New stove time! Help!

Soon I'll be replacing the 4-burner propane stove/oven in my 77 CHB 34' Tri-Cabin. While a refurbishing and paint-job would get a few more years outta the old "harvest gold" model, truth is I really want a nice new stainless number in there. Why not?! So I'll ask all of you, what make and models are you happy with lately? I'm a pretty serious cook, and I want to do good work in my galley! Also who in the Seattle area does good install work?

Thanks!

The SSCA has a web site , that can be visited and there is a NEW SS Force 10 range for sale.

New its $1300 , he wants $850.

A marine range (or hob) should have different operating valves than a house unit.

It should turn on FULL, and rotate to a lower ,,but adjustable setting.

This is so you can adjust the flame high enough to not be blown out.

There should be a pilot valve to shut off the oven or broiler , should it blow out.

I prefer to wire the solenoid valve with a 2 hour timer , and an ON light.

A kid playing , an unknowing guest . or a forgetful owner get a free save.

IF you are doing a total galley rebuild installing the range against a bulkhead,, a hot pot has a 50?50 chance of going left or right.

Mounted outboard the odds become 50% scalding the hull and 50% scalding the cook.

The odds might be better with a gimboled range on weather the cook is cooked.

We find ourselves in the same situation for a different reason. I have my CHB 34 on the market, and the 4 burner stove/grill/oven has served us well, and would continue to do so. It has flame out protection in the oven, but not the burners, however, as FF recommended years ago I had fitted a solenoid we always turn off at a switch with indicator light just above the stove the minute the burners are not in use.

However, thanks to the smart folks who are always trying to make life idiot proof, the regulations here now in Queensland, (probably but not necessarily, all Australia), now require a new current gas certificate if the boat changes hands, and they now require flame-out protection on all burners as well, so we are up for a new stove, like it or not.

So, make sure yours has that feature, because I get the feeling if it is not already law there, it soon will be, as you have similar officialdom to deal with I gather.

Can someone tell me the difference between a marine SS Stove and a RV SS stove, besides the price.

Thanks for the info. I'll be looking for a good range with the appropriate safeguards. I'm hoping others can also weigh in on what they like. I mean, to read the debates on anchors alone, I'd think there was some good waters to fish on the subject of stoves...

The RV stove has dirt house style valves and is usually painted steel.

The marine version will be SS and have marine safty features.

RV are not air tight at the bottom so can get by with house grade.

Marine may have fiddles and gymbols.

BallardPilot said:

Also who in the Seattle area does good install work?

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Gallery Marine is one to talk to regarding install. Also, stop by Sure Marine for all things cook stove related. Be sure to have measurements before you look for new to replace old, you may just find a slide in to keep install costs in line.

A key to knowing that the OP's stove is "RV" is that it is harvest gold. SS doesn't get paint, only steel does. Apparently OK for 38 years, but yes, it is time for an upgrade.

We had to replace the "avocado green" Magic Chef range that was original to our '73 cruiser within a week of buying it due to a leaking valve and no parts availability. We talked to the two big charter boat companies in our harbor, one of which is the area Grand Banks dealer, and this is what we were told at the time (1998): There are only two.brands of marine stove worth getting, Princess and Force 10, and of those two Force 10 is the best.

So we went with a Force 10 and in the ensuing 17 years have had zero problems with it. My wife, who is what I suppose could be called a semi-professional gourmet cook, preferred cooking with the Force 10 on the boat to the household electric range at home until we finally plumbed the kitchen at home for gas and bought her a proper dual fuel range.

We believe the Force 10 is the best stove.

If you get a Force 10, definitely get the three burner model rather than the four. The burners are spaced so closely on the four burner model that one effectively has three anyway.

I own a four burner model, and if I had it to do over again, I would buy another brand. The BTU output of the one large burner is quite low. And the rest of the burners would be considered simmer burners in a home range. There are competitive stoves that manage to get quite a bit hotter.

I just got a dickinson Mediterranean to replace our old RV stove. Really
Nice burners, great quality build, and the oven is much bigger than anything else on the market. I got mine at Fisheries Supply in Seattle. Highly reccomended.

Not sure if it's available in the US, but we have had great service (10 years) from our Spinflo Caprice 4 burner stove. The glass top creates extra benchtop space. Not expensive.

