Solid Fuel Stove Fallout?

[CaptainBob]

I'm still researching solid fuel stoves, and a couple of people have said:

"Don't do it! Get a diesel fired bulkhead mounting stove instead. Solid fuel stoves make a mess on the inside and on the outside of your boat, and anyone else's boat close by."

Is that other people's experience also? Or is it actually possible with careful choice of fuel to run them without making a mess?

I like that you can leave a solid fuel stove on overnight to burn out. Seems that's not the case with any of the diesel fired ones.

 

[David2452]

A huge gererality I know, but many of my narrowboat and barge customers have solid fuel stoves, they don't seem messy at all, obviously they need the ash emptying and stuff which can be messy if you aren't careful but their boats tend to keep still so not sure about on a yacht.

 

[clyst]

Another thing to throw into the pot to chew over ....... Good quality fuel = high purchase/running costs?? I dunno cos we used free drift wood but maybe worth costing .

Cheers

 

[lw395]

....
I like that you can leave a solid fuel stove on overnight to burn out. Seems that's not the case with any of the diesel fired ones.

It's possibly not a good idea with a solid fuel stove either.

I think the amount of smell and smoke depends hugely on what is being burned.
Ever been to a rural village on a calm night and not liked the smell of some coal or wood fires?
Now imagine that with the chimney only 4ft off the ground, 20ft upwind of you.

A typical house chimney will collect a fair amount of soot, a boat chimney will be much shorter, so probably most of the soot will escape to land on sails, deck etc etc.
I've seen the results of the hippy types on canal boats burning what they can find, it is quite messy.
I assume smokeless fuel, charcoal or coke would be a lot better, but as anyone with a stove knows it is a lot more expensive, so the temptation to use wood or cheap coal is always there.
I guess it depends where you intend to moor, but I find we tend to use the more popular places in the winter, so are quite often close to other boats. In the summer it's nice in the middle of nowhere on a boat, in the long evenings the pubs are quite attractive...

The trouble is, you may not see the mess you have made until the morning and it will be quite obvious then!

 

[Deleted member 36384]

I borrowed a yacht that had one of these charcoal heaters and the owner advised that the deck might get some black spots on it and just to sluice down the deck in the morning. I didn't find any but I guess it can happen according to the owner.

 

[SvenH]

Interested to learn more. I'm working on a pellet stove and preliminary trials show no smoke. As far as I have learned so far, soot comes from smoke.

I did get an occasional "spark" flying up which could land as an ash particle.

 

[wotayottie]

I like that you can leave a solid fuel stove on overnight to burn out. Seems that's not the case with any of the diesel fired ones.

Or to look at that another way, you can turn the diesel one off when you need but you have to let the solid fuel one burn out.

Personally I wouldn't have either given. I've had two pals who have had fires on board thanks to these bulkhead mounted stoves, in one case burning through the deck of the boat. I dont know how well the stoves in question were maintained but thats not the point. They are more of a safety risk than an eber type arrangement. And thats ignoring the CO2 and CO released plus the water vapour.

 

[CaptainBob]

Or to look at that another way, you can turn the diesel one off when you need but you have to let the solid fuel one burn out.

Personally I wouldn't have either given. I've had two pals who have had fires on board thanks to these bulkhead mounted stoves, in one case burning through the deck of the boat. I dont know how well the stoves in question were maintained but thats not the point. They are more of a safety risk than an eber type arrangement. And thats ignoring the CO2 and CO released plus the water vapour.

Good point re the ability to "turn off" on a whim.

And worrying about the fires from bulkhead mounted stoves. Were they diesel or solid fuel?

But...

CO is not so much of a problem now as for £20 you can get a 5-year life CO detector.

The water vapour is really not a worry, in fact it's the opposite. Solid fuel or liquid fueled stoves will both (if drawing air from cabin and venting outside) have a powerful dehumidifying effect.

We have an Eberspacher but it's hungry on the batteries and on fuel (I'm of the belief that unless run on full it will coke up) - but the worst thing is the noise!

 

[oldvarnish]

I was recently alongside a French yacht which had a solid fuel heater and they were burning driftwood all winter - liveaboards. They spent a lot of time clearing up tar drips from the deck which, despite their efforts, will forever show the stains.
Never seen stains from a coal fired heater, or diesel. Perhaps a bit of soot, but that's easily dealt with.

