Cabin Heaters / Stoves

BCC Forum
1

Ahoy Owners , especially located in Northern Climes .

Currently looking for cabin heat in the PNW region .

I have been thinking of removing the Mariner Stove and installing a solid fuel stove / heater in it’s place at least for the winter months, then swapping back to the Mariner Stove for the summer months .

I like the solid fuel , for the normal reasons , like “Dry” heat and inexpensive solid fuel availability , in that region .

Currently I use the oven on the Mariner stove twice a year to roast turkeys , but I use the broiler in the oven a heap .

I also use the two stove top burners for regular cooking and water heating .

Some say the “Refleks” drip diesel heater works well , but I am considering another idea, and would like some knowledgable input .

Since my BCC is already plumed with LPG , would it seem reasonable to install a double top solid fuel stove / heater , then later have a removable LPG burner to put into the wood box on occasion ?

I recently watched the OCH boat review of Carol Hasse’s Folkboat “Lorraine” ,
at : http://www.offcenterharbor.com/jd-folkboat/ and was quite interested in the solid fuel heater she had on board .

Any ideas out there ?

2

Getting a little nippy for ya Doug me boy?

If you are at a dock, how about an inexpensive ceramic heater. Works a treat in a small space. If you are on the hook, then I would have no advice except to recommend Dickinson heaters. Quality and you can get diesel or propane.

Stay warm!

3

General Thoughts About Heaters:

When we decided to install a heater, as you did, we looked at drip-diesel and propane heaters. We never considered an inline forced air system because of ducting, space requirements and complexity. We looked at Dickinson drip-diesel and Refleks. Besides reading the literature we talked to several owners of Dickinson drip-diesel heaters. The general consensus was diesel heaters provide excellent heat output and are very efficient but are dirty and are subject to flue blowback. In the worst case, a blowback can deposit soot over the interior of the boat. The cause of blowback is a pressure differential between the boats interior pressure and outside pressure. When the outside pressure is increased by a gust of wind, a downdraft in the flue occurs. The end result is blowback. Based on the information from owners of drip-diesel systems, we decided to use clean propane heat.

Iduna came equipped with two 20 lb. horizontal propane tanks housed in two outside forward lockers. These are in front of the cabin house and to each side of the mast. The boat came with a Force 10 propane heater. These units are terribly inefficient and allow exhaust gasses to enter the cabin. The kerosene fueled Force 10 has even less to offer. Beside

Our experience with the P9000 can be summarized as follows:

  1. No blowback issues,
  2. Makeup air is preheated before it enters the fire box which increases the efficiency of the unit,
  3. A 20 lb. propane tank provides 20 hr. of heating - low fire setting,
  4. The forced air fan is a plus but is somewhat noisy at the high fan setting,
  5. The rocker ON/OFF switch needs a guard to prevent accidentally turning the fan ON. (Our unit is located at the end of the starboard berth/settee and my foot has turned on the fan)
  6. The fireplace effect adds warm light to the cabin and provides a certain amount of romance on a cold night,
  7. The heat from the unit is more than enough to make the main cabin and galley/nav area comfortable warm.
  8. Cabin heat up is fast when the blower and fire are set to Hi.
  9. Once the cabin is warm, a low heat and lower blower setting will keep the main cabin and galley/nav area toasty warm.
  10. The only warm air that reaches the forward sections of the boat is by diffusion. These sections are chilly but not cold.
  11. The temperature of the stove pipe is about 120 degrees F. Once can touch the stove pipe but can not leave their hand on the pipe very long.
  12. No cabin air is used in the combustion process.
  13. The unit has an air-tight door seal. Carbon monoxide can not enter the cabin.

We did several Fall two-week trips on the Chesapeake. It was always nice to have heat in the boat, especially, when waking. On one trip, we spent 3-days at anchor while a cold front passed through. One day, the outside temperature remained in the low 30’s F. We ran the heater all day on a low setting. The boat was very warm and we were comfortable. Our SOP is to turn off the heater when we crawl into the bunk at bedtime. You can guess who lighted the heater in the morning. Oh, I need to mention, IDUNA’s hull is insulted from the waterline up - factor y installed by Channel Cutter Yachts, the Canadian builder.

Photos of the heater may be found at http://www.samlmorse.com/forum/gallery/album38 - files “Heater 1C” and “Heater 2c”. I have other photos but they are on a crashed hard drive.

The Delft tile behind the heater was installed by us. I stuck the tile to the bulkhead with a glue similar to “liquid nails” - Home Depot marine. I used hot glue to hold the tile in place during installation. A bead of glue was placed on the back of the tile, about 1/2" away from all four edges. Hot glue was place in the center of the tile. A heat gun was used to keep the tire warm. Once the tile was in place, I warmed the tile with the heat gun again and applied hand pressure to push the tile flat on the bulkhead. Instead of using tile grout, I used the best latex caulk I could buy at Home Depot marine (< $4.00).s being terribly inefficient they pollute the cabin atmosphere with exhaust gasses and the smell of burned kerosene (similar to burned jet fuel). One couple we know, burned mineral spirits in their Force 10. We were only too pleased to leave the boat after our visit. By default, the only option left was Dickinson’s P9000 and P1200. We purchased the P9000 unit because it is a fireplace, has a coaxial chimney and forced air blower.
xperience with the P9000 can be summarized as follows:

