Trangia v Origo v Maxie -3 Metho stoves v 1.5 pints of water

[dylan winter 1,424]

Just a bit of fun and I was a slightly surprised at the results

 

 

 

[MiddayGun 180]

They've improved that Origo since I last owned one, I remember having to pour the meths in through a tiny funnel into the wadding in the burner. A royal PITA.

[Ajax 1,988]

The Maxco has the edge because the fuel is pressurized and is burned most completely and efficiently.

The whole point of the Origo is that it's safer than pressurized fuels. The tradeoff is the lower heat and longer cooking times. Nothing wrong with that, I love the Origo.

Edit: The Origo seemed very popular. I can't figure out why Dometic quit making them.

[dylan winter 1,424]

Jill asked me what I had been filming

I explained what it was about

"No one would care - apart from you and blokes like you" was her response

D

 

[IStream 2,236]

She's not wrong. 

[Blue Crab 979]

2 burner Origo for sale. $150 plus shipping. Have to fill just as pictured here.

Heats twice (!!) as fast with double burners!

[dylan winter 1,424]

49 minutes ago, IStream said:

She's not wrong. 

She is never wrong

It is the principle under which our house is run

 

So far     so good

d

[Ajax 1,988]

2 hours ago, dylan winter said:

Jill asked me what I had been filming

I explained what it was about

"No one would care - apart from you and blokes like you" was her response

D

 

We are nerdy like that. It's the reason why @Panope's anchor tests are so popular.  Life ain't all about swimming pigs.

[European Bloke 426]

2 hours ago, dylan winter said:

She is never wrong

It is the principle under which our house is run

 

So far     so good

d

She may not be wrong, but she's failed to appreciate how many blokes like you there are.

There's obviously no need to point that out to her, but that goes without saying.

[dylan winter 1,424]

6 hours ago, Ajax said:

The Maxco has the edge because the fuel is pressurized and is burned most completely and efficiently.

The whole point of the Origo is that it's safer than pressurized fuels. The tradeoff is the lower heat and longer cooking times. Nothing wrong with that, I love the Origo.

Edit: The Origo seemed very popular. I can't figure out why Dometic quit making them.

The maxie has a grill

I love sausages

Toast

Welsh rarebit

Mackerel is best grilled

Steak too

D

[Ishmael 5,871]

6 minutes ago, dylan winter said:

The maxie has a grill

I love sausages

Toast

Welsh rarebit

Mackerel is best grilled

Steak too

D

I agree, I hate boiled steak.

[Kris Cringle 962]

8 minutes ago, dylan winter said:

The maxie has a grill

I love sausages

Toast

Welsh rarebit

Mackerel is best grilled

Steak too

D

Please tell Jill, I thought that vid was interesting. But my wife makes the same comments when I set up a camera shoot on the boat. 

Are you sure the Maxie is a grill and not a broiler? It looks like the element would be above the food in the lower slot. How does that work? Or perhaps that's another Brit terminology? 

We have a "side arm" broiler on our old restaurant range at home. I love it but it takes some time to preheat as you have to get the top, which is a 1/2" solid steel griddle, really hot before the heat radiates down on what you're cooking. 

 

[dylan winter 1,424]

28 minutes ago, European Bloke said:

She may not be wrong, but she's failed to appreciate how many blokes like you there are.

There's obviously no need to point that out to her, but that goes without saying.

I have had six films with over a million

and I am curious about how many this film will get

 

how many sad old bastards are there on the web?

will it get more hits than a girl in a bikini servicing an outboard?

D

 

[Crump's Brother 36]

They spit hot fire?

[dylan winter 1,424]

Just now, Crump's Brother said:

They spit hot fire?

If anything is going to immolate my boat then then maxie is the one that will do it

 

 

[Secret Experiment 49]

7 hours ago, Ajax said:

The Maxco has the edge because the fuel is pressurized and is burned most completely and efficiently.

The whole point of the Origo is that it's safer than pressurized fuels. The tradeoff is the lower heat and longer cooking times. Nothing wrong with that, I love the Origo.

Edit: The Origo seemed very popular. I can't figure out why Dometic quit making them.

Nah, the Maxie isn't pressurised, it's gravity fed.  They're great stoves in my opinion.

Dylan, probably best to not add too much more metho during the pre-heat, at least until the priming flame is on the ebb.  But if you do, do it at night, the resulting rivers of fire can be spectacular (ask me how I know this!).

[Secret Experiment 49]

16 minutes ago, dylan winter said:

If anything is going to immolate my boat then then maxie is the one that will do it

 

 

that's true, but at least you can put out a (smallish) metho fire by pouring water on it - isn't that what the kettle full of water is really there for?

