Propane, alcohol or kerosene stoves?

[Captdd]

Yo Yo

Butane burns clean and white hot for faster cooking
On my Coronado 27 I use a one burner portable Gasone Stove ($20) and have had it for 3 years (I buy 12pack canisters on Amazon for another $24. Lasted all winter here in San Diego).
It will also heat the cabin if need be.
I also have an electric Oster for at the marina or will work on my Inverter while at sea

Cheers

[softdown]

FWIW: BTU's of energy from a gallon of:
Diesel: 144,000
Kerosene: 136,000
Gasoline: 124,000
Propane: 90,000

Jet Fuel/Kerosene: turns steel into rivers of molten steel. BTU's - immeasurable!!! Well....at least on 9/11. This was posted tongue in cheek with no scientific basis.

The lighter the oil, the easier it is to light up and the lower the energy yield.

[buzzstar]

Originally Posted by hpeer

John,

Not that I doubt your story. I must be missing something. I get how someone can release a bunch of Kero and set it on fire.. And it will make a nasty lot of soot. It WILL NOT explode or blow up. That's why you have to preheat it to get it to atomize. So something is amiss.

I've done all of that and more and no explosions.

Good story though.

Maybe you have been fortunate. It is all intended to burn, but if the conditions come together "properly" they (any flammable liquid or gas) can explode. Heck, I have even seen a automobile gasoline engine run on kerosene -not well at all, but the controlled explosions in the cylinders did occur. Sounds like the "kero" from the source burner was being atomized, but there was a flame elsewhere (nearby, probably adjacent) that ignited the particles from the source. I am not a fire expert, but it seems plausible, and not untrustworthy as implied.

[NorthCoastJoe]

Butane Pocket Rocket from REI great one burner cooker.

[GrowleyMonster]

It would be nice if all propane, butane, gasoline, etc users were required to fly a special identifying flag or day shape or something. Then you would know if you were keeping your boat in a dangerous slip or not.

[boatpoker]

From BoatUS Seaworthy magazine.

Stoves. The incidence of fires due to stoves has decreased with the gradual replacement of alcohol stoves with propane stoves and electric ranges. Two percent of fires were caused by stoves, more than half resulting from problems with lighting alcohol stoves. Given how few alcohol stoves there are on boats these days, they are significantly more dangerous than those that use other fuel sources. If you still have an alcohol stove on board, you may want to consider upgrading. Most people agree that they don't heat very well, anyway.

I know that propane explosions on boats have happened but BoatUS also states they have never had a claim due to a propane explosion.

[buzzstar]

Originally Posted by softdown

FWIW: BTU's of energy from a gallon of:
Diesel: 144,000
Kerosene: 136,000
Gasoline: 124,000
Propane: 90,000

You forgot to mention methanol (alcohol) which runs about 65,000 BTUs per gallon.

[bletso]

Originally Posted by hpeer

the proper procedure is to put SOME alcohol into a preheat cup.
Light it.
Wait till it burns down
Turn on that burner
Light the burner.

What he did was
Put in a bunch of alcholol
Turn on an adjacent burner
Not notice that burner did not light
Overflow the wrong burner preheat cup with kero
Let run all over the stove
Then, somehow. There is still enough alchohol wandering around the first preheat cup to spill out and light the Kero underneath

And he walks away to tell about it.

I think this a great story to illustrate that no matter how messed up you are it's almost impossible to cause serious damage with Kero.

Yeh, I like my kero. But, treat her badly and she will mess everything in the cabin with a fine black mess and stink the place up as an after thought

[softdown]

Originally Posted by buzzstar

You forgot to mention methanol (alcohol) which runs about 65,000 BTUs per gallon.

Thanks for filling that in. My sources did not mention alcohol. I would assume that methanol is very closely related to ethanol. Do you know a typical BTU figure for ethanol? Or is it 65,000/gallon? That would be nice to know...

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by softdown

................ The vast majority of homes in cold climes use natural gas or propane. ............

It may depend on what country we're talking about, but I would say oil is the most common in cold climates where natural gas is not available, at least in the USA.

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by GrowleyMonster

It would be nice if all propane, butane, gasoline, etc users were required to fly a special identifying flag or day shape or something. Then you would know if you were keeping your boat in a dangerous slip or not.

Yea, that's going to happen!

[sailpower]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

From BoatUS Seaworthy magazine.

Stoves. The incidence of fires due to stoves has decreased with the gradual replacement of alcohol stoves with propane stoves and electric ranges. Two percent of fires were caused by stoves, more than half resulting from problems with lighting alcohol stoves. Given how few alcohol stoves there are on boats these days, they are significantly more dangerous than those that use other fuel sources. If you still have an alcohol stove on board, you may want to consider upgrading. Most people agree that they don't heat very well, anyway.

Wonder how many of those were pressurized stoves?

[buzzstar]

Originally Posted by bletso

Yeh, I like my kero. But, treat her badly and she will mess everything in the cabin with a fine black mess and stink the place up as an after thought

So, you carry both alcohol and kerosene to use kerosene as the fuel. There goes the solution to alcohol odor. The sometimes difficult to see flame is another strike against alcohol as the base fuel. How well do bits of C4 work on a boat?

[hpeer]

Originally Posted by buzzstar

So, you carry both alcohol and kerosene to use kerosene as the fuel. There goes the solution to alcohol odor. The sometimes difficult to see flame is another strike against alcohol as the base fuel. How well do bits of C4 work on a boat?

Buzz,
You put a small amount of alcohol in a little pan under the burner and light it.

That preheats the Kero enough to get it to atomize.

There is NO alcohol odor ever. And I find a little squirt bottle of alcohol handy for sanitizing and cleaning up.

Some folks complains of the Kero odor but we don't notice it.

Maybe you could find someone with Kero in your vicinity and you could find out more about it and how it works.

IMHO there is a trade off between Kero and propane.

Propane, once installed properly, is very convienient to use on a daily basis. But even here in the. Ayana's getting tanks is a bit of hassle and a frequent topic of discussion on the net. If something goes amiss with the set up it has the potential to be catastrophic.

Kero is dead simple to install. It is a two step process to light. It takes a little bit of maintenance once in a rare while. A many month supply can be carried in a jerry can, we are using maybe. 1/2 gallon a month. If something goes amiss it can likely be cleaned with a sponge.

You makes your picks and live with em.

[bletso]

Originally Posted by buzzstar

So, you carry both alcohol and kerosene to use kerosene as the fuel. There goes the solution to alcohol odor. The sometimes difficult to see flame is another strike against alcohol as the base fuel. How well do bits of C4 work on a boat?

Actually, there is a little 'bowl' at the base of the burner. I dispense about an ounce of alcohol into it with a kind of special squeeze bottle with a 10 in snout, light it and when it is gone turn on the burner. (I have a wick from the alcohol bowl to the edge of the burner. As far as seeing the flame, there is no problem as the base is under the burner top and in the dark, so the blue flame is always visible. The only kero oder is if you screw up and get if a hurry.