Galley, Gas v Spirit comments

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johnjfrake

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I have recently purchased a Folksong 25 that is without any Galley kit. I am considering fitting either an Origo 3000 2 burner spirit stove or a Plastimo Neptune 2500 2 burner cooker and grill. The later is a little cheaper to buy but the cost of the extras (cylinders, cylinder locker, piping, valves and detector) would easily make it the more expensive and less space efficient option. On the other hand I have heard that spirit stoves are not terribly quick to heat water. Does anyone have any experiences on their relative worth they would like to pass on??

Thanks and Regards
 
For me the grill would be the deciding factor!

Check the dimensions of what ever you choose before you buy. The Neptune is very deep back to front. Too deep for me so I had to settle for a manky ole camping stove.

paid about £60 or £70 then ripped off all the windshields. 12 months later Aldi had the same stoves without windshields for abut £30 :mad:
 
johnjfrake said:
I have recently purchased a Folksong 25 that is without any Galley kit. I am considering fitting either an Origo 3000 2 burner spirit stove or a Plastimo Neptune 2500 2 burner cooker and grill. The later is a little cheaper to buy but the cost of the extras (cylinders, cylinder locker, piping, valves and detector) would easily make it the more expensive and less space efficient option. On the other hand I have heard that spirit stoves are not terribly quick to heat water. Does anyone have any experiences on their relative worth they would like to pass on??

Thanks and Regards
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we have an Origo 3000, it heats things up quick enough, not exactly in a hurry when sailing anyway!
The only issue with it really we find is the evaporation, so, you "fill it up" one weekend, then use it a few weekends later, its empty again, so fairly wastefull, reckon we evaporate more meths than we burn. obviously no gas to worry about, and its a much smaller unit too.

Doing it again, i would go for the Plastimo Gulf, which is the same as neptune but no grill and have the pain of gas install, but we are on a much bigger boat, if on a 25, i would recommment the Origo
 
I had an Origo on my last boat and despite all the talk to the contrary on this site it was the most awful thing I have ever used. It was slow and would not actually fully boil my kettle unless it was nearly empty. Worse than that it made my eyes water so badly when running that I could not stay down below when it was on. I sold it on Ebay and bought a portable gas one from towsure. much better and quicker and easier to use and certainly cheaper as I found I had to fill a burner every time I used the boat at about 50p a time when you add that up it is much cheaper on gas. I was never too worried about the gas problems on board as I had a vire petrol engine which was probably more risk than a gos stove.
 
I have an Origo 3000. It boils the kettle in no time. Evaporation between uses should not be a problem. They are supplied with two rubber discs. When you have finished with it (and it has cooled down), you lift the top, drop the rubber discs over the tank tops (thus stopping evaporation), and close the lid. Upon return, simply remove them. If the original ones are lost, simply cut new ones out of suitable rubbery material (my present ones were made from an old pair or rubber gloves).
 
owen-cox said:
It was slow and would not actually fully boil my kettle unless it was nearly empty. Worse than that it made my eyes water so badly when running that I could not stay down below when it was on.
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There must have been something wrong with it. My one will boil a full kettle in comparable time to a gas cooker (perhaps a little slower, but not much). Also, I hardly notice the fumes, and mine is a small cabin (Achilles 24). What did you use for fuel?
 
owen-cox said:
I had an Origo on my last boat and despite all the talk to the contrary on this site it was the most awful thing I have ever used. It was slow and would not actually fully boil my kettle unless it was nearly empty. Worse than that it made my eyes water so badly when running that I could not stay down below when it was on. I sold it on Ebay and bought a portable gas one from towsure. much better and quicker and easier to use and certainly cheaper as I found I had to fill a burner every time I used the boat at about 50p a time when you add that up it is much cheaper on gas. I was never too worried about the gas problems on board as I had a vire petrol engine which was probably more risk than a gos stove.
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Totally agree - the single ring Origo in my 1st boat was awful. It flared up when people tried to light it, ensured anyone below in any seaway was quickly sick, cost an arm and a leg to run and had great difficulty frying bacon.

I tore it out and replaced it with an high-pressure Camping Gaz.

I can only think that all those who laud the Origo, never do any serious cooking.

You'll NEVER find one on a liveaboard.
 
I installed a new Neptune twin burner & grill three years ago & am pleased with it, the only gripe I have is that there is nothing to stop the grill pan sliding out when the boat heels. At the moment I hook a cord over the front when it's not in use but a slight modification is somewhere on my list of jobs I'll probably never get round to.
 
owen-cox said:
I had an Origo on my last boat and despite all the talk to the contrary on this site it was the most awful thing I have ever used. It was slow and would not actually fully boil my kettle unless it was nearly empty. Worse than that it made my eyes water so badly when running that I could not stay down below when it was on. I sold it on Ebay and bought a portable gas one from towsure. much better and quicker and easier to use and certainly cheaper as I found I had to fill a burner every time I used the boat at about 50p a time when you add that up it is much cheaper on gas. I was never too worried about the gas problems on board as I had a vire petrol engine which was probably more risk than a gos stove.
Click to expand...

