Most efficient way to boil water on a boat

[Sea Dreaming]

Hey Sandero,
The question may sound absurd, but the financial costs of fuel are only a small part of "efficiency " for some offshore and long distance cruisers. In some places fuel is harder to come by. Figuring out how best to manage ones resources in remote areas is a good move. Of course, one needs not get too wadded up about it but it's a balancing act of available resources. Even if fuel is available at a low cost, acquiring the fuel might be difficult involving long travel times and additional costs for transportation. One might find that using solar electricity is the most efficient, or maybe not depending on other needs.
It's great that the question is low on your list of priorities but your opinion on the matter only goes as far as your own needs. Others find they have to be more careful with what they have. Do you have any suggestions that might be helpful? Since you have the question resolved, maybe you have ideas that will help others?

[Sandero]

Originally Posted by Sea Dreaming

Hey Sandero,
The question may sound absurd, but the financial costs of fuel are only a small part of "efficiency " for some offshore and long distance cruisers. In some places fuel is harder to come by. Figuring out how best to manage ones resources in remote areas is a good move. Of course, one needs not get too wadded up about it but it's a balancing act of available resources. Even if fuel is available at a low cost, acquiring the fuel might be difficult involving long travel times and additional costs for transportation. One might find that using solar electricity is the most efficient, or maybe not depending on other needs.
It's great that the question is low on your list of priorities but your opinion on the matter only goes as far as your own needs. Others find they have to be more careful with what they have. Do you have any suggestions that might be helpful? Since you have the question resolved, maybe you have ideas that will help others?

Here's the deal... this issue is of concern to a minuscule segment of the readers on this forum. I find it odd that someone who manages to have internet access to discuss such a issue is concerned about the insignificant cost to boil water for a cup of coffee of a bowl of pasta.

YES it doesn't concern me and I think it doesn't concern 99.5% of the members. And it's even hard to conceptualize the niche of boats that this would be of real concern. Take someone like our friend Dockhead who has an expensive Oyster or a huge cat and is concerned about a few pennies a year? I seriously doubt it and I don't know what his position is on this matter. Maybe the sailor with a 25' footer scraping buy and doing an around the world and is in some remote island in the South Pacific... I find it odd to think THAT sailor is looking for ways to make a cup of tea.

I just don't get it.

[motion30]

Originally Posted by JstaRebel

10 pages and 143 posts on how to boil water on a boat. Unbelievable.

same thing I was thinking

[Sea Dreaming]

Originally Posted by Sandero

Maybe the sailor with a 25' footer scraping buy and doing an around the world and is in some remote island in the South Pacific... I find it odd to think THAT sailor is looking for ways to make a cup of tea.

I just don't get it.

Huh? Unless you are on a boat bigger than 25 feet you don't drink tea? Now that IS absurd!
I don't think you really meant that....

You see, you keep coming back to the financial costs. But money isn't everything! If you are in a desert with no water, you will pay money for water. But, because there is no water your money is worthless! The thread might make more sense if you stop thinking it's only about money.

Honestly, the first time I read this thread I thought it was absurd too. But once I realized that it's about "resources", not money, I was on board for the thread!

[Suijin]

Originally Posted by Sea Dreaming

...but the financial costs of fuel are only a small part of "efficiency " for some offshore and long distance cruisers. In some places fuel is harder to come by. Figuring out how best to manage ones resources in remote areas is a good move...

To my mind this is the only scenario in which it really matters what the most efficient method is.

As I was typing my reply above I had in the back of my mind my experience in the Canaries, on Tenerife. We were on the south side of the island at San Miguel and had to shlep tanks to the DISA all the way up to near Santa Cruz as I recall. Then there is the compatibility issue, with them filling only butane tanks with certain fittings (which we thankfully had). That and worse can be the expected experience in a lot of places. If you're visiting country after country, you can end up with a lazarette full of different tanks and adapters.

But even then I would not not go the electric kettle route unless I had storage to spare. Just not worth the hassle to me.

[Cotemar]

Originally Posted by Sea Dreaming

Honestly, the first time I read this thread I thought it was absurd too. But once I realized that it's about "resources", not money, I was on board for the thread!

Sea Dreaming, Your Brilliant. I Like the way you think

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Sandero

Here's the deal... this issue is of concern to a minuscule segment of the readers on this forum. I find it odd that someone who manages to have internet access to discuss such a issue is concerned about the insignificant cost to boil water for a cup of coffee of a bowl of pasta.

YES it doesn't concern me and I think it doesn't concern 99.5% of the members. And it's even hard to conceptualize the niche of boats that this would be of real concern. Take someone like our friend Dockhead who has an expensive Oyster or a huge cat and is concerned about a few pennies a year? I seriously doubt it and I don't know what his position is on this matter. Maybe the sailor with a 25' footer scraping buy and doing an around the world and is in some remote island in the South Pacific... I find it odd to think THAT sailor is looking for ways to make a cup of tea.

I just don't get it.

As Sea Dreaming said in the post BEFORE this one, it's not about cost.

It's about efficiency based on scarce resources -- battery power, propane stores, in potentially remote places. The other point of this thread is that efficiency as an engineering concept is simply interesting for its own sake.

If you "don't get it", then I suggest that you politely listen and read and think about it.

If it's still not interesting, then go elsewhere, and find something which is.

Walking into a room full of people having a discussion and loudly telling them that what they are discussing is stupid, is incredibly rude. Would you do it in real life? Of course you wouldn't. So don't do it online, either.

[zboss]

Efficient how? Cost Efficiency? Power efficiency? Time efficiency? The best combination of all three?

[weavis]

Heres how a forum works.

