Origo stove?

[ffiill]

My boat is currently fitted with a gimballed Flavel gas cooker with grill and oven.
I am thinking of dumping it with all its pipework;gas sniffer and twin bottle lockers to replace it with the simplicity of a twin burner Origo?
I have used a Trangia alcohol cooker in the past and I am familiar with the concept and its quirks.
Any comments for and against?

 

[dylanwinter]

marvellous

nothing to break, cheap to run

can smell a bit ****

but then the hatch is open anyway

D

 

[Coaster]

I am very fond of our Origo. There have been various threads on the subject. You may wish to read this one.

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?224076-An-idiot%92s-guide-to-Origo-Spirit-stoves

Good luck.

 

[planteater]

I was in the same situation. I inherited a boat with a gas system that had to be condemned on safety grounds. Weighing up the pros and cons I replaced it with an Origo and I'm still happy with decision five years on. Cooking with gas is better (from a foody viewpoint) but the spirit stove is precisely zero hassle. I don't go sailing for the quality of the food so that works for me.

The real decider was subsequently moving from marina to swing mooring and not having to row out with a bloody great gas bottle in the dinghy.

 

[Bru]

The Origo (or Cookmate, they are to all intents and purposes identical) is a fantastic bit of kit and just about the safest form of cooking you can fit on a boat

You can buy spirit fire fuel via Amazon or Ebay now which is significantly cheaper than meths and doesn't have the slight smell that some people find objectionable, it also burns slightly hotter.

There is an oven available but it's silly money and sadly the double skillet ladies are no more but it's surprising what you can do on a two burner spirit stove if you get creative ...

Yep, that's a full roast Christmas dinner for two cooked on an Origo two burner

The capabilty and capacity of the two burner stove is greatly enhanced by the double skillet and a small steamer pan set

Sorry the pics are a bit small, the alternatives are way too large! You can see the pics in all their glory and read how it was done on our blog at http://sverbas.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/christmas-day-2013.html

 

[Seajet]

Gas is safe if you have two brain cells to rub together.

Origo cookers work on geological timescales to boil or cook anything.

They fill the boat with the stink of meths / spirits.

Gaz is expensive to refill but I use less than a 907 bottle per season now pubs offer meals inc breakfasts.

 

[PhillM]

They fill the boat with the stink of meths / spirits.

.

Not if you use bio ethanol from b&q.

It take less time than I expect to boil a kettle or heat dinner.

Toast isn't brilliant compared to a gas grill but that doesn't break my heart.

Also, my boat was not designed to have gas, so I love that I get safe hot food. Also my cooking is so poor you wouldn't be able to tase any difference, whatever I burned it on!

 

[doug748]

What boat do you have, what would you do with the bottle space?

I don't think it matters much what you use. I like the Trangia and, like you, used one for years. I briefly had an Origo but found it was always wanting to be recharged with meths, probably it would be better if you used it most days rather than once a fortnight.

The best stove I had was an American pressure, double burner, thing a bit like a primus but running on meths.

If it were me, I might stick with the gas stove, junk the sniffer though, you have one on the front of your face.

You 100% certainly will not blow yourself up. There are about 10 big lottery winners every week, someone gets exploded with boat gas about once every 20 years

 

[Ceirwan]

I had one on my first boat, the two burner type.

I wouldn't again, a pain to refill, expensive to run, and cooking anything takes forever. Same with the kettle.
Currently have gas and wouldn't go back.

 

[Spyro]

Try "origo" in the search facility. There has been hundreds of post about the pros and cons in the past. They are a bit like Marmite.

 

[sarabande]

You 100% certainly will not blow yourself up. There are about 10 big lottery winners every week, someone gets exploded with boat gas about once every 20 years

Perhaps a search like this

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=yacht+gas+explosion&t=ffab

might put some of the statistics about boats and gas explosions into context.


I think it's is not so much the fequency or probability of the bangs, but the consequences for the families and friends of those who lose their lives.

 

[Viking]

marvellous

nothing to break, cheap to run

can smell a bit ****

but then the hatch is open anyway

D

As I keep repeating. If you top up a new 1 lt. bottle or 5 lt. container of 'red spirit' with water (ca. 10%) you not only loose the smell but gain 10% more fuel..Cant do that with gas!

 

[Seajet]

Stinks the boat out with the smell of Meths, a really bad thing for sufferers of seasickness.

How do you top it up safeley when it's hot ?

Very slow to boil a kettle.

 

[Bru]

There are about 10 big lottery winners every week, someone gets exploded with boat gas about once every 20 years

It could be you!

You 100% certainly will not blow yourself up.

Well that isn't actually true is it? If you said 99% you;d have some wiggle room but I can personally think of three gas explosions on boats that I can recall in the last 30 odd years (that makes an average of one per 10 years, not 20, and that's only the ones I can personally recollect) and I came within a split second of a potentially fatal explosion due to a split gas pipe (not my boat, not my gas pipe, words were had!)

