Which LPG three-burner range?

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Mischief Managed

Mischief Managed

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Joined
Oct 24, 2018
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678
Location
USA
Vessel Name
Mischief Managed II
Vessel Make
1992 Tollycraft 44 CPMY
Buying a new one this weekend. Should I get the Dickinson Mediterranean or the Force 10?
 
Mischief Managed said:
Buying a new one this weekend. Should I get the Dickinson Mediterranean or the Force 10?
Click to expand...

Why did you decide on a 3 burner? We bought the 3-burner Force 10 and wished we had purchased the 4, not because we use all 4, but because you can fit two 10" pans on diagonal burners on the 4 burner. On the 3 burner, you can't even fit a 10" and an 8" without them getting in the way of each other.
 
Not owned one, but there have been some complaints on the web about the Dickinson burners being too hot. On the Force 10 - which I do own - the two smaller burners are a bit small, actually.
 
We have a Force 10 3-Burner. Fitting multiple larger pans can be an issue, but there’s only so much real estate to deal with so we just, well, deal with it. Regarding stovetop temps, they do get nice and hot. In fact simmering can be problematic (can’t bring the temp down low enough), so we finally bought one of those diffusers which makes a big difference.

My wife hates the oven. It only gets up to 320 degrees. But we have a toaster oven that will broil, so we’re covered. She’s wanted a new stove/oven since we moved aboard nearly 7 years ago, so I’ll be interested to follow this thread and see if there are any other recommendations.
 
I have a Mediterranean 3 burner, the large burner is so hot it's almost unusable for anything but boiling water in large pots, even on it's lowest settings. Oven works great, the smaller burners are the only ones I use, quality is very nice. I have had it for two years now, never had any issues with it at all.
 
Westiculo said:
Why did you decide on a 3 burner? We bought the 3-burner Force 10 and wished we had purchased the 4, not because we use all 4, but because you can fit two 10" pans on diagonal burners on the 4 burner. On the 3 burner, you can't even fit a 10" and an 8" without them getting in the way of each other.
Click to expand...


I will check out the 4 burner. That might work too. Thanks for the heads up
 
That's interesting. I'm rebuilding my galley and looking for a new stove. I was planning on the Dickinson because of the higher btu burners, thinking that was better. I might now have to reconsider.

AKDoug said:
I have a Mediterranean 3 burner, the large burner is so hot it's almost unusable for anything but boiling water in large pots, even on it's lowest settings. Oven works great, the smaller burners are the only ones I use, quality is very nice. I have had it for two years now, never had any issues with it at all.
Click to expand...
 
Too hot could be an out of adjustment pressure reduction .
 
I have a force 10 that I adjusted to get a hot enough oven. I used a micro drill on the oven jet orifice. I just opened it a little bit, step by step, till I got to the right temp. Now gets to 400.
 
I have the 3 burner Force 10/Eno stovetop.


Put it in 7 years ago and it has been great.



The large burner will boil a large pot of water for pasta, crabs, etc in a reasonable time and the small burner is almost too hot to simmer anything on, but fine for low heat on large pots/pans.


It is easy to clean....


Really no complaints...
 
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My Force 10 is a 120vt, 3 burner stove so everything takes LOTS of time to heat up to a usable temp.
The oven temp wanders 25F
Baking biscuits is a challenge without burning the bottom.... Cooking a turkey breast, check the internal temp frequently.
Steaks, either fry them or use the gas grill.
 
psneeld said:
I have the 3 burner Force 10/Eno stovetop.


Put it in 7 years ago and it has been great.



The large burner will boil a large pot of water for pasta, crabs, etc in a reasonable time and the small burner is almost too hot to simmer anything on, but fine for low heat on large pots/pans.

Opposite problem for me, the large burner is too hot at it's lowest settings to simmer, or even to fry eggs in a pan. It's great if you need to get a large pot boiling quickly though. The small burners get all the use for daily cooking and boil a coffee pot quickly as well.
Click to expand...
 
I have the Force 10 four burner. Not very impressed.

The oven took forever to heat up when I bought the boat, so at the manufacturers suggestion I replaced the propane regulator. No difference. Sure Marine ended up drilling out the orifice and that improved things somewhat. A pizza stone helps keep heat more even but slows down the preheat process. The oven burner is only 5100 BTUs and the insulation isn't very good. The exterior gets hot enough to burn.

Three of the four burners are tiny—3400 BTUs. It takes forever to scramble a half-dozen eggs or boil a pot of water. One burner is 8200 BTUs. The cheapest gas range Home Depot sells has a 12,000 BTU burner (plus two at 9500 and one at 5000) and it's not uncommon to see 18,000 or 20,000 BTUs on higher end home ranges.

