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Galley alcohol, gas and diesel cookers/ovens

  • 29 Sep 2017 08:50
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    Reply # 5286339 on 1195343
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    I have checked up the multi-fuel burners. Most of them are of the loud type, and they don’t have an internal cleaning needle. However, some are with silent burners, and could probably be built into an old stove, like the Optimus 155, if needed. Their output seems to be very high, up to 3kW.

    However, by searching on “Petroleum Kocher” (kerosene stove), a few German sites pop up. One even sells brand new Optimus 155 and spares. One, like the Topplicht site, operate in English for those who don’t read German.

    I guess, for serious cooking, one 2.5kW kero burner, plus one Origo 1500 single burner stove is ideal. The last one’s ability to set on simmer heat (and then with a perfectly blue flame) is very useful.

    Btw, during browsing the www, I came over a discussion about kerosene and smell. One fellow stated that by adding 5% denaturized alcohol to the kerosene, the kerosene lamps just about stopped producing any smell.

    Arne

     PS: Yesterday I came over this Swedish site on Kerosene stoves. It is a Facebook site, so maybe one must be on Facebook to make it work. Hopefully the translator makes it understandable.


    Last modified: 29 Sep 2017 09:18 | Anonymous member (Administrator)
  • 29 Sep 2017 07:44
    Quote
    Reply # 5286088 on 5283895
    Anonymous member
    Mark Thomasson wrote:

    I have never tried one - but won't multi-fuel camping stove run off kerosene?  Plenty of spares available.

    Yes, but they are both expensive and diminutive.  OK for camping cooking, but not really the sort of thing you'd want to cook on seriously.
  • 28 Sep 2017 14:01
    Quote
    Reply # 5283895 on 1195343
    Anonymous member

    I have never tried one - but won't multi-fuel camping stove run off kerosene?  Plenty of spares available.
  • 27 Sep 2017 22:04
    Quote
    Reply # 5283157 on 1195343
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    In the end, it seems that the biggest problem with the kerosene stoves is that they  have become so rare. Back in 1982, I could buy the Optimus 555 stove (which Annie mentioned) for Malena over the counter, and I could do the same in 1999 when I bought the Model 155 for Johanna. The shops had spares; jets, needles, gaskets and wotnot. Today I can still buy a brand-new Origo alcohol stove in my local boat-equipment shop, and these last forever without needing any service at all.

    Smell:
    Since most boats up to the eighties had kerosene stoves, no one took much notice of a bit smell from it. There were plenty of other smells around; tar, diesel, fresh varnish  -  and tobacco smoke! Every-one‘s dad was puffing his pipe quite frequently. Today, with very few people smoking, and no one smoking in-doors, a smoker can easily be detected on the smell.

    These days...
    ... kerosene stoves are only available second-hand here, and one has to be one’s own service man  -  no help or advice to get from the neighbouring gin palace (..the www is good to have, though  -  Odin save the Google Advanced Search...).

    In a way, the kero stove is now much like the junk rig: Both the kero stove and the JR depend on your skills to stay in order...

    Arne

     


    Last modified: 28 Sep 2017 08:33 | Anonymous member (Administrator)
  • 27 Sep 2017 20:38
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    Reply # 5283044 on 5283040
    Anonymous member
    Zane Krajancic wrote:

    The smell of Kerosene is pleasant to me and brings back fond childhood memories and I could easily live with it onboard, although I have a yet to be installed Origo alcohol cooker.

     As a young lad our extended family all went camping to the beach every Xmas holidays in a huge tent. No electricity, so lighting and cooking was all Kerosene.  Those were the days.  It's funny how smells can be positive or negative based on your memories and emotions.


    I enjoy going on to a boat redolent with the smell of oil lamps and a Primus.  I just don't really appreciate smelling like that myself!

    I don't think you'd get on with a Primus, Zane - changing the needles is fiddly and requires much patience!
  • 27 Sep 2017 20:30
    Quote
    Reply # 5283040 on 1195343
    Anonymous member

    The smell of Kerosene is pleasant to me and brings back fond childhood memories and I could easily live with it onboard, although I have a yet to be installed Origo alcohol cooker.

     As a young lad our extended family all went camping to the beach every Xmas holidays in a huge tent. No electricity, so lighting and cooking was all Kerosene.  Those were the days.  It's funny how smells can be positive or negative based on your memories and emotions.
  • 27 Sep 2017 04:57
    Quote
    Reply # 5281600 on 5279543
    Anonymous member
    Arne Kverneland wrote:Edit, evening: Tonight I lit the Optimus a final time before reinstalling the Origo. I tried a 2-minute preheat, but that wasn't enough and resulted in a yellow flare-up. Switched to the other burner and preheated it 3:10min with good result. The special thing with the Optimus 111 is that the pan around the burner is closed.  The burner sits in a pit, kind of. This prevents one from spilling any alcohol on the table below, which is good, but on the other hand, airflow is not good to the preheat flame. I guess this is why it takes a little longer to preheat than other models I have used. This is also why I make a funnel from a tin can, to concentrate the preheat flame around the burner.


    Well, there you are!  I used to keep the wick in a jar and clip it over the base of the burner, but that was on an Optimus 555 (I think it was called - the white enamelled one with green hotplates), where the burner was easily accessible.
  • 27 Sep 2017 04:56
    Quote
    Reply # 5281598 on 5281231
    Anonymous member
    Paul Thompson wrote:

    I don't think LC stinks of kero nor does Skatty. If you buy Jet A from the airport it high quality and cost no more than petrol at the pump.

    I didn't think I did either.  I only discovered it when a friend told me that he knew when his cat had been visiting me: it always smelled of kero!  And I'm afraid neither Jet A nor 'denatured' kero are much better :-(

    Edit: don't forget I referred to living aboard rather than just weekending.  It's because everything you own is in the atmosphere that it all starts to smell.  The same friend said he knew when I walked into the room because I was preceded by the pong of paraffin(!)  However, I suspect that using oil lamps multiplies the ssmell dramatically.



    Last modified: 27 Sep 2017 07:20 | Anonymous member
  • 27 Sep 2017 00:41
    Quote
    Reply # 5281231 on 1195343
    Anonymous member

    I use a kero stove on LC and I'm very happy with it. I've only had a flare up twice and both times it was a crew who did not know what they were doing.

    They received detailed instructions but thought they knew better (moral of the story stick to single handing and if you have crew, make it female, they don't think they know everything).

    I don't think LC stinks of kero nor does Skatty. If you buy Jet A from the airport it high quality and cost no more than petrol at the pump.
  • 26 Sep 2017 19:12
    Quote
    Reply # 5280513 on 1195343
    Deleted user

    Arne,

    "Timothy, as for pure lamp oil, I am not so sure. I once tried it on my Optimus, but it simply didn’t work. However much I preheated the stove, it just flared up, so boiling temperature must be much higher than on kerosene. I later learned on a Primus expert's a home-page that lamp oil is not just refined kero, it is something else."

    You're right. It took me a few minutes to discover that, but I left my original statement.  That's why I also mentioned the 'lamplight medallion oil' which is designed for oil lamp use, and designed to burn clean, so it might work in a kero stove. I'd be curious to find out, as I use alcohol stoves with 99% isopropyl, so I don't have a way to test it out :-)
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