Important:Origo stoves

[NiceAft]

Opie,

I now know that some people take their coffee and their stoves quite seriously

What's you're feelings about toilets Feel free to roam poetic

Ray

[Highlander]

these portable butane stove are ready avail at most flea markt's for $18-$20 I have one I pd $20. for & used it for 4yrs now & bought a case of 48 cans of butane at the same time for about $2 a can

Moe

their a great little stove I like the pot holder & griddle where did you get them

J

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

Of course the bad thing about Propane is all the well documented explosions that have happened aboard boats.

With either Propane or Butane I would not want a permanently installed stove unless it was permanently plumbed to an external tank.

At least with a portable one you can remove it to the cockpit for all tank changes. This eliminates the problem with the small amount of gas that is spilled every time you take off a tank. Every bit of this runs like water right into your bilge. Take a tank off that has a stuck valve and you are in big trouble as the gas fountains out inside your boat.

Once in the bilge Propane/Butane is very hard to get rid of, just opening up the access covers will not get rid of it. Active ventilation even has a hard time, you may blow it around, but it will just settle back in another place. Also hope your fan is spark free, most are not. Spilled alcohol will not ignite with just a spark, it requires an open flame to light it and you can clean it up with a simple rag.

We heat our full teapot of water in less than 5 minutes on our Origo. This and our insulated SS french press get coffee ready easily. Our Origo will boil the giant pot full of water for cooking multiple crabs in 20-25 minutes.

In 7 years with our double burner Origo we have never had any problems. It's a super simple system that works very safely and efficiently.

[Catigale]

With either Propane or Butane I would not want a permanently installed stove unless it was permanently plumbed to an external tank.

Agreed, and this just isnt practical on Macs - there really isnt a place for a bona fide propane locker. The portables work well, and you keep the all fuels (propane, gasoline, butane, alcohol) up top in the fuel locker and not down below.

[Don T]

So...........
We've been through this before. In the last 5 years:

1. How many propane explosions / fires have there been?

2. How many alcohol fires?

2. How many gasoline explosions / fires?

3. How many electrical fires?

Documentation please.

[RickJ]

The original owner of my boat installed a 2-ring butane burner, and just put a 10# cylinder in the bilge under the galley

He did put in an electric gas alarm with the sensor also in the bilge, but those things drain power so you can't leave them on all the time. The boat's 10 years old, and the gas sensors only have a 5-year life, so by the time I got it the gas alarm was useless anyway

The subsequent owner installed a gas heater as well. It's quite a neat unit, with a covered catalytic element so there's no flame, but he left the gas cylinder in the bilge. I don't think he realised that the gas alarm had expired.

I've relocated the cylinder under the transom seat, fits there quite neatly, I hope it's secure enough (strapped in with 6mm shock cord).

Anyway, even though I too hate the idea of a gas tank in the boat, this one's survived for 10 years without mishap.

Cheers, Rick

[Catigale]

If you get BOATUS mag, the seaworthy issue has a series of lurid tales of fires of electrical, fuel, and galley origin. Good reading and will keep your toes curled about fire on board.

This is a rehash but using any fire on board is something to do thoughtfully and with rigid procedures in place.

Rick - Im glad you ditched that system - does sound like a time bomb was waiting to go off.

Most of us here aren't full time cruisers and hence we fall into the most dangerous category of having, shall we say, a poorer record of maintaining stuff than a liveaboard (with apologies to Dimitri, Duane, Rich, and many of you other guys)...setting up a full propane system requires not only the engineering controls but a set plan to inspect and test - the point being that a single point of failure is catastrophic.

[Moe]

Moe

their a great little stove I like the pot holder & griddle where did you get them

J

John, we bought the stove from the SailboatOwners.com chandlery, and it came without the pot holder and griddle as shown in their picture. I wrote them we were disappointed that it didn't at least come with the pot holder for safety reasons, and they got one for us at no charge (and took the griddle and pot holder out of the picture on their website. I have yet to find anyone who sells them, but I don't think it would be hard for anyone who has welding skills (not me) to duplicate the pot holder.

