Dickinson stoves

[andywatson]

Has anyone on the forum got or used for any length of time a Dickinson diesel stove and what's their experience?

 

I've heard that they soot up on diesel/gas oil but run well on kerosene/light oil.

Possibly this could be due to not having the flue length (when installed at worktop height) and hence "draw" which a floor mounted burner would have(?)

 

If the start up time (or fuel consumed on standbye) can be accepted it appears that the cost of a dickinson with heating coil is roughly the same as a seperate gas cooker and C/H boiler.

[ditchcrawler]

Has anyone on the forum got or used for any length of time a Dickinson diesel stove and what's their experience?

 

I've heard that they soot up on diesel/gas oil but run well on kerosene/light oil.

Possibly this could be due to not having the flue length (when installed at worktop height) and hence "draw" which a floor mounted burner would have(?)

 

If the start up time (or fuel consumed on standbye) can be accepted it appears that the cost of a dickinson with heating coil is roughly the same as a seperate gas cooker and C/H boiler.

We have got one, but you seem to know the answers already

[andywatson]

We have got one, but you seem to know the answers already

 

Thanks.

 

Being genuinely interested in these stoves I have travelled to Kuranda (120 miles round trip) to look at one but having only managed to speak briefly to one owner so far, I hoped that other forum members might share their experience.

 

I included the small amount of information I have gleaned so far in my original post as a contribution to the debate so others would add aspects I have not yet considered, and hopefully to be corrected if wrong.

[gary4lw]

Andy I think you will find that some of the better boats fit a Wallas . Gary

[jactomtroub]

Hi

 

I have only just seen your post. We have a Dickinson Stove on our boat. It was already in the boat when we bought her. I have found it to be brill. We run it on the red diesel with an in line filter. We do regularly clean out the burner (we have an old 12v car vac kept specially for this) and once a year we clean the inlet pipe. We have cleaned the chimney once as well. We also 'black ' the top every now & then to keep it looking good.

 

I cook on it (although it has taken me a little time to master it) and have cooked a meal for 8. It also heats both the boat and the hot water. It can be hot with it on in summer but if we do need it we only run it for a short time. We do use a portable gas stove for the kettle when its not lit. With an ecofan on top it heats most of the boat.

 

It is such a simple thing it hardly needs any attention and there is hardly anything to go wrong (unlike the Wallis).

I would without doubt have another. Oh start up time to cooking temp is best part on an hour.

 

Jac

[andywatson]

Hi

 

I have only just seen your post. We have a Dickinson Stove on our boat. It was already in the boat when we bought her. I have found it to be brill. We run it on the red diesel with an in line filter. We do regularly clean out the burner (we have an old 12v car vac kept specially for this) and once a year we clean the inlet pipe. We have cleaned the chimney once as well. We also 'black ' the top every now & then to keep it looking good.

 

I cook on it (although it has taken me a little time to master it) and have cooked a meal for 8. It also heats both the boat and the hot water. It can be hot with it on in summer but if we do need it we only run it for a short time. We do use a portable gas stove for the kettle when its not lit. With an ecofan on top it heats most of the boat.

 

It is such a simple thing it hardly needs any attention and there is hardly anything to go wrong (unlike the Wallis).

I would without doubt have another. Oh start up time to cooking temp is best part on an hour.

 

Jac

 

Usefull info thanks.

[ditchcrawler]

Hi

 

I have only just seen your post. We have a Dickinson Stove on our boat. It was already in the boat when we bought her. I have found it to be brill. We run it on the red diesel with an in line filter. We do regularly clean out the burner (we have an old 12v car vac kept specially for this) and once a year we clean the inlet pipe. We have cleaned the chimney once as well. We also 'black ' the top every now & then to keep it looking good.

 

I cook on it (although it has taken me a little time to master it) and have cooked a meal for 8. It also heats both the boat and the hot water. It can be hot with it on in summer but if we do need it we only run it for a short time. We do use a portable gas stove for the kettle when its not lit. With an ecofan on top it heats most of the boat.

 

It is such a simple thing it hardly needs any attention and there is hardly anything to go wrong (unlike the Wallis).

I would without doubt have another. Oh start up time to cooking temp is best part on an hour.

