Scott Dufour wrote:

Is there anyway to view the Maxie 2 Burner here in the United States?

My new Maxie burner arrived yesterday, courtesy of my daughter in Sydney, and I've made an album which I'll devote to photos of the cooker I intend to build around it.

Amos,

I had one, and it worked fine, except that it was vulnerable to draughts - a little puff from the top would blow it out, at low flame. The problems are fivefold, I think:

• I don't know of a model that's made from marine grade non-corrodible materials, that would last long enough to be worth installing.
• I don't know of a model that is able to work in a heeling, rolling, pitching boat. They all have loose parts and rely on being in a static environment.
• They are tall - there's the tank, then the burner, then the flame modifying device that makes it burn hot and clean.
• At the beginning and end of burning, there's always some part-burnt fuel and vapour released. You would have to live with darkened paint around the galley.
• When not in use, there's always a small amount of evaporation of fuel. The cabin - and you - would smell of kero.

I've been exploring this in depth recently. I at present have six kerosene/paraffin cookers, including a three burner "Shipmate" with oven, three classic brass in the Primus style, and a Coleman I converted from white gas.  In addition, there's  two "Homestrand" alcohol pressure stoves, and  pressurized gas stoves not a few. Forgive me, I'm OCD.

I don't like butane or propane. The small cylinders corrode far to easily, and the large ones are a bomb.

I have to say that my favorite stove thus far is the now relatively rare Toyotomi kerosene cooker, which is currently out of production, (a close second is the Korean "Alpaca.") although a newer model is available outside the US. It's a non-pressurized wicked "flame spreader" stove much on the same plan as the "Perfection" kero/paraffin stove that was popular in the US for about 100 years, and is still in limited production among the Amish.

Lighting is simplicity itself. Raise the fiberglass wick and touch a flame to it. Wait three minutes for the flame to regulate, at which point the unit will be burning with a very pure blue flame. When cooking is finished, lower the wick. At this point, there may be a small puff of smoke. 

However, there are no flare-ups. There is no chance of explosive vapor in the bilge. The stoves will only leak fuel if heeled over 45 degrees or more. These stoves burn pure enough on good fuel so there is no blackening of pots or other issues. They are also relatively easily adapted for pot rails for cooking whilst underway.

I bought enough wicks -- still a very commonly available item, and the only consumable part  -- for my Toyotomi to last four or more years of of constant use for $36 USD.

The easy way is hard enough. 

David Thatcher wrote:

My last four boats have been equipped with LPG stoves and based on my experiences of the last 20 years with these stoves, LPG would always be the fuel of choice for me. LPG is generally readily available at very reasonable prices. If the installation of the pipes is done correctly with the proper connectors then leakage of fuel into the boat should not occur. Any proper marine gas stove should be fitted with automatic shut off at the burners so should the flame go out the gas will not continue to flow. I have an American Force 10 stove which is now almost 20 years old but still in excellent condition. On Footprints our gas is stored in two 4.5kg alloy bottles which are easy to handle and easy to stow and cost less than NZ$20 to fill. We also find that one bottle of gas lasts a very long time. On our cruise to New Caledonia in 2013 I knew that LPG was very difficult to obtain in that particular country. So I took along our two 4.5kg bottles and an extra 9kg bottle of gas to hopefully see us through the three months of cruising. On our return to New Zealand at the end of the 3 months one of the 4.5kg bottles was untouched.

I don't like the fact that the Powers That Be can interfere with my cooker arrangement in NZ.  I don't like the bottles running out when I'm cooking.  I don't like the fact that even a 4.5 kg bottle is quite a lump to lug into and out of a dinghy and carry to a filling station when I'm cruising, to say nothing of the difficulty of finding somewhere to fill the bottles in the first place.  I can think of no anchorage, offhand, that is in easy walking distance of a place that would top up my bottles for me.  It would be different if I had a home base and access to a car.  However, I'm planning for self-sufficiency, and liquid fuel from the handy 4-Square store seems the best bet for me.