Force 10 cooker

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chockswahay

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Just a quick note to update the cooker theme for those of you that may be interested. I finally purchased a Force 10 gas cooker and have to say that it is WELL WORTH EVERY PENNY!!

The price may be twice that of the usual suspects but it is many times the build quality.

Proper gimbals............proper pan clamps.............proper fiddles...............thermostatic oven with a sturdy door lock (no coathanger wire here!)..............and all wrapped up in stainless steel that is not the thickness of a fag paper!

SWMBO is happy and so am I. I have often wondered if all this talk about Force 10 was for real or not. Well the simple fact is yes, they are excellent!

Happy cooking

Chox
 
Totally agree - my wife thought that sex was the greatest thing in the world (I wish!) until she got her Force 10! You get what you pay for.
 
Yes, agree, bet there are some remarks to make: We have had a large Force 10 since 6 years now, we were not at all impressed by tthe Dutch distributor, as he hasn't got a clue about them. Do go to the force 10 web site and read the FAQ, they solve a lot of problems that otherwise will become a pain in the lower end of your back....

When I finally found the site, I found the manufacturer in Canada very helpful and all the problems I had (oven going out, burners would'nt light when oven or broiler burning) were quickly solved once I knew what to do. In spite of the distributors comments....

cheers
 
Sorry to dampen the enthusiasm for this product. We have had one for ten years and it has been a pain from the off.

Problems:
1. Hobs won't stay alight when oven on.
2. Oven door drops open when at sea unless tied shut
3. Themometer for oven falls out at every possible opportunity.

We have only kept it because the galley was constructed speciifcally to fit the cooker prior to setting off for a year and by the time the problems surfaced we were miles from nowhere and realistically a bad cooker is better than no cooker at all. We have had the cooker serviced several times and it still gives the same grief.

I think that judging by the generally favourable reaction to this product that we got a Friday afternoon one but don't engage MrsE in a conversation abt this, she packs a mean left hook!
 
Chris

Ours works fine and we are into our 4th season with it.

Just a question that I'm sure you considered, is the pipework to the cooker big enough? Our Force 10 has one huge burner and one standard size, plus the oven so if all are full on the gas used is more than would be consumed by a smaller cooker like a Plastimo/Flavel which have smaller burners. Our pipework is one size up from what we had on our old boat and maybe that is why ours is OK? We were using all burners plus the oven last Saturday doing honey mustard glazed roast duck with all the trimmings....


We also store oven pans etc in the oven and have never had the door open unintentionally or bits fall off. Must be the smoother ride of a Jeanneau I guess /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif 'Ducking' left hook...

Robin
 
Ignoring the French crap gybe, tried all the pipework and valve solutions, even tried propane v butane. Our tame Corgi has had the thing to bits and we've had most of it replaced, still bollux.

I'll be sending MrsE round!
 
Chris

I thought for sure you would have tried everything obvious already. Their website FAQ mentions also that the length of pipe run could be a cause as well as it's size, or even a faulty regulator, because it surely must be a gas supply thing if it is OK with less burners on?

Mrs E must be very understanding, mine would be insisting that money is immediately thrown at it, even if a replacement cooker involved a complete rebuild down below!

Robin
 
You're probably right and we do have longish runs but just having spent too much already on replacing the existing gas lines plus a full rebuild in an attempt to get it working, the thing is in such bad odour that anything less than using it as a mudweight wouldn't be acceptable

In truth, whilst it's a pain it is not so bad as to want to change it yet. When we do I'm contemplating one of them diesel catalytic jobbies so we can get rid of gas altogether.
 
Re the catalytic diesel stove.

Have you any names or links to some makes Chris? I have seen the ceramic catalytic diesel stove tops mentioned for RV's, etc but nothing more until your post - would be interested in tracking down what is available in way of complete stoves that may be suitable for boats.

Thanks

John
 
John,

I don't have the name to hand ,there was one premiered in the comics (YM or YW) either this or last month, will have a dig around to see if I still have the reference. It was a hob and was priced at abt £1400 from memory.

Chris
 
Had a "ceramic" hob fitted to a previous boat. Manufacturer was called Wallas and they produced versions fueled by paraffin and by diesel. Great not to have any gas on board but there were a few downsides. Hob took quite a long time to heat up and when it was up to operating temperature then it wasn't "instantly controllable" in the way that gas is when you turn it down. You really need some sort of heat proof shield that you can place over the hob when you have fininshed cooking, one for protecting you from the hot surface---from memory it took at least 15 minutes to cool down---the other was to protect the glass hob from breakage. Again from memory, but I recall that a replacement glass top was hugely expensive and I was always petrified about dropping something on it and breaking the galss.
I'm now back to a boat with a traditional gas cooker and on balance I think I prefer it to the Wallas set up.
 
Thanks for that Chris. If you cannot easily find them, I now know to look out for the relevant issues when they finally make it to NZ.

John
 
John, it's a Dutch brand: Wallas Marin. Look at there web site here , unfortunately in Dutch only. With a special lid the hob works as a heater as well. Current: it needs 10 amps (12V) when starting up, after that only 0,15 A. The hub does need an exhaust pipe.

If you have any specific questions, ask me and I can look it up on their site and translate

cheers
 
Thanks very much for that Chris and Peter.

They look very interesting. As Lydiamight says maybe the ceramic top would be a worry but on some boats perhaps not an issue. I have kept the pdf file for reference.

And would be another cockpit locker freed up as well with no gas bottles to store.

John
 
We have a Wallas hob and stove, and have posted various comments on them before.

We like cooking with it and have got used to the time issues - treat it more like an Aga basically. It's a splendid roasting and baking oven.


BUT there are downsides. Firstly - they are dear. Secondly, and for us this is an increasingly serious issue, we think the service network is not yet up to scratch. If you are going far from Northern Europe, I would think v hard about replacing a gas cooker (which it is pretty easy to service/get fixed) with a complex piece of software. The body of the oven is extremely strong, but the working innards do need more care etc.

Karunda are the UK distributors and have a few agents. We are in Ipswich and our choices for any work are either karunda themselves (High peak Derbyshire) or Bare Marine (Southampton) who installed it. That's a lot of hassle ...
 
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