 

Jac

That is basically what I would have written except we have an electric kettle.I did have the water heating coil fail on ours,but I think that was due to using some magic desooting liquid in the burner that caused corrosion. Had a new coil bent up locally in twice the pipe wall thickness which should outlast the boat. Loads of hot water.

[andywatson]

That is basically what I would have written except we have an electric kettle.I did have the water heating coil fail on ours,but I think that was due to using some magic desooting liquid in the burner that caused corrosion. Had a new coil bent up locally in twice the pipe wall thickness which should outlast the boat. Loads of hot water.

 

 

 

 

 

I thought the heating coils were made of stainless....?

If that de-sooting stuff corroded your water coil I wionder what must it do elswhere in a stove.

[mrsmelly]

Has anyone on the forum got or used for any length of time a Dickinson diesel stove and what's their experience?

 

I've heard that they soot up on diesel/gas oil but run well on kerosene/light oil.

Possibly this could be due to not having the flue length (when installed at worktop height) and hence "draw" which a floor mounted burner would have(?)

 

If the start up time (or fuel consumed on standbye) can be accepted it appears that the cost of a dickinson with heating coil is roughly the same as a seperate gas cooker and C/H boiler.

 

Hi

 

I had one fitted on my new build boat a few years ago and in my opinion as a liveaboard it is the most useless piece of kit ever designed by man. Soot is not the word and we had it pro fitted and did everything we were supposed to do and persevered all to no avail. I sold the boat and told the new owner how rubbish it was and knocked him two grand off the boat to enable him to change it, he kept it for 1 year and then put it in the skip....

I only ever use solid fuel heating know and one of the many other forms of water heating and of course by far and away the best kind of cooker totaly safe and reliable gas.

[ditchcrawler]

I thought the heating coils were made of stainless....?

If that de-sooting stuff corroded your water coil I wionder what must it do elswhere in a stove.

They are, but it is the only thing that I can think caused it. The outer surface of the pipe where it is within the flame was deeply pitted. The only time I have seen anything like it before ionisation flame detection rods carrying high voltage. It has never happened since.

[jactomtroub]

Hi

 

Our stove is not really sooty. Certainly not as dirty as the solid fuel one in the back cabin.

We have had no problems with the coil thank goodness.

I like mine but of course everyone is different. We didnt want gas on the boat.

Jac

[blackrose]

Ok... and how does all this affect boat handling exactly?

Edited February 1, 2010 by blackrose

[jactomtroub]

Ok... and how does all this affect boat handling exactly?

 

If you cant brew up or cook your dinner or if you freeze you die then the boat has no one to steer her and she chuggs off on her own causing all sorts of handling problems for others! OK?

[steamraiser2]

I built a Dickinson stove into my boat some years ago. It always suffered from sooting on diesel which I attributed to the limited length of flue I could achieve. It certainly ran better on kerosene. I checked out the oven temperature with a digital probe and found it came no where near the performance claimed by the manufacturer, even on kerosene. Personally I would not consider fitting a Dickinson into a boat unless I could guarantee getting sufficient flue length. They use more fuel than claimed too. Reliable enough though. Overpriced.

[antarmike]

I had two diesel "Potez" stoves in my Showman's living wagon. One was excellent, the other nothing but continual trouble. Both had an over level cut out on the float cahmber, one worked fine, the other was always stopping itself. I never manged to get the latter to run for more than a couple of hours without dying.

[junior]

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but that's better than starting another one for such a minor question i think.

 

I see that people who have had issues with excess soot causing problems seem to put it down to length of flue? So they run it ok Kerosene and that seems to make things better?

 

Or even running on Kero can you have sooting up problems if the flue is not long enough?

 

Silly question... by flue, do you mean from stove top to roof collar (minus chimney) or does it mean lenth of internal flue and chimney combined? So could you increase the chimney length to make 'the flue' longer if your internal flue wasn't that long?

 

And what's the cost of kerosene these days?

[peterboat]

Hi Junior flue lengh for me includes the chimney and kero in bulk is about 30 p a litre depending how much and how hard you haggle

 

Peter

[ditchcrawler]

Run mine on red OK, I bought a brush to clean the flue and never used it.

I use to get a big build up of crap in the burner pot before they changed to low sulphur fuel