People talk about what ever they want. If others want to join in the discussion they do. Its not a consensus thing with the approval required of the majority.

Some individuals contribute to the thread by complaining about it or belittling the contributors.

I find that puzzling.

If you dont like the topic, better to move along rather than critique the content. Better to not look at the topic than feel compelled to write negativity or slam the thread and posters as the mood takes you. If you really have no interest in a thread.....why would you want to contribute? Let others breathe and do their own thing.

Better to be nice and allow people to discuss what and how they want rather than think the opinion we hold is the only correct one. There is a forum ignore button in your dashboard if self control is not your strong point.

There is no one forcing a contribution from you...

jes sayin'

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by zboss

Efficient how? Cost Efficiency? Power efficiency? Time efficiency? The best combination of all three?

If you read the thread, you'll see.

You have x amount of battery power, and y amount of propane.

Can I boil water with electricity without running my batteries down? Someone said you're trashing your batteries this way -- let's drill into that.

Doesn't it deplete my propane supplies? Well, maybe, because a lot of heat bypasses the kettle, when you boil water on the stove.

And a million other questions like that.

If it's not interesting for you or anyone else -- fine, of course, everyone chooses what's interesting or not. There are about 5000 other threads on here to choose from.

It's a VERY interesting question for me, because my boat runs on tea, with gangs of British and Russian people on board frequently, and at this cold latitude. Boiling a liter or two of water once every hour, day and night, 24/7 on passage, gets to be something of a challenge even on a big boat like mine. Many others have similar situations.

[Sandibar]

Ha, I find this thread relevant, and as Dockhead pointed out not because of any cost issue. We have a national standard for propane tanks here and filling Finnish tanks up even in the Baltics is a problem (not possible?). I have a 11kg bottle on board, which lasted 2 months with some left last summer, with 95% of nights spent in a marina. Spacewise on our 35ft, I can maybe squeeze in another 5kg bottle somewhere on deck, but not more, giving me three months but probably a lot less if we would be anchoring out say 50% of the time.
We drink coffee or tea all the time and just realized late last summer that an electric kettle will save us a lot of propane - got one in Denmark finally. Running out of propane with the family somewhere outside of Finland would be a big no-no .

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Sandibar

Ha, I find this thread relevant, and as Dockhead pointed out not because of any cost issue. We have a national standard for propane tanks here and filling Finnish tanks up even in the Baltics is a problem (not possible?). I have a 11kg bottle on board, which lasted 2 months with some left last summer, with 95% of nights spent in a marina. Spacewise on our 35ft, I can maybe squeeze in another 5kg bottle somewhere on deck, but not more, giving me three months but probably a lot less if we would be anchoring out say 50% of the time.
We drink coffee or tea all the time and just realized late last summer that an electric kettle will save us a lot of propane - got one in Denmark finally. Running out of propane with the family somewhere outside of Finland would be a big no-no .

A hint for you -- you can exchange your style of bottles in Estonia, and it's about 2x cheaper than in Finland. The 6.5kg bottles (IIRC) are common to the Estonian ones.

And in Sweden, for God knows what reason, it is common practice to fill random propane bottles by cold-pouring. Most propane companies will fill more or less any propane bottle. I did it in Visby this past summer.

But your point is well taken -- propane is a royal PITA in the Baltic Sea, with virtually every country having its own standard. Atlantic Europe is no better, either. We always struggle with this, and like in your case, using electricity for cooking and boiling water where possible helps stretch the tenuous supplies.

[weavis]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

A hint for you -- you can exchange your style of bottles in Estonia, and it's about 2x cheaper than in Finland. The 6.5kg bottles (IIRC) are common to the Estonian ones.

And in Sweden, for God knows what reason, it is common practice to fill random propane bottles by cold-pouring. Most propane companies will fill more or less any propane bottle. I did it in Visby this past summer.

But your point is well taken -- propane is a royal PITA in the Baltic Sea, with virtually every country having its own standard. Atlantic Europe is no better, either. We always struggle with this, and like in your case, using electricity for cooking and boiling water where possible helps stretch the tenuous supplies.

I used the Honda 2K generator for boiling water via electric and for heating water for showers and washing. Seemed to last forever.. I never noticed it costing more money or less money as I sometimes would fire it up for random tasks....like heating in the cabin via a blow heater to take the chill off and stuff like that...

Was not tea, it was coffee.

[Sandibar]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

A hint for you -- you can exchange your style of bottles in Estonia, and it's about 2x cheaper than in Finland. The 6.5kg bottles (IIRC) are common to the Estonian ones.

And in Sweden, for God knows what reason, it is common practice to fill random propane bottles by cold-pouring. Most propane companies will fill more or less any propane bottle. I did it in Visby this past summer.

But your point is well taken -- propane is a royal PITA in the Baltic Sea, with virtually every country having its own standard. Atlantic Europe is no better, either. We always struggle with this, and like in your case, using electricity for cooking and boiling water where possible helps stretch the tenuous supplies.

Thanks for the hint! After my last post I actually did some research already and will be better prepared next summer with adapters etc.

[Sandero]

Originally Posted by Suijin

To my mind this is the only scenario in which it really matters what the most efficient method is.

As I was typing my reply above I had in the back of my mind my experience in the Canaries, on Tenerife. We were on the south side of the island at San Miguel and had to shlep tanks to the DISA all the way up to near Santa Cruz as I recall. Then there is the compatibility issue, with them filling only butane tanks with certain fittings (which we thankfully had). That and worse can be the expected experience in a lot of places. If you're visiting country after country, you can end up with a lazarette full of different tanks and adapters.

But even then I would not not go the electric kettle route unless I had storage to spare. Just not worth the hassle to me.

Buy a local tank and fitting... problem solved...