  1. No blowback issues,
  2. Makeup air is preheated before it enters the fire box which increases the efficiency of the unit,
  3. A 20 lb. propane tank provides 20 hr. of heating - low fire setting,
  4. The forced air fan is a plus but is somewhat noisy at the high fan setting,
  5. The rocker ON/OFF switch needs a guard to prevent accidentally turning the fan ON. (Our unit is located at the end of the starboard berth/settee and my foot has turned on the fan)
  6. The fireplace effect adds warm light to the cabin and provides a certain amount of romance on a cold night,
  7. The heat from the unit is more than enough to make the main cabin and galley/nav area comfortable warm.
  8. Cabin heat up is fast when the blower and fire are set to Hi.
  9. Once the cabin is warm, a low heat and lower blower setting will keep the main cabin and galley/nav area toasty warm.
  10. The only warm air that reaches the forward sections of the boat is by diffusion. These sections are chilly but not cold.
  11. The temperature of the stove pipe is about 120 degrees F. Once can touch the stove pipe but can not leave their hand on the pipe very long.
  12. No cabin air is used in the combustion process.
  13. The unit has an air-tight door seal. Carbon monoxide can not enter the cabin.

We did several Fall two-week trips on the Chesapeake. It was always nice to have heat in the boat, especially, when waking. On one trip, we spent 3-days at anchor while a cold front passed through. One day, the outside temperature remained in the low 30’s F. We ran the heater all day on a low setting. The boat was very warm and we were comfortable. Our SOP is to turn off the heater when we crawl into the bunk at bedtime. You can guess who lighted the heater in the morning. Oh, I need to mention, IDUNA’s hull is insulted from the waterline up - factor y installed by Channel Cutter Yachts, the Canadian builder.

Photos of the heater may be found at http://www.samlmorse.com/forum/gallery/album38 - files “Heater 1C” and “Heater 2c”. I have other photos but they are on a crashed hard drive.

4

Ahh, warm dry heat. The only thing that could get me to move up from my FC is that I still have yet to find a nook to ad heat. It going to be in the low 20’s this week the electric is out in the boatyard till further notice and launch day is coming. My kingdom for an independent heat source. Did you say 20 lbs of propane only burns 20 hours? that cant be right can it?
Freezing my butt off in paradise!

5

FWIW, I had a Webasto forced air heater installed and love it! The unit itself is installed in the lazarrette and exhausts through the stern. A duct passes through the engine compartment and exists into the cabin between the engine cover and the stove. Diesel fuel is obtained from the main fuel tank. The single heater outlet heats the entire boat in very little time. A thermostat is installed on the bulkhead immediately aft of the pilot berth so that I can turn the heat on (or turn it up) before crawling out of the berth.

The only main disadvantage (in my mind) is the draw on the battery, but the heater does not draw too much.

Dioscouri
(#064)
Gary

6

Nicely done Rod, almost makes me want to live someplace nippy…Almost.

7

what about a wallas stove, the stove top doubles as a heater takes very little power and only one fuel needed. Cheap and works well. No worries with propane leaks the system is sealed, no moisture in the boat.

8

Hi Doug,
I guess you’re still in SE Asia, avoiding our present cold snap? You and Lang are planning on living aboard year round, aren’t you? If your cruising, away from the dock, is limited to a month or less, then carrying your wood fuel probably isn’t a problem. We had a small Skippy wood stove on our previous boat (a roomy Rawson 30) for heating only. Our summer cruise was usually about 2 and a half months and I needed to replenish the firewood after a month or so. I was fussy and didn’t want to use driftwood which is plentiful but salty and sandy. The Skippy was cast iron. So I gathered dead wood from the woods, which wasn’t a problem until we had a week or so of rain, which can happen anytime during the summer.

Keeping a supply of wood on board for winter cruising around here would be a challenge. Even the amount of wood needed to heat and cook while winter-time living aboard at the dock would be a problem in most marinas. I didn’t like to burn douglas fir because it can be pitchy, i.e. dirty. Cedar and hemlock aren’t pitchy but don’t have a lot of heat value. So I tried for (in order of preference) madrone, maple or alder. We had bought half a cord of a mixture for our fireplace, so that provided our starting wood supply.

The live-a-boards around Seattle that I know, use diesel for heating, either in a Dickinson type stove which serves as both heating and cooking, or a forced air type diesel heater, with propane for cooking. The Dickinson users sometimes have a small 2 burner stove (propane, kero or alcohol) for cooking in warm summer weather. Of course there are lots of summer days in BC where the Dickinson’s heat is appreciated. Everyone has small electric heaters for use at the dock to warm up cold feet or for milder cool temps. I don’t know if a Dickinson heating/cook stove (with oven) would fit in the BCC stove space.

Living aboard a boat as small as the BCC is a lot smaller challenge in the tropics and near tropics than it is in these climes. I know Lang is still working, so I guess you’ll be at the dock quite a bit. We’ll all be interested in what you decide to do.
Dan Shaula BCC 59