I'm on my third or fourth broiler element. They eventually disintegrate and start dropping white crunchy stuff on the food.

The push-to-ignite knobs broke years ago on most of the burners, but it continues to work for the oven (and it triggers all the igniters).

I'd try the Dickenson.
 
I would say expectations are a big issue here


If you are quite the cook and used to nice equipment at home, then many boat stovetops and especially ovens may leave you dissatisfied.


I can't complain about the quality of the Force 10, but it's certainly not as big or capable as a home setup.
 
psneeld said:
I would say expectations are a big issue here

If you are quite the cook and used to nice equipment at home, then many boat stovetops and especially ovens may leave you dissatisfied.

I can't complain about the quality of the Force 10, but it's certainly not as big or capable as a home setup.
Click to expand...

We had a 3 burner Force 10 for 10 years and now we’re going on 12 with a 4 burner Force 10. I do most of the cooking and Lena bakes. It would be ok to have a commercial or house size oven stove but we live on a boat.:thumb:

I agree with Scott. It’s all what you’re use to and expectations. When we go to my sisters house, I do the cooking. She has a high end stove and oven (twice the size) I burn or over cook a lot including parts of my arms and hands. I’m not use to it. Similar when I change grills. I screw things up till ...

As far as the 3 vs the 4 burner stove goes, I prefer the 4 burner. That extra burner is great when I’m doing a sauce or just a complicated dinner. Westiculo mentioned the extra space for burner placement on the 4. Here’s a 8qt, 3qt, 4qt and 1 qt pan each with its own burner.
 

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psneeld said:
I would say expectations are a big issue here


If you are quite the cook and used to nice equipment at home, then many boat stovetops and especially ovens may leave you dissatisfied.


I can't complain about the quality of the Force 10, but it's certainly not as big or capable as a home setup.
Click to expand...

I just don't understand why boat stuff has to be worse than house stuff. Is there some technical issue that prevents the use of larger stove top burners? Even a second 8200 BTU burner would be a HUGE upgrade in my experience. The most basic Coleman camp stove has higher output burners than a Force 10!

The oven is more excusable since there's not much room to add insulation and a more powerful burner might make things even more likely to burn on the bottom.
 
When it comes time to start are refit on our Monk 36 thing s fall we will need a new stove as its has a electric flush sh mount range and i’m not starting generator eveytime its in use .Haven’t heard much about alcohol stoves verses propane ? Need someone to tell me why not Alcohol . I know its a bit more effort but is it just as hot? I’m thinking not . I would like everyone’s opition on this one .
 
Might want to take the alcohol debate to another thread as it usually is a hot and heavy debate by itself.
 
Retriever said:
I just don't understand why boat stuff has to be worse than house stuff.

It has to worse than house stuff or they would charge 6 times what it's worth instead of only double.....:)
Click to expand...
 
Dickenson - no doubt!

I had a Force 10 four burner. I hated it with a passion. The largest burner had no heat, the smaller burners were laughably wimpy. Plus, the spacing on the burners were so close that you could only use two at a time anyway. If you are buying a Force 10 (don't) get a three burner!

I pulled it out and replaced it with a Dickenson three burner. I do most of the cooking on the big burner in the back. I don't know why people are saying it is too strong. You can dial it down. Its capacity is simply the same as any old home stove. It is hot enough to get a sear on something. The Force 10 can't come close.

The oven on the Force 10 was highly uneven and not very hot. The Dickenson oven is hotter, but also uneven. I put a custom-cut sheet of quarter inch aluminum on the bottom, which helped quite a bit.
 
The electric Princess, now Force 10 stove/oven has/had a modification to over come the slow heating oven. It would turn on the oven and the broiler elements at the same time. Well, this can still be accomplished by turning the brutal broiler unit to heat up the oven initially then go back to the baking element for final adjustment.
Per the oven, I think we all wish the oven had a fan in it to distribute the heat. evenly. For some unknown reason, this has yet to be accomplished.
 
Moonfish said:
We have a Force 10 3-Burner. Fitting multiple larger pans can be an issue, but there’s only so much real estate to deal with so we just, well, deal with it. Regarding stovetop temps, they do get nice and hot. In fact simmering can be problematic (can’t bring the temp down low enough), so we finally bought one of those diffusers which makes a big difference.

My wife hates the oven. It only gets up to 320 degrees. But we have a toaster oven that will broil, so we’re covered. She’s wanted a new stove/oven since we moved aboard nearly 7 years ago, so I’ll be interested to follow this thread and see if there are any other recommendations.
Click to expand...

