solid fuel heater

[alan54]

where can i buy a small solid fuel heater ?

 

[pvb]

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[JimC]

Dickinsons do a reputedly excellent one: the Dickinson Newport Solid Fuel Heater. Dickinsons are a Canadian firm I think, their heaters are widely used in commercial craft, trawlers etc. Kuranda Marine are their UK agents and there may be other importers. If you search the forum you will find favourable references to this model

 

[Heigaro]

[ QUOTE ]
where can i buy a small solid fuel heater ?

[/ QUOTE ]

I bet "forum" comes out on top!!

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[Seagreen]

Davey & Co do the "Hot Pot", also at Marinestore.com - you can only get Davey stuff ordered through chandlers or yards. Colin Frake does the "Faversham", reputed to be the smallest yacht stove. Pascall Atkey of Cowes to the "Pansy", a Charcoal burner and Machine Mart do a standard Potbelly for £70, by far the cheapest on the market. Other people like the Morso Squirrel or the Aarow. And Windy Smithy. Lunenburg marine make the "Halibut" and "Little Cod" stoves, and I'm sure Toplicht do local german and danish ones as well.

Don't rule out Narrow boat suppliers - they are big on solid fuel stoves as well, and well priced - but remember that chimney systems and chimney deck capping flanges add a lot to the price, plus any special fireguards, heatproofing etc. A stove seems to be half the cost, and by my reckoning a solid fuel stove costs about £600-£800 for a professional fit. Maybe you weren't intending that.

My option would be for the Machine Mart item at £70 plus some imaginative home pipe-bending. I'm currently looking for a small solid multifuel stove as a replacement for the old kero one I have and if you find, or are suggested a cheap old and "small" coal stove, please let me know.

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BTW, you may want to edit the Poll off your post. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Porthandbuoy]

I don't know how to post links to anything other than photos, so apologies for a simple cut'n'paste of this article I found on the www.

__________________________________________________________________

Make a Simple Solid Fuel Stove For Your Boat

I used to have my boat lifted out every year, but the seasons are short enough as they are . . . so for last few years she has stayed in the water on a very sheltered swinging mooring on the upper reaches of the River Fal. The heater i made up last winter makes it really snug on board no matter how cold it gets outside - if anything it's too efficient. If someone wanted to spend a bit more I suppose it could be made up with stainless steel.

I made my heater up with a 12inch length of 4x4 inch box section, with plates welded top and bottom. It's just a length of mild steel box section with a couple of brackets welded on to hold it in place. The doors are the same, mild steel, held in place with a heavy-duty steel hinge welded on. The catch is simply a bolt welded in place with a butterfly nut to hold it closed - same on the bottom door. The top door is fitted at least 2 inches down from top of heater.

There are two doors both in front - one at the top to put fuel in, one at bottom to clean ashes out, with a griddle welded in a third of the way up from the bottom. The bottom door has a simple vent in it. It can be made more sophisticated but it does the job ok for me; if anything it's too efficient.

The chimney exits out of the top. I suppose total length would be around seven feet; the heater is mounted a few inches above the cabin sole and shaped to follow the contours of the side of the boat so the chimney is out of the way and makes it unlikely that anyone would grab a hold of it. The lower in the boat it can be mounted the better the draught up the chimney and the warmer the feet stay . . . It sticks about four inches out of the roof with a mushroom shaped dome on to to keep the rain out.

The draught is controlled in the bottom door by drilling a couple of holes in centre of door covered with a round plate which simply swivels on a bolt, again with a butterfly nut to hold it shut.

The chimney is a stub of 1 3/4" inch steel tube welded on which allows a stainless 2" inch tube to slip over. The 2" tube is lagged because it gets extremely hot.
None of the heater is sealed in anyway what so ever. As the chimney is always drawing no fumes escape from it, but the doors are close fitting. I was thinking of fitting some sort of baffle in the chimney to close it up tighter but was worried about it fuming so decided to leave the chimney open.

Light it with some small chopped kindling then its fed with those round boiler type nuts - lasts for ages and ever so cheap to run.

I welded it up myself and the metal I scrounged - all I bought was the stainless tube I used for the chimney and some elbows. I converted a old bronze vent to allow it to exit the cabin roof.

The only advice i can really give is - keep it simple, don't overbuild it.
It gives out masses of heat so unless you've got a bigger boat than mine - Sabre27 - definitely don't make it any bigger.

The whole thing is covered in black lead, but it still shows rust through it; don't think it's possible to stop it, but anyway its so cheap what does it matter. . .

 

[Kilter]

look here

 

[davidpbo]

The article is here

 

[surreyarboris]

I have recently purchased the Davey Hotpot, it appears well made inthe following pic i have drilled the 8.5mm holes and i am tapping in a 10mm thread the holes are staggered as recommended in the insructions i am going for bulkhead mounting where my old Taylors 066 was.

 

[wklein]

Davey Hotpot

I bought a davey hotpot last autumn for my trapper 28 and lived on the boat all winter and found it to be excellent. I would warn anyone planning to fit one themselves not to underestimate the amount of time and money required to fit it after the initial outlay for the stove. Also some kind of guard is nessisary on smaller boats. But all round i would never be without one, it looks the part, will burn all night and very well constructed. If anyone needs any advice about fitting let me know as i have tried just about everything since.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

A couple of questions on this matter: -

1. Obviously these stoves sit quite near flammable objects such as saloon berths, bulkheads and soles. I imagine that the radiated heat is quite strong (I have owned a Morso Squirrel) and other such stoves. How do people protect the immediate area from radiated heat damage?

