stoves

[bizzard]

Having just read the post on stoves and replied to Paul Catchpole.

My opinion of cast iron stoves is not so good these days. They're made of cast iron for speed of manufacture once the moulds for the sections have been made they're quick to mass produce.Cast iron is very trecherous and cracks like a carrot under any form of misshandling as old I.K.B and other engineers found out and so had to over engineer most things until the Bessemer steel invention of around 1860. I've had to repair,replace sections on mainly Squirrel stoves, the castings of which in my opinion are too thin.As someone pointed out always bring them up to heat gently so as to adjust themselves and prevent cracking. Mine is an Steel bodied Boatman stove of which i've had two. the current one in my presant boat is 13 years old and is only let to go out a couple of times during the winter in order to clean and de-coke. Brilliant stove for the price.

So bring cast iron stoves up to heat gently..and never let them roar away and overhead,almost certain damage.The ones i've found that crack most frequently are back boilered ones i think being forced too much to heat water for rads ect.

bizzard

[Caprifool]

Being scandinavian myself. If burning coal on a boat in the UK. I wouldn't trust a stove made in Scandinavia where we in facto do not use fossil coal. Most of us use birch, alder or pine over here. Never seen one of our cast iron stoves crack from burning wood. Well, oak maybe.....but that stuff burns way to hot anyway.

 

Just a thought why maybe a british stove might be better in britain.

[bizzard]

Being scandinavian myself. If burning coal on a boat in the UK. I wouldn't trust a stove made in Scandinavia where we in facto do not use fossil coal. Most of us use birch, alder or pine over here. Never seen one of our cast iron stoves crack from burning wood. Well, oak maybe.....but that stuff burns way to hot anyway.

 

Just a thought why maybe a british stove might be better in britain.

I wouldn't trust one made here either, only with a smaller fire in it anyway.

Most live aboards here do burn a lot of wood though.must of course let it season though or it goos everything up with tar,creosote. The most abundant wood here on the waterside is Willow but we must let it season for a year or two or serious gooing up occures. bizzard

[CygnusV]

Mine is an Steel bodied Boatman stove of which i've had two. the current one in my presant boat is 13 years old and is only let to go out a couple of times during the winter in order to clean and de-coke. Brilliant stove for the price.

 

bizzard

 

+1 for the Boatman. Ours has been on board for almost 10 years and with the exception of a new door seal and glass there has been no problem at all. My only regret is that I wish I'd bought the one with the hot water coil. As it is I'm not going to change the stove, instead I'm having a bolt on back boiler made.

 

Just out of interest. We've burned all sorts of solid fuel and a lot of wood. Excepting the wood we've found the reformed smokeless nuggets work best. You can screw it down at night and turn it back up in the morning and off it goes again. Excellent value and British made (In Lancashire if I remember right). Highly recommended.

[bizzard]

+1 for the Boatman. Ours has been on board for almost 10 years and with the exception of a new door seal and glass there has been no problem at all. My only regret is that I wish I'd bought the one with the hot water coil. As it is I'm not going to change the stove, instead I'm having a bolt on back boiler made.

 

Just out of interest. We've burned all sorts of solid fuel and a lot of wood. Excepting the wood we've found the reformed smokeless nuggets work best. You can screw it down at night and turn it back up in the morning and off it goes again. Excellent value and British made (In Lancashire if I remember right). Highly recommended.

Yes brilliant stoves. I don't think you'll get very hot water from a boiler bolted on the back though been tried before

,just warmish.

Small stoves boilers tend to struggle anyway to heat more than 2 or 3 rads plus hot water unless forced (roaring away)

you can get them with back boilers, proper wedge shape and in the furnace with a space behind so that heat and flames

surround it. I think you can fit one to your stove. 2 large holes to drill in mild steel easy. But check with the maker it was Northwest Fabrications. Google it.

Best of luck Regards bizzard.

[Speedwheel]

I was told that stoves made in Ireland tend to be good quality. Given that they burn peat and all sorts of other nasty rubbish over there, the stoves have to be well made as if they don't last, they are quickly returned to the shop (late at night, through the window).

 

(That said, it was an Irish chap who told me this!)

[deletedaccount]

Another +1 for the boatman.

[BlueStringPudding]

Same here - the Boatman's been great