galley stove; propane, 220v, or 110v

[bostonhatteras]

i want to get a better stove. what do you think i should do?
the current and original stove set up in my boat is a three burner princess with oven powered by 110v through the house 30a circuit. i have another 30a line but it is only for the air conditioning. i really would like to change this set up as it is quite similar to an Kenner E Z bake oven in cooking results, maybe a little more powerful. anyway comparing the propane version of this stove to the 110v, the propane gives twice the heat energy. the 220v versions on the Seaward web site seem to indicate the same wattage as the 110v but by doubling the volts you again get twice the heat energy. so i will have to add a 220v shore power line, i guess, to add a 220v oven with requisite panel reconfigurations. or i could add propane with the attendant hoses, valves, sniffers, and dangers. anyone have any recommendations here, or experiences. we do cook a fair amount and this stove is very frustrating and slow and worst is you cant boil lobster on it, not enough heat. thanks for the thoughts
russ

[RyanN]

Well... I would never go with a propane stove INSIDE a boat. I was scared enough with the two gasoline Chryslers in our old ChrisCraft.

Unless you want to do more work, I would stick with the 110V stove. I think 30A @ 110V provides more than enough heat for cooking. The new flattop stoves are nice too. They provide a lot of heat for their wattage. Of course, I'm not sure what they produce as far as marine grade flattops.

But... I would stick away from propane, but that's my own personal preference.

[Beckytek]

If your serious about cooking go with propane. You get instant dependable heat. I had it on my last boat (krogen trawler) and I miss it now with the Hat. Our 3 burner princess takes quite a while to heat up and we are never sure what the temp is. Temperature seems erratic. Just my 2 cents. Ron

[TedZ]

This was our approach. We live on board all summer and entertain a lot. These are construction photos. A tile back and left side splash is very important.

We ran a line from the AC 30 amp to a disconnect and then to the Princess area. That gave us 220 VAC at most marinas. We added a digital volt meter on the panel to confirm what the marina was providing. We put propane in the line locker and a sniffer in the engine room. Naturally you need to do some load shedding when using the oven but it is no big deal.

Detainls PM me.

Ted

[holtcl]

FWIW you might want to first check to make sure your Princess is operating properly first before making a change. I was skeptical when we moved on the boat, having moved from my land-home where I had a Viking gas range. So I was braced for disappointment. However, our Princess 110 performs just fine, the 2 full-strength burners are certainly able to boil enough water for lobster, and the 1 (ours is on the front left) is a kind of "warming burner" don't expect much from it. The oven performs fine, sometimes I have to bake something a few minutes longer than on the recipe but that's no biggie. I've cooked two full Thanksgiving meals now on this little range and with a little planning it went ok. Also, make sure you have the toggle switch in the proper position (for oven vs. range) because that's caught me off guard too and I'm sitting there wondering why it's not heating up properly.

Good luck!

[bostonhatteras]

thanks for the input. i do know that two of the burners are 'full' power and the third is 'middle' range. ive looked at the burner elements and they are stamped on the under metal frame with the maker and wattage and voltage. i think this wattage/resistance ultimately controls their full output and has nothing to do with the rheostat temp control knob at the front of the stove. the rheostat being for temperature range control not full output. so theoretically you can put the 'middle' range burner where ever you want although in my quest to get this thing operating properly it is set up 'by the book'. what i am wondering is whether these electric burners die slowly, as in loosing heat making ability over time, or do they stay at design temp until physically broken. my misgivings about propane mainly is where to install the propane locker and cost of set up but that appeares to be under 2k so not too bad

[Angela]

If your serious about cooking go with propane. You get instant dependable heat. I had it on my last boat (krogen trawler) and I miss it now with the Hat. Our 3 burner princess takes quite a while to heat up and we are never sure what the temp is. Temperature seems erratic. Just my 2 cents. Ron
Exactly! From a cook's perspective, electricity sucks to cook on. You cannot control the heat with electricity no matter how fancy a stove you get. Been there, done that and proved my point over and over. I even had those $$$ state of the art halogen, instant hot/instant cold elements - they are not as good as gas.

Electricity is great for the oven, but NOT for the cooktop. Ideally, I want a gas cooktop and an electric oven. Ed won't let me have the gas cooktop. :(

Unless you fancy the culinary arts (as I do), gas v. electric probably won't matter you. Likewise, I would never have one of those new convection microwave ovens (are they called GE's Advantage?) that have been put in all the new boats in place of a real, traditional oven. They are not the same, but if you're not into culinary arts, it may suit you just fine. For me, when I look at a new yacht, that's an instant turn off. But that's just me.

[Jaxfishgyd]

"The Admiral" wants to replace our electric stove with propane once the old unit dies.
We too have only 30a service for the main boat use. And if you are using a burner or two and/or oven and hit the microwave.... Get ready to go reset the circuit breaker. Or any combination plus the hair dryer.... You get the picture..
Plus we would not have to use the genset when anchored out to cook and would just make coffee like they did 60 yrs ago....

TedZ.... Any pictures of the propane tank setup you have ?????

[TedZ]

Sorry, do not have any pictures. Built a shelf essentially in the line locker. i use a regular grill tank (20 pounder) secured and it lasts almost the whole season. Boat is 200 miles away and very snowed in! Spring i can take some with a phone maybe or crawl in if i empty two 300 foot anchor rodes with quite a bit of chain. I do empty it once a year anyway...try to do it then.