[Panope 335]

30 minutes ago, dylan winter said:

I have had six films with over a million

and I am curious about how many this film will get

 

how many sad old bastards are there on the web?

will it get more hits than a girl in a bikini servicing an outboard?

D

 

I did a similar video 5 years ago.  536 views so far.

Do not quit your day job.

 

[Fah Kiew Tu 1,922]

58 minutes ago, dylan winter said:

The maxie has a grill

I love sausages

Toast

Welsh rarebit

Mackerel is best grilled

Steak too

D

That's actually a biased test because the kettle was still hot for the 2nd and 3rd runs. You need to repeat it using a different cooker and a cold kettle for each initial run and see what the figures are then.

Mind you I expect they won't change much given the heat shielding (or lack of) and pressurised  version.

I cut the grill off of one of those Maxie units not so long ago to reduce the height of it. The owners said they never used the grill anyway.

FKT

[Kris Cringle 962]

Does anyone have experience with these marine broiler(US), grills(UK) that have a slot below the burners? Light broilers are good for toast, cheese topping and stuff like that but often come up short for things like a thick steak (beef or fish). I know my 3 burner Tasco with an oven below has a 'broiler' setting but it's a joke really with no upper element. 

 

Broilers like this presumably have an upper burner, like a long oven burner, only located overhead. They really have to get hot as broiling is really a matter of radiation from above that results in a dry heat. Grilling on the other hand works like an oven with the heat below and food cooking in a moist environment in a hot pan. 

[SemiSalt 198]

If you are going to stick to the Maxie, get a firelighter and save your fingers. (Kitchen matches are an obsolete technology. )

[Elegua 721]

Hmmm....nothing like the smell of an alcohol stove to completely turn those first day offshore queasiness into full blown mal de mer.. 

My parents had a Luke alcohol stove. Cold in the Winter, Hot in the Summer.  

[European Bloke 426]

We were halfway to Cork on a particularly sporty delivery when I fired up the meths cooker to get the morning bacon on. Owner and his son were both in the cockpit inappropriately dressed in well under a minute from their bunks... Some people have weak stomachs.

Those of us with stronger constitutions survived on nothing but cold pasties for the whole trip after the cooker was put out of of bounds.

[olaf hart 540]

Dylan, to stop the maxie flaring wail till the meths in the preheat tray is almost gone then open it slowly...

[dylan winter 1,424]

4 minutes ago, olaf hart said:

Dylan, to stop the maxie flaring wail till the meths in the preheat tray is almost gone then open it slowly...

I am at the bottom of  a steep learning curve

[Fah Kiew Tu 1,922]

4 minutes ago, olaf hart said:

Dylan, to stop the maxie flaring wail till the meths in the preheat tray is almost gone then open it slowly...

Same as a kero stove than?

Funny how different people like different cookers. My GF has had experience with meths, kero and LPG. She'd either kill me or just go buy a LPG replacement if I suggested/forced a change from LPG on her.

FKT

[Fah Kiew Tu 1,922]

1 minute ago, dylan winter said:

I am at the bottom of  a steep learning curve

As meths stoves go the Maxies are pretty good. There must be thousands of them still happily working away on Aussie boats, along with their kerosene cousins. I've a full sized 2 burner with oven kerosene Maxie in storage.

FKT

[snubber 56]

Great video. 

I use a Trangia on my 4ksb, because I am boat camping, I don't have a lot of room, and it's my backpacking stove so it serves double duty. The reservoir is open, so it can tip and spill lit fuel so I cannot use it underway on my small boat. And it will run out of fuel fairly quickly, and refueling a lit Trangia requires a certain forethought and technique to avoid conflagration. There are camping videos showing the various techniques involving tubing and squirt bottles etc. I don't bother. I like that it is cheap and it heats my water and dinner just fine for me. I would really like a small, kerosene wick stove (smaller than a Butterfly but larger than a brooder heater). 

Snubs

[Kris Cringle 962]

22 hours ago, Kris Cringle said:

Does anyone have experience with these marine broiler(US), grills(UK) that have a slot below the burners? Light broilers are good for toast, cheese topping and stuff like that but often come up short for things like a thick steak (beef or fish). I know my 3 burner Tasco with an oven below has a 'broiler' setting but it's a joke really with no upper element. 

 

Broilers like this presumably have an upper burner, like a long oven burner, only located overhead. They really have to get hot as broiling is really a matter of radiation from above that results in a dry heat. Grilling on the other hand works like an oven with the heat below and food cooking in a moist environment in a hot pan. 

 

I thought so.... Nobody alive ever cooked anything on the "Maxie Grill".

 

Let's take a look at it here: 

 

 

There's no "grill" burner on the bottom, right? Do you see a bottom burner?

So it must have some sort of overhead burner. And the burner is alcohol fired. So,... how do you light - preheat this thing as alcohol floods in somewhere?  I don't see anything a match would reach. 

