Why use propane when you can use kerosene?

[avd155]

I had been considering putting in a Force 10, 2 burner stove like this: http://www.force10.com/gas_cooktop_2burner.html

But...then I got to talking with one of my boat building buddies. He is re-designing the interior of his boat (like me) and has decided to go with a kerosene stove. After discussing the benefits of kerosene, I'm now fairly convinced it's a good choice for a cruising boat. The current plan is to install something like Atom Voyages uses - http://atomvoyages.com/projects/AtomStove.htm

Here's why I think a little self gambled kerosene stove is the best choice for me:

+ The single burner stove can be stowed away when not in use taking up less room in the saloon.
+ The stove can be used outside the saloon as well (cockpit, beach, etc.)
+ Easier to store Kerosene - this is a big one. It's a liquid and can be stowed, unlike propane which can't be.
+ Easier to find / refill Kerosene abroad.
+ I will use kerosene for my heater and a couple lamps as well as my stove, making it useful for multiple purposes.
+ Safer than propane - I'm not 100% sure on this, is it true?

Please keep in mind I'm a single guy, planning on doing a lot of long term, off the grid sailing when possible. I'm not too concerned with the ability to cook a 5 course meal. I know there are some downsides to kerosene including some flare ups and smoke in the cabin, but how bad could it be? Anyone have experience cooking on propane v. kerosene? Why does everyone go with propane? Am I missing something important?

I appreciate everyone's input and since it's always good to share images, I've included a picture looking forward from the companionway inside my Bristol 27. You can see that everything has been gutted and I have a couple templates in for my bulkheads (I'm farther along now than this picture, but you get the idea). The stove is a main part of the design so I'm really trying to make a decision so I can move forward.

[Chris Campbell]

I've never had a kerosene galley stove, but I did have a Force 10 Cozy Cabin kerosene heater on my last boat, and almost never used it. While some people love them for the very reasons you've suggested (easy to get fuel, simple, reliable, relatively safe), we didn't like ours for a couple of important reasons that meant that we sailed with a chill rather than start up the heater. The main thing was the smell. Kerosene smells a lot like diesel, and behaves a lot like diesel (in fact they're almost interchangeable - I could be wrong, but I think that kerosene is just a slightly cleaner version of diesel). When burnt incorrectly it smokes too much, creating soot. When burnt correctly it smokes a little, and has a smell that some find very objectionable - others find alright. Our cabin heater had a smokestack to carry the smoke out - my partner couldn't handle even the smoke that didn't make it up the stack. Of course not everyone will be as sensitive as she is. The other thing is lighting. Lighting a propane stove is as easy as applying flame and turning it on. With kerosene (at least with the Primus-style burner that was in our heater) you have to pre-heat the burner before it works, which means that you put (in our case, again) alcohol in a ring around the base of the burner and light it on fire. When that goes out (or is just about to) you can turn on the burner which hopefully catches. If it doesn't, you wait for a few moments for it to cool down enough that the alcohol won't self ignite when you put it in again and you try again. There are alternative ways to do this - some use a plumber's torch (propane or butane), and Hal & Margaret Roth made up a clampy thing that could be soaked in alcohol, lit, and removed. I'm sure there are other techniques also. Regardless, starting a kerosene stove up is not as easy as propane.

Like all things on a small boat, every choice will be a compromise. Kerosene may well be the best one for you, especially given your plans for exploring the world where you might find getting propane or alcohol difficult or expensive (alcohol has a small when it burns also, not as pungent, but it can get to you after awhile, too). I think if it were me in your shoes (it may be, some day!) I'd find a kerosene burner to spend some quality time in a small space with and see how I felt about it afterward.

Cheers,

Chris

[Eric]

Ditto to what Chris wrote. I use an old Sea Swing / Primus stove on Sophia and have learned to love it, but, I grew up with kerosene mantle lamps and am not particularly bothered by the smell. I rebuilt the stove and keep a spare burner and other extras on hand and, after 6 years we have a achieved a pretty happy working relationship, but, it hasn't always been an easy one.

Here is a picture of my installation on my Triton. Please pardon the mess--this was last season, launch day.



I use it a fair amount underway and find it quite handy. I preheat it with alcohol out of a handy plastic squirt bottle and, as the this phase generates a fair amount of heat, I don't light the alcohol till I'm ready to start cooking. The preheat is reliable--I wait until the alcohol flame is out before I pressurize the tank with 4 or 5 strokes of the pump, then light the burner. Only if I lose track and fail to do this within the first minute or two, will the burner flare and I'll have to start over after 5 minutes of cooling.