There must be something wrong with it, sorry but they just aren't that bad.
 
charles_reed said:
I can only think that all those who laud the Origo, never do any serious cooking.
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Hmm. I must tell my wife that. Let me know where she can find you and you can try the wok for size.

If the Origo is smoking and smelly, you're either using the wrong fuel or you forgot to remove the rubber disc from the tank. If it flares up, you're using the wrong fuel.

We happily go for a fortnight's holiday eating evening meals on board as often as ashore, boiling kettles, porridge for breakfast, making toast, all on a single fill of both tanks at the start of the two weeks. We can still boil a kettle a fortnight after we get back.
 
mattnj said:
The only issue with it really we find is the evaporation, so, you "fill it up" one weekend, then use it a few weekends later, its empty again, so fairly wastefull, reckon we evaporate more meths than we burn. obviously no gas to worry about, and its a much smaller unit too.
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Oh dear.....what are you doing wrong....Mine goes many weeks without use and then the pans weigh just the same next time...


I wonder if you are remembering to replace the rubber disks over the holes in the pans before leaving the boat. You have to open the stove up and place the rubber seals in position then close the stove. Don t forget the stove only hinges open when the burner control is in the lowest position.

The main problem with a folkboat and gas is satisfying the gas locker requirements . The cockpit lockers are so low in the boat that it is difficult to arrange the drain from the bottom of the locker to a position 3" above the waterline. One solution is to mount the bottle on the pushpit.
 
It may be boring but this is yet another post in praise of Origo. We used a single burner Origo 1500 as the sole means of water heating and cooking on a small motor cruiser. It performed very well over the 4 years we had the boat.

When we bought our present boat we removed the gas cooker and fitted an Origo 6000, i.e. a twin burner and oven unit. It's very well made and has now been extensively used for 12 months. To us the performance is entirely satisfactory.

As VicS says, the lack of a grill is a drawback. However we make excellent toast on a small stinless steel device that sits on one of the burners. At a rough guess the unit has cooked about 40 meals this year.

So far as the problems other posters write about there must have been some user error or, possibly, some serious damage. Certainly there is no possibility of any significant flare up when lighting a burner with ordinary meths in it.

We buy our meths from John Penny in Southampton. The last purchase was a bulk buy of 50 litres that I see would cost £67.50 at current prices, plus VAT. This quantity will probably last us about three years.

Good luck with your decision.
 
I lived on my boat for about 4 months this year and used Origo 2 burner for part of the time. I chose it because : difficult to get a gas locker installed low enough to drain (my boat's similar to Folksong) and also because someone was selling one in the yard for £30. It works fine - by no means as slow as I expected. Put 10% water in to cut down on black smoke. Limited space on us folkboat derivatives so two burners fits in well and I haven't found it limits my cuisine ( I use an Omnia for roasts). Cooking below in marina can get hot and steamy so sometimes use one of those portable gas rings in the cockpit. One of the tricks is finding cheap fuel- most hardware stores are far too pricey. A bit better is litre bottle from Robert Dyas chain. Better still is the link above.
 
charles_reed said:
Totally agree - the single ring Origo in my 1st boat was awful. It flared up when people tried to light it, ensured anyone below in any seaway was quickly sick, cost an arm and a leg to run and had great difficulty frying bacon.
.
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I wonder why folk have so much trouble with such a simple piece of equipment!!!!


Mine has never flared up in 3 years. But then I have never overfilled it:D

Only the smell of frying bacon might make some fol sick as no smell from the Origo and no soot on the pans!!!!:D:D:D Works well for me!
 
We love our Origo 3000 new this year and have used J Penny for Meths. Agree with others, its too simple to have a problem with. And fast enough, hot enough etc etc. Should I really try the 10% water trick, the whiff of meths at the start is no big deal and my wife would have complained (she hates the smell of petrol).
 
We have stripped out the gas systems on our last three boats and have replaced each time with the Origo 3000.

It is a brilliant piece of kit, true, gas will boil a kettle about a minute quicker than meths, but hey...so what!

To alleviate the issue of fumes, add about 10% of water to a bottle of Meths and then top your burners up...dunno why it works, but the smell of meths virtually disappears!
 
I had a similar boat for many years and had most things:
Two burner gas hob.
Two burner parafin pressure hob, Optimus.
Two burner alcohol pressure hob (very good, American).
Two burner meths, Origo.
I found them all a little bit of overkill on such a small boat. If I had to choose between them the gas hob would be last. Nice and easy at the point of use but you pay for it with the pipes, bottle and safety problems. Top of the list would be the meths pressure job
I finished up using a Trangia camping stove, which I used in the washing up bowl. It needed a bit of modification so it did not fall in parts but proved the best of the lot.
I understand Dylan Winter uses one on his Mirror Offshore.
 
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