Once it's roaring, you slide your Egg Banjo in the slot? 

I can't wait for this video. 

[dylan winter 1,424]

20 minutes ago, Kris Cringle said:

I thought so.... Nobody alive ever cooked anything on the "Maxie Grill".

 

Let's take a look at it here: 

 

 

There's no "grill" burner on the bottom, right? Do you see a bottom burner?

So it must have some sort of overhead burner. And the burner is alcohol fired. So,... how do you light - preheat this thing as alcohol floods in somewhere?  I don't see anything a match would reach. 

Once it's roaring, you slide your Egg Banjo in the slot? 

I can't wait for this video. 

in the UK a grill is from on top

a griddle is from the bottom

sorry for my english...

as for the maxie

to start it you remove two plates,

flood a little channel with meths, light it ,

stand back with a damp cloth ready

eventually it boils, then you open the valve and the heated meths under pressure spews out along a line of holes.

I have yet to cook anything on it

it does flare magnificently along the route from boiling meths to vapourised meths under pressure - then it settles down

I will be very sad if I cannot make toast or grill sausages

but it is an immensely entertaining bit of gear

 

D

 

 

 

[Kris Cringle 962]

5 minutes ago, dylan winter said:

in the UK a grill is from on top

a griddle is from the bottom

sorry for my english...

as for the maxie

to start it you remove two plates,

flood a little channel with meths, light it ,

stand back with a damp cloth ready

eventually it boils, then you open the valve and the heated meths under pressure spews out along a line of holes.

I have yet to cook anything on it

it does flare magnificently along the route from boiling meths to vapourised meths under pressure - then it settles down

I will be very sad if I cannot make toast or grill sausages

but it is an immensely entertaining bit of gear

 

D

 

 

 

I secretly covet this strange cooker. I want it to work for us. We used a pressurized alcohol stove for 13 years on a boat even living on it for a year in the Caribbean with no major problems. They're a little finicky but easy to master. 

I'm a fan of 'broilers' (as we call overhead burners) but as a cooking option, broilers have sort of fallen out of fashion to other methods like grills on home cookers (and apparently marine stoves as well).

Too bad, hot overhead heat is a great way to cook many thick foods that can take it. 

[dylan winter 1,424]

7 minutes ago, Kris Cringle said:

I secretly covet this strange cooker. I want it to work for us. We used a pressurized alcohol stove for 13 years on a boat even living on it for a year in the Caribbean with no major problems. They're a little finicky but easy to master. 

I'm a fan of 'broilers' (as we call overhead burners) but as a cooking option, broilers have sort of fallen out of fashion to other methods like grills on home cookers (and apparently marine stoves as well).

Too bad, hot overhead heat is a great way to cook many thick foods that can take it. 

and with meat the fats drips through to  the lasagna tray underneath

I am about to turbo-charge the ktl cuisine

D

[olaf hart 540]

On 11/12/2020 at 11:39 PM, Ajax said:

The Maxco has the edge because the fuel is pressurized and is burned most completely and efficiently.

The whole point of the Origo is that it's safer than pressurized fuels. The tradeoff is the lower heat and longer cooking times. Nothing wrong with that, I love the Origo.

Edit: The Origo seemed very popular. I can't figure out why Dometic quit making them.

The Maxie has no pressure pump just gravity and preheat, or am I missing something?

My wife prefers our Origo

[olaf hart 540]

We use a gas BBQ firelighter wand to light metho stoves, not matches.

its less entertaining

I also managed to light the griller without removing any plates, the preheat reservoir is accessible near the front panel

[thinwater 41]

On 11/12/2020 at 8:10 AM, MiddayGun said:

They've improved that Origo since I last owned one, I remember having to pour the meths in through a tiny funnel into the wadding in the burner. A royal PITA.

Are you certain?

I'm not aware that Origo ever used anything other than the canister that is most safely removed and filled either in the cockpit or sink. This is what it says in the instructions. Filling in-place is dangerous and was never recommended.

filling Origo canister

There is also a rubber gasket to prevent evaporation when not in use. Most users have lost them.

When in doubt, read the instructions.

[Ishmael 5,871]

23 minutes ago, thinwater said:

When in doubt, read the instructions.

That's not very manly.

[Fah Kiew Tu 1,922]

3 hours ago, olaf hart said:

We use a gas BBQ firelighter wand to light metho stoves, not matches.

its less entertaining

I also managed to light the griller without removing any plates, the preheat reservoir is accessible near the front panel

Same for the LPG stove. Saves listening to a ton of cursing from the cook about why you can't get decent matches that actually light when you strike them.

Well some of the time anyway. She also hates the gas wand. I just leave her to it & find something to do up the bow.

