Propane Stove Selection

[atkinketch]

I am replacing a kerosene stove with a propane stove. I am looking at gimbeled 3 burner stoves with ovens. Does anyone know of good brands or brands to avoid? Other features? Many thanks.

[Hankthelank]

Originally Posted by atkinketch

I am replacing a kerosene stove with a propane stove. I am looking at gimbeled 3 burner stoves with ovens. Does anyone know of good brands or brands to avoid? Other features? Many thanks.

There is a stove on ebay made by an italian company that I am looking at. It isn't a full oven only a broiler, with 4 top burners. Its primarily marketed towards RV's but I think it would work well in a sailboat. Best thing is the cost!!! here's the link:

4 burner, broiler, Smev, RV, Marine, Camper, Stainless:eBay Motors (item 170354415648 end time Jul-11-09 08:56:14 PDT)

Hank

[Vasco]

The latest Force 10's are very good.

[cabo_sailor]

I am planning on replacing my 2 burner Tasco with a 3 burner Force 10. I love to cook and while I could live with just 2 burners, I really do want an oven with a broiler. As far as I know, Force 10 is the only one out there with a broiler.

Rich

[s/v Moondancer]

Force 10, according to my wife, is the best

[mesquaukee]

We have a Force10 with an oven, broiler and two burners. We also a 2nd Force10 cooktop. Never had any problems.

[Artful Dodger]

We have just recently purchased a force 10 three burner with oven and are very pleased with it, it is actually better than what we expected. Only note I would pass along is be sure of your pressure regulator, as we had a problem at first which was with pressure regulator.

[Cheechako]

I've had Magic Chef, Shipmate and some others.... I think it's hard to get a bad propane stove, but I would look for thermocouples on each burner and if you want an oven how hard it will be to light etc. I think the magic chef was basically an RV stove, but it worked great.
Hankthelank: wow, that little italian stove looks very nice....

[donradcliffe]

We bought a Tasco last year, and the admiral is much happier with it.

[Beausoleil]

We have a four-burner Force 10 installed last year, and the Admiral is generally happy with it, except for 3 nits:

1. The broiler heats unevenly - dead center in the oven is fine, but heat is much lower around the edges (left/right/back/front). A re-design with a larger ceramic plate would be required to fix that. It also doesn't light consistently - have to use a butane barbecue lighter most times.
2. The oven works fine - except for bread. The bottom tends to burn, even with the rack up high. It's no problem for things like Pop-n-Fresh bread rolls which sit on a baking sheet - just turn it over when about half done.
3. The piezo burner lighters are a bit flukey. The one for the oven knob is reliable, so we just push in the oven knob when lighting any of the four burners. The worst culprit is the knob for the large burner, which is the one we use the most.

I'll admit I haven't taken the thing apart to see what the problem is - I've got higher priority things on my plate!

Don't get me wrong - the four stove burners work great, as does the oven burner...

[phorvati]

I would reccomend Princess from Seaward Products. Got it new in 05. I've lived on the boat for three years while cruising, and the stove is still nice and shiny. I cook a lot every day. The knobs are the only thing that cracked. I tape them and they are still usable.

[jackdale]

I would also support Force 10.

Oven door slides under unit, less unbalanced when gimballed.
Easy to clean

Jack

[Rene]

Our experience with Seward products ( princess 3 burner ) has a few negative aspects. The stainless top, though removable has large openings around the burners ( at least an inch ) this allows a lot of spilt food and liquid to fall below the cooktop. Cleaning this area is a headache due to the maze of gas pipes,thermocouples and ignition wires. Other brands close this gap completly eleminating this problem. The gasket sealing the oven door is a strip of rubber, held in place buy a metal clip at either end. This rubber breaks ( keep several spares on hand as the oven barely works without them. This cheap method of sealing is shared by several brands.

[svcattales]

We replaced an older Force 10 with a new Seaward Princess. The Admiral likes the Princess much better. Oven temps are better regulated and oven burner spans the length of oven rather than a single round burner with a "hot spot" in the middle. Brownies became meteorites in the Force 10, but are perfect in the Princess. Also, inside of oven is porcelain for easier cleaning than stainless steel. We chose Princess after Practical Sailor rated it highest.

[forsailbyowner]

Personally I don't like our princess. As mentioned its a pita to clean. We've been through 2 sets of knobs and they're still breaking. The valve for the oven has always been hard to get from the pilot to temp selection mode. On the good side temp distribution is fairly even in the oven.