Galley Stove

[oblivionboyj]

Is there a standard size for the cutout for a galley stove?
Mine came without a stove and I have a line on a good deal for a used stove, but I won't be able to get to my boat to measure for a while.

Bear in mind I'm not talking about an oven, just a 2 burner alcohol stove.

[JPA Cate]

Oblivion boy,

No, there are different sized cutouts.

Ann

[oblivionboyj]

Ok, on that note...
Has anyone had experience with Perkins Marine Lamp and Hardware alcohol stoves?

[skipmac]

No experience with that model but with alcohol in general. There are some new design alcohol stoves that some cruisers like but I hated every one I ever used. Alcohol doesn't make as much heat as other fuels like propane so it takes a long time to cook things, you will use a lot of it if you cook much and it's very expensive and smells bad (in my opinion anyway).

It is supposed to be safer but I almost burned up a boat with alcohol. One problem is the flame is colorless and not very bright so if it spills and ignites it's hard to see. Supposed to be able to put it out with water but when I used water it just washed burning alcohol all under the stove and into the bilge.

But again, this is just my opinion. Plenty of sailors love their alcohol stoves.

Oh, sorry. To answer your original question, like Ann said, not standard. Varies with the brand and model.

[roverhi]

There is a standard width for most all gimballed marine stoves. Believe it's 21" from gimbal axle end to gimbal axle end but it's been a long long time since I measured a stove. Perhaps someone can measure their stove to verify. 3 burner stoves with ovens are the same width just deeper than two burner.

There are some stoves that are not standard, believe the Luke stoves, which I think are history, are one and the diesel stoves popular in northern climes.

Pressure alcohol stoves are a PITA. They don't put out enough heat to boil a pot of water big enough to9 cook a lobster. You'll be able to grow a beard waiting for water for coffee to boil. Greatest problem is fire if you have a leak or a burner blows out and you don't notice it. Alcohol will soak the fiberglass insulation in the oven and or spread all over the stove and galley area. If you don't notice it and relight the stove, you will have a nifty fire that is hard to put out. Water in a fine mist will work but dumping a bucket on the stove will repeat skipmac's experience. Any extinguisher will work but they leave an unholy mess. Because Alcohol burns at such a low temperature, you'll have plenty of time to figure out how to put the fire out before anything serious catches on fire.

If you don't want to go with propane, kerosene works great. Lived with it for 4 years of liveaboard and cruising. Puts out good heat. It has the hassles of alcohol with the burners needing to preheated with alcohol. It also gives off carbon that needs to be washed off the galley overhead with Simple Green in 5 minutes after a year of live aboard use. Only had one leak and that was an installation issue when I first installed the stove. Kerosene doesn't ignite easily so you'd really have to work hard to start a fire. I like it so much that went with it on my new old boat as I rebuild the galley.

[Sheepshank]

Felt lucky when replacing the old pressurized alcohol oven range with a force ten propane unit ,fit right in