BTW Mike is back on the hard. I expect to be busy machining stuff in a day or so.

FKT

[Jim in Halifax 239]

1 hour ago, thinwater said:

Are you certain?

I'm not aware that Origo ever used anything other than the canister that is most safely removed and filled either in the cockpit or sink. This is what it says in the instructions. Filling in-place is dangerous and was never recommended.

filling Origo canister

There is also a rubber gasket to prevent evaporation when not in use. Most users have lost them.

When in doubt, read the instructions.

That's definitely the 2nd generation Origo canister. I remember the kind Midday describes from my first stove - awkward filling with a small funnel. The centre hole went straight through the canister and acted as a sort of chimney for the vapour during combustion.

[py26129 77]

We have an Origo. My better half would love to convert to propane but i am not opposed to waiting for a few more minutes for my coffee. I'm on the boat relaxing and getting coffee or a meal ready at a slightly slower pace, is just fine.

I do like the Origo for its simplicity and trouble free service. Plus a gallon of methyl hydrate is readily available, cheap and lasts a good long time if you use the neoprene disks to seal the burners when not using the stove

[olaf hart 540]

6 hours ago, Fah Kiew Tu said:

Same for the LPG stove. Saves listening to a ton of cursing from the cook about why you can't get decent matches that actually light when you strike them.

Well some of the time anyway. She also hates the gas wand. I just leave her to it & find something to do up the bow.

BTW Mike is back on the hard. I expect to be busy machining stuff in a day or so.

FKT

We are at Mooloolaba on the big boat at the moment, lots of projects...

[Fah Kiew Tu 1,922]

1 minute ago, olaf hart said:

We are at Mooloolaba on the big boat at the moment, lots of projects...

Projects and boats - who would ever have thought they'd go together?

You're not missing much weather-wise so far anyway. Been a few good sailing days. We've been going out for a couple days each week.

FKT

[Jim in Halifax 239]

6 hours ago, py26129 said:

We have an Origo. My better half would love to convert to propane but i am not opposed to waiting for a few more minutes for my coffee. I'm on the boat relaxing and getting coffee or a meal ready at a slightly slower pace, is just fine.

I do like the Origo for its simplicity and trouble free service. Plus a gallon of methyl hydrate is readily available, cheap and lasts a good long time if you use the neoprene disks to seal the burners when not using the stove

^^^ This!

My latest boat came with a recent 2 burner Origo and I am loving the simplicity. My last boat had a kero stove w/oven and I still have one in the garage. Kero worked fine, but there is a steep learning curve and more frequent maintenance. The Origo is so easy to fill and use. Only LPG would be easier, but retrofitting a boat for a safe gas system is expensive and involved. Waiting 8 minutes for coffee (Dylan's test figure) is not a hardship.

[MiddayGun 180]

11 hours ago, thinwater said:

Are you certain?

I'm not aware that Origo ever used anything other than the canister that is most safely removed and filled either in the cockpit or sink. This is what it says in the instructions. Filling in-place is dangerous and was never recommended.

filling Origo canister

There is also a rubber gasket to prevent evaporation when not in use. Most users have lost them.

When in doubt, read the instructions.

One of these bad boys:

 

The burner was filled with a type of wadding & you had to carefully insert a funnel into a small hole inside the burner & saturate it. Never more than you needed because it would all evaporate before you next used the boat.
To put the burner out you had a little cap that you dropped onto the flame.

[Kris Cringle 962]

12 hours ago, olaf hart said:

We use a gas BBQ firelighter wand to light metho stoves, not matches.

its less entertaining

I also managed to light the griller without removing any plates, the preheat reservoir is accessible near the front panel

We use the gas 'wand' on the boat but still keep wooden stick matches around, for nostalgia(and they do work but not like they used to). 

 

The old gas side arm broilers are notorious for removing all facial hair. I grew up with one in a family-owned restaurant. The BOOM would rock the old brick building, you could feel it out in the dining room (waiting tables). I knew that someone in the kitchen had gone bald faced. 

 

I took one blast from our home broiler and singed more than just my eyebrows.  Because the broiler has such a large gas pilot, I turn the pilot off and light the broiler by hand. When it doesn't light, the tendency is to stick your face down there. Never do that. 

 

I use a Bernzo-matic to start it. No screwing around. First - stand to the side. 2-Stick the flame in aimed at the upper element and, 3- turn the gas on, "whoooomp". Simple, foolproof. 

The broiler is on the right beneath the griddle. The dog is located safely for lighting: 

 

[Slick470 130]

On 11/14/2020 at 12:16 AM, py26129 said:

We have an Origo. My better half would love to convert to propane but i am not opposed to waiting for a few more minutes for my coffee. I'm on the boat relaxing and getting coffee or a meal ready at a slightly slower pace, is just fine.

