Camp Chef LP Stove/Oven

[Wade]

Hello All,
     This is my first post. I wanted to add to the discussion by saying I am a live aboard and have used the camp chef aboard for over three years now. It works very well. At about a yr I had to replace the thermocoupling. I think it cost about 10 or 15 dollars. The outer casing gets hot to the touch when using the oven so I have an asbestos lining in the one place where the case touches wood. The burners on stove top and oven adjust from high to low with no in between. This has not been a problem but I wish the high was a little higher on the stove top. I've had the oven over 450f.  I didn't gimbal it but it would be easy enough to do.  For a couple hundred bucks it has been one of the best "live aboard upgrades" I have made.  The boat had an electric/alcohol Origo stove top before.  I love this site,   Sail on,  Wade

[Wade]

Hello Sailfarers,
        I need to add a note about the Camp Chef. Well, not really the oven. This is a cautionary tale. I recently returned home to Tennessee after a 3 week stint on Lake Michigan. When I got on board I was relieved to find everything in seemingly good order. All was well until later in the day I decided to cook something. I turned on the propane. My tanks are outside and went inside and turned on a burner. The flame didn't look right. It was a little red and tall, it looked as though the tank was about to run out. Here is where I screwed up. I went ahead and left the burner on thinking maybe I can finish before the tank runs out. So I did a thing or 2 in the galley then decided I didn't like the look of the flame and would go ahead and check the tank. Only 2 or 3 minutes had elapsed, As turned for the companionway I was engulfed in a small but terrifying explosion. The stove was lifted out of it's hole, my right side was rendered hairless, and anything plastic nearby was partiailly melted. I ran out,turned off the tank, and went through the galley and below decks no flames or real damage, So So lucky. It was late and I was freaked out. My right leg was showing signs of a partial thickness 2nd degree burn, no problem- I'm a paramedic. I wrapped the leg with rags soaked with vinegar and it blistered and oozed and had a nasty looking mess but it has healed well.
      Any way, the problem was not the stove. In fact even after the accident it is fine. This is what happened, when installing I think Campchef recommended an in line gas filter, or I read about that some where, so I got one  and installed it and as I mentioned in my previous post the stove has been great. Well, the filter is made with two halves pressed together and that is where my leak was found. All my connections were good but the factory pressed seal had completely failed, the gas had filled a cabinet space beneath the stove, it is isolated from the bilge, and the rest is my sad story. No I didn't have a sniffer. I do now. Everything else is done as it should have been. This is what I think happened.  The boat was closed up and it has been real hot here. Some days 100+. I think it may have gotten so hot in the closed boat that the glue or sealant in the seam of the filter failed? I guess they must use something. I learned a lesson. Set it up right but make sure you have that sniffer. I tell my kid all the time that you can do everything right and it can still go to heck in a second. This could have been bad, luck saved me and my boat. A 30 dollar detector and I would have avoided all this. I am sticking with propane but if you use it make sure you do it right. There is ample info out there on how.   Sorry this was so long,   Sail Far, Wade

[Captain Smollett]

Wow, Wade, glad to hear both the boat and you are all right.

Though I presently have it (previous owner install), I hate the idea of propane on board.  Other fuels just seem to provide a wider safety margin.  To me, the crux is that being heavier than air, any leak inside the boat is going to accumulate inside the boat.

My goal is to move to kerosene for cooking and heating fuel.  Maybe still not "safe" on some scales, but safer.

I'm just so glad your story, your cautionary tale, did not end with hospitalization or worse.  Have a grog for the 'settle down' period ...

[Wade]

Cap,
      I had alcohol on another boat. Lived on her for a year and grew weary of filling the pans and running out in the middle of a meal. We had kerosene on our houseboat when I was a kid but don't really remember much about it.  I don't like the risk of propane either. But when your not blowing up it is awful convenient.   Wade

[CharlieJ]

been using a single burner kero stove since about 1978. If I could easily replace it,  I'd use one on Necessity too. Lately been using a Butane stove

Here's the Sea Cook that was propane that I converted to kero. By the way, I've used 100% Mineral Spirits in the kero stoves for 30 years now.