The Sea Swing limits the size of the pots and pans possible for cooking. As I'm by myself or with only one other most of the time, this isn't a problem. I also carry a portable butane stove as a backup and as a second burner able to handle a larger pan. (Pancakes, anyone?) I rarely pull this out.

I like to keep the boat simple--it is my camp on the water and I want to live simply here. The Sea Swing has allowed me to avoid the complexity of a Propane installation and, except for the alcohol preheat, I'm not bothered by the smell. The stove doubles as an effective cabin heater (with a flower pot) and I tend to stay in past Halloween here in Maine so it gets used a such every season. These are small boats and there is no escaping that this is a camping experience. My approach has been to embrace this aspect and, after 6 years of cruising the coast, I have no regrets about this decision.

If I was planing to live aboard for more than a few months at a time, I would probably have to reconsider.

-- Eric, #635

[Tim]

+ Easier to store Kerosene - this is a big one. It's a liquid and can be stowed, unlike propane which can't be.
+ Easier to find / refill Kerosene abroad.

Your choice of stove and fuel is up to you. Minimizing the number of different fuels on board is a worthy goal, so if you're using kerosene elsewhere it might make sense to use it for your stove too. I know where I come down on the stove fuel debate, but it's not germane to your own decision.

That said, I have to take issue with these two points--not that either will really affect your personal decision, but I don't feel either statement above is accurate and just feel a need to correct them, semantic though it may be.

1. Propane in its stored state is actually a liquid (aka gas compressed beyond the pressure required to maintain it in liquid form) inside those cylinders. This provides a large amount of stored energy in a small space. One modest propane cylinder will fuel a cookstove for 2-3 months anyway. The specifics of safe propane storage on a small boat become complex avd very difficult to achieve effectively, but stowage abovedecks is easy, inexpensive, effective and safe, provided you don't mind the appearance.

2. Propane is used and available everywhere, worldwide, and is inexpensive. Availability is one of the plusses of propane as a fuel choice.

The remainder of the potential issues are individual to you and your boat, and the choices and compromises you'd need to make for either decision.

[Eric]

Probably another thing to consider is resale value--we don't tend to think beyond our own use of a boat, but, if I were engaged in wholesale refit, I would definitely have a plan for accommodating a conventional propane two-burner range in the galley even if I wasn't going to install one myself.

-- E

[Rachel]

I'll chime in. Some of this is repeating what others have said, but I guess that's valid, as it gives you more data points.

First of all, I have not used a kerosene stove. I've only used propane for cooking (I have used oil lanterns for nightly light aboard though, so did stow and use oil). It may sound like I'm advocating propane because of that, but what I'm meaning to do is just relating my experience with it, which was positive in my situation. If I were outfitting a B-27 for cruising, I don't know that I would choose propane for sure, although I would consider it.

+ The single burner stove can be stowed away when not in use taking up less room in the saloon.

Yes, but this also means that, looking at it another way, it takes up twice as much space. That is, you have the space it takes up when you are using it, plus the space it takes up when you stow it (which needs to be empty of other potentially stowed items. And to stow it you have to think about whether it's hot, will it leak, etc.

Also, I think sometimes an in-counter stove can lend itself better to being used for other purposes without removing it. Such as, you can put a cutting board over the top of it. Or, for example, on the Force 10 stove top (which I used) there are parallel bars going across the whole top in lieu of individual burner grids, and these made dandy little entrapment grids for holding things while under way. Such as a couple of eggs, etc. I also used the gimballed stove top fairly often as a holder for a glass of water, with the pot clamps. I really like the Force 10's top design for these reasons.

I also like a lower stove, so that I can easily see into the pots, but that may not be an issue either way in your installation (stove may not be that high and you may be tall).

+ The stove can be used outside the saloon as well (cockpit, beach, etc.)

I agree that this could be a nice option. On the other hand, you could still carry a small kero stove as a backup (I realize this takes up more space and the backup is not making redundant spares for the main stove this way; just mentioning it as an option).

+ Easier to store Kerosene - this is a big one. It's a liquid and can be stowed, unlike propane which can't be.