I do like the Origo for its simplicity and trouble free service. Plus a gallon of methyl hydrate is readily available, cheap and lasts a good long time if you use the neoprene disks to seal the burners when not using the stove

ours had lost the neoprene disks by the time we bought our boat. The heat pal I bought was missing it as well. Someone recommended getting silicone sheets and cutting them into disks to put over the canister opening when not in use. I had an old dog dish mat that had a tear in it, cleaned it up, cut it into circles and it seems to do the trick. After you use the stove and it cools, you lift the top up, drop the disk over the canister and closing the lid puts enough pressure on everything to help keel the alcohol from evaporating. 

[wick 20]

5 minutes ago, Slick470 said:

ours had lost the neoprene disks by the time we bought our boat. The heat pal I bought was missing it as well. Someone recommended getting silicone sheets and cutting them into disks to put over the canister opening when not in use. I had an old dog dish mat that had a tear in it, cleaned it up, cut it into circles and it seems to do the trick. After you use the stove and it cools, you lift the top up, drop the disk over the canister and closing the lid puts enough pressure on everything to help keel the alcohol from evaporating. 

I was told that coffee can lids will work to close up the canister opening. Not sure they would seal completely. 

[wick 20]

On 11/14/2020 at 12:16 AM, py26129 said:

We have an Origo. My better half would love to convert to propane but i am not opposed to waiting for a few more minutes for my coffee. I'm on the boat relaxing and getting coffee or a meal ready at a slightly slower pace, is just fine.

I do like the Origo for its simplicity and trouble free service. Plus a gallon of methyl hydrate is readily available, cheap and lasts a good long time if you use the neoprene disks to seal the burners when not using the stove

We had a 2 burner Origo on the last boat. Loved it. Now have propane on current boat. It’s okay. Just knowing there is a bigger system to operate, deal with and inspect is a change for us. 

[Beanie 101 34]

On 11/12/2020 at 8:35 PM, dylan winter said:

I have had six films with over a million

and I am curious about how many this film will get

 

how many sad old bastards are there on the web?

will it get more hits than a girl in a bikini servicing an outboard?

D

 

You probably won’t be surprised to know that there are websites of long standing where sad old bastards can pursue their enthusiasm for stoves.  See for example https://classiccampstoves.com and http://zenstoves.net.

I don’t have the space on my 20’ BayRaider for a large stove, so rely on my Trangia, on which I have performed various experiments to improve its performance.  I know, sad.  A standard Trangia burning meths would bring a pint of water to boil in 8 minutes.  Trangia sell something called a winter attachment (spooky - do you get royalties?), which when used at room temperature and burning bioethanol, brings the boiling time down to just under six minutes.  I could go on to tell you about results using the Trangia pressurised multifuel burner but suffice to say you need to change to different and more volatile fuels, such as Aspen 4, to get an improvement on this time.  And at the risk to your eyebrows. And possibly your boat as well.

[Beanie 101 34]

Oh all right then.  To forestall a massive response to my previous post, demanding further information on Trangia stoves, see https://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/smf/index.php/topic,1305.msg10274.html#msg10274.

[thinwater 41]

On 11/14/2020 at 7:02 AM, MiddayGun said:

One of these bad boys:

 

The burner was filled with a type of wadding & you had to carefully insert a funnel into a small hole inside the burner & saturate it. Never more than you needed because it would all evaporate before you next used the boat.
To put the burner out you had a little cap that you dropped onto the flame.

You could always fill them by pouring in the center. The hole was added so that people could fill without removing the canister using a small funnel, but that turned out to be a terrible idea, so the hole was eliminated and the instructions revised to remove the canister each time. As for evaporation, there was always a neoprene cap that must have gotten lost. It was separate, because you did not want to put it on the canister until it had cooled for a few minutes. They are very commonly lost.

[dylan winter 1,424]

On 11/14/2020 at 12:04 PM, Kris Cringle said:

We use the gas 'wand' on the boat but still keep wooden stick matches around, for nostalgia(and they do work but not like they used to). 

 

The old gas side arm broilers are notorious for removing all facial hair. I grew up with one in a family-owned restaurant. The BOOM would rock the old brick building, you could feel it out in the dining room (waiting tables). I knew that someone in the kitchen had gone bald faced. 

 

I took one blast from our home broiler and singed more than just my eyebrows.  Because the broiler has such a large gas pilot, I turn the pilot off and light the broiler by hand. When it doesn't light, the tendency is to stick your face down there. Never do that. 

 

I use a Bernzo-matic to start it. No screwing around. First - stand to the side. 2-Stick the flame in aimed at the upper element and, 3- turn the gas on, "whoooomp". Simple, foolproof. 

