Gas v Electric Galley

[Pleasure II]

While we are on the subject of cooking, does any one have any experience of, or recommend the use of a diesel powered oven/stove ?
I have recently purchased a 45 foot cat which has one installed and I have not yet disclosed this to my other crew member (wife) !!

[sailorxyz]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

Will that one do rice?
The one thing we can't do with ours is get the temp right
Either slightly too low or too high.

As most of our meals involve rice, we revert back to gas.
And yes, we have a rice cooker, prefer doing rice old skool absorption method.

I use a 3 cup rice cooker, just a basic simple one. It's useful for anything that needs to be boiled and I often do potatoes in it. Quenioa et al also cook well.. the big thing is it only uses 300W and since I have only got a single plate induction cooker, the rice cooker effectively give me another plate to cook upon.

[Mauruuru]

When I converted from Diesel drive to electric I also riipped out the 2 burner gas stove top and replaced it with a 2 burner induction cook top.
Of course you need good induction cookware but it is absolutely amazing how fast you can boil water and cook food this way. The house batteries and inverter were already installed by the builder. I did keep diesel tank and added a 4kW diesel generator for cruising comfort (cooking, ac/heat, hot water etc and it can charge drive batteries as well though Ive never needed to.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by sailorxyz

I use a 3 cup rice cooker, just a basic simple one. It's useful for anything that needs to be boiled and I often do potatoes in it. Quenioa et al also cook well.. the big thing is it only uses 300W and since I have only got a single plate induction cooker, the rice cooker effectively give me another plate to cook upon.

Exactly! This is the one I recommend after seeing it tested as best affordable rice cooker by American Test Kitchen and having used it for a couple of years: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

(Only $40 shipped)

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Exactly! This is the one I recommend after seeing it tested as best affordable rice cooker by American Test Kitchen and having used it for a couple of years: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

(Only $40 shipped)

Here is the one I use draws 850 watts for 18 minutes .
https://www.amazon.com/Aroma-6-Cup-P...218308762&th=1
Uses the thermal electromagnetic principal that has been used for 100 years .
Certain metals loose magnetic potential at 220°F automatically switch from cook to the 50 or so watts warmer.

[s/v Jedi]

Here is an episode of American Test Kitchen where they compare a rice cooker (the one I linked to) with the old fashioned pot on the stove

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uABJWCGrFPo

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Pleasure II

While we are on the subject of cooking, does any one have any experience of, or recommend the use of a diesel powered oven/stove ?
I have recently purchased a 45 foot cat which has one installed and I have not yet disclosed this to my other crew member (wife) !!

Do you know the brand or have a picture? I am familiar with the diesel stove/oven that is (was?) used on Amel and they have a very good reputation. The problem is use in hot climates because it does radiate a lot of heat.

[s/v Jedi]

To add to this discussion:

Key points for a modern electric galley:

- uses solar energy instead of internal combustion engine
- uses lithium iron phosphate batteries instead of lead acid
- has a minimum of 5kW inverter power
- uses energy efficient appliances
- remove all propane feeds from the boat’s interior

Each of these points have been discussed before but all of them together is what makes the big step forward in our experience.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

To add to this discussion:

Key points for a modern electric galley:

- uses solar energy instead of internal combustion engine
- uses lithium iron phosphate batteries instead of lead acid
- has a minimum of 5kW inverter power
- uses energy efficient appliances
- remove all propane feeds from the boat’s interior

Each of these points have been discussed before but all of them together is what makes the big step forward in our experience.

Some of those items are flexible.
Such as the size of inverter I happily run a 2500 watt unit and even running everything it is plenty of power for my needs . And keeping the propane cook top is for me and I'm sure several others a good idea for winter cooking at our higher latitudes when the introduced heat is welcome and the solar is minimal .

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Some of those items are flexible.
Such as the size of inverter I happily run a 2500 watt unit and even running everything it is plenty of power for my needs . And keeping the propane cook top is for me and I'm sure several others a good idea for winter cooking at our higher latitudes when the introduced heat is welcome and the solar is minimal .

With a 2.5kW inverter, you are limited to just one big appliance. For a lot of meals you will either need two induction hobs, or one hob plus an oven, rice cooker, microwave etc. and many also have a coffeemaker going.

