solid fuel stove

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Jack B

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Hi,
I would like to put a solid fuel stove on my 17 ft boat, (pedro 17) , I plan to use mild steel box section creating a 4''X 4"X 8" fire box and then obviously having a chimney. I would cut away part of the deck and replace in with aluminum to prevent the GRP melting. Has anyone done this on such a small boat or heard of it?
many thanks Jack
 
Be very careful with this. Any carbon monoxide could kill you. Get yourself a hot water bottle and a good sleeping bag and use a fan heater when you have mains electricity available. A 17 footer is not that hard to keep warm.
 
ghostlymoron said:
Be very careful with this. Any carbon monoxide could kill you. Get yourself a hot water bottle and a good sleeping bag and use a fan heater when you have mains electricity available. A 17 footer is not that hard to keep warm.
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Narrow boats all over the country are currently being heated by solid fuel stoves. Fitted, maintained, and used properly, there is little risk. Appropriately place CO detectors will warn of a build up.

Not that I am recommending a stove in a GRP boat :(
 
Fork handles

Richard10002 said:
Narrow boats all over the country are currently being heated by solid fuel stoves. Fitted, maintained, and used properly, there is little risk. Appropriately place CO detectors will warn of a build up.

Not that I am recommending a stove in a GRP boat :(
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six tealights on a metal plate - more than enough for such a tiny space

D
 
Does GRP actually melt??
Aluminium on its own will simply conduct heat from the chimney to the surrounding material- you will need an insulating barrier such as glass rope (I think).
 
I fit solid fuel stoves (in houses) for a living.I've got one on my boat a Nic 32 .Was'nt that difficult,PM me if you get stuck and I'll give you my 'phone number.
 
Jack B said:
Hi,
I would like to put a solid fuel stove on my 17 ft boat, (pedro 17) , I plan to use mild steel box section creating a 4''X 4"X 8" fire box and then obviously having a chimney. I would cut away part of the deck and replace in with aluminum to prevent the GRP melting. Has anyone done this on such a small boat or heard of it?
many thanks Jack
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I had a home-made charcoal heater on my boat for years and it was very successful but a bit messy. There was a hole for the chimney in the plywood coachroof top about 5" diameter and the chimney had a s/s flange welded to it that covered this hole and was screwed to the coachroof. Although the chimney got very hot it didn't hurt the plywood coachroof in any way.

The heater box was bolted to the main cabin bulkhead and stood off about an inch. The back of the heater box was lined with a layer of fire cement so not much heat was transmitted to the bulkhead.

I sold the heater to someone on this forum who has his boat in Scotland. He used to burn peat in it. Now I have a very old Taylors paraffin heater (bought from a forumite) and this is also very succesful.
 
Go for it Jack, it will be toasty! Some tips from experience:
Make sure the stove is strongly bolted to something solid, so it won't shift even in rough weather.

Get a sheet or offcut of aluminium sheet and put some under the stove, the risk of red hot embers setting the floor alight is greater than setting the cabin top alight.

Make sure the chimney doesn't leak, you can get heatproof mastic from Screwfix type shops for about £7.

Work out a place to keep bits of wood and to saw them up and split into kindling with a small hand axe.

Have a ventilator grill in the door, at least the same area as the chimney.

Let us know how you get on, good luck Jerry

Don't cut a huge great big hole in the boat, the chimney won't get so very hot, and glass fibre won't suddenly burst into flames.
Cover your chimney with an old tin when you are not using it or everything will rust away very quickly!
 
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I played around with this idea and never got it quite right. I made it far to big for my little boat. That suggestion of using tea lights is a good one. I do love the idea of dry heat to extend the season. Charcoal seems good but how to make it burn slow over night? If I could afford it I'd go for a pressured paraffin system. But that's cos I've got kids. If it was just me, I'd get a good sleeping bag and make do with candles.
 
stu9000 said:
If I could afford it I'd go for a pressured paraffin system. But that's cos I've got kids. If it was just me, I'd get a good sleeping bag and make do with candles.
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One of the Twister owners built an inexpensive pressurised paraffin system that consisted of a Tilley lamp mounted in an open fronted metal box BUT, importantly, it had a flue leading up through the coachroof so no dangerous fumes in the cabin
 
Unless an engineering expert, and interested in the project, I'd be inclined to buy one of the small stoves, flue and chimney.

