Kerosene Pressure Stove

[SayGudday]

Anyone out there have any experience with this stove: Brass Kerosene Pressure Stove #2412 (Butterfly 2412 Brass Pressure Stove)

Time has come to change what I have and was looking at this as an alternative. ANy input is appreciated.

[gjordan]

That is a very good price for a one burner stove, but it appears that there is no adjustment to the burner. This is like the old Primus Roarer burners. If you are going to be heating a pot of water every once in a while, it will probably be fine. If you are going to do much actual cooking I would look for a flame you can control. My 2 cents worth.____Grant.

[roverhi]

Have a similar stove made by Optimus though it's a self pricking burner with a control knob This stove looks like a copy made with a roarer burner. Made in China by any chance?? The roarer type of burner is aptly named. They do make a bit of noise when going full blast. Looks like it's an all or nothing burner as there is no control knob. Possibly could control heat output by amount of pressure you put into the tank but I wouldn't do that. Just use flame diverting trivets to reduce the heat. The burner will need a separate cleaning needle. Not a problem but make sure you get a couple of extras.

We've had kerosene stoves since we started owning sailboats. Kerosene is a great fuel. Unlike alcohol, it actually puts out heat. About as many BTU's as a propane stove without the explosive nature. We've run the burners at full open and used flame diverters to reduce heat. We had problems with burners clogging until we followed that routine. We've always burned Mineral Spirits in our stoves. Cheaper than Kerosene and seems to burn a bit hotter and cleaner.

If they make the stove with a self pricking burner, it would be worth the extra money.

[SayGudday]

Originally Posted by gjordan

That is a very good price for a one burner stove, but it appears that there is no adjustment to the burner. This is like the old Primus Roarer burners. If you are going to be heating a pot of water every once in a while, it will probably be fine. If you are going to do much actual cooking I would look for a flame you can control. My 2 cents worth.____Grant.

I have the same concern. There's a few videos on youtube that show adjusting the flame via pumping the primer or releasing the valve but I'm unsure how accurate that really could be.

[SayGudday]

Originally Posted by roverhi

Have a similar stove made by Optimus though it's a self pricking burner with a control knob This stove looks like a copy made with a roarer burner. Made in China by any chance?? The roarer type of burner is aptly named. They do make a bit of noise when going full blast. Looks like it's an all or nothing burner as there is no control knob. Possibly could control heat output by amount of pressure you put into the tank but I wouldn't do that. Just use flame diverting trivets to reduce the heat. The burner will need a separate cleaning needle. Not a problem but make sure you get a couple of extras.

We've had kerosene stoves since we started owning sailboats. Kerosene is a great fuel. Unlike alcohol, it actually puts out heat. About as many BTU's as a propane stove without the explosive nature. We've run the burners at full open and used flame diverters to reduce heat. We had problems with burners clogging until we followed that routine. We've always burned Mineral Spirits in our stoves. Cheaper than Kerosene and seems to burn a bit hotter and cleaner.

If they make the stove with a self pricking burner, it would be worth the extra money.

Imported from India I believe and it is indeed a roarer so you are right on target. Thanks for the input and excuse my ignorance but what is a 'self pricking burner'?

[roverhi]

A self pricking burner has an internal cleaning pricker. You turn the control knob all the way clockwise, IIRC, and and a thin wire is pushed up through the nozzle orifice. That cleans out any carbon that has built up in the nozzle. With the non self cleaning type, you have to do it with a stamped metal piece with the pricking wire in the end. it has to be done every so often, not every time the burner is lit.

As I said, even though we had burners with adjustment knobs, we never ran the burners anything but wide open. Used a baffle like piece of metal and an iron trivet to adjust the heat. Worked fine for us in 4 years of living aboard and cruising. Kerosene is an extremely efficient form of heat so running wide open all the time wasn't a concern. Think we took along a total of 9 gallons of Mineral Spirits on a year and a half cruise and had fuel left over at the end. My wife cooked nearly a 100% of our meals and baked a lot of delicious goodies.

[gjordan]

Just to give another opinion, I started out with a nonpressurized alcohal stove that worked fine but took forever to heat anything, and alcohal was pricey. Switched to a pressure kerosene and it was wonderful, but heated up the boat a lot since you could not turn it down if there was much time between putting things on the heat. We cruised for about 2 and 1/2 years with that set up. We carried lots of spares for the burners, which I understand are very expensive now. Next boat had the same type of stove and worked well, but lots of spares and a fair amount of maintainance. Third boat had a propane stove and ONCE YOU GO GAS YOU NEVER GO BACK. We did 8 years in the Carribean with that set up and only changed out 2 burners and with 2 five gallon tanks never had a problem getting fuel. A five gallon tank gave us 3 to 4 monthes of cooking and plenty of time to find a fillup for the empty one. The biggest advantage was being able to control the flame and to be able to turn it on or off whenever we wanted. With kero, you have to wait for it to cool down before you can restart it. Now I must say that if my next boat comes with a kerosene stove in good condition, I will probably keep it. If the stove needs much work or replacement, I will definatly switch to propane. That has much more to do with outfitting costs than what I really want._____Grant.