So yes, you can do with a 2500W inverter, but it will not match a 4, 3 or even 2 hob propane stove, limiting options.

For backup cooking gear, you can easily get portable gas units, for which their gas canisters can be stored outside the boat interior so that you increase safety aboard. Also, for heating there are much better options than a gas stove. You would do better with the induction cooktop and a diesel heater If solar production is a problem, then of course you can use a portable gas stove, but you could also use the gas to run a gas powered generator to recharge the batteries, which would be needed for more than just cooking?

Of course, all my experience is in tropical and sub-tropical climates. I have sailed in Holland for many years but all of that was on Camping Gas

[SV Jabberwock]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Some of those items are flexible.
Such as the size of inverter I happily run a 2500 watt unit and even running everything it is plenty of power for my needs . And keeping the propane cook top is for me and I'm sure several others a good idea for winter cooking at our higher latitudes when the introduced heat is welcome and the solar is minimal .

Exactly.

My two burner induction cooktop is limited to 1800W total. Don't have any kind of oven. I can run plenty of other equipment with my 3000W inverter even if I were to ever draw the cooktop's full power.

The first seven power settings pulse with somewhere around 300-500W, settings 8-16 are continuous.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by SV Jabberwock

Exactly.

My two burner induction cooktop is limited to 1800W total. Don't have any kind of oven. I can run plenty of other equipment with my 3000W inverter even if I were to ever draw the cooktop's full power.

The first seven power settings pulse with somewhere around 300-500W, settings 8-16 are continuous.

Yes, the dual hob units with a combined 1800W power are a good trick. You can use one hob at full power to bring something to a boil, then reduce power for simmering/low boiling while using the second hob for heating up something else. That said, with a propane stove you can use all burners at full power, so you have limited your options.

We did 5 years with just a single induction hob that we set on top of our propane stove, so I know exactly that this is possible and workable. But when you complete the list I posted above, which we did 2.5 years ago, you take a big step forward, wondering why you didn’t do this years ago. Worth all the effort and cost

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

To add to this discussion:

Key points for a modern electric galley:

- uses solar energy instead of internal combustion engine
- uses lithium iron phosphate batteries instead of lead acid
- has a minimum of 5kW inverter power
- uses energy efficient appliances
- remove all propane feeds from the boat’s interior

Each of these points have been discussed before but all of them together is what makes the big step forward in our experience.

I disagree about the need for LiFePo batteries. Running 2 burners and a convection oven is about 3600W. At 90% inverter efficiency that’s 4,000W which draws 333amps at 12v. To me that means I would want 400Ahr of LFP or 700Ahr of FLAs.

The FLA batteries will be cheaper up front and cheaper on a per Whr delivered basis but will be heavier and take up more space. Also the FLAs don’t need BMSs which is a point of failure for LFP.

Personally I would get LFPs because I want to also do electric propulsion and the space/weight issues become more important when talking about 12-16 batteries.

Something you failed to mention is that the inverter needs to be pure sine wave, some induction burners will work with modified sine but don’t like, many won’t work at all.

[SV Jabberwock]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Yes, the dual hob units with a combined 1800W power are a good trick. You can use one hob at full power to bring something to a boil, then reduce power for simmering/low boiling while using the second hob for heating up something else. That said, with a propane stove you can use all burners at full power, so you have limited your options.

We did 5 years with just a single induction hob that we set on top of our propane stove, so I know exactly that this is possible and workable. But when you complete the list I posted above, which we did 2.5 years ago, you take a big step forward, wondering why you didn’t do this years ago. Worth all the effort and cost

Genuinely curious what would require two hobs at full power. Am I missing out on some delicious recipes?

I've cooked with gas on board for a long, long time. On land with shitty classic electric cooktops, slightly better ceran cooktops, and also induction.
I may miss the third hob (or fourth) sometimes, although rarely, but I don't remember ever having more than one of them at full power (on land or water). Usually for bringing water to a boil and then that gets dialled down as well.

In the last two years with induction on the boat, I've never felt any more limited compared to the gas cooktop I had before.

Would you need two fully powered hobs for lots of steaks? Two pots of pasta?

[goboatingnow]

I can run the numbers are see electric cooktops are possible but how can people support electric ovens often needing 1-2 hours of operation.