We too had the "Magic Chef", an RV product, could not pass certification, leaked at the valve controls too. Fitted a SMEV 3 burner, made in Italy, looks much like the Force10.

Thanks for the great info. I called Gallery Marine, they don't do install work. So any other recommendations are appreciated. I am impressed with the Dickinson Marine Mediterranean 3 burner model. And it looks like it may be a slide-in, dimensions are almost the same.

SteveD said:

I own a four burner model, and if I had it to do over again, I would buy another brand. The BTU output of the one large burner is quite low. And the rest of the burners would be considered simmer burners in a home range. There are competitive stoves that manage to get quite a bit hotter.

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I wonder if you have lower than ideal pressure in your gas delivery system or there is a problem with the stove. We put a Force 10 into our boat when we acquired it in 1998 and the thing has been fantastic from the outset. Tons of heat from all three burners when needed: a big pot to boil crabs in is boiling within just a few minutes. Great range of heat on all the burners (according to my wife). The oven/broiler works just as great as the stove.

My wife has done complete Thanksgiving dinners on the boat out in the islands; turkey and all the rest of it, as well as Christmas prime rib dinners. Her only complaint about the Force 10 is, unsurprisingly, is it does not have the same degree of oven insulation as a home oven. As her prime rib cooking technique requires the oven to hold heat for an hour with the element turned off, she's had to modify her technique for the Force 10.

Were we needing to install a new propane range in a boat today we would get the Force 10 three-burner again above all the competitors, assuming it's the same product that it was in 1998.

You should replace your propane regulator every 5 years or so, you will find it is not letting enough gas through, therefore not enough enough heat.

Here's another positive vote for Spinflo (also marketed as Thetford)....and we'd go for the 3-burner rather than the 4-burner too. But we only have this as a cooktop. For the oven, LG Solardom convection/microwave/multifunction is incredibly good

Ballard,
The place to look at and get information on stoves is at Sure Marine just east of the locks on the north side. We bought ours there (a 3 burner) and it's been great. Absolutely no complaints. Chris liked it so much I should have bought it sooner than I did. Chris said she wanted an oven and she uses it a lot.

I turn the propane off at the tank every time we use the stove. Even in rainy rough weather .. not often of course.

Greetings,
Mr. mb. "I turn the propane off at the tank every time we use the stove." WOW! A stove that runs when the propane is off. Must be super economical.

I prefer electric. No propane to chase down and much safer, but genny required.

I know what Eric means. We don't turn the tank we're using off every time we turn the stove or oven off but we do turn off the manual shutoff valve in the propane locker (valve handle in the galley overhead). We only turn it on when we're actually going to use the stove or oven (or rather my wife does-I don't use the stove or oven) and then the valve gets closed when the stove or oven is turned off.

Whenever we leave the boat itself we turn off the active tank at the tank.

windmill29130 said:

I prefer electric. No propane to chase down and much safer, but genny required.

Click to expand...

We also use a seaward electric 3 burner/oven stove, cooking breakfast and dinner also keeps the batteries charged and the generator exercised.

Marin,
Yup .. keep it simple. We have one connection to possibly leak and minimize the time that it can. I admit there were times in Alaska when I didn't want to go out and shut off the tank. To do that I need to stand on the cap rail and reach to the top of the tank. Kinda tippy toe like .. and hang onto the radar arch stanchion. Sometimes I wonder if maybe I should apply more attention to falling overboard and less attention to propane leakage. Balance. I needed to say that to get the jump on someone else that would.

Marin said:

I wonder if you have lower than ideal pressure in your gas delivery system or there is a problem with the stove. We put a Force 10 into our boat when we acquired it in 1998 and the thing has been fantastic from the outset. Tons of heat from all three burners when needed: a big pot to boil crabs in is boiling within just a few minutes. Great range of heat on all the burners (according to my wife). The oven/broiler works just as great as the stove.

My wife has done complete Thanksgiving dinners on the boat out in the islands; turkey and all the rest of it, as well as Christmas prime rib dinners. Her only complaint about the Force 10 is, unsurprisingly, is it does not have the same degree of oven insulation as a home oven. As her prime rib cooking technique requires the oven to hold heat for an hour with the element turned off, she's had to modify her technique for the Force 10.

