T&T: Heaters/Stoves

[Rudy and Jill Sechez]

Hi Again Ken-

Wow back at you, as I was just discussing this topic with a left coaster earlier today. A mutual friend told him of what I have and he called to discuss it.

When we built our trawler, we installed a diesel stove (new around $1200)with a gravity feed tank. This stove/oven is a pot-burner and on its lowest setting, puts out approximately 6500 BTU, and on high, puts out up to around 12,000-14,000 BTU. It is also wonderful for cooking and baking.

Our stove is a SIG Marine stove (one of their mid-size stoves) and is made up there in the northwest, but there are also other manufacturers of diesel stoves. Other than a fan which requires next to nothing, in 12 volt power, there are no other moving parts. We could have dispensed with the fan, if the exhaust flue was longer.

Our trawler (34 foot length) has a split cabin arrangement, so we also put a pressurized kerosene heater in the aft cabin.

Various size pot-burner diesel heaters, which are essentially the same thing as the stove, just without the large cook top and oven, are also manufactured. Their output is the same as the stoves- bigger the heater/stove, bigger the heat.

To spread the heat, fans can be used. In fact, there is an electric-less fan that sits on the stove; the stove's heat activates it, spinning the blade. We were going to use one of these, but found out that we did not need it.

Maybe this can help some.

Rudy
Briney Bug, Port St Joe, Fl