Does Anyone Use a Diesel Stove?

[Monica]

We're about to replace our stove and are considering a diesel stove as opposed to a propane one. Does anyone have one? pros? cons?

[barnakiel]

Have seen them twice, believe Wallas made. Both owners were very happy with them.

b.

[osirissail]

- - I have a Newport diesel cabin heater and it is in a lot ways similar to the diesel stove. See:Dickinson Marine at Go2marine - Diesel Stoves
Pick a stove and then download the operating manual.
- - Two major problems with diesel stoves (same with diesel cabin heaters) 1. They must have a chimney that exits the cabin top of the boat along with a "heat shielded pass thru adaptor" to get the stove pipe through the cabin top without setting it on fire. Outside there is more stove pipe and then a vent cap.
2. They must have an open porthole or something to let in significant fresh air.
- - There is a burner assembly in the stove that contains in the bottom a "cup" into which liquid diesel fuel is metered. It takes 30 minutes of work to ignite the stove. You let a little puddle of fuel into the cup then use paper towels or newspaper to start the liquid diesel burning. Then you start an electric draft fan to suck air from the cabin and blow the fumes from the diesel up the flue pipe.
- - As the liquid diesel fuel starts to burn it gets very slowly hotter and hotter. Eventually it will reach "superheat" conditions and that takes about 30 minutes of nursing the stove. Then you can cook on two one or two flat metal plates located above the burner module. Somewhat like the colonial coal or wood stoves.
- - Of course the boat has to be stable without rolling or the burning liquid in the cup will spill out of the stove and you will have burning fuel on whatever surface is below the stove.
- - There are quite a few models and they cost about twice what a propane stove costs.

[ragdoll]

If your talking heating, look at toyo NS 2800. Only problem with them is they "must have" clean No1 of kerosene. I have two onboard, a NS 2800 and a "laser 30 110 volt". The laser 30 does use a bit of battery, but the NS 2800 is very cheap to run.
Last winter they keep me warm @ -2F, no problem.
Ron Lawrence

[Eleven]

I've seen lovely diesel cookers at boat shows.
NO GAS on board - big safety plus.
A flat hotplate for cooking - clean and easy to keep clean.
A hood and fan to blow warm air from hot plate - great for chilly mornings.
Top of my IF (only I had the money) List.

[sundown]

The carb on diesel stoves are very sensitive to boat heel. If they are not on lined up parallel to the keel you will get no fuel in the burner on one tack and flood it on the reciprocal. Perhaps if your burner is on gimbals it would solve the problem. I know one of the happiest days I had on a boat is when I threw my Dickenson stove over the side in the deepest water I could find! I replaced it with a propane stove and have never regreted it.

[Roaring Girl]

We had a wallas diesel cooker installed on Roaring Girl when we moved aboard. It was extremely expensive both to buy and install. Four years later we sold it for less than a tenth of that price, and celebrated with bubbles!

Yes - it means no gas. Yes it baked and roasted like a dream. BUT they are fiendishly complicated bits of kit (in the computer driven stuff that manages the timing, temperature, solenoid etc, not in the basic principle), not nearly up to the life of a cruising yacht. And the support/repair network is very thinly spread. At one point we took ours out of the boat and drove it three hundred miles ourselves to get it to the UK importers, because the two nearer repair agents had washed their hands of the entire business (not just us!

So our strong advice is not to go there if you are going beyond inland waters and any distance from repair support. We now have gas and manage it properly, like thousands of other cruisers.

[Cheechako]

You do not want a diesel cook stove in southern climes. (You DO want one in northern climes.) They are used universally on fishing boats up here, but they heat the cabin also. They would be unbearable south. Also they require a 4" diameter stack, dont always burn completely clean creating soot, and will take 20-30 minutes to get going good so you can cook. In a word, they are great where the weather is cold and you like to sit in the cabin around the stove...

[Solitude]

IMHO Propane is the best cooking fuel available. Quick ,clean, available and simple.

I was told never to use biocide in my deisel if I have a heater or stove.

[s/v Jedi]

Diesel is great for cooking on a boat! Just fire up the genset and use the induction stove! (we are on propane ;-)

cheers,
Nick.

[s/v 'Faith']

Once did a delivery on a Departure 35 with a diesel stove. Owner said he had lit it ONCE and had to open every hatch and port onboard. The heat was unbearable, and it was not used again in the many years he had owned the boat.

Probably nice if you were someplace cold... I don't like cold places.

[osirissail]

Last year here in Grenada we had a couple of Russians on a 35foot boat who cooked over an open wood fire. He built a one meter "back porch" off the stern and has a short section of steel oil drum bolted to the "porch". In that he piled driftwood and scrap wood from wherever he could find some and set it on fire. I was dramatic each night to see 1 to 2 meter flames lickin upwards from his stern.

[Dedzaboy]

We used to have a Wallas diesel stove, took it out and replaced it with a propane stove. The Wallas was unreliable and overcomplicated, took forever to restart if it failed (frequently), and couldn't be serviced other than by a technician with all the appropriate kit. A propane cooker works, and when it doesn't (not yet) you can fix it with a spanner or two. Perfect.

[Simes]

Like most things, if you have the right boat and the ability to install it, then it will work
Ours is three years old and we are fully addicted to it. No gas, no smell easy to use, ours is lit 24/7. The stove is always ready to use and the kettle is always on.

We have a Dickinson Adriatic cookstove that also runs 4 radiators and produces all of our hot water via a (calorifier). All this for a gallon of Diesel a day. The boat is always warm and dry, we are sat in short sleeves throughout the winter (Southern England), Talisman is a Gaff Schooner and this heat source does seem to suit her and us.

PM me if you want more info, we are just very happy customers and have no connection with either the petrochemical companies or with Dickinson.

Simes and Nita
Schooner "Talisman of Fambridge"

[sandinmytea]

Why not go the other way, and convert a diesel engine to run on CNG? It extends piston life amongst other things. You could use CNG for heating, cooking and propulsion.