HPV Salsa spirit stove

The "HPV Salsa" is my hot breakfast spirit camping stove at the boatyard. It runs on the same principles as the Maxie stove in the previous post. 

It only outputs 1kw (3,500 BTU) maximum heat, but thats ok for one man frying up bacon, eggs and tomatoes, onions and sausages etc. I usually turn the heat down once these are cooking well.

It's also ok for small stew pots, boiling veges/pasta/rice or reheating food.

HPV Salsa stove burner

Salsa - Fry pan breakfast

The Salsa is German made and is good quality. The only maintenance is keep it clean (rarely have to clean the fuel jet/needle as well) I bought it  from Reimo Australia. 

Dinner cooking, 1kw Salsa can boil veges/pasta (Butane 2kw for sausages)

This is a detailed look at the Salsa Salsa regulating alcohol stove - MTO

Maxie 2 burner spirit stove

 Picked up an old Maxie marine spirit stove recently.

They were made in Sydney in the boat building heydays from 1950's to 1990's? There are no date stamps etc, so guessing it's 1970's - 1980's. (40-60 years old). This is because my 24ft keeler "Pablo" had one just like it in 1988, and that boat was about a decade or two old then. That stove kept me well-fed for about 6 months living on board.

They output plenty of heat, the fuel is methylated spirits, which is safer than gas and cleaner than kerosene.

If  the fuel spills it evaporates away quickly. If it spills and catches fire, a water bucket can extinguish it quickly.

They are gravity-fed with generator tube pre-heaters which gassify the spirit. It burns with a clear to blue hot flame which can be regulated from a fast boil down to a simmer.

However they must be operated correctly. Re-fueling/top up only when stone-cold and with the burner valves closed off. (best done early in day, before any cooking) The stove has bakerlite adjustment knobs at the front for easy fuel control.

The start up procedure/pre-heat takes a couple of minutes.

• Open fuel valve and 3/4 fill the pre-heat bowl under burner.
• Close valve
• Light fuel and pre-heat burner
• When fuel is nearly burnt off, open valve to start gassified burner

I usually have a pot, pan or kettle on over the pre-heating burner. Just have to keep a close eye on it to catch the open-valve timing just right.

Maxie marine stove, cleaned up and maximum burn (about 2 kw, 7000 BTU each, mid range)

Easy to see flame at night (almost invisible in daylight, so hand over swipe heat test needed)

Boiling the kettle, the flame settles down nicely

Burner detail (before cleanup)

Front plaque (instructions) and control knobs (before cleanup)

Each burner output is about 2kw (7000 BTU). For comparison Trangia, HPV Salsa camp stoves output about 1 kw (3500 BTU). Coleman shellite campstoves, kero pressure  and LPG gas burners can output around 3kw (11,000-12,000 BTU)

These early gravity-fed designs are simple engineering. There's no pressure tank seals to leak, no pressure pump to go wrong, and no-jets with jet-prickers to worry about. The Maxie's fuel tube has a wick inside it to moderate fuel flow and it lasts for ages. The fuel line joints appear to be precision metal seals.

This stove had sat unused in storage for many decades. Before that it was used allot on a boat.  I took a bottle of spirit and a lighter over there. It took only  5 minutes to fill the tank a little and get the burners fired up agin.

At home i unbolted the tank, swilled it out to clean it and the fuel tubes. Bolted the tank back on, new fuel in and it worked almost perfectly again. A bit of spit and polish later and she looks only 10 year old again.

Some people report "flare up's" when lighting these stoves. That may be cause by opening the fuel valve too early or too much on start-up. Usually Maxies have heat resistant aluminium sheeting surrounding them and the side-deckhead above for safety if it flares up or spilled fuel is on fire. 

They are "stand-alone" stoves. Unlike the modern gas stoves with all the expensive and complicated gas lines, gas bottle lockers, valves and gas sniffers wired into the 12v electrical system. Maxie stoves don't explode the entire cabin and boat, a "flare up" etc is a manageble sized problem.

Other Pro's. The fuel is sustainably distilled in country from agricultural crop-waste, not imported. It comes in re-cyclable plastic bottles sold in supermarkets and hardware stores. 

Con's. They are a bit more technical and a bit less forgiving than an Origo spirit burner. Maxie parts are not made any longer (Though the company still exists in Sydney as a fancy marketing ideas office, stoves/local mass-production are long gone) Maybe valve seats/needles need machining if they leak and new wicks go in after decades of use. But they are a great part of Australian nautical/caravaning history and it's a pleasure to fire it up from time to time.

This stove is a basic one and lacks some sea-going accessories. It lacks Pot-holders and there's no swing gimbal to keep it level when the yacht is rolling or heeled over. 

Some Maxie stoves sold online recently have these extra features, 

Maxie marine stove with sea-gimbals and pot holders, NSW.

I've also seen some of these stoves re-badged as "First Mate", they look almost identical. If you know about the history of these or any maxie stoves please comment below.

 Will keep my search lights on for spare parts/stoves. I've now got a small inverter welder that does stainless steel welding, so might fabricate these bits later if nothing 2nd hand turns up.

