Arne Kverneland wrote:

Annie,

The problem with my suggestion was that I looked at both stoves and heaters.

On the heaters I have seen, in particular the Taylor pot burner, there is a potentially dangerous regulator problem (run-away). A calibrated dose-pump, adjustable for setting of the heaters output, would solve that.

I remember those regulators only too well.  Some people I knew almost lost their beautiful wooden boat when the heater 'ran away'.  It was quite terrifying.

Alcohol stoves of the hot blue-flame type only need a low pressure from the overhead tank (much, much lower than in a Primus-style kerosene stove), but this low pressure must be constant. This constant pressure can more easily be achieved by a manual or electric pump. The setting of the burner’s output would still be done with a valve close to the burner, as described by David.

Now you've got me a bit confused.  What are these 'hot blue-flame type' of stoves.  The only alcohol stoves I know are the pressure ones; the Origo type, the Maxie type and the ones that essentially just burn pure alcohol from a little dish.  Is it this last one to which you refer?

I admit; Jim Creighton’s link to stoves had me purchase a little stand-alone alcohol burner (it will arrive in some weeks). My thought is to try it and then modify it to feed it from an external tank. If the output of the burner is good, and it doesn’t crumble after a few months of use, then that could be an alternative to the Maxie.

What sort of alcohol burner did you buy, Arne?  Jim's link led me to what I've always called a 'Primus': a standard. pressure kerosene stove.

Cheers, Arne

PS: Don’t talk yourself down, Annie. When I read your books and when I see the fine work you are doing on building SibLim, I bow to the dust. There is no way I could equal your standard, whether it be writing or boatbuilding. It is just that we focus on different things, and in the end, we tend to get quite good on what we have focused on for a while. Talent is 90% interest. These days, I am struggling with fitting a WC in a cramped compartment of my little Ingeborg. I wish I had your brains, right now!

You are too kind, Arne.  I completely rebuilt the WC in Fantail, but came to really dislike it.  I would suggest that you don't struggle with a marine toilet.  Go compost - you'll never regret it and it will save you from having to make two holes in your beautiful Ingeborg!

Here's an interesting DESCA 2 burner sprituskocher in good condition. It might not be a good boat's cooker as-is, but would be an intro into the world of cooking on an alcohol stove.

I learned a new word tonight, "spirituskocher".  Apparently the Germans have been making Maxie-type stoves for some time.  Searching spirituskocher on ebay.de yielded results for quite a few stoves that work like a Maxie, even a nice stainless unit by a company called Enders.  Most of these you would just take the burner and maybe the tank, and then build yourself a new enclosure.

I also found a new stove available on Amazon as well as some camping stores, it is called a Spirituskocher Salsa.  The burner is similar to the Maxie, but it has a nice brass appearance to it.  Maybe it would be longer lived than the Maxie burner?

Here is a link to a review of the Salsa stove that gives some nice detailed pics of the burner.  Here is a video of the same stove for those who are wondering how these stoves work or those who would like to see the details of the inside of the burner (look around 6:45 in the video).

I'm not sure how long-lived the framework of the Salsa would be, but powder coated steel should last long enough to figure out if you want to build a nice stainless body for the burners.   For 65 Euro for the one burner model (105 Euro for the two burner) maybe someone is interested in the experiment. 

Vlad Sokolsky wrote:

David,

Could you please post a detailed sketch of Maxie burner with the all possible dimensions.    

Sorry, I won't be able to do this for more than a week.

Regarding the Maxie stove's availability, here's the response I got from Whitworths when I checked yesterday if they'd ship to the US:

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Love to help but we can't even get stock of these stoves ourselves!

It's a small shop business that makes them and supply of complete stoves and spare parts is woeful - he apparently has a large contract for the Australian Army and that consumes his time and energy, humble retailers like ourselves rate a very distant last.

Our current order for new stoves has been in for 9 months and still no sign of delivery .... but we live in hope. 

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