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Range Cookers on narrowboats


PancakeMuddypaws

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I would love to hear from anyone who has a range cooker on a narrowboat and your experiences of it....

 

We have our house on the market and will be buying and living onboard a narrowboat as soon as it is sold. I've been used to cooking on a range cooker for nearly 30 years so the moving back to a "normal" hob and oven will take a bit of getting used to... so, we have been thinking about getting a range cooker installed on the boat. I know we may need to have the ballast adjusted because of the weight but it is peoples experiences of using them (particularly in the summer !!) that I'm interested in hearing :)

 

Thank you !

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I have seen a couple of boats fitted with ranges.

 

The two disadvantages are the amount of ballast needed to trim the boat level because of the weight on one side of the boat, and the heat inside the boat on hot summer's days (unless you have another means of cooking and can turn the range off in summer).

Edited by cuthound
Spillung
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A small solid fuel range cooker was the traditional solution for heating, cooking and hot water in working narrowboats. Sited near the rear hatch to keep the steerer warm on cold days. A version can still be obtained. As @Mike the Boilerman says, most ones actually used for regular cooking and heating are diesel fired.

 

Jen

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Not trying to be negative - but practical - range cookers are great in a house with a large kitchen area. Great for slow cooking of all sorts of dishes, but have to be tweaked where a high temperature is required. Wonderful in a large farmhouse with a starving, agricultural family and loads of space.

Scale it down to my late mum's cottage and it gets a bit tedious in the summer - even though the kitchen faced North....

 

 I saw a small Aga shoehorned into a NB some years ago. It was in a very small compartmentalised kitchen and even the owner admitted that it might have been a mistake... (I  recall from the grapevine that the owner / next owner later removed it...)

 

Tiny stoves of the boatman's cabin variety are fine,  because they are small and the excess heat is only sufficient to heat the back cabin - which is precisely what was wanted at the time - sonmethig to keep the steerer warm in winter and to make a cup o' char or pan of soup.

 

Now, if the target boat is broad - then mebe an Aga might be an option - excess heat could be used to warm the boat and even the hot water, but it needs good design.

 

The heat is generated either by an oil drip feed burner which is very inefficient  (that means that wasted heat has to be dissipated somehow...) or by gas - which I suspect may be horendously expensive, or at least needs lots of onboard gas cylinder storage.

 

My Management was brought up with a large farmhouse style kitchen, but has graciously accepted a medium sized gas cooker on which she can cook slowly or fast dishes as her menu dictates. Mensahib does not like flames but live with it 'personfully'.  (in fact, thoug she won't admit it, there's a joy in fast cooking with a gas ring turned up to maximum...  You can't do that with a 'leccy cooker or even a caol fired Aga (do they still exist) with the hot plate ring(s) removed.

 

IMO - the wrong solution in the wrong place.

 

 

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Hi I have a solid fuel Rayburn royal on board, it truly is great but of kit, mine heats hot water and runs the central heating. Now for 7 months of the year it's perfect however in summer it's to hot and I have a large wide beam with large kitchen as Mike knows. Now my  advice is look at heritage pressure jet cookers, they will work better on a boat than my Rayburn, if I can help please just pm me 

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11 hours ago, Graham Davis said:

Perhaps the OP would like to clarify EXACTLY what they mean; an Aga/Rayburn type or the large multi-oven "modern" gas cooker?

Hi, I do mean the AGA/Ray urn style ? I’ve been looking at the heritage range cookers for a Narrowboat because they seem to be a better fit size wise and a bit more controllable. 

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11 hours ago, peterboat said:

Hi I have a solid fuel Rayburn royal on board, it truly is great but of kit, mine heats hot water and runs the central heating. Now for 7 months of the year it's perfect however in summer it's to hot and I have a large wide beam with large kitchen as Mike knows. Now my  advice is look at heritage pressure jet cookers, they will work better on a boat than my Rayburn, if I can help please just pm me 

Thank you ? I will most probably be in touch as soon as we’ve sold a house ! We won’t be buying a new boat so I’ll be using whatever is fitted to start with but in my ideal world I would look at getting a Heritage cooker fitted.