 

[mikhalis]

Just like an open fire / solid fuel stove at home, they don't need to be that messy. But I would suggest that a solid fuel stove is only practical on boats substantially larger than trailer sailers / cabin cruisers. Considering that on our narrowboat the gch system hasn't been used for years, all heating comes via a small solid fuel stove midships and a few paraffin lamps and hot water via calorifier, I wouldn't bother with anything else. It's nowehre near as dirty as you may think (light green carpet in front of it and sapele panelling above still serviceable after 10 yrs). You will get a bit of sooty fallout via the chimney though, which may be acceptable on a green steel roof but may be a mess if deposited on the roof of an AWB. They are great for leaving to die out when you drift off to sleep but I'm paranoid enough to still leave at least one hopper window open and there is a CO alarm nearby. Quiet, cheap to run and great in that situation. Totally impractical solution on my Jouster though. Nowehere near enough room to install anything other than the KTL basics. Even on a larger sailing boat I'm not sure that I would want to be opening and feeding a stove if I was on the hook and the water a bit bouncy.

 

[Searush]

No boaty experience, but lots with solid fuel in a house.

Soot & tars are aggravated if you burn it fully closed down, so don't have an oversized stove, get the right size & burn it hard.

Ash, cinders & grit is a problem with coal & anthracite, but wood & charcoal ash is very fine & light grey. With the (anthracite fueled) Bosky boiler I've just removed from the kitchen, the entire kitchen was always getting a fine layer of grey ash over everything. There is no similar problem with the woodburner in the lounge.

If you are expecting to "switch it off" just stop putting fuel in in plenty of time. I usually stop putting logs on mine at about 9pm to go to bed at 11.30. By which time there are only hot embers & shutting it down allows them to dwindle away overnight. I close the room door & the room is always toasty in the morning for my coffee & toast. Do you ever neeed to turn any heater off unexpectedly?

You shouldn't have a CO problem with a properly designed & well sealed stove & chimney. Air needs to get in at the bottom & only get out up the chimney. The same applies to any moisture produced, it will go up the chimney, unlike any non-sealed gas fire. They are renowned for a good dry heat.

 

[Zagato]

Also looking into charcoal heaters at the moment with a small 1.5" diameter Chimney giving about 2kW plenty for a boat up to 32' apparently. If 'lumpwood charcoal' is used little ash is created. No problem on a mooring anyway.

No CO2, less condensation, can let it burn out, no noise, no draw on batteries, can be fitted in an afternoon.

The two most common charcoal heaters are sold by Bengco in Hamble and Pascall Atkey in Cowes apparently.

Check out the Paskall Atkey Pansy MkIII heater Unfortunately their website is down at the moment and the guy that makes the stove isn't well, they are waiting to see if an apprentice can make some more!

 

[lw395]

No boaty experience, but lots with solid fuel in a house.

Soot & tars are aggravated if you burn it fully closed down, so don't have an oversized stove, get the right size & burn it hard.

Ash, cinders & grit is a problem with coal & anthracite, but wood & charcoal ash is very fine & light grey. With the (anthracite fueled) Bosky boiler I've just removed from the kitchen, the entire kitchen was always getting a fine layer of grey ash over everything. There is no similar problem with the woodburner in the lounge.

If you are expecting to "switch it off" just stop putting fuel in in plenty of time. I usually stop putting logs on mine at about 9pm to go to bed at 11.30. By which time there are only hot embers & shutting it down allows them to dwindle away overnight. I close the room door & the room is always toasty in the morning for my coffee & toast. Do you ever neeed to turn any heater off unexpectedly?

You shouldn't have a CO problem with a properly designed & well sealed stove & chimney. Air needs to get in at the bottom & only get out up the chimney. The same applies to any moisture produced, it will go up the chimney, unlike any non-sealed gas fire. They are renowned for a good dry heat.

If you are going to get CO problems it will be when the embers are smouldering rather than when the fire is drawing all the fumes up the chimney.
I do mostly take the view that if it's too cold to sleep with the washboard out, it's too cold for sleeping on the boat, but you do get those wind-over tide rainy situations.

 

[Gordonmc]

Much depends on the fuel.
On my previous boat I had a home-made charcoal stove in the space between the saloon and forecabin. For the most part when the sheds were selling charcoal for barbecues I used briquettes or lumpwood. Neither produced much in the way of soot on the deck, but the briquettes left much more ash.
I think that was because of the stuff used to bulk out the charcoal dust.
Come winter and I had to turn to other fuel. I was warned off driftwood as the salt wouldn't do the stove much good. Some wood-fall was ok but pine left resin dripping into the ash pan.
I tried compressed peat bricks was by far the most pleasant burning fuel... a fine aroma and lots of heat. But it didn't half make a mess of the deck with tarry goo dripping out of the "H" cowl. Empty bean tins suspended under the flues caught some, but made a heck of a racket in any breeze.
I like the idea of pellets but are they readily available?
The present boat has a Taylor's 079D in the saloon and an Eber D5W for the aft cabin and heads but I still hanker after a solid fuel stove.
Pellets gravity-fed from a small hopper, perhaps?