[hpeer]

Here is an alternative. I have one but have not used it yet.

Manaslu Stoves

[vancouver25]

Here's a video on James Baldwin's site about this stove:

Atom Voyages - Atom Kerosene Stove Demonstration

Also, an article on making a gimbaled pot holder for these single burner kerosene stoves.

Atom Voyages - Build your Own Gimbaled Stove Potholder

[HopCar]

This is the burner used on the old Primus / Optimus marine stoves.
I guess if you're dumb enough to cook with kerosene, this is the burner you want. I must have rebuilt hundreds of them in my ill spent youth. Miserable damn things.

[CrazyRu]

Originally Posted by SayGudday

Anyone out there have any experience with this stove: Brass Kerosene Pressure Stove #2412 (Butterfly 2412 Brass Pressure Stove)

Time has come to change what I have and was looking at this as an alternative. ANy input is appreciated.

I use this stove with James Boldwin's gimbale.
It is roaring type stove, very simple. Roar thing is good - I can hear it from the cockpit. it is very ajastable by pumping or releasing air and changing pressure inside.
with high quality kero or mineral spirits it is not too smelly. However high quality kerosene is $$$. Gas station kerosene stinks.
Priming the stove with ethanol is not a big deal, sort of ritual.
One thing I don't like. The burner is relatively small and heat output is less than of camping propane stove.
I'm lazy and simplicity of the setup won in my case. However I'd recomend to install a gas stove...

[SayGudday]

roverhi - thanks for explaining self pricking. I do not believe this unit is self pricking and, since I am going to have to manufacture a gimballed pot holder anyway, I was considering controlling the temperature with a simple mechanism that changes the height of the pot above the flame.

gjordan - I have two propane burners now but one is on it's last legs and I don't have a lot of room for a propane tank, hence exploring the alternatives.

hpeer - thanks for the link. Haven't seen that model before.

vancouver25 - I'm familiar with the Baldwin model but am not sure that I like it. Currently I have a set up where I can turn my force 10 so that it swings over the sink or over the starboard berth and that has proven to be pretty handy so I might replicate something along those lines. Not 100% sure yet until I choose which cooker I'm going to decide on.

CrazyRu - glad to hear from someone using the baldwin gimbal. I like his stuff but a complete rig from him costs north of $500 and I'd have sell a kidney to afford it. (Naturally it wouldn't be my kidney so that adds to the difficulty in obtaining one).

[tmiller1116]

or you could go with non-pressurized kerosene like about 1/3 of the world population

Butterfly 2418 Double Burner Kerosene Stove

[aneblanc]

Originally Posted by SayGudday

Anyone out there have any experience with this stove: Brass Kerosene Pressure Stove #2412 (Butterfly 2412 Brass Pressure Stove)

Time has come to change what I have and was looking at this as an alternative. ANy input is appreciated.

My input is a bit late but I had a Taylor kero stove for 2½years of cruising and I was fed up with maintenance.
I am now using 3 #2412 stoves on a gimbaled shelf using one or 2 at a time with one in reserve. I went cruising with my kids and we cooked 3 meals a day for 4 persons for a whole year on the stove. It has been perfect because the maintenance is nil. The optimus burner is quite complicated with the self-pricking needle and the internal jet. On the butterfly type stove there is nothing to go wrong, flame adjustment is only through air pressure. We baked also a lot on a 12" cast iron pan with a trivet inside (actually the hob ring of our home propane range) and a stainless steel bowl cover.
I have also been cooking on propane on another boat for 2 years of living about with 4 people and it was ok but there is always the problem of resupplying with propane. 10lbs was 3-4 weeks of cooking then you had to start looking. For example Cuba was problematic. I had a pressure kero stove in the boat and we ended cooking a lot on it, like when canning lobster or jam. Also propane bottles rust and need to be kept outside. Now I carry 100l of kero in the keel and in a couple of jerrycans in the bilge and I am worry free for more than a year.
Aviation jet fuel is perfect if you can get it. 1,2 millions barrels are burnt every year in the world. Kero has become quite expensive in small quantities in some place but it's so easy to transport.

Cheers

[hpeer]

Vent-free heaters and fireplaces, procom, Kozy World, Eskabe, Doulton and Berkefeld Water Filters, Big Berkey, Williams, Mr. Heater, Mr. Funnel, natural gas, LP, propane

They sure are cheap enough.