I cooked on kero for the best part of 35 years. I have three objections to it: it (eventually) discolours the deckhead; you, your boat and everything on it smell of kero, if you live on board; spares are eye-wateringly expensive. In NZ there is an additional issue in that getting hold of good kero is a bit of a mission.

Arne - 2 minutes is sufficient to preheat the burner.  If you can get hold of one of the wicks that Tilley make for their lamps, they are perfect for lighting the stove and save alcohol.

I have considered fitting a kero stove to SibLim - they are cheap second hand, but overall, now that I don't use oil lamps - too expensive to run! - I'd rather go with alcohol.

Today I went back, almost to square one. I brought on board the old Optimus 155 from Johanna (Edit: its burners are model 207B with internal needle). I guess I installed that new in 2000, but it has been out of use for a few years.

Compared to most alcohol stoves, this feels like a real power station. Its data vary a bit, I have seen 2.2kW and 2.5kW (edit: 2.4kW). What I found, was that it brought 0.5l water to boil in less than four minutes  -  that is, after preheating, which took about 3:20min by burning a bottle-cap-full of alcohol.

I am in two minds about what stove to keep in Ingeborg. For my humble use, boiling a cup or two of water for coffee and tea, and occasionally heating some canned soup, the Origo surely makes most sense. For someone who are to do real cooking for several people, the Optimus is the choice. With the fuel prices here in Norway, the Optimus would be a little over half as expensive to run as the Origo, and remember; ten litres of kerosene has almost twice the energy (almost 10kWh/l) as ten litres of ethanol.

Some complain that kerosene is hard to get at these days. Remember then that the ‘preheat liquid’ (Norw. tennvæske), used for preheating grills, actually is kerosene, at least in Scandinavia, so can be had just about everywhere. This seems to be well refined, and my stove just loves the stuff.

I think the perfect setup in a boat would be to either have one or two kerosene burners, and then a single-burner Origo (model 1500), or other ethanol stoves. The last one would be quicker for fast, small jobs, and would also be better for long-time simmering at very low setting.

.. but I like the Optimus  -  I even prefer the smell of burnt kerosene over that from the Origo  -  in the end I guess it is a question of sense versus sensibility...

Arne

 
..the Optimus 155 showing muscles...

PS: I guess sense win, so the Origo will be re-installed tomorrow...

Darren Bos wrote:

But, for those with less experience, maybe it is worth pointing out the danger of CO poisoning?

David,

I see your point with the missing rail, the steel body and the low power. Still, I had a two-burner Optimus paraffin stove in Malena, with a steel body, and that held very well.

Actually, I was thinking of giving the Salsa another job (in addition to cooking): To heat the cabin. If it turns out to burn without making smoke, smell or soot, that could produce cheaper kilo-Watt-hours than my present butane-cartridge heater. Combined with a 12V fan, it would turn into a Poor Man’s Webasto.

The butane heater was supposed to be very safe in use and turn itself off if tipped over, or if the O₂ dropped below 16%. However, one day I returned to the boat, there was a suspect smell of gas. It turned out that the almost full cartridge had leaked empty during the last twelve hours. I opened up all hatches and cabin sole and left the place for an hour.

Therefore, I will rather deal with alcohol. I do any filling of canisters etc. in the self-draining cockpit. Any spilling can be washed away with water.

Arne

The hpv Salsa blue flame alcohol stove

If a blue-flame alcohol stove still is on my mind in the future, I might order the single-burner Salsa, or twin burner Mambo, from the German manufacturer, HPV . It seems that Germany, including DDR, has had a long tradition of making these stoves, and the Salsa and Mambo appears to be of quite high quality. However, its output is only 1.0 kW (burning 0.20 l/h), so an efficient pot could be welcome. See the description of it by this user. To me, it looks like the Salsa works much like the Maxie stove, but possibly, the burner lasts longer. Maybe a raised tank (with its own stop valve) would boost its performance a little, and make it less vulnerable to the boat’s heel angle? Wasn’t that what you did to your Maxie stove, David?

Personally, I could think of having two different single-burner stoves side by side each other, in Ingeborg, one hpv-Salsa and one Origo 1500

Arne