Boatman, Hobbit, are names that come to mind.... I've got a boatman and it's probably too big for a small yacht.

I've used heat resistant stuff they use on motorbikes around my Rinnai Gas Water Heater. Apparently it insulates up to about 1000C or so - much more than the 400C a stove could produce. ETA Rated up to 600C not 1000C here:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/130805550351?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

It's very sticky, so make sure it's exactly where you want it before peeling the backing and sticking it down! (How do I know? :( )
 
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Don't know if it's any help but on a heater that was fitted to a friends Macwester 27 there was a gap between the back of the heater and the bulkhead of about 15mm that was filled with 'pearlite' as an insulating barrier. It worked so well that the opposite side of the bulkhead had no warmth at all coming from the heater even when it was stoked right up.
HTH
 
parsifal said:
I had a home-made charcoal heater on my boat for year.....
I sold the heater to someone on this forum who has his boat in Scotland. He used to burn peat in it. Now I have a very old Taylors paraffin heater (bought from a forumite) and this is also very succesful.
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I am that forumite.
Parsifal's stove saw me through three winters on a swinging mooring on a loch. The boat has now gone and the replacement is bigger and has both Eberspacher and a Taylors. I still hanker after another solid fuel stove.
With apologies to Webcraft of this parish, this link is to a tutorial on how to make a home made stove on the excellent Blue Moment website: http://www.bluemoment.com/simplestove.html
Choice of fuel could be critical in design. The most efficient is lumpwood charcoal followed by charcoal briquettes, but they produce a lot of ash due to the bulk filler they use.
Avoid driftwood which will be full of salt. If using dry wood offcuts bear in mind sparks can and do go up the lum and onto your deck. As Parsifal mentioned I did burn peat which was suprisingly effective with a wonderful aroma. Makes the cheapest blend taste like Laphroig... but it comes at a price as it produces tar which needs to be caught as it comes out of the lum.
Chimney design is important. I found the best was an "H" to prevent draft-back.
Good luck.
 
Insulating the inside of your boat to a decent standard and using Dylan's heater would probably do you for all but the coldest nights.

I insulated my cabin last winter by removing the lining panels and hot glue gunning cheap camping carry mat to the GRP hull and deck head- this has made a massive difference to warmth and comfort aboard. not only is it warmer but has also almost stopped condensation.
I'm going to make up some bubble wrap pads to insulate the hatches for this winters sailing.
 
Gordonmc said:
I am that forumite.
Parsifal's stove saw me through three winters on a swinging mooring on a loch. The boat has now gone and the replacement is bigger and has both Eberspacher and a Taylors. I still hanker after another solid fuel stove.
With apologies to Webcraft of this parish, this link is to a tutorial on how to make a home made stove on the excellent Blue Moment website: http://www.bluemoment.com/simplestove.html
Choice of fuel could be critical in design. The most efficient is lumpwood charcoal followed by charcoal briquettes, but they produce a lot of ash due to the bulk filler they use.
Avoid driftwood which will be full of salt. If using dry wood offcuts bear in mind sparks can and do go up the lum and onto your deck. As Parsifal mentioned I did burn peat which was suprisingly effective with a wonderful aroma. Makes the cheapest blend taste like Laphroig... but it comes at a price as it produces tar which needs to be caught as it comes out of the lum.
Chimney design is important. I found the best was an "H" to prevent draft-back.
Good luck.
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How's the dog?

I used to wonder what the the atmosphere on your old boat must have been like. A fragrant, but not unpleasing, combination of wet dog, peat, bilge water, tobacco smoke and a good whisky!
 
There was an outfit called (IIRR) Force Ten stoves that produced a stove like the POs idea. But seem to have gone. They used quite small flues, around 1.5" which might help in making his. Some thinwall stainless tube would solve the rust problems and a concentric collar with glass rope coiled between the tubes would avoid 'warming' the cabin top.
 
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