The broiler is on the right beneath the griddle. The dog is located safely for lighting: 

 

bloody nora!

magnificent

you can make pies

 

 

[Jim in Halifax 239]

1 hour ago, thinwater said:

You could always fill them by pouring in the center. The hole was added so that people could fill without removing the canister using a small funnel, but that turned out to be a terrible idea, so the hole was eliminated and the instructions revised to remove the canister each time. As for evaporation, there was always a neoprene cap that must have gotten lost. It was separate, because you did not want to put it on the canister until it had cooled for a few minutes. They are very commonly lost.

Nope. The original Origo Cook Pal stove had a hole that went right through the middle, top to bottom (like a donut), so you could not "fill them by pouring in the center". And they had a metal cover, not neoprene, that was used to put out the flame as well as slow down the evaporation. As I recall, the draught/heat control was on the bottom, closing off the hole on the underside of the fuel canister. The only way to fuel them was to remove the canister and use a small funnel:

[dylan winter 1,424]

this such an entertaining place....

 

 - bloody shame they stopped making Origos. Too simple to go wrong

 

[Beanie 101 34]

They may have stopped making Origo stoves but the technology is now being adopted in the developing world as an alternative to charcoal and wood cooking fuels, responsible for extensive land degradation.  The US’s Gaia Project is promoting Origo-type stoves that can be assembled locally in countries like Ethiopia and Tanzania.  See in particular these ones http://cleancook.com/productsstove-sales/.

[chester 615]

3 hours ago, Beanie 101 said:

You probably won’t be surprised to know that there are websites of long standing where sad old bastards can pursue their enthusiasm for stoves.  See for example https://classiccampstoves.com and http://zenstoves.net.

Boy, you ain't kidding.  from the link: "Stove reference Gallery, post your  stove pictures here"...sheesh, pathetic...Thanks for posting, that's awesome!  

[andykane 111]

I once came across a forum for washing machine enthusiasts.

Ain't the internet great.

[Panoramix 1,242]

19 minutes ago, Beanie 101 said:

They may have stopped making Origo stoves but the technology is now being adopted in the developing world as an alternative to charcoal and wood cooking fuels, responsible for extensive land degradation.  The US’s Gaia Project is promoting Origo-type stoves that can be assembled locally in countries like Ethiopia and Tanzania.  See in particular these ones http://cleancook.com/productsstove-sales/.

Making people dependent of a fuel that presumably needs to come from far away seems a bit a weird way to to promote local development!

There is a clean alternative to the open fire which is the rocket stove. It is much more efficient, doesn't generate soot, can be made with local materials and fired with little wood...

[chester 615]

1 hour ago, dylan winter said:

this such an entertaining place....

 

 - bloody shame they stopped making Origos. Too simple to go wrong

 

they stopped making origios?  shit.

[dylan winter 1,424]

39 minutes ago, Beanie 101 said:

They may have stopped making Origo stoves but the technology is now being adopted in the developing world as an alternative to charcoal and wood cooking fuels, responsible for extensive land degradation.  The US’s Gaia Project is promoting Origo-type stoves that can be assembled locally in countries like Ethiopia and Tanzania.  See in particular these ones http://cleancook.com/productsstove-sales/.

good news I think

I regard it as the kindest fuel on the boat - easy to put out, quiet and eventually any odours go away completely. Diesel on the hand is a different kettle of fish.  I am now cleaning the engine with a tooth brush.

 

D

[Beanie 101 34]

42 minutes ago, Panoramix said:

Making people dependent of a fuel that presumably needs to come from far away seems a bit a weird way to to promote local development!

Not that far away - bioethanol feedstock types in Africa include sugarcane, maize, sweet sorghum and cassava, all grown locally in vast quantities.  There are also potentially jatropha oilseeds and varieties of grasses that can be grown on marginal land unsuitable for growing food crops.  For countries with burgeoning populations on the eastern side of the continent and with no access to natural gas and dodgy electricity supplies, it may be a viable alternative.

[dylan winter 1,424]

I think cooking on meths has to be better than cooking on sticks

 

[Slick470 130]

39 minutes ago, chester said:

they stopped making origios?  shit.

sadly yes. I had been putting off buying a set of the pot holders.. since they are kinda pricey for what they are, but now that they don't make the stoves anymore, I finally bought a set before they are hard to find. 

[chester 615]

2 minutes ago, Slick470 said:

sadly yes. I had been putting off buying a set of the pot holders.. since they are kinda pricey for what they are, but now that they don't make the stoves anymore, I finally bought a set before they are hard to find. 