[Don T]

Looking at the marine insurance company's reports tells a tale. The Coast Guard has data on calls made to them as well.

[Paul S]

I like the origio stove I installed in our boat. I found it online a lot cheaper than WM, Defender or the dealer. Easy to install. Very well made, works quite we..

With all the total crap that is being sold out of China, it is nice to see a well made solid product with a lifetime warranty.

Have cooked everything on it with great results. Fuel is super cheap, doesn't explode, works well.

I would buy it again

Paul

[Boblee]

Don't think I could rest with a gas stove in the boat, it's not like you can always jump overboard and survive especially if you are in a remote area although in our case we do tow a fairly good 12' fishing dinghy.
A few years ago while travelling down our major river system in the above dinghy we had a 3 way fridge running on gas in the boat and while filling the fuel (petrol) tank it caught on fire but fortunately the fire extinguisher was handy and we were ashore.
This was caused by the pilot light approx 6' away from the fumes, also saw the results of another pilot light fire where a bloke was filling his Toyota wagon fuel tank (external) and it exploded, unfortunately for him due to the remoteness and the difficulty in getting him out he died two weeks later.
Neither of these were caused by the propane directly but they do show how complacency can be so dangerous especially with something so innocuous as a pilot light and fumes propane or petrol but at least petrol doesn't hang low just waiting to catch you unawares.

[RickJ]

... something so innocuous as a pilot light ...

Pilot lights are easy to ignore, but not at all innocuous (does that mean they're nocuous ) - as these anecdotes illustrate.

I'm fairly comfortable using gas for cooking. Except while actually using the stove, the tap on the main cylinder - outside - is firmly off. But things like fridges, where the gas is continuously running, or anything relying on a pilot, mean the gas supply has to be on all the time. This is likely to mean while unattended as well.

You then start to forget that you'd got a constant hazard and take it for granted - that's when accidents happen.

I'm still not sure about the gas heater that's fitted to my boat (see above). I don't yet know how much I'm going to want to use it, but I wouldn't for example feel comfortable leaving it on all night. If I decide I need an all-night heater I'll probably get something else.

Cheers, Rick

[bastonjock]

i went into my boat today and found that the propane canister in the single type burner was empty,it had a little fuel in it the last time i checked,so ive ordered the origo 3000,the cheapest that i could find it in rip off brittain is $330.00.

i know one guy who got blown 35ft out of his boat in Loch Lomond,he survived,but has a lot of scarr tissue for a face

during my recent sailing course in the canaries,it was part of our safety brief to switch off the gas at the valve and to run the bilge pump in the morning,the boat had a gas detector fitted,but we still had to clear those bilges

[Don T]

Filling his Toyota and the pilot light caused an explosion?
A. Never pull your trailer / camper with your stuff turned on. This includes batteries and gas.

B. Pilot light appliance on a boat? Stoves don't have them, refer's should be compressor models. Gas models don't work unles they are perpendicular which is almost never the case on a boat.

One alcohol stove fire on a boat was caused by the owner spilling alcohol while refilling, he left the lid off the container then knocked it over when the stove flared up. Burned his boat to the waterline! Wife launched out the forward hatch, man was burned but jumped overboard.

So, are alcohol stoves dangerous?

[Catigale]

but at least petrol doesn't hang low just waiting to catch you unawares.

Actually, thats exactly what petrol does, the vapours sink into the bilge and sit there waiting for a spark. Petrol, after all, is just larger carbon-chained versions of propane, chemically speaking.

Baston - this is a bit nit picking, but in the Colonies we call the thing used to blow out the bilge fumes a bilge blower, with bilge pump reserved for the pump that empties water from the bilge. The pump wont remove petrol vapours of course, Im not even sure if they are rated to not spark btw.

RickJ - I wouldnt be too comfortable using that catalytic heater all night either. I used one in my old air cooled 1970 VW Microbus since it had no engine heat to speak of, one day came out to the parking lot and found the propane cylinder had leaked the whole contents into the bus. Could have easily set it off with the door light and been the first solo trip to the Moon.... The other issue if it blows out (or just goes out) the propane can snuff you out while sleeping. At very least have well-maintained gas sniffers on board.