Origo 3000 stove

 Aquired a 2nd hand Origo 3000 spirit stove. It is made from stainless steel, has 2 burners and a basic pot grate (no pot holders or gimbal). The previous owner used it to travel around Australia in a van.  They don't come up for sale locally very often here, so was very happy to get one at a good price.

Boiling a camp kettle

It is unpressurized, which makes it safer and easier to maintain and use. The burner canisters hold 1.2 litres of fuel each and will run for 4.5 hours on high and 10 hours on low. It is fairly heavy once the canisters are full.

The stove is quite compact in size, so fits into most small boats (22 - 35 footers) (larger vessels might prefer large oven stoves) 

Left burner on high, right burner on low setting

Fuel canisters and burner control ports

Normally Origo stoves come with 3mm neoprene canister covers to prevent evaporation of fuel when not in use.   These were missing so i made my own up from door sealing neoprene from the local hardware store.

The flame output can be controlled accurately with the twist knobs. It is very easy to light with a long gas BBQ lighter.

Pot grille and flame spreaders on burners

It boils the kettle silently, only the kettle bubbling noise is heard. It takes about 10-12 minutes to boil a litre, with it's 2kw (7000BTU) burner, a bit slower than 3kw (11,000BTU) LPG gas or shellite burners.

However safety is important, it's unlikely that it would explode/burn the boat down like gas/shellite is capable of doing. Meths can simply be extinguished with water. If meths is spilled it simply evaporates upwards and away leaving no residues. It is hard to see a meths flame by day, so passing a hand over it quickly determines if its going or not. If it blows out accidentally, there is zero danger, it's simply out (gas continues to flow and builds up in bilges...)

It is also far simpler/cheaper to set up and maintain by a DIYer. (Gas fitters and gas certificates are a significant cost)

It is important to follow the operating procedures. The biggest danger with an Origo is re-fuelling the canisters. Only do this when they are cold and do it outside the cabin. They should be topped up to full capacity each day or while anchored, (eg mornings before daily use) holding them at 45 degrees until 1.2L is reached.

The other main reason for meths fuel is availability is usually good in most places (except PNG..) and it stores easily in plastic containers. It is often produced locally as well. In Australia there are a few facilities that turn agricultural crop by-products into ethanol fuel, so it's sustainable and keeps jobs/money etc in country.

For more info, cooking performance K10 blog - Campervan fittout, Origo stove test

Cooking method - Get the 2 litre hot water kettle on first, then use the other burner to cook/ reheat the meal, by the time thats done the waters boiled for a cuppa, thermos and washing up.

 

Kerosene pressure stove

 Bought a secondhand "Handi" stainless steel kerosene stove for wylo, around 1980's vintage.

I heard about it through a mate on the Investigator563 online forum, for sale in Newcastle, NSW. (1600km south as the crow flies) Contacted Gordon the seller, he told me it was removed from a yacht during refitting/upgrade, the yacht had done a 6 year circumnavigation with this stove. It had sat in the shed over 10 years. It was shipped up north by land and arrived at the couriers base in a nice plywood box that Gordon had made up.

Two burners are on top and a third burner is inside the oven. It has adjustable pot fiddles and came with accessories/spare parts and a separate large kero tank attched with a flexible hose.

After cleaning it up a bit, it all connected up and it fired up first go!! (must have been well maintained, thanks again to Gordon).  

To operate it involves pressure pumping the kero tank with a bicycle pump, preheating the burner(s) with methylated spirits (alcohol) and opening the burner valve knob (s). There are preheating cups under each burner and it came with a neat little alcohol bottle with long spout.

Kerosene is a safe fuel onboard as it takes allot to ignite it, but once lit it has a very hot burn. Kero also stores well for ages and takes up less space/weight due to high calorific content. Kero is readily available in remote ports too. The only cons are, it takes a few minutes to light up, some people don't like the smell of it and it has unusual maintenance requirements compared with gas. 

I want to steer away from propane gas onboard due to explosion safety hazard, bulky large gas bottles on deck, and high cost/lack of of refills in some remote places (also different incompatible gas fittings overseas etc)

Kero stoves like this were once popular back in the bygone era on remote outback off-grid cattle stations (ranches). They also had kero refrigerators, kero heaters and kero blowlamps. It was the fuel of choice before the modern "propane gas" (and gas pipeline) era. 

I priced the new modern kero equivalents of my Handi stove (eg Taylors in UK) and they cost  thousands of dollars new. My old one represents good value then. 

Handiworks factory began production in the 1930's, was located in Brisbane, Queensland but closed down late 20th century. The burners etc are essentially the old kero "primus" type which are still made in places like India.

Another second hand buy i made locally was a 1950's Primus No1 kero single burner pressure stove. It's not running and needs some fettling (new pump cup, maybe a burner head). It's similar to the one Sir Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay used when they summited Mt Everest for the first time.

On a wylo this type could be fitted to a gimballed heat resistant box (like on wylo2 "Io")