I should try to find a cannister as insurance

[olaf hart 540]

5 hours ago, Slick470 said:

ours had lost the neoprene disks by the time we bought our boat. The heat pal I bought was missing it as well. Someone recommended getting silicone sheets and cutting them into disks to put over the canister opening when not in use. I had an old dog dish mat that had a tear in it, cleaned it up, cut it into circles and it seems to do the trick. After you use the stove and it cools, you lift the top up, drop the disk over the canister and closing the lid puts enough pressure on everything to help keel the alcohol from evaporating. 

It’s called nitrile rubber, you can buy sheets of the stuff at our local industrial belt and hose supplier.

There are apparently two diameters, ours is 95 mm

I made some new ones and keep a spare one on the boat, they are the same as the originals.

[Panoramix 1,242]

So can you still buy a meth stove?

[Blue Crab 979]

48 minutes ago, chester said:

I should try to find a cannister as insurance

Maybe but there are x million of these around, the stove is very well made, there is nothing to go wrong with the cannisters.

Moreover you guys are way over thinking the anti evap covers, any thin non permeable thing will work. Plus, if cooking daily, you'll quit monkeying around with them at all.

However, if you insist, I'll sell you a spare cannister for $145, or 2 cannisters plus the entire rest of the stove for $5 more bucks. Hell, I'll ship it for free.

As an aside, I'm boat shopping in the 30' market. I'd guess 80% of these boats have the Origo. 

[Ajax 1,988]

1 hour ago, chester said:

I should try to find a cannister as insurance

Bacon Sails in Annapolis should have some.  They ship. 

[Beanie 101 34]

I don’t know if this is a cheap knock-off but it looks very similar to the Origo 3000 https://www.compass24.com/comfort/pantry-grill-oven/stoves/150526/spirit-stove-3000

And they say that they have it in stock in the UK.

[Fah Kiew Tu 1,922]

1 hour ago, Panoramix said:

So can you still buy a meth stove?

Even if you can't.....

And about a million other vids out there.

Want a multi-burner stove? Drink more beer...

I helped a friend of mine make a couple of these before they headed off on a walking tour of Japan earleir this year. Covid caused an early return home but he said the can stoves worked.

FKT

[wick 20]

2 hours ago, dylan winter said:

good news I think

I regard it as the kindest fuel on the boat - easy to put out, quiet and eventually any odours go away completely. Diesel on the hand is a different kettle of fish.  I am now cleaning the engine with a tooth brush.

 

D

Has anyone on this forum any experience with a diesel stove? ie: like a Wallas?

[MiddayGun 180]

6 hours ago, thinwater said:

You could always fill them by pouring in the center. The hole was added so that people could fill without removing the canister using a small funnel, but that turned out to be a terrible idea, so the hole was eliminated and the instructions revised to remove the canister each time. As for evaporation, there was always a neoprene cap that must have gotten lost. It was separate, because you did not want to put it on the canister until it had cooled for a few minutes. They are very commonly lost.

Nope, you're wrong and obviously never used the older model, trust me I filled that thing up enough times to remember how it worked. 
The middle hole went right through, so if you just poured in the meths they would just end up on the floor / your trouser leg or whatever surface you were filling it on, the thing was like a big doughnut.
Putting it out consisted of dropping a metal cap on top of it, a bit like Dylans camping stove, there were no neoprene caps.

[Ishmael 5,871]

3 hours ago, dylan winter said:

good news I think

I regard it as the kindest fuel on the boat - easy to put out, quiet and eventually any odours go away completely. Diesel on the hand is a different kettle of fish.  I am now cleaning the engine with a tooth brush.

 

D

All the places where the bog brush was too big to fit?

[Ajax 1,988]

1 hour ago, wick said:

Has anyone on this forum any experience with a diesel stove? ie: like a Wallas?

A friend of mine will fire his up for the first time this week.  Quality kit from what I saw.  Doubles as a cabin heater by design. 

[wick 20]

50 minutes ago, Ajax said:

A friend of mine will fire his up for the first time this week.  Quality kit from what I saw.  Doubles as a cabin heater by design. 

Be interested in hearing of his experience. Can’t see doing our replacement for a year. 

If we take the propane range with oven out and replace with diesel cooktop/heater only that leaves space below to reconfigure with a freezer drawer or possibly microwave and storage. Could also remove the unused propane fed catalytic heater and adjoining on demand water heater from their locker forward. Remove the propane altogether. Am already going to install 2 way water heater in the engine space. I feel the on demand uses a lot of water as it is well forward of the galley sinks. 

[Ajax 1,988]

6 minutes ago, wick said:

Be interested in hearing of his experience. Can’t see doing our replacement for a year. 

If we take the propane range with oven out and replace with diesel cooktop/heater only that leaves space below to reconfigure with a freezer drawer or possibly microwave and storage. Could also remove the unused propane fed catalytic heater and adjoining on demand water heater from their locker forward. Remove the propane altogether. Am already going to install 2 way water heater in the engine space. I feel the on demand uses a lot of water as it is well forward of the galley sinks. 