As Tim mentioned, propane goes a long way. When I was cruising we had two 11# propane tanks (small squatty ones). We made tea and cooked normally, plus I baked bread, cookies, cakes, etc. Basically, we didn't think twice about using the stove/oven, or about conserving propane. Even so, and with two people, one tank would last a very long time (would have to go back and look at logs, but... months, I think).

I don't know where you are headed, but propane seemed easy to find where we were (BC, US Pacific coast, Mexico, Central America, Panama, US East coast). The one caveat is that sometimes (and only sometimes) there would be something like a weekly propane run, and for that it was handy to have two cylinders so that one could be put "on the pile" and the other one could still be in use. Likewise that simplified things when one tank ran out, and also in transporting a smaller tank. But you may not have room for two tanks on a small boat (maybe two of the vertical, aluminum 6-pounders?). Due to how long a tank lasts, however, it may also work well just to time your fills for the more "instant" fill places.

It's true that you do have more options for where to stow kerosene aboard, and you can use many different types/shapes of containers for it. And keeping multiple fuel types limited is good too. We eschewed an outboard motor for the same reason; it would have been the only reason to need gasoline aboard.

As far as safer... I believe kerosene is less likely to seep into the bilges and explode, yes. So although both fuels can burn, I think propane is more volatile. On the other hand, if you have a good, by-the-book installation, and inspect it regularly, I think it's a reasonable risk. Still, there are people for whom having propane aboard is just uncomfortable, no matter what statistics say. That would be no fun, and if I felt that way I would not have it aboard. A propane installation is not as simple as going with a kerosene stove, initially, especially on a small boat where space is an issue.

On the upside for propane, it's instant on, and very easy to control from a bare simmer to a full flame (not sure how kero works on that angle). There is no smell, and no spillage at the burner. You don't have any active transferring of fuel.

Kerosene is simpler to "install," and will be less expensive to get outfitted with, I imagine. It's probably more practical than propane would be if you want to carry two entire stoves and many redundant containers of fuel.

For me, in refitting a B-27 destined for solo cruising, re-sale value would be at the very bottom of my list of considerations. I say that because you already know you will have many, many more hours and dollars in it than you could ever recoup, and you are probably almost as likely to sell it to a fellow cruising aficionado, who might very well agree with whatever system you install anyway.

So in the end I can see plusses and minuses for both systems.

Rachel

[avd155]

Thanks for all the replies so far they have been very helpful (especially Rachel's response).

I've kept up my research today and I found a few other benefits of kerosene (quoted from sources):
+ It is a safe fuel, as it will only burn, never explode.
+ It is cheap, as it is either government subsidised, or low taxed in many countries.
+ Kerosene stoves get hot fast, and easily reach higher temperatures than is possible using gas.

I also found a few negatives to kerosene:
+ The need for preheating the burners being the main one. This is usually done with alcohol, normally methylated spirits.
+ Some people complain about the smell, but this is only an issue if you do not preheat properly.

Atom Voyages sells a cruising kit (with dual of everything: stove, double the spare burners, nozzle picks, leather cups and gaskets, and spare burner flame ring) for $535. I think there are other options for building your own as well. I read that a Swiss company, Bertschi, is producing an excellent, though expensive burner and the other parts can probably be pieced together.

Again, I'm not "against" propane, I'm just applying what I've researched to my own sailing plans and design goals.

[Rachel]

Again, I'm not "against" propane, I'm just applying what I've researched to my own sailing plans and design goals.

Your thread title did sound a teeny bit biased; nevertheless, I'm glad you brought the discussion to the forum, as it's an interesting one, and hot/cooked food and beverages are certainly right up there on most sailors' priority lists :)

I think James' Atom stove looks like a nice one, and it looks like it could work well on a B-27 sized boat. I think I would miss having a section of gimballed countertop, which is what a two-burner stove can become (regardless if it is kerosene or propane), so I might still try to find a way to make that work. But then the whole thing is going to be a balancing act, space-wise, and any installation will have compromises. I suppose the main thing is just to choose the ones that annoy you the least :)

I've always been intrigued by Yves Gelinas' stove on "Jean-du-Sud," his Alberg 30. It looks like a two-burner, probably kerosene-fueled, and it is gimballed. He installed in under a heat-shielding hood in the area outboard of the galley that is usually dish storage. It's a bit sunken relative to the galley counter.

You can see it in his film, "With Jean-du-Sud Around the World" -- I haven't found any photos of it though, or I would paste one in. (By the way that film is a must-see, in my opinion, if you are going to be bluewater cruising in a small boat - and it's just a great film regardless. You can order it from his site: http://www.capehorn.com.)

