Which is the Best Cooker?

I replaced an ancient cooker on our boat with a Nelson Spinflo a few years back, and it's been fine. No corrosion or other problems at all. It's a real pleasure to have a grill that actually works and cooks my breakfast toast evenly. The only downer I found was that the oven, as supplied, comes with only one shelf, and I like to have two (two pizzas at once, or a main casserole and something else on a lower shelf). I found there's a place in Southampton (Socal Southampton | Southampton's Calor Gas dealer) that sells them as spares though, so now I'm a two-pizza happy chappy.
 
I can point you in the direction of what not to buy.....Techimpex.

If you use the oven it expands and you can't slide the grill pans in or out, even with force. Unfortunately not a one off, my mate has one and is the same. Some poorly finished edges on the metal work too, cut your hand territory.

I replaced a knackered Techimpex with another that fitted exactly in the space to save drilling holes or wrecking the joinery, wish I'd got something else.

It does look modern and shiny, fits my space perfectly and absolutely brilliant at boiling a kettle of water, if you want to actually use the oven and cook, forget it.
 
xyachtdave said:
I can point you in the direction of what not to buy.....Techimpex.
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My boat came with a Techimpex and it works very nicely. Everything slides as it should. My only gripe is that as supplied the rack in the grill pan was a smidgen too high to go straight in, but a little bit of bending and it's fine.
 
JumbleDuck said:
My boat came with a Techimpex and it works very nicely. Everything slides as it should. My only gripe is that as supplied the rack in the grill pan was a smidgen too high to go straight in, but a little bit of bending and it's fine.
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Have you had to buy the replacement oven door retaining clip that breaks every 5 minutes yet?
 
For many years, we have had the equivalent of the ENO Marine 1, now £515. It has been excellent, maybe no oven thermostat but with a little experience you soon get to know how to use it. We are having to replace and will stick with the ENO.
PS, Having now read #18, Hallberg Rassy fit ENO.
 
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franksingleton said:
For many years, we have had the equivalent of the ENO Marine 1, now £515. It has been excellent, maybe no oven thermostat but with a little experience you soon get to know how to use it. We are having to replace and will stick with the ENO.
PS, Having now read #18, Hallberg Rassy fit ENO.
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Frank - not convinced anyone realises ENO ovens have no thermostat and can get extremely hot if not adjusted accordingly. Their documentation operating instructions (you can hardly call it a manual) says absolutely nothing about actuall6 using the appliance. All this for £800.
 
Caladh said:
Frank - not convinced anyone realises ENO ovens have no thermostat and can get extremely hot if not adjusted accordingly. Their documentation operating instructions (you can hardly call it a manual) says absolutely nothing about actuall6 using the appliance. All this for £800.
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Well, my wife is (was) a teacher of chefs. She had no problem in adjusting the oven controls. Never burnt anything. We are replacing our old ENO with the £515 basic, lookalike. We will see. We may not have many years left and did not want to spend more.
 
Shamaya said:
Our old two burners and oven cooker is getting really tired.
We looked at the Plastimo, Nelson , Force 10 and ENO . They are all look okay ish, but noting special for the money the are selling for. ENO ‘Le Gascogne’ looks the best but it’s over £700!
Any suggestions which make is a little bit better than this ones?
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I bought one of these 5 years ago. Never used the oven but the grill and hob have never let me down. It is very easy to clean. £500 seems a decent price? I wanted another one but this was all the shop had and it was a last minute job. The build quality made me wary but nothing has broken or bent. 2 pieces of toast fit the grill and one will brown before the other. But chicken and steaks are good.
AquaMarine Neptune 4500 2-Burner Cooker | Force 4 Chandlery This cooker was previously supplied by Plastimo and known as the Plastimo Neptune 4500 cooker
 
We have just ripped out our Force 10 and replaced it with a GN Espace. The Force10 has a stupidly designed oven and the heat Ensor is above the flame. You are supposed to have a heat shield which slides in and you heat that up. This uses a ton of gas and in our experience the heat shield lets heat get by which the heath the thermocouple turning down the oven. The result we could not get the oven hot enough to cook just about any thing.

i had an ld plastimo on my old boat and it was useless. We replaced it with a new plastics and it was really good. My first boat had a techimpex, which was useless but still better than the Force10.
 
franksingleton said:
For many years, we have had the equivalent of the ENO Marine 1, now £515. It has been excellent, maybe no oven thermostat but with a little experience you soon get to know how to use it. We are having to replace and will stick with the ENO.
PS, Having now read #18, Hallberg Rassy fit ENO.
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Sounds very much like the Flavel on my boat. It has limited life left and was reading this thread for replacement ideas. After reading, I think that I will wait until the Flavel packs up. Just a shame that spares aren't available any more.
 
