The speed of Bottom Drawer stoves?

[cutsurfer]

Hi All,

 

The Questions:

 

• Do all 'seperate bottom draw stoves' start as strongly as a morso and are the cheaper ones harder to keep in?

 

• Has anyone else found the old model 'single door' Acorn Aarrow stoves a little slow to start/ have any tips?

 

 

I've previously had some breathing difficulties with my stove lit through winter and had some really good suggestions on a previous post including burning the stove fast and hot which I must say, when I can manage it, helps immensely.

 

Now my friend has what a lot of people regard as the best of the boat stoves, a morso-squirrel. I've noticed how fast and incredibly powerful the stove can get going with the bottom drawer open when lighting.

 

My mate asked me to get his stove going for him whilst away one day and I had managed to get his going in about 25 minutes, a little longer for coal to take and then able to shut it down and kept it in for the day until he got back.

 

I have the old Acorn Aarrow model and this always takes about an hour or two to really get super hot and i'm sure the slow burning start that the aarow seems to limp off to a start with doesn't help in contributing to my asthma.

 

I know having really dry wood helps alot but as a live-aboard through a very wet winter sometimes this is quite a challenge, so really thinking about replacing my old arrow with one of these bottom draw stoves, any help really appreciated :-)

 

Pete

[onionbargee]

Won't your one door stove get a good daft to start it if you just leave the door open a half inch ?

[cutsurfer]

Thanks for the reply, I do leave it open half an inch and it does improve the draught but nothing like what i've seen of when the bottom draw is open on my friends Morso, it's still a fairly slow start in comparison.

[chubby]

i have a becton bunny stove . it has a seperate lower drawer for the ashpan which i open fully when lighting the stove . Its the only stove ive ever owned so cannot compare it to any other but it does the job very well & i suspect its mych cheaper than a squirrel .

[MtB]

When I replaced my expired two-door Squirrel with a one-door Boatman stove, this was the most immediate effect I noticed. The Boatman takes far longer to get nice and hot than the Squirrel did.

 

Like you, I found leaving the door cracked open helps a bit sometimes, but the difference is slight.

 

I'll investigate getting a Becton Bunny as Chubby seems happy with his and I definitely need to replace this horrible Boatman!

[alan_fincher]

Do all 'seperate bottom draw stoves' start as strongly as a morso..........................

 

Definitely not.

 

Our "new" boat has a massive old "Much Wenlock", which is a very heavy cast offering with 2 separate doors.

 

It is very slow to start up even with the ash-pan door wide open, for reasons not obvious to us.

 

We have resorted to a computer fan blowing air it and it is still a slow starter.

 

Had we done the same with the much smaller Villager Heron on out last boat, we would have had melt down. If you left the bottom of that open for more than a few minutes from cold you would have had something resembling a blast furnace.

 

I genuinely can't understand how two stoves can behave quite so differently.

[MtB]

Villager heron? Thanks, another candidate for the shortlist of potential replacements for the Boatman!

[cutsurfer]

Thanks for your replies, so this means I really can't buy, 'any old' bottom drawer stove.

 

I know i've came to understand that the 'pull' of the hot air from underneath (the blowtorch effect) that the squirrel seems to get with the bottom drawer open requires the seals to be really good around the main door, Alan do you think your Wenlock may have a few draughts, or do you think it's perhaps just because it's such a big stove?

 

Definate food for thought now as I was hoping I could just buy a cheap one next...doh :-P

[alan_fincher]

Villager heron? Thanks, another candidate for the shortlist of potential replacements for the Boatman!

 

That was am old style Heron where air control was a bit hit and miss. I think the newer ones, (and also the similar Puffin), get this rather better.

 

However IIRC your requirement is for a stove that can be made up, and stay in many many hours unattended? From my experience of the small Villagers, that's easy overnight, or (say) morning to evening, but ours I would have struggled to guarantee hugely longer than that.

 

Of you want "stay in 24 hours" ability, I'd ask others who have had them how successful they have been. I don't think they would be the best choice in that case,

[BWM]

Hi All,

 

The Questions:

 

• Do all 'seperate bottom draw stoves' start as strongly as a morso and are the cheaper ones harder to keep in?

 

• Has anyone else found the old model 'single door' Acorn Aarrow stoves a little slow to start/ have any tips?

 

 

I've previously had some breathing difficulties with my stove lit through winter and had some really good suggestions on a previous post including burning the stove fast and hot which I must say, when I can manage it, helps immensely.

 

Now my friend has what a lot of people regard as the best of the boat stoves, a morso-squirrel. I've noticed how fast and incredibly powerful the stove can get going with the bottom drawer open when lighting.

 

My mate asked me to get his stove going for him whilst away one day and I had managed to get his going in about 25 minutes, a little longer for coal to take and then able to shut it down and kept it in for the day until he got back.

 

I have the old Acorn Aarrow model and this always takes about an hour or two to really get super hot and i'm sure the slow burning start that the aarow seems to limp off to a start with doesn't help in contributing to my asthma.

 

I know having really dry wood helps alot but as a live-aboard through a very wet winter sometimes this is quite a challenge, so really thinking about replacing my old arrow with one of these bottom draw stoves, any help really appreciated :-)

 

Pete

As much as the type of stove you are using affects warm up, the length, size and type of flue also has an influence on how fast the stove heats up. Squirrels take some beating for ease of use, although I'm not convinced of the new arrangement with the air adjustment underneath the stove.

If you experience breathing problems it might be worth trying anthracite, its a pain to get going but produces very little dust and any dust produced is quite heavy.

[alan_fincher]

Alan do you think your Wenlock may have a few draughts, or do you think it's perhaps just because it's such a big stove?

 

Although many years old, it seems well maintained, with everything sealing as it should.

 

As I said, I don't know why it is so slow. I do wonder if it needs a "house length" rather than a "boat length" flu to draw better, but obviously I can't arrange that(!)

 

If we do end up replacing it I have no idea with what. I would by choice far, far rather have welded construction, but whilst small welded stoves are easy to find, big ones are not.

 

I would not by choice have a Squirrel - I don't think anything costing so much should have regular reports of major failures after a relatively short service life.

[Tony Brooks]

Leading on from Alan's comment about the Squirrel. It may be an advantage for cast iron stoves to be designed to draw slowly from cold. This allows the cast iron to heat more gently so differential expansion in the panels will be less likely and thus reduce the tenancy for them to crack. I have no idea if the squirrel is cast iron or boiler plate but if it is then maybe some failures could be down to people doing things to get a faster warm up.

[captain birdseye]

I must agree with bunny, of the last three boats we have owned with stoves in the Bunny was the easiest to light and the easiest to control. The other two being a Morso and a Boatman. The Boatman comes in second purely on value for money

[cutsurfer]

Thanks again for the replied, definately food for thought for this summer, my little aarrow has the standard arrow size 4 inch flue.

 

One other interesting tip I saw, which may be common knowledge to everyone apart from me, was putting rock wool inside the double skin chimney to stop amy condensation and nasty runs down the cabin, I wonder if that may help the draw slightly too,something to try