Mini charcoal heater -fab!

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spinny39

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Rye, East Sussex
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Just bought one of these a couple of weeks ago, now fitted, and it's fab!

Heater4.jpg


Heater2.jpg


Amazing amount of heat from a 20cm x 10cm x 36cm unit.. only a 3 or 4" hole required in the coachroof (2" flue).. and it's heating the whole of my 29 footer, even permeating into the forepeak..

My friend bought the smaller one for his 24 footer and it's doing a great job too..

A handmade, well engineered, very efficient and economical piece of kit!

If anyone's interested look at:

www.force10engineering.com

or give Frank a call.. very helpful guys based in Devon
 
mikeinkwazi said:
Looks just what I'm looking for to heat my 9.7m gaff cutter. I'll get on it!
Click to expand...

Now a couple of weeks on, and although it hasn't been overly cold, my biggest problem is keeping the heat down!

I mounted it as low as possible (allowing enough room to release the dust box) and no longer have to tog up in wooly socks etc..

I can't believe the output of this little heater.. I've banked it up before going to bed at 10.30/11'ish a couple of times and it's actually still been warm at 5/6am!

Highly recommended!
 
Looks very good to me Spinny but is it messy to refuel?

I once had a charcoal heater [different make to yours] on my boat which chucked out loads of heat but when the top flap was opened to refuel it a great cloud of black smoke billowed out. This defect put me off charcoal heaters.

It was a home-made thing and it might have been better with a larger diameter flue.

Another question: how do you light it?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
parsifal said:
Looks very good to me Spinny but is it messy to refuel?

I once had a charcoal heater [different make to yours] on my boat which chucked out loads of heat but when the top flap was opened to refuel it a great cloud of black smoke billowed out. This defect put me off charcoal heaters.

It was a home-made thing and it might have been better with a larger diameter flue.

Another question: how do you light it?
Click to expand...

Hi.. once lit and glowing the charcoal doesn't smoke so re-fueling is easy and smoke free..

I've tried different methods of lighting it over the last two weeks (trial and error!) and have settled on:

1. a few chunks of firelighter on top of the grate
2. then sometimes a bit of torn paper, sometimes not
3. some small pieces of lumpwood charcoal
4. moving to charcoal briquettes once glowing hot.. these burn more slowly as they are more compacted..
5. have also tried 'Homefire' smokeless fuel (chopped up a bit as the coal briquettes are about 3" oval)

One thing I have learnt is to just leave it alone for about 20mins after lighting to allow it to settle into smoke-free burning..

Frank, the maker, said they've burnt driftwood on theirs but you have to clean the flue regularly..

Hope this helps!
 
Thanks for that.

Seems like a great success, simple to use and simple to install.

'Er Indoors now wants to know when I'm going to fit one!
 
Hello Spinny39!
I recently came across your blog on ybn.com telling about your purchasing a "mini Charcoal heater for your 29' boat and how good a job it does on heating. I went to the website for force10engineering.com but somehow or another I didn't get them but some other outfit in Japan. Can't explain that one, but I went back to Force a 2nd time and I 'think' I my e-mail went through but haven't heard from them so far. You gave the deminsions of your boat in cm's, but I'm not sure how to convert cm's in to feet or inches as I'm not from England, but the US. I have a metal barn that is 24' wide X 32' long and I'm interested in something to make it more comfortable to work in on very cold days, not to heat it up to 70 degrees but at least not freezing! Can you give me any help on the conversion of area sizes? Can you also tell me what I could expect to pay for a charcoal heater like you have in your boat? Do you have any idea what the weight is for just the burner part? I could always get the right pipe size here for the exhaust. I noticed too, that your information is from 2008 - 2009, I just hope you keep tabs on updates with ybn.com Thanks for any help or direction you would be able to provide.
Thanks, Earl USA - State of Kentucky
 
Earl,
This type of heater would be pretty useless in your 32 X25 ft work shop, mainly because of the cost of charcoal and the heat output from what is a very small stove. Conversions are about 30cm to a ft. (more accurately 25.4 mm/ inch). For your use, a wood stove conversion of a 50 gal drum would be a cheap option. The Mother Earth News used to have lots of stuff like that (is it still going?) Kits for the door assembly and plans were usually advertised. I am assuming that your bit of KY has lots of woodland. For your original idea, try Force 10 Marine.

Andrew
 
Been trying to get them to give me a price for the burner and a price to deliver one to me in Greece (or the UK) , Frank doesn't seem to want to answer the phone or e-mail. Although before Xmas he told me he would get back to me ASAP, are they snowed under or just lazy.

They seem to have a good reputation and could be a good price as well, sadly I don't know yet!
 
Ariadne said:
Been trying to get them to give me a price for the burner and a price to deliver one to me in Greece (or the UK) , Frank doesn't seem to want to answer the phone or e-mail. Although before Xmas he told me he would get back to me ASAP, are they snowed under or just lazy.

They seem to have a good reputation and could be a good price as well, sadly I don't know yet!
Click to expand...

I am not trying to do this company out of any work, but you would quite easily find an engineering work shop in Greece that would make you a simple stove possibly for far less than the cost of one from the UK.
There is nothing magical in making a Small stove a short length of rectangular hollow section say 200x100x5.0 x 350 long some 5mm plate for top and bottom a cover for top and ashes slot a length of 60.3 x3.2 tube for the flue some 25x5 to make supports an engineering shop with a a machine saw and welding facility and there you are job done.
 
"

There is nothing magical"

No - but getting the proportions right for the fire to draw evenly and consistently, without getting too hot, is a matter for trial and error. Lots of the ones I have seen don't do this.
ken
 
Ariadne said:
Been trying to get them to give me a price for the burner and a price to deliver one to me in Greece (or the UK) , Frank doesn't seem to want to answer the phone or e-mail. Although before Xmas he told me he would get back to me ASAP, are they snowed under or just lazy.

They seem to have a good reputation and could be a good price as well, sadly I don't know yet!
Click to expand...
Frank seems to prefer answering via text (SMS) as I don't think he gets to hear the phone during the working day! Very helpful guy once communications sorted.
Regards
Chris
 
Charcoal stove

mikeinkwazi said:
Looks just what I'm looking for to heat my 9.7m gaff cutter. I'll get on it!
Click to expand...

My own recommendation would be a 'Boatman' stove. Ours is the smallest in the range. If you're using your boat in winter, as we do full time, you need to know that it will still be alight in the morning. We use XL nuggets overnight and run it on logs during the day. The XL (or Excel) will run for around 10 hours when turned down, so easily overnight.

This has been the coldest winter we've experienced since we moved aboard nearly 10 year ago ago and our little stove just about managed. Had it got much colder we would have had to burn XL full time.

If you want to see this particular site just Google 'Boatman Stove'. Please note that I have no connection with the company that makes them, I'm just a happy customer.
The 'stoves' link below is to my own portable cooking stove site
 
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