New Alcohol stoves? Anyone upgrade yet?

Ok so in the back of my mind I was thinking propane but I just saw a thread on SA which is quite good and what I didn't know is that there are new non pressure Alcohol stoves which everyone seems to say are quite good and not at all like the old stoves of the past having flame outs and all sorts of fun times with flames and pressure pumping etc.

Anyone upgrade to one of these Origo?
http://www.swego.com/mall/stove_4100.asp

Man it would be fantastic if they dropped right into the existing stove location with no modifications. I'm probably dreaming though.

I installed the Origo drop-in three years ago and I'm completely satisfied with its performance. Their claim of bringing one quart of water to a boil at sea level in 8 minutes was right on the money -- I checked it out myself. There is a faintly sweet smell from the burning alcohol but nothing obnoxious. I had to slightly enlarge the cut out that was there for the previous Kenyon alcohol stove. I'd say go for it.

Paul
E29 "Bear"

Factory galley range on our '88 is the Origo 6000. No pressure and No problems in use, and the Admiral regularly bakes chocolate chip cookies with it and also bakes cinnamon rolls.


Here is a prior Origo thread, with some pics.
http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?t=2068&referrerid=28

Loren

Hmmm, my Admiral did not come with that chocolate-chip cookie feature. I was never very fond of alcohol as a humid and not-very-efficient source of BTUs and removed my alcohol stove/oven years ago. The stove, and the tank, take up much more space than their utility allows according to my formula. Whatever doesn't cook on the propane grill on the pushpit or the tiny microwave, just gets consumed "au pirate" -- ie, raw.

tenders,
Please do keep in mind that the Origo design is popular *because* it does not use pressure or have a tank connected...
BTU's are lower for alcohol, admittedly. In actual use with years of use on our prior boat's propane stove system and now this boat with the Origo, I find little practical difference in how soon the morning coffee water gets hot.

When the kettle whistles, it's ready!

Regards,
Loren

I'd give up the potential danger with propane (cooking in the galley) vs the lower btu output of the alc/elec combo. I use a Magma attached to the stern rail and the elec portion of the Kenyon when dockside. I'm thinking of getting a single burner butane for using when I'm 'on the hook'.

I agree with Paul and Loren, the Origo is a great stove. When we bought our E34T the previous owner had recently installed an Origo 6000, and after using it a few times I was sold. Much faster than my old boat's pressurized Kenyon, silent, nothing to clog up, no packing nuts to adjust, no pump to oil, no propane to worry about. At age 17 or so it needs new paint, but still works fine.

Origo

I too agree with the previous posters ... the Origo units work great. I have a propane cooktop on my 38 but a few years ago I borrowed a friend's F-28R for a week long cruise. It had an Origo cooktop and I did not notice an appreciable difference in getting my morning coffee water boiling. 8 to 10 minutes was all, about the same as the propane stove on Kismet. Temperature seemed controlable too, just slide the canister lid to partially cover the hole; simple.

It seems like a safe system too provided you fill the canister away from a source of flame. Alcohol fires can be extinguished with water so that's an advantage I suppose.

Stove alcohol can also double as a handy solvent for some clean-up chores like removing tape residue or cleaning the wet epoxy off your hands.

The smell of the exhaust vapor is sickening though and you will have trouble buying stove alcohol in the Bahamas for one. Other types of alcohol may work though and who knows with ethanol's popularity these days, maybe there will be other sources. Carrying enough fuel for extended cruising may be an issue.

Also note that if you were to spill some alcohol on the countertop and it were to catch fire, you may not notice it since the flame is all but invisible. Your first clue may be the countertop turning black or the curtains going up in flame.

Nothing's perfect and I'm not ready to replace my propane system yet but the Origo system would be as good a compromise as propane.

I have an Origo 4000 stove - works great! I found using the standard stove alcohol fuel (denatured alcohol) some soot tends to build up on the pan bottom. Origo makes their own "soot free" fuel however I can't bring myself to pay the $30 / gal at West Marine. After searching around I found the basic formula for soot free fuel. It consists of 70 percent ethyl alcohol and 30 percent methanol. The ethyl (denatured) alcohol is commonly found in hardware stores for about $15 / gal and methonal can be found at auto racing supply stores for about $6.00 / gal.

Note, the eye stinging or foul smells during heating a cold pot of water is due to the temp affect on the alcohol flame combustion by the cold pan surface. Otherwise known as incomplete combustion. Once the pan temp is about 100 degrees F, the funny smell pretty much goes away.

HTH,

Jeff Gerritsen

P.S. The Adrimal is very happy now the pan bottoms don't soot up at all!

