
 
Top