Stove Conundrum

[Saffa]

We recently purchased an ex-hire boat with no stove. We now live on the boat and realise that we need another form of heating other than the Webasto. Speaking to people on our travels 95% have recommended the Squirrel. Thats what we were looking at until a wise installer told us the space was to small and our surveyor has since confirmed this.

 

Other options people have recommended is a Boatman. Is this a contender. The installer has recommended the following

 

http://www.midlandchandlers.co.uk/Catalogue/ProductDetail/mc-stove-crosley-5-0kw-non-boiler?productID=b23cf27e-abcb-47e9-bbf0-722488ba2972&catalogueLevelItemID=929923c2-d6ea-465c-a020-e46dba03abcf

 

So this has 1KW more heating than the Boatman.

 

We plan to install the stove 1/3 of the way from the front. We have a 65ft boat with an open passage down one side.

 

One thing many people have said about the Squirrel is that you can load it in the evening and you should be good until morning. Would this be the same for the other stoves above?

 

Will a 4KW do the job on our boat as I am leaning towards the boatman.

 

As another item,once a stove is installed can we dry washing inside the boat during the winter months or are we asking for problems.

 

Again thank you for all the replies.

 

( A back boiler is not an option due to space and our pipe configuration )

 

[NB Watersnail]

Our villager puffin is 4kw and keeps our 57' warm and will stay in all night if loaded with care. It's about 15' from the front. Just an eco fan on top, no boiler, but that's a can of worms we really don't need to open!

[Richard10002]

My boatman will stay in all night and half the following day on occasions. Keeps 45ft cruiser stern boat too hot if not careful, but how it would perform on 67ft, I don't know.

[magnetman]

I would definitely go for an alternative rather than a Squirrel, personally. I have two free standing (no boiler) multifuel stoves on my barge about 5kw each but they are old school - a dutch cooking stove (the primary heating on board) and an old French Chappee enamelled cast iron stove for the back end near the Wheelhouse.

Not sure how an installer would feel about putting one of these old lumps in? I have 3 CO monitors as well

 

Some of the French stoves are very nice items (if you like that sort of item) and I would be very tempted to try to get one of these in a narrow boat if it were a new install although a new Villager Puffin or a Boatman may be more sensible really.

Edited July 13, 2015 by magnetman

[magnetman]

Chappee stove - same one as I have in here

 

Http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=331604493980&globalID=EBAY-GB

Edited July 13, 2015 by magnetman

[Keeping Up]

Just a little bit smaller than the Squirrel, because the available space was a couple of inches too small, we fitted a Little Wenlock and we love it.

[Saffa]

Our villager puffin is 4kw and keeps our 57' warm and will stay in all night if loaded with care. It's about 15' from the front. Just an eco fan on top, no boiler, but that's a can of worms we really don't need to open!

 

 

What do you mean by loaded with care.

 

Thanks

[NB Watersnail]

Ash properly cleared down, ash pan emptied. The right amount of the right coal put on in the right places and finally the vent set to the perfect point. Takes a while to figure out and varies dependant on the coal, temperature and wind.

[MtB]

I wrote a detailed review of my Boatman stove a couple of months ago. Someone will be able to provide a link, hopefully!

 

Multiple minor drawbacks but awesome value for money.

 

I'm prolly gonna change it back to a Squrivel, so irritating do I find it.

[canals are us?]

How about a Charnwood Country 4 multifuel at £699? Slim in depth so ideal if against a wall facing outwards.

http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/wood_burning_stoves/Charnwood-country-4-stove.html

Or one stove I quite like the appearance of

http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/wood_burning_stoves/Villager-Duo-Stoves.html

We have had villagers and they have been ok. My boater friend has a villager heron for 11 years and it works and stays in fine on smokeless and blasts out the heat.

http://www.firesonline.co.uk/acatalog/Villager_Heron_Stove.html

I have a woodwarm fireview 4.5kw which has been discontinued with back boiler and it's excellent and the only heat source.

Or a dunsley highlander 5.

Stove choice is massive!!

 

I personally would go for a 5kw stove or consider the boatman for it's cost.

 

James

Edited July 13, 2015 by canals are us?

[Saffa]

I wrote a detailed review of my Boatman stove a couple of months ago. Someone will be able to provide a link, hopefully!

 

Multiple minor drawbacks but awesome value for money.

 

I'm prolly gonna change it back to a Squrivel, so irritating do I find it.

 

Unable to find your review. Any ideas on what you called the topic?

