Mrs Kipper says we have to get gas - how best to do it?

Otter

Otter

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I love the Origo, the safety, the ease of getting fuel almost anywhere but Mrs K says it has to be gas. We have the full set up with twin burner and oven so we need the equivalent gas cooker but it can't be more than 450mm wide. What's the best reasonably priced model and how do I go about the installation? Gas bottles will be in a locker on the aft deck, plumbed through the aft deck and then the engine room. Should I just pay someone to do it? But then how do I know they've done a good job? And how much would it cost?

Yikes I'm opening a mare's nest here.
 
I have gas on Rhoda Rose. First boat I have ever allowed gas on. Like you I always favoured Origo's.

Can not help with installation advice but it not rocket science. On Rhoda Rose the two gas bottles are in the stbd cockpit locker with a skin fitting/drain outboard. A gas tap precedes a run of copper pipe via engine bay to the galley where there is another on/off tap before a flexible hose to the non gimballed oven/cooker. There is a gas detector/alarm in the engine bay. All looks pretty common sense.

Now, if you fancy a swop...

Steve
 
Sophie19 said:
I have gas on Rhoda Rose. First boat I have ever allowed gas on. Like you I always favoured Origo's.

Can not help with installation advice but it not rocket science. On Rhoda Rose the two gas bottles are in the stbd cockpit locker with a skin fitting/drain outboard. A gas tap precedes a run of copper pipe via engine bay to the galley where there is another on/off tap before a flexible hose to the non gimballed oven/cooker. There is a gas detector/alarm in the engine bay. All looks pretty common sense.

Now, if you fancy a swop...

Steve
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add a change over valve to the 2 bottle feeds
 
I presume Mrs K does the cooking hence her requirement for something that actually functions as a cooker. I fitted my own gas cooker but perhaps that is terrible advice and you should get in a skilled tradesperson.
 
It really is a very simple job, particularly because every facet of it is laid out in the Boat Safety Scheme. This is aimed at inland waterways but apparently many surveyors use it as a guideline for seagoing vessels. ASAP do all the fittings, pipe, etc. i did our Uk boat last year, which took me half a day.

In Greece we have a Plastimo Neptune 2500 that is 450 mm wide, upgraded from whatever we had before that didn't have the safety features. Not Plastimo now of course but still carries the other names. Has proved excellent over the past five or six years of full time summers.
 
vyv_cox said:
It really is a very simple job, particularly because every facet of it is laid out in the Boat Safety Scheme. This is aimed at inland waterways but apparently many surveyors use it as a guideline for seagoing vessels. ASAP do all the fittings, pipe, etc. i did our Uk boat last year, which took me half a day.

In Greece we have a Plastimo Neptune 2500 that is 450 mm wide, upgraded from whatever we had before that didn't have the safety features. Not Plastimo now of course but still carries the other names. Has proved excellent over the past five or six years of full time summers.
Click to expand...

Leisure Products, Bolton - Plastimo just rebadged and trebled the price. Get the top-end one - flame-failure on all burners and a thermostatically controlled oven - the oven sealing is amateur, and the grill reflector flimsy but once those two weaknesses are solved and excellent little stove, mine has been being used 6/12 for 14 years. From memory Plastimo badged it as an Atlantic.

mrs K is quite correct - I once had an Origo - useless for cooking, nausea inducing and very expensive to run. Only paranoid non-cooks would approve of them.
 
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I think our original one was an Atlantic, probably dating from 1984. No flame failure device and it occasionally blew out, hence replacement. Also there was no clip on the oven door until I made one from brazing rod. The current one still looks like new despite considerable use.
 
Nelson Spinflo usually gets the best ratings of the basic cookers. Plastimo/Leisure Products now badged as Bainbridge and seem OK - I have a Plastimo 2500 without grill because there is not enough depth to fit the Nelson.

Installation from scratch is straightforward following BSS guidelines and Calor Gas advice. If concerned about your abilities, get a certified gas engineer to check it and give you a safety certificate.
 
vyv_cox said:
I think our original one was an Atlantic
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Yep! , It would have been an Atlantic .... and mine is still going strong at same age with only a grill-tube replacement. A pity you can no longer get replacement burner caps (or, perhaps, you can at £45 each when I asked Calor at SBS :rolleyes:) ... but not TOO difficult to keep the old ones in service.

Edit: for anyone interested, both grill and oven burners for the Atlantic are still available ....it's just the hob burners that are a problem.
 
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vyv_cox said:
I think our original one was an Atlantic, probably dating from 1984. No flame failure device and it occasionally blew out, hence replacement. Also there was no clip on the oven door until I made one from brazing rod. The current one still looks like new despite considerable use.
Click to expand...

Plastimo, who never made anything themselves except their (remarkably good) compasses, did seem to play fast and loose with dimensions and nomenclature - the cooker to which I am referring is fully gimballed, made mainly in 304 stainless (oven cavity, door in ordinary mild steel) flame failure device on all the burners and with a crude Thermostat on the oven - it even had a wire clip to keep the door closed.
I actually went up and bought it from Leisure Products in 1998, having been asked £400 (a discounted price) for the Plastimo during a boat-show - they charged under £200.
I was usually a little hesitant about buying Plastimo products - usually firmly in the lower quartile for both price and performance and totally out of their depth with anything approaching hi-tech. Having said that they were never as disappointing to deal with as Lazilas.
 
VicMallows said:
Yep! , It would have been an Atlantic .... and mine is still going strong at same age with only a grill-tube replacement. A pity you can no longer get replacement burner caps (or, perhaps, you can at £45 each when I asked Calor at SBS :rolleyes:) ... but not TOO difficult to keep the old ones in service.

Edit: for anyone interested, both grill and oven burners for the Atlantic are still available ....it's just the hob burners that are a problem.
Click to expand...


I got my last batch of spares direct from Leisure Products (including two hob burners) in 2008. They manufacture mainly for the caravan market and the grill reflector, which oxidises away, is easily press-braked from a piece of 1.8mm stainless Expamet.
 
we have the 4 burner version though i think the 3 burner would be better, ours ia now 16 seasons old & as new. ours doesn't have the electronic ignition
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http://www.mailspeedmarine.com/cu335-gtm-cooker
 
Another vote for the Spinflo Nelson here. My mate Chris does some serious cooking on Ariam (cakes, bread, Sunday roasts, etc etc) and he reckons our Nelson is the best boat cooker he's used. I chose it based on a PBO test; for reasons of logistics it was my dad who picked it up and the guy at the SoCal showroom also told him it was the best.

You can get a better cooker, but only by going up a very big step in price (eg the GN Espace at £2000-ish).

Pete
 
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