I guess I will be the dissenter here, but I would not recommend an alcohol stove. We had a great two burner Origo alcohol stove on our Precision 23 that we used for five years. Worked OK, and I didn't really think it was that slow. But having to fill it in the cockpit was a pain, especially in the evening if the bugs were out (a big problem in the Great Lakes). Biggest issue was the acetealdehyde in the exhaust fumes (from incomplete combustion of the ethanol). That sickly sweet odor gave us headaches, even with the hatches wide open. Jeff (above) may be right that the odor is less after the system warms up, but we didn't really find that to be the case.

If the odor doesn't bother you, go for it.

I chimed as a proponent of the Origo on the SA thread, but had to respond to the complaint about filling the stove here as well. We fill ours maybe twice each season - in the spring when the alcohol has evaporated out over winter, and again mid season when it is not putting out much heat. Just take the canisters off the boat and fill them on a dock etc so if a bit spills, who cares. After some practice almost none spills anymore when pouring slowly using a funnel. Our season consists of spending roughly 20-30 nights on the boat so the stove gets a bunch of use, but admittedly I would look harder at propane if we lived aboard and used the stove daily, year-round. We think this stove works great on our E33 and the simplicity of use and maintenance as compared with other options really makes this one shine.

Another vote in favor of the Origo.

Longest use I've had was Hawaii - San Francisco... Cooking for 3 for 30 days consumed approx. 1 1/2 gallons.

I was easily able to bake bread and cakes using an unpressurized "pressure cooker" as a Dutch Oven.

The "problem" of filling the canisters (while underway) is no problem if you decant the fuel into smaller containers and use a funnel to fill the canisters.

alcohol stoves vs propane

u079721 said:

I guess I will be the dissenter here, but I would not recommend an alcohol stove. We had a great two burner Origo alcohol stove on our Precision 23 that we used for five years. Worked OK, and I didn't really think it was that slow. But having to fill it in the cockpit was a pain, especially in the evening if the bugs were out (a big problem in the Great Lakes). Biggest issue was the acetealdehyde in the exhaust fumes (from incomplete combustion of the ethanol). That sickly sweet odor gave us headaches, even with the hatches wide open. Jeff (above) may be right that the odor is less after the system warms up, but we didn't really find that to be the case.

If the odor doesn't bother you, go for it.

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absolutly agree with you , I replaced the alcohole stove 5 years ago in my 1986 E 30+ Eden with propane , putting in the required sniffer,etc. cheaper to run, spillproof (spill alcohol at night you cannot see it) I installed a Flamenta you can get it in three colours including stainless steel, I got white
stove with oven from Home Hardware and Judi and I haven"t been happier with the result cleaner, faster, more reliable

Chas and judi Eden Ericson 30+ sv-eden@telus.net

Going with the Origo alcohol stove pending measurements.

Ok - new life lines are done- new boom is in the works- stove is going to be done before Thanksgiving we have our first club cruise the day after Thanksgiving. So final check on measurments to make sure the new Origo fits and doesn't hang up on the drawers under the counter etc.

I Like Propane

We sailed for years with an Origo alcohol stove. It does give off good heat. One issue for us was the evaporation, we needed to replace the little rubber disk every time we used the unit to prevent the alcohol from leaving. This was a major issue because the stove had to cool first. If we forgot, we would notice that an unnecessary amount of alcohol would be lost. Please note that we didn't overnight more that a hand full of times each season.


We have propane now. Open the bottle, light the flame and we're good. I make sure that the "sniffer" is happy (a unit that checks for fumes near the floor) and that the propane bottle is closed when not in use.


I don't miss looking for a place to purchase alcohol. Propane is readily available where we are. A tank seems to last a long time. We were lucky, our Ericson 32-200 was designed with a dedicated propane locker.

Propane is a dangerous gas, but it can be used safely.

Good luck,

Paul

FullTilt E28 said:

Ok - new life lines are done- new boom is in the works- stove is going to be done before Thanksgiving we have our first club cruise the day after Thanksgiving. So final check on measurments to make sure the new Origo fits and doesn't hang up on the drawers under the counter etc.

Click to expand...

i recently installed an Origo 4100 in my E27, replacing the ancient factory stove. i had to widen the opening in the countertop a bit on two sides for the new unit to drop in, but that was easily done with a saber saw. (i should say, "reasonably easily," as the blade kept breaking against the bracing under the countertop, which i also had to pare down.)

because the original unit's controls were in the front, that left a void in the front of the counter above the drawers. i've just about finished a woodworking project in teak, to fill that space and add functionality (!), of which i'll try to post pictures next week. it's pretty cool, i think.

as to the stove, it works pretty good too so far -- at least for pasta, popcorn and English Breakfast tea. i'll be expanding the menu as soon as i finish the installation properly.

Fred,

Fred Matzer said:

When we bought our E34T the previous owner had recently installed an Origo 6000, and after using it a few times I was sold.

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We love our Origo two-burner. How large is the oven ... will it fit a large chicken for example ? I've been told that you have to cut 12" pizzas in half to fit them in and that is ok if there are two grates ?

Just looking for last minute assurances



-Sven