PBO did a review of 5 cookers (Sept 2014) so a bit out of date, but here is a summary of results
Dometic Starlight
Bainbridge Neptune
Spinflo Nelson
Techimpex Mastergrill
GN Espace Levante

The Levante came out as well above the rest but is very expensive (£1895 in 2014) but may suit if living aboard all the time.
Bainbridge Neptune got a good review for neat styling,good controls,spark ignition and general ease of use
Spinflo Nelson and Dometic Starlight were praised for their S/S construction - the Spinflo's captive grill pan was popular and the Dometic had a very accessible hob for cleaning
The techimpex had the best grill pan with a captive handle.
Overall the test team preferred the Bainbridge but each stove had pros and cons.
 
I am still in hot water for spending on a new boat cooker and then wingeing about the cost of a new oven at home! Our Plastimo 2000 2 burner, grill and oven is starting to show its age at 13, knobs a bit stiff, some of the stainless tarnishing and on its 2nd grill element. Given good service though as we cook full meals on the boat perhaps 130 days a year. I would buy another one though.
 
TonyMS said:
We have a hob from Leisure Products (Bolton), so I can't comment on the oven. The hob was well=priced, works well, and can be taken apart for maintenance and cleaning. Don't know why PBO didn't review the only excellent British-made product,
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Good to know.
Leisure Products made the popular Spinflo Nelson and now the Bainbridge Neptune. I have a sneaky feeling they have produced under other names in the past as well.
 
The Neptune 4500 is made by Leisure in the UK and is available badged as Aquafax and Bainbridge. The latest version/batch was released in the Autumn after months being out of stock. The Nelson Spinflo is no longer made.

On the Black Friday promotion I ordered a Bainbridge Neptune 4500 with 2 burners, grill and oven for the low price of £431.96 delivered from MarineSupermarket. It is still in the box awaiting fitting, but the old Flavel has done well at nearly 40 years old. When it comes out I will be offering it for spares repair as the only thing not working is the grill - it has badly rusted giving rusty crunchy toast.

I do not think there is a perfect cooker, it is like many boats, a compromise of price, suitability and availablity.
 
ok so everything has context.

do you use the oven at sea?

if not then do what I have done. Replaced the oven with a stainless steel, domestic combo oven. Microwave. Grill. Convection oven with turntable.

It means you‘re tied to shore power (or a generator).
And no gimbal.

But I use an inverter at sea (microwave only ie short and being a mobo I don’t need a gimbal) and a generator at anchor to power the thing.
There are lots of obvious advantages if the disadvantages don’t matter to you.

It was under £150.
 
We have a GKN Espace Ocean Chef 3; it has some limitations. Our igniter unit has failed after minimal use. The replacement price is STUPID.

All markings have faded off and we cannot get a reasonably priced replacement set either. They all have limitations
 
Monique said:
We have a GKN Espace Ocean Chef 3; it has some limitations. Our igniter unit has failed after minimal use. The replacement price is STUPID.

All markings have faded off and we cannot get a reasonably priced replacement set either. They all have limitations
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Yes the igniter fails and I never knew there were any markings!

Igniter unit : £19.47 + VAT?

... try Taylor’s...

GN Oceanchef « Extended Cruising Spares Pack »:
1 x hob igniter lead
1 x hob FFD (flame failure device)
1 x oven and grill FFD
1 x replacement ignition switch
1 x replacement battery holder, spring and cap.
£50.00 + VAT

Taylors « Extended Cruising On Board Spares Kit »

Qty 2: CTK1035P Paraffin Burner
  • Qty 2: CTK1062 Paraffin Burner Spares Kit
  • Qty 3: CTK1150 Copper Olive 3/16"
  • Qty 2: HTD5240 Brass Olive
  • Qty 1: CTK2855 Brass Coupling Nut
  • Qty 1: CTK1195 Copper Fuel Pipe 3/16" 3m
  • Qty 2: CTK3592 Pump Leather Washer
  • Qty 1: CTK3596 Non Return Valve
  • Qty 1: ETD3515 Pump Fill Cap "O" Ring
£ 369.17 + VAT
 
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