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Gas or Meths/Spirit cooker?


Mad Harold

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My new (to me) boat has no cooking facilities.It has a gas locker,but no piping.

I am thinking it would be simpler and probably cheaper to fit a two burner meths stove,but searching the web I am getting confused.

Some are advertised as alcohol stoves (the type that seem most suitable for a boat) and others as methylated spirit stoves which look more suitable for camping.

I know meths is generally available in DIY stores,but alcohol,I don't know.

My question is,do alcohol stoves run on meths? I assume that alcohol will be available in chandleries and camping stores?

 

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Meths is also known as 'denatured alcohol' iirc. Pretty sure alcohol/meths stoves are one and the same. I cook on a trusty old Trangia camping stove, about as basic as they come, but it's served me well for 30 years of camping and small boating. The Origo stoves are one of the decent brands for boats I've seen but they don't come cheap!

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Meths is not pure methanol. It is methylated spirit.  The spirit is  Ethanol or ethyl alcohol C2H5OH  with methanol added, and a blue dye to make it unlike any food.

 

Because it is ethanol or drinking alcohol you can get p'd on it, but the methanol is poisonous, will eventually make you blind, and may kill you.

 

It is good for starting a primus, tillley lamp or paraffin blowlamp though.

 

 

N

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8 minutes ago, BEngo said:

Meths is not pure methanol. It is methylated spirit.  The spirit is  Ethanol or ethyl alcohol C2H5OH  with methanol added, and a blue dye to make it unlike any food.

 

Because it is ethanol or drinking alcohol you can get p'd on it, but the methanol is poisonous, will eventually make you blind, and may kill you.

 

It is good for starting a primus, tillley lamp or paraffin blowlamp though.

 

 

N

They add methanol to make it poisonous otherwise you could drink it and duty would have to be charged and Pyridine to make it look bad and taste bad to (hopefully) stop you drinking it.  Not sure if they still use pyridine, might just be dye and something else with a bad taste.

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We have Origo meths 2 burner stove on Waitangi a 125 year old restored racing yacht as a safer alternative to LPG, and also the difficulty in providing compliant LPG bottle storage on board. 

It is a nice bit of kit, but it does have a much lower heat output for the same sized burner, dimensions, then an LPG stove. Boiling a kettle is a much more leisurely affair, and it requires frequent refills. 

If you have a compliant storage compartment and compliant pipework then lpg is in my experience of both, better. 

 

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I bought an Origo  single burner stove to use when I was fitting out our boats before I had put in a gas installation.  It was very efficient as a stop gap, but not nearly as convenient as a proper LPG stove.  It was also a bit of a faff buying the meths.

As a matter of interest are there any special requirements vis-à-vis the BSS for storing 5l of meths?

Edited by koukouvagia
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I had a 2 burner Origo hob on my first coastal yacht. It was a pain in the ####. Low heat output, difficult to control (as I remember), always running dry and smelly to fill. My girlfriend, later wife,  taught me a few new words when she tried to cook on it.

Gas every time. Mind you it took me years to forget the ritual of shouting "gas on" or "gas off" every time the gas cooker was lit.

 

 

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I have a single burner Origo for sale to a good home.  Comes with a spare fuel cartridge & steel 5 gallon jerrycan.  Ideal when fitting out.  Does the job, but as others have said, not the fastest.  I have upgraded to a full-size 60cm LPG cooker.  

The biggest single advantage of a meths stove is that in the (unlikely) event of a fire you can throw water on it to put it out, unlike most other spirit- types.

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As had been said, Meths is a very poor source of 'power'.

Here is a comparison list I prepared for a camping presentation.

 

Hexamine = 8 Wh / gram
Chafing Gel = 7.44 Wh / gram
Propane LPG = 13.6Wh / gram
Mixed Camping Gas = 14.2 Wh / gram
Seasoned Dry Wood = 4.2 Wh / gram
Methylated Spirit = 7.22 Wh/Gram
Petrol / Diesel = 12.5Wh / gram

Anthracite = 8.6 Wh / gram

 

Meths is about 1/2 the 'power' of Gas, and is very similar to those  'tins' of Chafing gel that are used in the Chinese Restaurant to keep the food warm.

 

Using one of the 'chafing fuel' (Ethanol Gel) cans its takes me about 9-10 minutes to heat 500ml of 'tap water' to boiling.#

 

Using LPG takes 4 minutes.

 

 

Yes - I DO take the lid of before boiling the water. !!!!!

IMG_20170209_213619.jpg

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