[churchward]

We recently purchased an ex-hire boat with no stove. We now live on the boat and realise that we need another form of heating other than the Webasto. Speaking to people on our travels 95% have recommended the Squirrel. Thats what we were looking at until a wise installer told us the space was to small and our surveyor has since confirmed this.

 

Other options people have recommended is a Boatman. Is this a contender. The installer has recommended the following

 

http://www.midlandchandlers.co.uk/Catalogue/ProductDetail/mc-stove-crosley-5-0kw-non-boiler?productID=b23cf27e-abcb-47e9-bbf0-722488ba2972&catalogueLevelItemID=929923c2-d6ea-465c-a020-e46dba03abcf

 

So this has 1KW more heating than the Boatman.

 

We plan to install the stove 1/3 of the way from the front. We have a 65ft boat with an open passage down one side.

 

One thing many people have said about the Squirrel is that you can load it in the evening and you should be good until morning. Would this be the same for the other stoves above?

 

Will a 4KW do the job on our boat as I am leaning towards the boatman.

 

As another item,once a stove is installed can we dry washing inside the boat during the winter months or are we asking for problems.

 

Again thank you for all the replies.

 

( A back boiler is not an option due to space and our pipe configuration )

 

4Kw in my experience is fine for a Narrowboat. We have one of that rating on our boat and even when snow and ice outside it is still possible to make the boat too hot.

 

originally we had a Morso Squirrel but found to have too much output and even with restricting the firebase with a couple of bricks we only needed to have the fire on tick-over. When it developed a fault we replaced with a Hobbit Stove from Salamander. This is quite like a Morso in design but is smaller (rated at 4KW) and has been just fine for us.

[cheshire~rose]

Our Villager Puffin stays in all night and has a back boiler. The back boiler requires replacing but we have not bothered because the ecofan keeps the entire boat warm enough for us. It is 50' boat

[MtB]

 

Unable to find your review. Any ideas on what you called the topic?

 

 

No. I posted it inside someone else's fred.

 

Someone suggested it ought to be a fred on it's own, but it isn't....

 

Bottom ine is if tyou want a cheap stove, it is grate value for money, but when you've had a Squrivel, you'll be disappointed with it.

[Beaker]

 

As another item,once a stove is installed can we dry washing inside the boat during the winter months or are we asking for problems.

 

You'll certainly be able to dry washing in the winter, but bear in mind you'll need lots of ventilation or a good dehumidifier to avoid condensation problems.

[jonathanA]

Another vote for the little wedlock we have a squirrel on the boat and the wenlock at home. I reckon they are about the same size physically but the wenlock is better in just about every way. Worth trying to find an older one as I'm told new ones are now made in China and the quality isn't what it was.

[Saffa]

Another questing regarding the stove. Where we intent to install it there are beds about 1m away ( foot of the bed ). When we load up the stove for the evening is this going to cause great discomfort to the people sleeping in those beds. Its a bunk on the other side of the boat.

[Phil Ambrose]

Food for thought provided for the fire issue, as for drying washing inside the boat particularly during winter, well that raises a whole new ballgame.

Only my opinion but drying washing introduces a lot of moisture into the air within the boat and that raises the specter of condensation which has to be dealt with.

Ventilation is the answer to that one I will leave it to others to offer advice on this because being marina based and on hook up we use a tumble dryer.

Phil

[Beaker]

Food for thought provided for the fire issue, as for drying washing inside the boat particularly during winter, well that raises a whole new ballgame.

Only my opinion but drying washing introduces a lot of moisture into the air within the boat and that raises the specter of condensation which has to be dealt with.

Ventilation is the answer to that one I will leave it to others to offer advice on this because being marina based and on hook up we use a tumble dryer.

Phil

 

See post #15

 

<koff>

 

[peterboat]

Its the boatman for me its steel which means unlike a squirrel it wont fall to pieces and burn your boat out. cast iron stoves which are bolted together are not a good idea on vibrating boats. I had a boatman on a 57 x 12 and it could heat the boat fine its now in Jaynes lounge heating most of the bungalow when on smokeless fuel. Another plus is that its made here in England by a man called Eddie so for the cost can you get better

 

Peter

[Phil Ambrose]

 

See post #15

 

<koff>

 

Meep, stopped mid post to make coffee, your post wasn't there when I started, oops.

Phil

[Beaker]

Meep, stopped mid post to make coffee, your post wasn't there when I started, oops.

Phil

 

[Boaty Jo]

We've just bought a Dunsley 5 Enviroburn. Good reviews (that I could find and built in Holmfirth, Yorkshire)

 

It's for our house that is in an area requiring a Defra approved stove.

