Propane stoves

[BobnCamie]

A awful lot depends on you ventilation. After operating a ice fishing business in n Mn. I found the main problem was fresh air intake for both furnace and lights. I heated,lit,and cooked all with propane. CO2 is heavier than air and is readily absorbed by water. Keep this in mind. If you have a co2 detector(highly recommended) keep it low to the floor. Most place it high,big mistake, keep it lower than your head when on the bed. Also, remember that most of the time you will smell propane. The scent is placed by the supplier,and this costs money. Some will try to cut corners and not put much in. I know this from personnel experience. Perhaps not so much in the states, but I have seen it done. I still use some in my house, but switched to non-pressurized alcohol in boats,both of them,simply to the draw backs of propane. Many will say I am whacky, but have seen fishermen sitting in the house when it is calm out(no air turn over in house)and cold. They were all 5 very droopy and within a hour or so from dead. Use what you want, but just be watchful. Alcohol has its own set of problems, but none involve the silent killer if you we any kind of aware

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by BobnCamie

A awful lot depends on you ventilation. After operating a ice fishing business in n Mn. I found the main problem was fresh air intake for both furnace and lights. I heated,lit,and cooked all with propane. CO2 is heavier than air and is readily absorbed by water. Keep this in mind. If you have a co2 detector(highly recommended) keep it low to the floor. Most place it high,big mistake, keep it lower than your head when on the bed. Also, remember that most of the time you will smell propane. The scent is placed by the supplier,and this costs money. Some will try to cut corners and not put much in. I know this from personnel experience. Perhaps not so much in the states, but I have seen it done. I still use some in my house, but switched to non-pressurized alcohol in boats,both of them,simply to the draw backs of propane. Many will say I am whacky, but have seen fishermen sitting in the house when it is calm out(no air turn over in house)and cold. They were all 5 very droopy and within a hour or so from dead. Use what you want, but just be watchful. Alcohol has its own set of problems, but none involve the silent killer if you we any kind of aware

Hi BobnCamie, I'm assuming you're referring to carbon monoxide (CO) and not carbon dioxide (CO2) in your comments. (CO2) is harmless. CO is the silent killer. CO kills b/c it essentially replaces oxygen (O2) in our blood, slowly starving the body of oxygen.

While alcohol does have some benefits as a fuel, I'm not aware that those benefits extend to a reduced danger of CO production. Since CO is the product of incomplete combustion of carbon molecules (in this case: C2H6O), I'd still expect carbon monoxide to be a byproduct of any incomplete combustion. Ventilation should still be required for any prolonged usage.

[BobnCamie]

Hi Mike, my error. Should not post after a couple. Thanks for the reminder. Either quit posting or quit drinking. Good bye. No, not really. You are correct. But what I was getting to with my preference with alchohol is the evaporative qualities of it,compared with the propane. Being heavier than air, unnoticed propane in the bilge scares me. We had a leak in a basement few years back. I did notice early enough, but still quite a show as the flash was started near the water heater and scooted across the floor. Like I said, not much leakage, but was enough. Both are dangerous,both require large amounts of respect. As they say, "to each their own". By the way, I do have a propane grill that will be on the stern rail, which I plan to use mainly. Almost 50 deg. F. today with a south wind of 15-20 mph. It is a start.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by BobnCamie

Hi Mike, my error. Should not post after a couple. Thanks for the reminder. Either quit posting or quit drinking. Good bye. No, not really. You are correct. But what I was getting to with my preference with alchohol is the evaporative qualities of it,compared with the propane. ...

No problem Bob (or is this Camie?). I've been there ... too often .

That's a scary story. I agree with you about the dangers of propane, and I like alcohol. My previous boat had an old pressure-alcohol stove, and it was great. The new Origio systems are even better. I now have a propane system on my new (old) boat. I like it just fine, and am not going to switch back to alcohol, but it is a concern. We are pretty careful about how we use it. In addition to the stove and solenoid switches we always close the tank off at the tank valve when we're not using it. Our tank sits on top of our cabin, so a leak at the tank would drain directly overboard.

Alcohol has its own safety challenges, but I agree that overall, it is probably safer.

[BobnCamie]

Naw,this is Bob. If and when Camie puts pen to paper,so to say, it will make sense. Not the ramblings of an old fat guy. We had propane on the O'day we had, but with the center cockpit of our new(to us) there is nowhere to keep a 20 lb. tank except cabled to rail. That may happen for grill yet. Sitting in the SUN getting a TAN today. Almost 60 out of wind on east side of house! Hope to run into you,not literally, on the big puddle this summer.

