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Dec 5, '05 11:44 AM
by falmouthballad1 for everyone

I have a two burner, Origo stove on my Ballad. The advantages are the relative safety and simplicity of an alcohol stove compared with gas, light weight, no need for cumbersome gas cylinders taking up cockpit locker space, and there is space to store pots and pans in the cupboard below the stove.

The disadvantages are the absence of a grill and oven and the problem of fumes from methylated spirits (this is the form of alcohol sold in UK hardware stores and I think is predominately ethyl alcohol with some methyl alcohol added. I think this is to make it unpleasant to drink. Unfortunately the meths seems to have a variable but definite tendency to produce fumes compared to the pure ethyl alcohol that I have used and is available in other countries in Europe.

Is there anyway round this without having to dash across the channel and stock up with pure ethyl alcohol? And another thought, does anyone in the discussion group use a paraffin stove or diesel stove?

David

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4 CommentsChronological Reverse Threaded

msn-ballad9x7 wrote on Dec 5, '05

Hi David

You mentioned paraffin in your message. We have an Optimus paraffin stove on our Ballad. It has a two burner hob and separate oven. Main advantages are: both the burners and the oven are very efficient, no gas and therefore no safety worries in this direction, cheap to run, fuel readily available in UK at least and it is quite easy to carry enough spare fuel on board.

Disadvantages, equipment is expensive to buy new (but ours came with the boat), burners need pre-heating and the pre-heaters can be temperamental, flare ups if insufficient pre-heating is used, there is a smell and there is no easy automatic heat control on the oven.

In practice the stove just takes a bit of getting used to and we have stuck with paraffin for many years on this boat (and the previous one.) Hope this helps.

Chris

msn-falmouthballad1 wrote on Dec 6, '05

Thanks Chris for your helpful summary of the Optimus. From your letter perhaps the main advantage of the Optimus over the alcohol stove seems to be its efficiency (the alcohol stove is quite slow) and the oven but I am disappointed that you get some fumes.

I do remember in the distant past, having a primus stove on my first cruising boat; like the Ballad it was a beautiful Swedish design - a Tumlare (designed by Knud Reimers). My memory is that the primus worked very well. I can't recall a problem with fumes but maybe I wasn't so fussy in those days.

David

msn-cracklinrosie07 wrote on Jul 7, '08

Hi David,

We also have an Origo two burner which we installed to replace the previous rather dangerous/ out dated gas installation. With regards to the smell of the UK methylated spirit and fumes we tend to add a little water to the alcohol which tends to reduce the smell. We have also found that the smell varies quite a lot between types of alcohol used, some give out a really strong smell. At the moment we are using the Robert Dyas brand which seems ok and also quite a good value for large bottles. However, toast making is not an option....

Rachel

msn-falmouthballad1 wrote on Jul 7, '08

Hi Rachel

Interested that you sometimes add a little water to the meths to reduce the fumes. I have found that pure ethyl alcohol works the best and has hardly any fumes, is relatively easy to obtain in, for example, the Netherlands but more difficult to obtain in the UK. You have to persuade the chemist that it is for fuel for the stove and not for yourself!.

David

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