Were we needing to install a new propane range in a boat today we would get the Force 10 three-burner again above all the competitors, assuming it's the same product that it was in 1998.

Click to expand...

I have the 4 burner Force 10 and have had the same experience as SteveD. Three of the burners are of pretty limited use since they are basically simmer-only. And the oven took forever to get hot, so Sure Marine drilled out the orifice a bit to get more BTUs. Now it's useable at least.

I replaced the propane regulator last year thinking it was the problem, but it made no difference.

Retriever said:

I have the 4 burner Force 10 and have had the same experience as SteveD. Three of the burners are of pretty limited use since they are basically simmer-only. And the oven took forever to get hot....

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Interesting.... As I say, our 3-burner stove/oven-broiler Force 10 has been terrific from day one back in 1998. We have never changed the regulator and have not had any reason to. We feed the Force 10 from a 2-1/2 gallon Worthington horizontal marine tank (we have two of them in the propane locker up top so we won't run out of propane in the middle of cooking a meal).

The flame from all three burners when turned up to maximum comes up around the bottom of the pan on the burner. More than enough heat as well as good medium and simmer performance. And we get the same performance from each burner even when all three are being used.

The oven gets plenty hot enough to do everything my wife tries to do in it with the exception of holding heat a long time after the burner has been turned off. This is due to the relatively low amount of insulation around the box.

But for years my wife much preferred cooking with the Force 10 in the boat to cooking with the electric range in our kitchen at home which was (IIRC) a typical GE unit. We finally plumbed the kitchen for gas and got her a proper dual-fuel stove/oven so she really likes that now. But she still likes cooking on the Force 10 and has never had any complaint about it for anything she's done other than the insulation thing.

I have no idea if Force 10 changed the characteristics of their stoves in the years after we bought ours.

We discovered the Magic Chef stove/oven that came in our boat (probably original to the boat) had leaking valves and parts were made of unobtainium. So it had to go.

We asked the big GB dealer/charter outfit we had worked with to find the boat for a recommendation and they said that in their opinions there were only two propane ranges worth getting (this was back in 1998, remember) and they were Force 10 and Princess. Of the two, they felt the Force 10 was the better unit. About half their charter fleet at the time had Force 10 and half had Princess. They'd never had complaints about either one.

Greetings,
Along similar lines...We have a Seaward 3374-1001 3 burner propane unit self installed. 2 issues:
1) From day 1, flame seems "weak" and easily blows out at low settings. Brand new regulator, hose and stove. I suspect low gas pressure but why? Faulty regulator? Hose too small? Restriction at the input line on the stove somehow?
2) I would like to lift the top (housing the 3 burners). There appears to be a clip on each outboard side and pins (hinge points?) on each inboard side. Can one release these "clips" and tilt the top upwards? The electronic igniter died shortly after installation and I may try to replace.
The unit DID come with a manual but it is LOB (lost on board). Is there one available on line. A cursory search came up empty.
Thanks in advance...

I pieced together my propane system to meet current ABYC suggestions and bought most of the stuff online.


The little old guy from somewhere in the Midwest was extrodinarily helpful in explaining back what I was trying to do and gave many suggestions. He was big on explaining how most installers didn't know squat. His big concern was the hose run distance and diameter. He suggested oversizing everything because of the over 25 foot run.


My 2 year old Force ten 3 burner is spectacular in performance. I did go with the 3 burner because I knew burner crowding would be a concern and while I don't remember for sure, I believe the bigger burner was a larger BTU output than on the 4 burner model..but I could be wrong.


Like Marin's, every burner will boil stuff while on high...only the smallest burner will simmer smaller pots/pans.

Does this help?

http://www.suremarineservice.com/manuals/Stove-Repair.pdf

Greetings,
Mr. dh. Yes, it does help a bit. It shows that the stovetop appears to be hinged as I suspected but the manual states it's only applicable to units manufactured PRE-2007. The best I can surmise is that our unit is post 2007 so while similar, it still leaves several of my questions unanswered. I appreciate the lead. The Sure Marine site does not appear to list a model specific manual for our unit. Thanks.