[BobnCamie]

Mike, I cannot express how happy we are with the alcohol stove. Cooks as good as any propane I ever used,and that is saying something. I was dubious at first use, as all the nay-sayers wrote. Fantastic. Cannot imagine and will not ever use propane on boat again. As with anchors, am sure some will try to de-bunk, but as one who has propane in the house,leaving soon so not for long, and in fish houses, I will maintain total joys with choice. And better yet, wife is happier than I, so imagine my mood!

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by BobnCamie

Mike, I cannot express how happy we are with the alcohol stove. Cooks as good as any propane I ever used,and that is saying something. I was dubious at first use, as all the nay-sayers wrote. Fantastic. Cannot imagine and will not ever use propane on boat again. As with anchors, am sure some will try to de-bunk, but as one who has propane in the house,leaving soon so not for long, and in fish houses, I will maintain total joys with choice. And better yet, wife is happier than I, so imagine my mood!

Glad to hear Bob. Did you get a new Origo stove? I've never used one, but I hear nothing but good things about them. Although I am happy with my current propane system, I would have no hesitation to move to an alcohol stove for coastal cruising. They are definitely safer than propane, and alcohol works great as a cooking fuel. My one single concern with alcohol for distant cruising is the energy density of alcohol and storage capacity. But that's not an issue for most cruisers.

Hope we cross wakes one of these years. We begin our long-term cruising in a couple of weeks. It will take a couple of years to get through the Great Lakes and get out to the Atlantic. We'll get south eventually.

[mbianka]

I personally like cooking with propane. But, when I discovered some corrosion on the gas header and burners on my 25 year old stove/oven I dismantled it and now just use it's gimbaled shell for storage and surface for a single propane burner portable replacement:
THE BIANKA LOG BLOG: RETHINKING PROPANE USE ON BOARD: Dismantling the Hillerange Stove Part Two
Spent last season cooking with it as an experiment and found out it worked well for me. Plus I can move it outside if I want to keep the cabin cool on hot days. YMMV!

[BobnCamie]

The stove is exact copy of origo,called cook-mate 4200. No idea what 4200 is beside possible btu rating. It gets as hot as we will ever need it. And also, the NH composter is working very well,also. Thank you for the "heads-up" so to say. Been in use about 3 weeks now and feel one of the better investments. As for fuel, in states, any where sells it. Ace Hdwe,Menards,Wally World,etc. Carib. I do not know,yet. I carry 2 extra gallons in old rosella gallon oil jugs. Heavier build than milk jugs,etc,etc. seems as a gallon will last over the 21 day time frame, but if wife has cooking spree, level adjusts accordingly. Cost per gal. Ranges from around $7.50/gal. U.S. To $17/gal. so attention is valuable. Again, thank you for the ideas. Very pleased with both.
By the way, finally on big lake 3 weeks ago. Still was some ice stacked on south shore here. What a winter! Bob

[BobnCamie]

Forgot to mention, wife turned her 6 week notice in last Friday. We will be leaving Superior,Wi around 15 th of Aug. heading to Chicago by end of Sept,I hope. Look for "Eclipse"!

[Mike OReilly]

Great to hear about the new head and the stove. The new alcohol stoves are a lot more efficient. Our old pressure alcohol stove used about a gallon/week. A gallon/3-weeks is wonderful. You're right, you can find alcohol anywhere in Canada and USA. I'm sure it will work out really well.

We too love our NH. It's also been one of the best changes we've made to our boat as well. We recovered a ton of storage space with the removal of the holding tank and hoses. No more pump outs. Works really well for two full-timers.

Originally Posted by BobnCamie

Forgot to mention, wife turned her 6 week notice in last Friday. We will be leaving Superior,Wi around 15 th of Aug. heading to Chicago by end of Sept,I hope. Look for "Eclipse"!

Congratulations! We're racing to get going by early July. Our plans have us going out the St. Lawrence to NFLD, but that will happen next year. This year our plans are to wonder the Great Lakes and get down to Lake Ontario. That will put us in a good place for next year's journey. We'll eventually turn right and head to the Bahamas, but we may linger in NFLD and the Maritimes for a few years. Who knows...

Hope we see you out there some year. If you hear "Pachina Mia" on the VHF give us a shout.