Thinking about getting rid of oven and fitting microwave instead

[SlowlyButSurely]

We have a 30 year old Plastimo Neptune cooker which has done sterling service but is now getting past its prime. The oven's cooking performance is abysmal so we are considering replacing it with a gimballed two burner hob and grill and fitting a microwave underneath in the space vacated by the oven. This would mainly be used when plugged into shore power but could also be used running off the inverter with the engine running. The only two burner hob and grill I can find is the Neptune 4500.

I would be very interested to know if there are any other two burner hobs with grill I could consider and whether anyone else has done this and the pros and cons etc. In particular is a two burner gimballed hob stable enough to be used at sea with something heavy like a pressure cooker on top?

Thanks.

 

[RichardS]

I don't know about two burner hobs but I've installed a microwave on my boat. I bought a non-electronic/digital type to ensure that it would operate properly off the generator as well as shorepower. You will need a powerful inverter (1000W-ish) to run a decent microwave and a very good battery bank if you intend to cook main meals rather than just re-heat stuff.

Richard

 

[macd]

I had a 2-burner hob/grill with separate (conventional) oven arrangement on my last boat. Can't remember the brand but think it came from Gaelforce at a very affordable price.
The oven was fixed.
The trouble with gimbals for hobs is that they need a substantial upstand (which is both ugly and cumbersome) in order for the hob to provide an effective counterweight. Extra ballast bolted to the bottom of the grill meant gimbals at 'normal' level were effective. (I used 6mm stainless plate that was lying around, although it doesn't need to be that exotic.)

You might consider a combined microwave + oven. Or are they all like that these days?

 

[jwilson]

If you can power it a microwave really is useful on board. Sailed on several boats with them - usually as well as an oven admittedly, but it was always the microwave that got used, except for things like baking bread, which not that many people actually do.

 

[SlowlyButSurely]

I had a 2-burner hob/grill with separate (conventional) oven arrangement on my last boat. Can't remember the brand but think it came from Gaelforce at a very affordable price.
The oven was fixed.
The trouble with gimbals for hobs is that they need a substantial upstand (which is both ugly and cumbersome) in order for the hob to provide an effective counterweight. Extra ballast bolted to the bottom of the grill meant gimbals at 'normal' level were effective. (I used 6mm stainless plate that was lying around, although it doesn't need to be that exotic.)

You might consider a combined microwave + oven. Or are they all like that these days?

Hi Mac,
When you say "gimbals at normal level" do you mean in line with the top of the cooker/bottom of the pans? How much weight needed to be added to the bottom to make it stable?

 

[sarabande]

why not buy a microwave designed for 12v ? Plenty of trucks fit them.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/12v-microwave/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i:aps,k:12v microwave

 

[pcatterall]

why not buy a microwave designed for 12v ? Plenty of trucks fit them.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/12v-microwave/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i:aps,k:12v microwave

We fitted an 800 watt MW rather than an oven. This is partly because we were going to the Med area and wanted to minimise heat in the saloon.
12 volt units are fine but to get one of the size of even a small mains MW you will be using the same PPP ( Power Per Pie ) ?

 

[macd]

Hi Mac,
When you say "gimbals at normal level" do you mean in line with the top of the cooker/bottom of the pans? How much weight needed to be added to the bottom to make it stable?

Yes, at about that level. The high-rise ones are ugly and get in the way (but better than hots pans flying around the galley).
Weight? Couldn't give you a figure, but it was the size of the hob's footprint and 5 or 6mm thick.
I didn't have a pressure cooker to put on it: that might take a little more stabilising.

 

[Halo]

90% of our hot grub underway is Cornish pasties. The old oven does these a treat whilst a microwave would make em mushy.
The oven also has a grill which can do toast - no chance with a microwave.
Microwave is good for ready meals and xmas puds but we tend not to have these at sea and we go the chippy or eat out when ashore.
Personally I would not swap

 

[wizzer]

90% of our hot grub underway is Cornish pasties. The old oven does these a treat whilst a microwave would make em mushy.
The oven also has a grill which can do toast - no chance with a microwave.
Microwave is good for ready meals and xmas puds but we tend not to have these at sea and we go the chippy or eat out when ashore.
Personally I would not swap

In Cornwall, its (apparently) bad luck to eat a pasty aboard a boat

 

[davidpbo]

In Cornwall, its (apparently) bad luck to eat a pagsty aboard a boat

Have a Devon pasty instead.

 

[Yngmar]

My boat came with a microwave/grill combo and I'm glad it did. It also came with a big honking inverter for it (you need a lot more than the rating on the back, as microwaves draw high peak loads when firing up the magnetron). Forget 12V units - you'd have to run massive cables (think windlass) through your boat for that. You'll also only want to do this if you have a sufficiently large battery bank to power it (or stick to using it on shorepower only).

It's very handy for warming up precooked food, and the grill makes better toast than all of the gas stove toasting contraptions I've tried. My only complaint is that you can't turn off the useless digital clock on it, so it always shows the wrong time

However, for making pizza, bread or cauliflower cheese, a proper gas oven is way better.

 

[NormanS]

We have a microwave, and it's great in the winter with shore power, but I wouldn't even consider trying to use it off the batteries.

 

[john_morris_uk]

90% of our hot grub underway is Cornish pasties. The old oven does these a treat whilst a microwave would make em mushy.
The oven also has a grill which can do toast - no chance with a microwave.
Microwave is good for ready meals and xmas puds but we tend not to have these at sea and we go the chippy or eat out when ashore.
Personally I would not swap

We must have a very different style of sailing and eating to you. When I sailed the boat down from Scotland two years ago, some of the crew arrived and looked at the vegetables etc in nets suspended in the galley and exlaimed, "You have fresh vegetables!!" I understand that having anchored the boat off Pladda after a long and cold wet beat down the Clyde approaches and then immediately produced two roast chickens, roast potatoes, various steamed vegetables and a broccoli gratin with gravy etc the meal is still being discussed when they go sailing...

I happen to really enjoy cooking on board and I love baking bread when given half a chance. Cooking whilst actually at sea is just a little more challenging, but with a good cooker and oven and a strap to keep you in place its great fun.

Besides which living off pasty's at sea and fish and chips when alongside doesn't cut it for my crew...

 

[LittleSister]

Nobody's yet mentioned mentioned Fray Bentos!

 

[rotrax]

Our last two boats have had microwaves, quite usefull on occaision but not as good as a decent oven. Only used on shorepower or with the 2600W genny.

Interestingly the narrowboats we take out every year make it clear that the engine should be started and run at 2000 RPM when using the microwave off the inverter-the initial power requirement is very high.