I do know this- the cook top area is significantly less than a 3 burner propane range. 

[Ishmael 5,871]

11 minutes ago, Ajax said:

19 minutes ago, wick said:

Be interested in hearing of his experience. Can’t see doing our replacement for a year. 

If we take the propane range with oven out and replace with diesel cooktop/heater only that leaves space below to reconfigure with a freezer drawer or possibly microwave and storage. Could also remove the unused propane fed catalytic heater and adjoining on demand water heater from their locker forward. Remove the propane altogether. Am already going to install 2 way water heater in the engine space. I feel the on demand uses a lot of water as it is well forward of the galley sinks. 

I do know this- the cook top area is significantly less than a 3 burner propane range. 

Also, if you take out the oven you're losing your Faraday cage for your handheld electronics.

The oven is also a great place to store fragile stuff like potato chips.

[wick 20]

2 hours ago, Ajax said:

I do know this- the cook top area is significantly less than a 3 burner propane range. 

Understand. Thanks. Haven’t used the oven yet in a year, only for pots storage. 2 of 3 burners works for us most of the time. Went 5 years with the 2 burner Origo, and 9 years with the Trangia. Worked out how to bake biscuits/scones on top, along with the occasional cake done in 2 pots. 

[Ajax 1,988]

9 hours ago, wick said:

Understand. Thanks. Haven’t used the oven yet in a year, only for pots storage. 2 of 3 burners works for us most of the time. Went 5 years with the 2 burner Origo, and 9 years with the Trangia. Worked out how to bake biscuits/scones on top, along with the occasional cake done in 2 pots. 

My friend got around the lack of an oven by buying some sort of cook top oven. It's basically a metal box that conducts heat all around. You can bake bread in it and such.

The cabin heater function is basically a vent or register and you turn on a built-in blower.  This is fantastic because it's a dry heat and the exhaust is overboard. All the benefits of propane heat and none of the downsides.

My beef about the smaller cooking area is that the two "burners" are small and they touch. I think the most you'll ever be able to put on at once is a medium skillet and small sauce pan. Optionally, you could lay a Lodge cast-iron griddle across both elements at once and have a large cooking area for pancakes or bacon and eggs.

As a comparison, I can fit a large pot for boiling and a large skillet and a medium saucepan on my cook top all at once.

[Whinging Pom 145]

Chums fitted a diesel cooker and removed it very quickly as being wholly unsatisfactory.  Reverted to an induction hob and a combined microwave and oven.  Admittedly a largish boat, a Van De Stadt Samoa 47, but built for long term  high latitudes cruising.

Another two customers of mine removed Wallas diesel cookers and replaced them with propane.  In one case the cooker made the interior of the boat intolerably hot, the other the electronics had failed and a new PCB was very, very expensive.

[chester 615]

I really, teally wanted the even little 85 for our Mirage 25.  It could have repalced the origio AND provided the dry, vented heat I need for early and l;ate season sailing.  I looked at it a few years ago.  An advantage to me was the exaust is small diameter, you only need a little over an inch hole (this is also what makes the little Cozy Heater so attractive!).  At the time I thought they also ran on kerosene but their site seems to only use the word diesel now.  But they are expensive.  I think the little one was about $1000 USD at the time.

[dylan winter 1,424]

The smell of meths is a problem for some.

The origo is bad   especially when run at halfcock

The trangia

is okay

The maxie is very good  it gets a very thorough burn   but is fierce.  I am looking forward to cooking on it

Hot enough for chips I hope

D

 

 

 

[The Lucky One 41]

23 hours ago, chester said:

they stopped making origios?  shit.

I slum it out with a powerboating yacht club (don't knock it, it's the cheapest slip around, and gives plenty of opportunity for good natured ribbing), and had an opportunity to raid a couple derelict boats before they were disposed of. While most of the good stuff had been picked off... no powerboater who spends most of their time connected to shore power wanted anything to do with an alcohol stove. They turn up in the darndest of places, just gotta keep an eye out for them.

It's now on its way out to British Columbia to a fellow Westerly Centaur owner, on the cheap thanks to the rescue. Shipping the thing was just as expensive as the price I asked.

[chester 615]

1 hour ago, dylan winter said:

The smell of meths is a problem for some.

The origo is bad   especially when run at halfcock

The trangia

is okay

The maxie is very good  it gets a very thorough burn   but is fierce.  I am looking forward to cooking on it

Hot enough for chips I hope

D

 

 

 

I use Methyl Hydrate rather than methyl alcohol (?).  There is NO smell, it costs about $8 CDN for a 4 litre jug which lasts most of the season and i long since gave up covering the burners to eliminate evaporation