Ted

[holtcl]

BostonHatteras,

This may sound like a silly question (I'm full of them) - and I don't know whether the electric burners die gradually or all at once- but do yours burn bright orange on high like they are supposed to? Something else to consider- someone (e.g., a PO) may have replaced your elements with a weaker element than the original- maybe not knowing or maybe to conserve energy. In conclusion it seems like you should be getting better performance out of the unit, certainly enough to 2 of make those eyes glow bright orange and to boil water.

There's nothing like gas for cooking - I miss my Viking but I've adapted. Like everything else a liveaboard goes through with adapting, it's all different on a boat (and more expensive!).

[Fanfare]

Cooking with gas is great. But on a boat the problem is that propane is heavier than air, and if there is a leak it will flow down and accumulate in the bilge. There it awaits a spark. Liquid natural gas (LNG) was a better fuel, as it is lighter than air. I don't think it has the heat value of propane, and it's harder to find someone who can refill the tank.

It would be wise to check with your insurance agent before ripping out the electric stove and putting anything with a flame in. The requirements for storage of propane could be met, but it is more complicated to retrofit. The storage compartment has to have a separate vent to drain leaked propane overboard. Remote shutoff on the fuel line. I saw one which had an electric remote shutoff at the tank, and a manual one at the stove. All this must be done properly or your surveyor will black flag you and your boat is uninsurable.

The safety of diesel is hard to equal, even if it means you have to start the generator to cook.

[Sonny]

i'm all for less explosives onboard!
it can be a little tricky juggling amp load, but you get used to it. figure 10a for each heating element on the stove and another 10 for the microwave, hairdryer and clothes iron. we've been living aboard for 5 years now, the last 6months on our hatteras. there's me, the wife and my son here, so the chances of the clothes iron, hairdryer and stove going at the same time are nil. any one of the above and the m/wave simultaneously is a possibility, but are within limits. there are new cooktops that give "instant" heat, way faster than the princess. i think the safety of electric offsets the high btu of propane.

[bostonhatteras]

as for the elements ability to get red hot. they can get about 3/4 red hot, but i would liken it to a small 4 cylinder car from the 70's on a hilly road. you can get going real fast down hill but as soon as your going uphill you lose everything. so they will get 3/4 red hot but then you put a pan on it, say to boil potatos, and the water absorbs all the heat and the element just cant really catch up. according the the princess manual i have the correct burners. the thing just sucks. i have pretty much made up my mind to become a floating potential explosion, oh and also uninsurable but Ill manage that. now where to put the gas locker......

[stormchaser]

Does anyone make a DIESEL stove? I was thinking it would be sort of like the old fashioned alcohol stoves. I had a pressurized alcohol stove & oven on my Catalina 30 (yes, I'm a blow-boater at heart)...it worked great. If there was a diesel stove...you would have no problems with explosions...

[Maynard Rupp]

They do make diesel stoves. I have seen them on lobster boats in Nova Scotia. I guess they work great. I could not tell if they smell because everything in and around a lobster boat smells like the salted rotten fish that they use for bait. I don't cook, but my wife likes the Galley Maid 110 volt stove that came with our Hatteras.:)

[Trojan]

The admiral feeds 8 people from our princess 3 burner all summer. Two burners glow red and the third not quite red. We don't seem to have any trouble cooking. The oven works fine and yes somethings require a little more time in the oven. We also will dump a breaker once in a while when the kids are using a lot of TV toys and the admiral is cooking. I do on occasions turn off the water heater when she has everything cranked up. No big deal. We have an electric stove at home. It does take some using to change from gas to electric. Heat response from gas to electric so quite slow. People going from electric to gas tend to burn food at first. Cook top area is our only gripe.

BILL

[stormchaser]

I do on occasions turn off the water heater when she has everything cranked up. No big deal.

BILL

I've heard that some (all?) Hatts have a switch in the galley for just this purpose? If so...where should it be? If I have one, I have yet to find it...

[bostonhatteras]

a switch for the hot water heater would have to be some switch. most toggle switches are rated for 600 or 1100 watts i believe. one of these switches would get quite hot in use with the heater and the contacts would probably go bad quite quick switching that much wattage. probably not good practice but if i have to i use the breaker.

[Beckytek]

Cooking with propane is no more dangerous than cooking with gas at home. The tank sits in a vented compartment that vents any gas overboard. The outlet of the tank goes directly to a solenoid valve that has to be turned on in order to have gas present at the stove. There is one continuous piece of tubing going directly to the stove( no connections to leak). If the solenoid fails or you lose battery the solenoid closes. You can also shut the gas off right at the tank manually.
I like to use my oven at the same time as the top burners. Try baking a potato and doing the chicken caccatori at the same time, can't be done on my stove.
You'll see all the trawlers with propane stoves so there is no need for the generator at anchor. When I get the money, this stove is history. Ron

[holtcl]

We just turn off the hot water heater at the breaker when I've got all the burners going and the oven- we just call it "load management" :)

[krush]

There's enough hot air and gas from all the old farts on this forum to cook any meal you can dream up....who needs propane, 240v, or 120v?

[Jaxfishgyd]

And with Krush, we have fresh VIRGIN meat to cook...... :}