That is not to say that I would never have gas on a boat. If we were living aboard, or extended cruising for several months at a time, I would go the gas route for a number of reasons (running cost, availability of stoves with oven and, crucially, grill and availability of gas cylinders at marinas and chandlerys)

For short cruises over up to two or three weeks the Origo is absolutely fine. Frankly, I don't know what some people were doing with theirs to not get on with them

We boil the kettle at least every two hours (I have a coffee on the go virtually constantly from waking to, er, not sleeping!), cook breakfast most days, cook evening meals at least half the time and we need to refill the canisters at between 3 and 5 day intervals (one tends to get used quicker than the other as the kettle is, for no particular reason other than habit, normally placed on the right hand burner)

Filling the canisters is a five minute job and is dead easy using the stove spirit dispensing bottles. Although the canisters will hold 1.2 litres, I stick with putting a straight 1 litre in using the entire bottle. The bottles are bought in bulk, 24 at a time, and work out cheaper than bulk buying in rather less convenient 5l containers

It is vitally important to put the sealing pads on the canisters when leaving the boat for any length of time. The seal between the canister and the cooker is, inevitably, less than perfect and over three or four weeks a lot of the spirit in the canister will evaporate if the pads aren't put in place when shutting down the boat to leave it. It's about as much hassle as turning the gas valve off at the bottle and no big deal

As for the length of time it takes to cook or boil a kettle, some people are either incredibly impatient or have a different concept of time to me! And I am not renowned for being a patient person either! Yes, it will take a little longer to boil a kettle. But then it takes a little longer to sail somewhere rather than motor most days . It really isn't an issue unless you make it one in your head. When it comes to cooking, well you might struggle to stir fry in a wok I suppose (but then a marine gas stove doesn't really get hot enough for that either) but unless you boil everything to death at full heat it really makes not one jot of difference

Brigantia had a gas installation which we condemned out of hand (it was truly dangerous) and fitted a Cookmate which I never regretted. The previous owner of Erbas had made exactly the same decision when he bought her and I've no plans to refit back to gas. YMMV of course

 

[Bru]

Stinks the boat out with the smell of Meths,

No it doesn't

How do you top it up safeley when it's hot ?

You never need to

Very slow to boil a kettle.

No, it isn't (not VERY slow, anyway!)

The stove spirit does not smell at all. Meths from the DIY store does have a whiff to it which I grant some people find unpleasant but there is no need to use that any more

You don't need to top up the canisters when they are hot. When the right hand burner runs out boiling the kettle, the kettle is switched to the left hand burner (I've now remembered why the kettle normally goes on the right! I knew there was a reason!!). At a convenient moment, usually that evening before cooking the evening meal, the lid is lifted, the left hand canister swapped to the right (unless it feels light) and the empty canister refilled and put back in on the left. This ensures that there is always one canister with plenty of juice in it for boiling the kettle during the day. It sounds like a faff but it really isn't. It's no more hassle than checking the diesel level in the engine fuel tank for example and it just becomes part of the routine boat management

It's a few seconds work, by the way, to pop the lid up and simply feel the weight of the canisters. This is a cunning move before putting a big two burner meal on and you quickly learn the difference in weight between a decently full canister and a nearly empty one

And as for it being very slow to boil a kettle, what's the odds? Does it really matter whether it takes five minutes or ten minutes? It is slower, yes, I don't argue with that but it simply doesn't matter!

 

[NealB]

No it doesn't



You never need to



No, it isn't (not VERY slow, anyway!)

The stove spirit does not smell at all. Meths from the DIY store does have a whiff to it which I grant some people find unpleasant but there is no need to use that any more

You don't need to top up the canisters when they are hot. When the right hand burner runs out boiling the kettle, the kettle is switched to the left hand burner (I've now remembered why the kettle normally goes on the right! I knew there was a reason!!). At a convenient moment, usually that evening before cooking the evening meal, the lid is lifted, the left hand canister swapped to the right (unless it feels light) and the empty canister refilled and put back in on the left. This ensures that there is always one canister with plenty of juice in it for boiling the kettle during the day. It sounds like a faff but it really isn't. It's no more hassle than checking the diesel level in the engine fuel tank for example and it just becomes part of the routine boat management

It's a few seconds work, by the way, to pop the lid up and simply feel the weight of the canisters. This is a cunning move before putting a big two burner meal on and you quickly learn the difference in weight between a decently full canister and a nearly empty one

And as for it being very slow to boil a kettle, what's the odds? Does it really matter whether it takes five minutes or ten minutes? It is slower, yes, I don't argue with that but it simply doesn't matter!

+100 to all of these comments.

The Origo is simple, safe, cheap and very effective.

 

[ronsurf]

I have an Origo that replaced the original iffy gas system. I use the ethanol from France and have no complaints.

For me, the balance of risks was a no brainer. The origo might catch fire, but the gas stove might blow up. Infinitely safer. If you have a gas leak, even a minor one that you detect, how do you get the gas out from the bottom of your boat?

I think a lot of people are familiar (or even nonchalant) with gas as they use it for cooking at home or when camping. I don't have gas at home, and for camping I've always used a Trangia, so I'm completely familiar with it.

I don't know how much gas stoves are, but Origos are eye watering expensive for what they are!

 

[Bru]

Origos are eye watering expensive for what they are!

Can't argue with that, around £300 by the time you've added gimbals and pot holders, which is steep considering how few components there actually are

Marginally cheaper for a two burner gas hob, by about £25, but that does come with a grill which is a major plus point in favour of gas

But when it comes to eye-watering, go track down the price of the Origo oven that fits under the two burner hob. One more burner and a couple of bits of pressed stainless comes to about £700 if you can ever actually find one!

Cookmate hobs used to be about 75% of the price of Origos and to all intents and purposes identical (I believe the original designer having sold Origo to Dometic then established Cookmate in competition with them!). They seem to be vanishing off the chjandlery shelves though and I heard a rumour that Dometic had acquired Cookmate by making them an offer they couldn't refuse to get rid of them ahead of launching the new sleek Origo Two (I don't much like the look of it myself)

 

[ghostlymoron]

I've only got a single burner campingaz picnic stove that runs on cannisters. It has several advantages over an origo, its quick, convenient, lights with a button and above all.....it only cost ten quid. Fuel is a bit pricey though.

 

[ronsurf]

I've only got a single burner campingaz picnic stove that runs on cannisters. It has several advantages over an origo, its quick, convenient, lights with a button and above all.....it only cost ten quid. Fuel is a bit pricey though.

Is there enough gas in one of those canisters to blow up a boat? ;-)