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CNG cost !?

Sven

Seglare
Serendipity has a CNG-fueled stove and oven. That is a great solution for local cruising but wouldn't be usable in most of the world so we were already planning its ultimate replacement. What really stunned us was the $35 charge for a filled tank (looks like a standard 80 cf 3000 psi SCUBA tank). That $35 tank seems to supply two or three oven dinners (1.5 hours each) and two or three percolated pots of coffee (20 minutes each).

Those numbers don't seem to add up to a reasonable cost per meal so we may ditch the CNG stove a lot sooner than we'd expected, but I first want to make sure there isn't something drastically wrong in the setup. Do my numbers seem reasonable or are any of them out of whack ?

Thanks,


-Sven
 

u079721

Contributing Partner
Prices for a CNG tank refill can vary from $20 to $50, so that part is unfortunately reasonable. (Though as I've posted here before, the actual gas content can be as little as $0.46 per tank.)

As for how long one tank lasts, nominally it is supposed to last for 20 burner-hours, though I'm not sure if the oven counts as one burner or two. So your duration does seem a bit low. We used to cruise for a month at a time and use about 1.5 bottles (we carried two), heating water for tea in the morning, often making grilled cheese for lunch, and cooking dinner (including oven pizza at times) every day.
 

Phil MacFarlane

Member III
Another problem is you can’t get CNG in most places. You won’t find it in Mexico, ask me how I know. You should have heard the laughter on the net when I asked where I could get some!
You would be much better off switching to the less safe but otherwise much better, propane.
If you want to stay with CNG I will make you a killer deal on another tank.

Mary Christmas

Phil
 

Guy Stevens

Moderator
Moderator
Is the stove a gas systems?

If the stove is a gas systems stove which most of them were that were CNG, you can replace the jets so that the stove burns propane and not have to get a new stove.

Contact me Back Channel I may even have a set of jets around here somewhere!

Guy
:)
 

Sven

Seglare
Thx for the feedback

Nancy just reminded me that the oven dinners were accompanied by two or three top burner dishes too so maybe the consumption is close to the 20 hours that we should be expecting. The dinners were certainly wonderful so I shouldn't complain.

The lack of CNG outside the US is why we were planning to replace the current system. We just weren't planning on replacing it so soon.

Our first choice would be a Wallas diesel stove, if we <B>ever</B> find a current owner who can tell us if excess cabin heat and diesel smell are not a problem. I have asked on several other forums but the stoves must be very rare (too expensive ?).

If it isn't a Wallas it will be the Origo.

So, sorry Phil, we're not in the market for a 3rd CNG tank but appreciate the offer :)


-Sven
 

Cory B

Sustaining Member
CNG Usage

Our rule of thumb when we had CNG was 100 psi=1hr of low-medium heat stovetop time, and don't plan on getting much out of the last 100 psi of the tank. And using the oven burned through the CNG real fast.

Our local natural gas supplier filled our CNG tanks in the 2500-2700-ish PSI range.

When we augmented our CNG with the propane barbecue we could make it last a long time.
 

Sven

Seglare
Hi Guy,

Contact me Back Channel I may even have a set of jets around here somewhere!

Many thanks for the offer. How did you end up in possession of replacement jets you didn't use ? Let us figure out what we are going to do near term and take you up on the offer if we decide to go propane. Thanks for the generous offer.

Cory,

Our local natural gas supplier filled our CNG tanks in the 2500-2700-ish PSI range.

When we augmented our CNG with the propane barbecue we could make it last a long time.

Did he actually fill your tank or swap it for one that was already filled ? The one we got in a swap actually registered about 3,000 when we first installed it but 2,700 is pretty typical of a SCUBA tank which is filled to 3,000 and then cools down.

We used a propane grill for all our cooking and coffee on La Petite until we got the Origo. Now we use that grill in the back yard :)


-Sven
 

Frank G

Member II
My big project for this last year was to ditch the CNG system and switch to Propane. I read that a bottle of CNG was equivalent to 2 lbs of propane. It has less energy density. Also, I couldn't get CNG in Knoxville. I bought a Force 10 oven, an aluminum 10 lb tank, and a solenoid/gas sniffer system from West. They gave me a 10% discount because I asked for it, and no shipping costs, which would have been about 250 bucks on the stove alone.
A total pain in the ass job if you do all the ABYC recommendations, but you really don't want to mess with propane.

By the way, the Force 10 stove/oven was top rated by Practical Sailor.

I gave away my CNG bottle to a fellow sailor with this system, but he doesn't use it anyway.
 

Cory B

Sustaining Member
Sven,

Here in Portland the local natural gas franchise would fill our tanks, as long as they were properly certified - basically pressure tested every 5 years. They had an adapter and filled the tanks from the same "pumps" as they used for their CNG auto fleet. The price varied between about $7 and $15 over the years partially depending on who did it (one of the guys was a sailor and for some reason he always charged us less) - it sure beat driving to Seattle and paying $35 for a tank exchange.

We were generally quite happy with the CNG stove, and appreciated the safety aspects. All that said I'm glad we have propane on the current boat.
 
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ted_reshetiloff

Contributing Partner
Last timeI filled mine it was $60 but that was an exchange at Bert Jabins in Annapolis so $35 sounds pretty good to me. Not sure what it is today, my tank lasts me one season. I thought about the conversion to propane but for the amount of cooking below we do it wasnt worth it. Probably use the oven once or twice a summer, mainly for toasting bagels. Way too hot for letting that sucker run for 1.5 hrs :eek: With propane you should also make sure you have all the requisite safety equipment which adds to the cost as well. If I were going liveaboard cruising I would do the swap but for weekend warrior and occasional 2 week cruise I found much better places to spend money...FWIW many E boats have a dedicated locker already built so the change should not be too difficult once you have new orifices.
 

treilley

Sustaining Partner
Consider yourself lucky. $65 for a swap and the local filling station refuses to fill tanks even with an adapter.

Wee BBQ a lot and have never used the oven. We can usually get a 4 mo. season out of 1 tank and we refill for our 2 week cruise.
 
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