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I have a heritage uno range cooker on my boat. Yes they can get warm in the summer but it’s located near a hatch so not to bad at all. I just fire it up as needed in the summer  so it’s not on all the time. You’ll need 240v supply for the fuel pump,  timer etc but it only draws a little over 5amps  when it’s getting up to temperature. You will also need to have a heat sink radiator on all the time the cooker is running or it will get to temperature to quickly and cut out. This isn’t a problem as I have one radiator  in the bathroom and one where I hang my clothes. So I never get problems with dampness in the boat and always have nice warm towels. 

Another plus point is that if you put the kettle on in the morning for a brew by the time that’s boiled you have lots of hot water for showers and hot water. There is a knack to using them but as you have experience of range cookers that won’t be a problem. 

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7 minutes ago, plato said:

I have a heritage uno range cooker on my boat. Yes they can get warm in the summer but it’s located near a hatch so not to bad at all. I just fire it up as needed in the summer  so it’s not on all the time. You’ll need 240v supply for the fuel pump,  timer etc but it only draws a little over 5amps  when it’s getting up to temperature. You will also need to have a heat sink radiator on all the time the cooker is running or it will get to temperature to quickly and cut out. This isn’t a problem as I have one radiator  in the bathroom and one where I hang my clothes. So I never get problems with dampness in the boat and always have nice warm towels. 

Another plus point is that if you put the kettle on in the morning for a brew by the time that’s boiled you have lots of hot water for showers and hot water. There is a knack to using them but as you have experience of range cookers that won’t be a problem. 

Thank you ! That is really good to know ?

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6 minutes ago, plato said:

Hi Alan I took the reading from my victory connect app so I’m guessing that reading is in dc ? I have a 24 volt system. 

Im no electrical wizard, so would be glad to be enlightened! 

Ok 

 

If it was 5 amps at 240v AC being provided by an Inverter being powered by 12v DC batteries it would be drawing over 100amps from the batteries.

 

If it is 5 amps at 24 volts DC that is equivalent to 10 amps at 12v DC

 

That is quite a considerable current drain.

How long would you estimate it is drawing that current (does that include the circulation pump as well, or, just the range ?

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9 minutes ago, plato said:

Hi Alan I took the reading from my victory connect app so I’m guessing that reading is in dc ? I have a 24 volt system. 

Im no electrical wizard, so would be glad to be enlightened! 

5A at 24V would be 10A on 12V. How long does this pump operate for?

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Alan / wot ever , the fuel pump is built in as part of the range pressure jet system. There’s also a separate grundfoss central heating pump that kicks in to send the hot water to the rads and calorifier when the range reaches temperature.

I’ve never timed how long the fuel pump runs when the range is in operation. But at a guess I’d say less than an hour a day. 

My average daily consumption is between 50 - 60 ah a day that’s the cooker , shower,  fridge , 240 v tv , decent 240 v hi if system, lights water pumps etc.  

More detail.  fridge is a shoreline running @24v . 

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8 minutes ago, plato said:

Alan / wot ever , the fuel pump is built in as part of the range pressure jet system. There’s also a separate grundfoss central heating pump that kicks in to send the hot water to the rads and calorifier when the range reaches temperature.

 

This will be 240Vac.

 

 

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4 hours ago, plato said:

Thanks for the clarification Mike 

 

I don't think it helped much because what they are asking, is when you say 5A consumption, they want to know where you are measuring this.

 

Are you measuring the current in the 240Vac supply to the range cooker, or in the 24Vdc supply to the inverter?

 

What is a "victory connect app"? Google suggests it is some loony churchy sect in USA!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sausage fingers at work! I’m not religious. Victron .

I have an all victron set up with smart bmv 712 with blue tooth that connects to the victron app on my phone. It’s gives a lot of info  on on your batteries etc 

 I switched on the stove and looked at the current being used so hence my assumption it was reading in 24 v dc 

although the Range is running on 240v as you said 

E15BFB13-A9E3-4335-9B04-D489F8DF920D.png

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57 minutes ago, plato said:

Sausage fingers at work! I’m not religious. Victron .

I have an all victron set up with smart bmv 712 with blue tooth that connects to the victron app on my phone. It’s gives a lot of info  on on your batteries etc 

 I switched on the stove and looked at the current being used so hence my assumption it was reading in 24 v dc 

although the Range is running on 240v as you said 

E15BFB13-A9E3-4335-9B04-D489F8DF920D.png

 

 

Do you have solar panels ?

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