Too many band-aids to fix a very expensive item right out of the box. Here is an alternative. Install a induction cook top. The "burners" put out far more usable BTUs than gas or resistance electric burners. Yes, you will have to run your generator at anchor but the benefits to a chef who enjoys cooking are substantial. Water boils more quickly and temperature control is more than acceptable.

The built-in ovens, to me, are useless given their temp limitations. yes, modifications can be made to orifices to boost temps somewhat but don't you think that there is a good reason why the manufacturer did not design it originally for a higher temp. Does safety come to mind?

So, we use an induction cook top and a table top convection oven - not a combination microwave-convection oven. I bake bread, have successfully roasted prime ribs and turkey breasts, and my wife bakes cookies every week. Pretty much, with this combination, we can do anything aboard that we used to do before we became live aboards.

When we boat our boat, I had wanted to install propane. We had already thrown out the original Princess electric which we absolutely hated. We opted for induction, actually gave it a try first with a True Induction table top two-burner unit. We are so glad we opted for the setup we have.
 
catalinajack said:
So, we use an induction cook top and a table top convection oven - not a combination microwave-convection oven. I bake bread, have successfully roasted prime ribs and turkey breasts, and my wife bakes cookies every week. Pretty much, with this combination, we can do anything aboard that we used to do before we became live aboards.

When we boat our boat, I had wanted to install propane. We had already thrown out the original Princess electric which we absolutely hated. We opted for induction, actually gave it a try first with a True Induction table top two-burner unit. We are so glad we opted for the setup we have.
Click to expand...

Any electric stove necessitates running the generator unless you are on shore power.

Isn't the induction top a 220vt? You had to rewire to get 220 to the stove top?
What size inverter do you have? Can you run the toaster oven off your inverter?
You have a 50amp boat?
 
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I had a Princess 3 burner stove with an oven. I found that I could never get 3 pots fitted at once. Also, I never used the oven since I had a Microwave Convection oven that was better suited. So, we took out the Princess and installed a 2 burner glass top surface unit. To fill in the space left, my husband built a nice, roomy cabinet with plenty of storage. I am very happy now.
 
Our 3 burner Force10 works well - very happy with the fit/finish and overall performance. The high-output burner boil's water very quickly. I like being able to center a large pot or pan over the center burner, not sure if you can do that with a 4 burner. As liveaboards, it gets used 4-5 times a week easily. We have a oven thermostat that is used to dial in the temperature and, yes it does vary by 15 degree or so. Pizza, Cinnamon rolls, Biscuits, Baked Beans all come out as good as I would expect.
I was dreading cleaning up the oven when "My" pizza (all the toppings) overflowed - was very surprised how well the heavy tray over the burner removed. The burner grates not only tilts up but is removable - again, great for cleanup's.

Thank you,
Gregg
 
If you are quite the cook and used to nice equipment at home, then many boat stovetops and especially ovens may leave you dissatisfied.

So I just bought a Force 10 two burner, never had a four burner on a boat but I have had a number of propane stove/ovens in RV's. In RV's the stove are whimpy as well, but they still work, just not as fast. If I want to bake something quicker than the Force 10 oven, the Weber 1200 BBQ will do just fine. If I am in shore power, the smaller convection will do just fine. If I am on the hook and want to use the convection oven (1380 watts), I will use it as I have an Efoy 210 and 700 watts of Fire Fly batteries, along with my 70 amp alternator on the boat, they will do just fine to bring the batteries back up.

I haven't used the Force 10 oven yet, but I suspect it will be the same as the propane ovens I have used in trailers and motorhome.
 
Mischief Managed said:
Buying a new one this weekend. Should I get the Dickinson Mediterranean or the Force 10?
Click to expand...

I have an Orago alcohol two burner stove on my boat and along with
the microwave have never needed any thing else. Of course this is just a single guy spending weeks at a time on a sailboat.
For heating on my boat I have a Dickinson diesel stove and although it is a
good stove, when my pressure pump failed, and I used it with gravity flow,
it left a lot to be desired. (low flame)
 
I had some RV thing, don't remember the brand, with a pilot light in the oven. What a PITA. The solenoid cutoff killed the pilot light, which was fine. But if you used a burner without re-lighting the oven pilot light then the alarm would sound in a few minutes. Also, the oven heated the whole salon, which in the tropics was undesirable. So it had to go.

I installed a 3 burner Eno cooktop, and made a couple of storage drawers in the space formerly occupied by the oven. For baking I use the Zeigler & Brown BBQ, and for bread a Panasonic breadmaker. Very happy with all the results!

And yes, a simmer pad is needed at time to get low enough heat on the cooktop.
 
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