Rachel

PS: Oh, one note on the prices: Although I'm pretty sure a propane system is quite a bit more expensive to install initially (as long as you are not buying a new Taylors ;), I don't know that I'd give too much weight to the "kerosene fuel is cheaper than liquid propane" argument on its own (assuming the systems are already installed). I'm not arguing that it isn't cheaper - it may be - but only want to say that I found propane to be extremely economical when filling tanks. The tanks last a very long time and are not expensive to fill, at least in the areas I mentioned above. If I told you how much (erm, little) money we had aboard when we left southern California, you would laugh :D

[Peter]

My experience has been with Force 10 Cozy Cabin heaters, and my personal preference is for propane.
'Sin Tacha' came equipped with the kerosene model, which worked well for a couple of years.

Perfect burn:


But after a while the air passages carboned up, resulting in this kind of burn:


So I switched to the propane model and get heat by simply turning on a valve and pushing a button, at any angle of heal and no pre-heating!


Later I discovered that new kerosene burner units are available at Packstoves@aol.com

[Eric]

+ Some people complain about the smell, but this is only an issue if you do not preheat properly.

I will attest that the smell issue is more than a result of improper preheating. Even with a stove in top condition and properly installed, with a day tank large enough that you do not have to handle the fuel often, you will encounter odors which some will find objectionable-both from whatever is used for preheating, and as a product of the combustion of the oil. Propane is a hands down winner on this point.

I chose to heat my house with wood and cook on my boat on a kerosene stove for pretty much the same reasons--I'm an incurable romantic at heart and enjoy the gestalt of using and maintaining simple appliances. It feeds my soul. At different scales, both choices are for simpler systems that are dirtier, more labor intensive, and that require more presence of mind for safe operation. Others will find my choices soul threatening and will make different choices. It's all good. Figuring out what works for us and why is what the journey is all about. Good luck!

-- Eric

[tomwatt]

In a past life, I worked with a group of research engineers who developed off-the-grid kitchen appliances.* Kerosene is a remarkable fuel, and is wonderful to work with - but - unless it's used in a pressurized feed with a pre-heat loop, it will burn incompletely, resulting in heavy sooting as well as enhanced smell (stink) - it smells bad enough when burning cleanly. It's also a relatively safe fuel, as combustibles go.
Propane burns cleanly, hands down. For interior use, cooking and heating it's hard to beat.

* military and government use only. A single burner unit outputs more than 50k btu. You don't want one of these in your boat unless you're cooking a bathtub full of stew.

[mitiempo]

I had a 2 burner gimbaled kerosene stove on my Westerly 25 in the early 70's. I had a 2 burner alcohol stove on a boat after that. When I bought my 35' boat in the late 80's I removed the 3 burner w/oven kerosene stove and replaced it with propane with no regrets. My next boat had a Force 10 3 burner w/oven propane stove and I loved it. My current boat came with a pressurized alcohol stove and I was so happy with my last alcohol stove that I removed it and sold it without lighting it. I replaced it with a Force 10 3 burner w/oven gimbaled stove.
Cooking fuel is a personal choice. My complaints about kerosene is ease of use compared to propane and the 2 fuels required. While kerosene is available just about everywhere it is not always as clean as it should be. This leads to burners clogging and sooting up. Also even though kerosene is inexpensive everywhere the alcohol for preheating is not. Propane is the cooking fuel of the world outside of North America and easy to find. As others have said a tank will last a very long time. Living aboard I get over 2 months with a 10 lb tank (and that includes oven use) and plan on carrying 2 when I cruise south.
Propane does require a good installation ideally with a solenoid at the tank and a sniffer but is the easiest fuel to use by far - open the valve and light it, by pushing a button on the Force 10. While kerosene may be a bit hotter it's not by much.

And Eric, if you are heating the cabin with a flower pot over a burner I hope you have both good ventilation and a co detector.

[Eric]

And Eric, if you are heating the cabin with a flower pot over a burner I hope you have both good ventilation and a co detector.

Both, and thanks for pointing out the threat.

-- E

[Munster]

I'm currently facing a similar decision and here is what I've decided after looking at all of the options.