Presumably boats don't need to comply despite passing through smoke-control areas?

[MarkO]

I have a Salamander Hobbit in my 42ft narrowboat and am really pleased with it - fits in a small space but heats the whole boat and stays in easily overnight once you get the hang of controlling it. I have a sofa bed a couple of feet from the stove and haven't had any problems sleeping there with the stove banked up for the night.

[MtB]

Ok, found my Boatman Stove review. (I posted it in the iPhone 5 thread )

 

Here it is again:

 

Ok, you've prompted me to write my promised review of the Boatmans Stove...

 

Now I've used it for a few weeks I have to say the £299 price tag remains very attractive and represents good value for money, but it will irritate the hell out of the 'more discerning stove user' like moi.

 

Eddie runs Northern Fabrications. He is a lovely bloke who makes them personally, one at a time, to order and will deliver each stove personally too, to wherever you are within reason for a pittance. He drove mine down to me from Manc to Banbury for £35 and pointing out the downsides in this review feels very disloyal but there we are, that's life and that's business.

 

If Eddie reads this and fixes all the faults, his stove price will have to rise, I'd guess, to close to the £900 or so a Squirrel costs. But I'd still buy one from Eddie because his stoves are welded steel not the splitty cracky cast iron Squirrels are made from. And he deserves the business.

 

Ok, here we go.

 

First impressions are it is a lot smaller than the cracked Squirrel I removed. Eddie told me his stove chucks out just as much heat as a Squirrel though, and I agree with him on this despite the much smaller size and smaller firebox. The small firebox brings a different irritation though. Although the Boatman Stove stays in all night ok, that's as far as it goes. If you lie in until midday (not that I ever do this, obviously) it WILL have gorn out by the time you get up. The old Squirrel would stay in for 24 hours easily, sometimes even 48.

 

On the upside the stove is neat and tidy-looking, and the matt black finish is superb. I chose the cheap basic fittings but Eddie will supply it with brass bits and bobs, and a fiddle rail too IIRC. The glass in the door is kept clean with an airwash control on the top of the door which Eddie set for me and I've never adjusted. After a few dozen hours of burning the glass is a bit grubby but that's fine with me. It just looks used, that's all. Still see the fire inside easily. Another GREAT feature is the feet come with lttle angle brackets welded on so one can screw the thing to the floor to comply with BSS. I don't know of any other stove with this, meaning one has to devise a way of fixing down any other make of stove. Not simple or easy for some peeps. Eddie makes it easy with the brackets.

 

Next, the Squirrel had separate firebox and ashpan doors. The Boatman has one single door covering both, so to get the stove roaring hot quickly, one no longer has the option of opening the ashpan door alone and keeping the firebox door shut to force feed a newly light fire with air. Not a big problem but a faint irritation all the same.

 

Next, a much bigger irritation. The ashpan is only about half the area of the space under the firebox. So 50% of the ash falls around the ashpan, not in it. Grrrr. And shoveling up the loose ash which missed the ashpan chucks up a load of ash dust into the air which messes up the inside of my already messy boat. I want my Squirrel back.

 

Another thing the Squirrel does better than the Boatman is griddling out the ash. Basically, the Boatman doesn't have the externally operated rotating griddle the Squirrel has, so you have to open the (single) door and manually poke out the ash with a poker. And more ash puffs out into the air and wafts around one's boat before settling on all one's crap.

 

Now another detail thing that doesn't matter, but does. The three bars across the front of a Squirrel to retain the coal are flat bars sloping inwards at about 45 degrees, so ash on them falls back into the firebox. The Boatman bars are not like this and let ash fall freely outwards, again puffing up into the air and settling al over all my guitars, hifi, and other general crap in mebote.

 

Further, any ash falling outwards on a Squirrel is caught on the little shelf that sticks out to catch it. I never noticed this little shelf on the Squirrel until I missed it's presence on the Boatman... The Boatman ash falls right down onto the floor and puffs up everywhere once again messing up all my mess in my cabin. I now really appreciate that little sticky-out shelf on the Squirrel. So much so that I'm considering buying another Squirrel, or something with all the features of a Squirrel which are missing from the Boatman, but fabricated from steel. (The Big Problem with Squirrels is the body castings crack when heated up rapidly as I like to do. Fabricated steeel stoves like the Boatman don't do this.)

 

Anyway, in summary, it's a great little stove for £299. But if you want to compare it to a Squirrel, don't be a cheapskate like moi, and buy a flippin Squirrel...

 

Tin hat on now....

 

 

MtB

 

 

 

 

(Edit to correct errors appearing after pressing 'SEND'.)