A new stove for Pelagia

In its box, ready to install

 

Our old Force 10 stove was about 40 years old. It had served its two owners very well. Lately, the burners were burning yellow and sometimes poofing (?) out. Michelle suggested she wanted a new stove for her birthday. David worried about the cost (well over C$3000) but started looking, daunted by the thought of the money and all the work required. 

 

Old dependable no more...

It was the propane sniffer (rather, multiple sniffers) that quickly made up out mind. Suddenly, we had 3 different sniffers telling us there was a leak. So, time for a new stove.    

We looked into both Force 10 and Dickinson stoves. A review on YouTube thankfully made it clear the Dickinson wouldn't work for us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRuda57AHk4

D read and re-read the Force 10 literature, and finally got help re sizes directly from folks at Force 10 (here in British Columbia). The North American Standard size would fit (both 3- and 4-burner models were identical sizes) our stove space. They were now 2-3 cm taller, but still would fit. 

The 4-burner was C$1000 pricier, was not in stock so might entail a substantial shipping charge, and would require about 4 weeks for delivery.  (In the 17 years we've had Pelagia, we've never used all 3 burners on our old stove.) The 3-burner Force 10 was in stock at Steveston Marine, and I could pick it up in 2 days. No delivery charge. The price was not cheap (~C$3700 with taxes)... we could buy 2-4 stoves at Home Depot for home for that price. Yeah, it's a boat, so special boat prices. 

I had some help from neighbours on the docks at VRC lifting the stove into the boat (Thank you Jonathon and Greg!). After some minor modifications, the stove fit beautifully and gimballed back-and-forth perfectly. And it is very shiny.

AND! No more propane sniffer alarm! 

The shiny new Force 10 3-burner installed

 

Video: gimballed stove heating up kettle while we sail across Strait of Georgia