The previous owner of my boat removed the inset alcohol stove and surfaced the counter with granite tile. The only cooking he did on board was with a propane grill mounted on the after deck. For the weekend cruising that I will mainly be doing, cooking needs are limited, especially since I'll be single handing a lot. I grew up using both a primus mounted on a gimbaled sea swing and a two burner alcohol stove. Love the primus, never had any problem lighting it and using clean burning kero substitutes, never noticed any smell other then from the alcohol for pre-heating. Don't like alcohol stoves. I don't like the eye watering smell or the low BTU output.

One problem with mounting another stove in the existing counter is that I'll lose most of the counter work space. My solution is going to be to mount a sea swing on a removable mount next to the counter. I picked up a used sea swing/optimus off of E-bay for $50. Primus/optimus stoves are easy to find and the same new stoves identical to what is being put in the Atom are around $50-$65 bucks. Using a sea swing gets me a gimbaled stove that I can use to make coffee, heat soup or stew or cook other things in a double boiler, while underway. It's easy enough to store in a 5 gal. plastic bucket with a lid in the lazerette when not in use and does not take up any cabin storage space, which is at a premium on my boat.

I'll also have a cheap, 2 burner propane camp stove using the 1 lb. canisters that I can use while at anchor or in port. That can also be stored out of the cabin and for that matter the whole stove can be moved to the cockpit if it's too hot to cook below. Total expense for both stoves under $100. We'll see how they work out, I'll post pics showing the mount I'm building for the sea swing, once it's done.

[sail_fix]

I hope the "thread police" do not ticket me for trying to expand the thread a little bit... but we have had quite a long thread discussion of the stove fuel topic over at ericsonyachts.org, and I would guess that a preponderance of owners either like the instant heat of a propane stove or the zero-complication ease of an Origo non-pressure alcohol stove.

Our boat came with a Origo 6000 model (two burner stovetop and oven) from the factory.
Having done a full-on conversion to propane on our prior smaller boat I was willing to go thru that much labor again... but after a few cruises my wife told me not to bother. She really liked the Origo. Fifteen years later we still like it. We use it all the time and she makes cookies or cinnamon roles in the oven almost every weekend we are cruising.

FWIW, our prior boat came with an Optimus two burner kero stove. Nice quality stove, but I never did learn to consistently light it off without a sooty flameup and the wrath of the Admiral. The pressure tank would lose pressure; burners slowly clog; and, we needed alcohol to preheat the burner pans. When working, it put out amazing heat. Oh yeah, I should mention that those Swedish burners did not like to burn at low flame very much -- accelerated the clogging problem.

It was a champ at bringing the kettle to boil -- lots of BTU's in kero. Funny thing is, that after getting used to the somewhat lower BTU output of the LPG stove and now less yet from the alcohol stove, it really makes no difference in the real world.
When the kettle whistles, it's boiling...
:)
So burn what makes you happy, but please do not dismiss other options too quickly.

Regards,
L

[Peter]

I have to agree with sail_fix on choice of fuels: propane to heat and non-pressurized alcohol to cook. I have an Origo 3000 two burner and love it. It was never a candidate for replacement when I switched from kerosene to propane for the cabin heater.

The Origo 6000 sounds like a nice unit .... hmmm, I think I feel another project looming, time for some research!

[Rachel]

I just used a friend's non-pressurized alcohol Origo stove a couple of weeks ago, and I agree that it was very handy. Also, maybe because I was expecting it to be slow to heat things, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't bad. I've also heard good things about them from other people.

On the other hand, the original poster is outfitting his boat for cruising (long distance by the sound of it), and I wouldn't recommend alcohol for that because it can get very expensive if you use it day in and day out. I don't know whether it would be difficult to source in out-of-the-way locations but that may be another issue.

Rachel

[earlylight]

I have an Origo 6000 with two burners and an oven. It has performed flawlessly since I purchased Early Light in 2001. Yes alcohol is a bit slower than some other fuels, but if my life was that hurried I wouldn't be owning a sailboat. :-) Fuel availability might be a problem in some of the more out of the way locations. I typically use about a gallon of alcohol a season (7 months) so cost is not a huge factor and in a pinch I could probably use vodka for fuel. I typically use the oven 2 or 3 times a year. The stove top is used every morning to make my pot of Joe and cook breakfast. Evening meals are normally prepared on my gas grill on the stern pulpit except in inclement weather. My boat is typically used 100 days or so a year.

[Chris Campbell]

Vodka for stove fuel? Sacrilege! If it should come to that, just drink the vodka and eat the food raw, is my advice. Enough vodka to cook a meal over will make anything taste good!

