The Taylor's pressure paraffin was a great little heater, but no-one with a brain the size of a gnat would walk off and leave one for more than a few minutes.  And these days the cost of spare parts, even if you can afford the kero, makes them unrealistic for anyone who uses one regularly.

Reflex stoves downdraught, as Arne says.

So do Dickenson and another Canadian manufacturer whose name escapes me at the moment.  But at least they come with a fan to create a force draught which can overcome this problem.  Fitting an H-chimney reduces it, too.

Forced air heaters are noisy and quite greedy on electricity.  They only like thin 'winter' diesel such as you buy in North America and northern Europe.  They don't like the standard stuff that you buy in warmer countries (that still have chilly winters!), so you need to use kero which rather mitigates the supposed advantage that you only have one fuel.

All the ones designed for installation only in boats are very expensive because they are usually built on a one-by-one basis with lots of custom parts. 

Mark Thomasson wrote:

For very pretty and inexpensive solid fuels stove look at Windy Smithy.  Being solid steel may not last as long, but half the price of the Dickinson.

One point I noted in Arne note was the wish to shut down the air supply almost completely, this is not a good idea as it can lead carbon monoxide fumes, very dangerous. (though perhaps a 'nice' way to go when the time comes?!)  Solid fuel also burns much more efficiently if burning hot - ie quickly.

Shutting down the inlet air supply to the heater (or rather, reducing it a lot) is not as bad as it sounds. Remember, the heater has a flue which due to being so hot, produces a constant suction, so any lethal exhaust gases , CO2, CO or whatever, will escape through it.

Arne

Yes, those Samphire heaters look very interesting. However, I have developed a healthy respect (read: sceptisism) for oil-burning heaters, and I do have tried a few of them. In contrast, I am perfectly comfortable with primus type cookers where I generally can look after them while in use.

The first diesel heater I encountered (in a friend’s boat) was a medium size Danish Reflex with a pot burner. This has a float type ‘carburettor’ sort of regulator, which ensures a constant and adjustable heat. Made of ss-steel, this heater has lasted for decades. The drawback is that it gets blown out fairly easily and then the pot is partly flooded before the regulator shuts off. A messy clean-out must be done before re-lighting.

The next was a Taylor with pot burner and drip-regulator. The regulator was very tricky: If the heat was turned up a bit, it would soon run away because the valve, being heated up, increased the drip rate alarmingly. Only after guarding and tweaking with it for 30 minutes to stabilise it, could one  leave it. ( a later owner very nearly lost Malena because of the Taylor running away).Like the Reflex, the Taylor too could be blown out by downdraft. Luckily, Taylor had fitted it with a temp. sense valve (like on gas cookers), so it would shut off and not flood the pot. Unfortunately, the combustion chamber was of low grade thin iron, which fell apart after a few years.

The last Taylor I fitted for Johanna was one with an Optimus (Primus type) paraffin burner. This, at least was not affected by down-draft. However, due to the nature of these burners, I would not go to sleep with it on.

A hybrid version was made by another friend of mine. He fitted his Taylor pot-burner heater with a Reflex type regulator. This way he got a perfectly stable heat and no chance of run-away. In addition, when the flame blew out, Taylor’s built-in heat sense shut off the fuel at once. The best of both worlds. Of course, this heater also needs a new combustion chamber every 5 – 10 years.

So how about this Sampfire? Its balanced flue and glowing mesh most probably ensures it will not be blown out by down-draft. The regulator is a simple valve, but at least it is not clamped to the heater, so will probably not run away. Still, I would like to see some sort of heat sense (a la Taylor) to ensure it shuts itself completely off if the heat output reaches a critically low level (stopping the evaporating of the fuel from working). Time will show. I look forward to seeing independent tests of it.

My point is that any heater must be made in a way that lets you safely leave it on for a few hours.

Cheers, Arne

PS: The price on that Samphire was rather stiff  -  I can get a solid fuel heater for half that price, even in the  high-cost country, Norway.

This heater looks interesting:

http://www.samphireseastoves.co.uk/home