2. The flue is relatively short and I imagine the risk of sparks being carried up and out is high. Are there features built in to the flue to stop this? I have visions of my neighbours stack pack and main going up in flames!

I know of one 41' Gaff thing that sails about with her stove on but she is very open down below with lots of space around the stove. I am interested because I have removed my "Alaska" diesel stove (wedged into a locker) and was pondering a solid fuel stove.

The position would be on the forward bulkhead, about 3' forward of the mast post, companionway to one side, saloon seat near, +/- 6", on the other side. I am of the opinion that it would scorch everything, including anyone sleeping on the near saloon. However, reading this thread, it’s obvious that they are fitted quite successfully without the place burning down.

 

[Nealo]

A couple of questions on this matter: -

1. Obviously these stoves sit quite near flammable objects such as saloon berths, bulkheads and soles. I imagine that the radiated heat is quite strong (I have owned a Morso Squirrel) and other such stoves. How do people protect the immediate area from radiated heat damage?

2. The flue is relatively short and I imagine the risk of sparks being carried up and out is high. Are there features built in to the flue to stop this? I have visions of my neighbours stack pack and main going up in flames!

I know of one 41' Gaff thing that sails about with her stove on but she is very open down below with lots of space around the stove. I am interested because I have removed my "Alaska" diesel stove (wedged into a locker) and was pondering a solid fuel stove.

The position would be on the forward bulkhead, about 3' forward of the mast post, companionway to one side, saloon seat near, +/- 6", on the other side. I am of the opinion that it would scorch everything, including anyone sleeping on the near saloon. However, reading this thread, it’s obvious that they are fitted quite successfully without the place burning down.

Some form of heat absorbing or heat reflecting material is needed if the space behind/adjacent to the stove is tight, but the risk from radiant heat really isn't that great. Anyway you wouldn't be able to stand having the stove so hot that it would cause damage. Having said that on our small narrowboat I must admit I have it pretty hot in the winter and it never bothers the wood panelling which is only about 9" away at the closest point. My stove is well screwed down on a ceramic tiled surface and I don't see any reason why you couldn't install it in a yacht, in fact I saw one recently exactly the same as mine on a Marcon Claymore 30' motor sailer.
The main issue on a yacht would be where to store the fuel. On an inland boat this isn't really an issue as you are never very far from a supplier anyway. But if you were only away for less than two weeks at a time I think it would be a practical alternative to diesel/gas and soooo much cosier.

 

[Kelpie]

Mate of mine installed a woodburner on his SCOD (26ft), which he lived aboard through last winter. Used stainless plates mounted with spacers behind as heat protection. Gave the boat an amazing level of warmth- I was quite jealous, even though I have a perfectly good Wallas parrafin heater myself. The only problems with it were a) when my dog got burned on it; b) on the right point of sail, the downdraft off the main would go down the chimney and cause a degree of fumigation down below.

 

[Thoshi]

Google Bengco Engineering< Hamble.

I have had one of their charcoal heaters on my Fulmar for years now and can highly recommend it

 

[stuhaynes]

where can i buy a small solid fuel heater ?

We bought our 'Boatman' stove from Northern Fabrications about 8 years ago and it's one of the best pieces of kit on the boat. It's a multifuel stove and last winter, because of nearby tree felling, we burned wood all winter. The only problem we had was with the 'coolie' hat on the chimney. The wood we were burning was fresh off the tree and full of sap. This condensed on the coolie hat, ran down the chimney, and made a mess of the paintwork. We've been out of the water this year and are freshly painted again.

We'd intended to burn only solid smokeless nuggets this winter, but again because of tree felling on site there is a lot of wood available. We took off the coolie hat and tried the wood again (only during the day) and have had no problem with sap staining at all. Burning a bed of smokeless with wood on top saves around 1/3 in fuel costs.

The problem with sparks is usually caused by fast burning wood like small section pine, or pallets, that kind of thing. We use this sort of wood only for kindling.

Our boat is 60 year old wood. We sat the fire on a 2 inch paving slab, surrounded on 3 sides with timber lined with a fireproof material. On top of this are quarry type tiles glued on with silicone. Ordinary tile adhesive will crack.

Our only regret is that we could have bought this stove with a back boiler, and didn't. We are going to build our own and fasten it to the back of the stove.

The 'Boatman' stove was the smallest we could find at the time, 100% reliable and belts out a lot of heat.

Hope this helps

 

[Nealo]

I have actually found the perfect fuel for woodburners, they are brown coal briquettes made by a company called HeizProfi in Germany. They burn hot or not so hot, leave very little residue, extremely controllable, will stay warm all night yet burst into life as soon as you open the draught, also you can handle them without getting your hands black. The only problem is I can't find a local supplier, in fact at the moment the only place I can get them is from my sister's coal merchant on the Dornoch Firth. I have to load up everytime I visit her. If anyone knows different...

On a big old wooden motor sailor though - perfect!