[JSmith]

On MUSKRAT (alden challenger 38) our gimbled Paul Luke propane stove serves as a steady mixing bar as much as a cooking platform. Drink the vodka and eat a tuna sandwich!

[Pinching]

Had a Taylor kero 2 burner stove/oven on Luders 33. Supply was pressurized from former alcohol tank. Hot, pretty reliable. Odor was more tolerable than alcohol, but we NEVER cooked under sail/rough conditions requiring the hatches to be closed. Previous posts should be noted re preheating -- yes, you must use methanol or equivalent and it stinks briefly.

Worst was Origo alcohol in terms of smell. Our 41 came with 2 burner Origo with oven. The system worked OK, but really was intolerable below in a seaway. Whole thing went to the dumpster and was replaced by LPG (Force 10) 2 burner with oven). Crew of 10 R/T to Bermuda on a 6# cylinder with spare capacity. No regrets. Instant on. Obviously must be installed properly with solenoid, vent/drain in bottle box etc.

Best recommendation is to try before you buy with you boat kind of closed as if in crummy weather. My wife isn't crazy about the LPG/propane smell, but it is tolerable in a seaway. Kero and alcohol can be barf city -- not what you need offshore.

My 0.02
P

[Quetzalsailor]

We have the old pressure alcohol cookstove and oven that LeComte 'appropriated' the design of from Luke. Perko burners. I've restored it and it has become routine and a nearly normal thing to use. Preheating's a pain and there's always the chance of dumping extra alcohol with the resultant unsettling flare-up. Truly unsettling. And, I don't like the acrid smell.

We carry lamp oil for the several lamps aboard: smelly, sooty, hot and spill-full. One of the lamps is a really cool railroad signal lamp; its light is much less shadowed by the fuel tank and is thus much better for use in the cockpit, hung on the boom over the dining table.

We carry 2lb bottles of propane, tied into a canvas bag on deck, for the Magma mounted on the pushpit.

We have a truckers' diesel heater, an Espar, but it's in the barn awaiting rising in the priority for a tune-up. We have a wood-fired, Delft-tiled fireplace which has issues with the amount of insulation between it and the adjoining wood. Hard to light, needs its Charlie Noble. Very pretty, though.

Like Earlylight, we do our evening cooking on the Magma. Sue more often than not has prepared the weekend's or vacation's meals so that even stuff like pasta is reheated on the Magma. Breakfasts are done on the LeComte/Luke/Perko; Sue does not like the heat in the cabin later on a summer's day.

Since we're not rolling in it, nor going anywhere, we're not changing anything.

No one's written about the choice between CNG and propane. I recall much blather on other sites and further recall that CNG is more popular and available overseas. Important to remember which is heavier than air (I don't). A one pound bottle of propane, like for your torch, contains plenty enough energy to flatten your house when properly mixed and ignited; most of us are pretty cavalier about it.

If you're going to burn kerosene, you might consider diesel. Pretty much the same stuff and you'll have plenty of diesel aboard. You can indeed buy diesel cookstoves.

[mitiempo]

Propane is heavier than air, CNG is lighter. But CNG is very hard to get in many places. Propane is the cooking/heating fuel used worldwide and so is available most anywhere. CNG tanks are like scuba tanks and if you're in an area where it is common like California you don't fill but exchange tanks.
Diesel stoves are mostly like the Dickinson used by commercial fisherman. Good stoves but not the type you light for a meal. Fisherman I know light them at the beginning of the season and when it gets too warm they open the doors. Way too hot for a warmer climate as well but they are a good choice for both cooking and cabin heat in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska ot the Maritimes and maybe Maine. They need a stack of course and there is usually some soot on deck.

[Curmudgeon]

A few years ago I looked at a 50-footer for sale (Portland, Oregon) for parts - they had a propane explosion on board, and there was nothing left belowdecks worth salvaging. The deck had been blown upwards several feet; all bulkheads 'removed'; the prop shaft blown completely out the back. Apparently they had a functioning sniffer mounted in the bilge, but the propane leaked between the hull and the liner and wasn't detected by the sniffer until....

In our boat club, "Goolka" did a 12+ year circumnavigation on kerosene without much problem, other than typical wear'n'tear and hard-to-find replacement parts, but another member had no end of problems with their new kero stove (lighting, and keeping lit) and converted to propane shortly after launch. Sorry, not sure which brand/models involved.