Stoves. Mauro Pau: thanks for that little write-up. I too have followed these discussions.
Having used a kerosine pressure stove (and loved it) in my early boating days – followed by many years with the more convenient LPG, I don’t think LPG can be beat, for convenience in the galley – provided the gas bottle AND ITS REGULATOR AND CUT-OFF VALVE are all mounted outside the boat. (Bottle mounted next to the stove “so it can conveniently be turned off when not in use” is a fool of an idea, as the regulator is never to be totally relied upon and this needs to be outside). I have used an electro-magnetic remote switch for many years, to shut the valve off when not in use – they are expensive and although fairly reliable I have had one failure over many years. If your battery goes flat, you can’t cook. A couple of years ago I modified a standard gas cut-off valve so that it could be mounted on the outside of the cabin with just the shaft and turning nob inside the cabin, next to the galley. I now think this is the best solution. The standard barbeque bottles are a bit heavy to lug for long distances – I have smaller bottles but they are less easy to get filled, and need to be exchanged more often. Finally – there is always that nagging thought that about once every year we read in the newspaper of yet another boat burned to the water-line, though I don’t really understand how this can happen and the actual probability of it must be very low.
I don’t think I want to go back to pressure kerosine – the burners are expensive, and although I love that homely roar - fooling around with pre-heating them has lost its appeal, somehow. My first commercial fishing trip was memorable in that it included a fire on board from a pressure alcohol stove. These work something along the lines of the kerosine pressure stove and burn pretty hot. This one sprung a leak somewhere and set the deckhead on fire – an interesting experience when at sea, with no life raft – fortunately the skipper was an ex-fireman, somewhat sanguine about the whole affair – elbowed me aside and carried the flaming mass in his hands out into the cockpit but then hesitated - rather than throw it overboard, decided to beat the flames out and repair the stove for future use. Coincidently the CO2 fire extinguisher was on shore at the time, at some filling station.
So, one comes back inevitably to the idea of a stove which does not burn gas or vapour under pressure (nor fossil fuel). These Origo stoves come up for sale from time to time – by the ridiculous price they seem to command I assume they are now some sort of collector’s item. I managed to buy one a few months ago – a two burner unit which had been rarely used, in fact one of the burners seems to have never been used. I haven’t tried it yet. Frankly, to look at it, simple as it is and with no moving or gas-tight parts, I think it is a grossly over-priced piece of poorly manufactured junk (if you don’t mind me using that expression) though people who know about these things seem to like them. The burners look OK: nice and simple. The clunky ss body work is what seems to be poorly made. I wish I could dispense with it and use the burners separately. In fact, one burner is probably all I need.
(While I am at it, I’ll touch on the subject of swinging stoves. Again, people who know about these things seem to prefer a fixed stove. Most of my stoves have been swung athwartships and I’ll go out on a limb and say this is definitely my preferred configuration, having cooked many a breakfast and brewed untold cups of coffee while lying a-hull, in rolly-polly conditions, waiting for fishing gear to soak, and never failing to marvel at how perfectly the swung stove maintains its horizontal aspect. I hope this diatribe provokes comments - I'm willing to be persuaded otherwise).
The Trangia stove looks like an interesting solution and I am interested to know more about it. The single-burner Trangia is advertised in NZ at the moment as costing less than $150. It’s tempting to cash up my investment in the Origo, and buy one or maybe two of these. Can anyone tell me if they perform better or worse than the Origo? Anyone done a boil test (time taken to boil a litre of water) on one of these things? Being of a somewhat impatient temperament, I suppose boil time is going to be an important issue – especially with a non-pressure alcohol stove. I quite like the idea of a single burner, or two independently-mounted single burners. Does anyone know how the Trangia stoves perform, in comparison to the Origo?
They are on special price here at the moment – is this the model you have bought Mauro?
This is more like the price one might be expected to pay, for such a simple little device.