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range cooking and heating help


chad.r

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Hi forum

 

i am here for some advise to help my parents. they currently deciding how they want there narrow boat fitted out. All fine apart from what source of heating and hot water to look at.

 

My idea is to look at range cookers because it does domestic and hot water as well as cooking.

my parents live with an old aga so its second nature to them but with running costs so high are there any other recommended makes? To my suprised i found a fair few in my quick Google search.

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Most Agas and rayburns would perhaps be rather large and heavy for a NB. We have a Rayburn in our house but I don't think we would want one in the boat. Heritage do a single-width one (if that makes sense) called an Uno which I have seen in NBs, it is more in proportion with the rest of the interior.

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Isn't the main problem with ranges that to cook or get hot water in summer you need to fire up the range which makes the cabin unbearably hot in summer?

 

I think it's worth pointing out the standard set up is calorifier for hot water, wood/coal stove for heating (+hot water) and gas cooker for food. Diesel/gas "central" heating is also popular.

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We had a rayburn because we thought it was a good idea. It wasn't. They take up a lot of room and take an age to get warm if you leave the boat. To get it hot enough to cook on meant asphyxiating the steerer.

I am much happier with a solid fuel stove that heats the boat and the water quickly. The top is large enough for a kettle or saucepan. We have always had a gas stove because we couldn't use the rayburn in the summer. The engine heats the water in the summer.

Sue

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Thank you people..

 

The heritage range cooker looks really good for what my parents are after. the uno or compact Should fit nicely in to the kitchen area.

replying to the aga posts... yea they are hot in the summer

 

Thank you people..

 

The heritage range cooker looks really good for what my parents are after. the uno or compact Should fit nicely in to the kitchen area.

replying to the aga posts... yea they are hot in the summer and costly to run. Looking in to the heritage compact its a twin burner so if u want hot water the boiler works separate to the cooker and it has the traditional look me and my parents like. Some more investigating needed before i take my finding to the olds.

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Chertsey, I don't get the "eye-wateringly expensive" bit about Heritage cookers. No decent range cooker is cheap! A Heritage Uno which will provide cooking, domestic hot ater and central heating is just over £4,000. For comparison, a standard-size Rayburn which will do the same jobs is £6,500 (we have just had a new one so my price is up to date). These prices seem comparable.

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My Rayburn is a 216 multifuel single oven so it's a little wider than the Heritage but less deep and quite low. She cost less than £3000 and I cook, heat my water and run 3 single radiators and two half radiators of her. She uses a fraction more coal than the Squirrel and runs happily on a 24" chimney. Apart from a split joint in the Big Freeze I've had no issues with it but I've nearly always had one and there is a learning curve particularly in cooking on one.

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Hi Athy. is it the heritage uno you have recently brought?

 

I must say that after some searching and asking around the heritage range does come highly recommended. i found a few pictures of boats with range cookers installed and i think they do look very homly and in keeping with the looks of an nb.

modern range cookers do have a plus side to the older models- fuel consumption. My parents will be running on diesel so i think its wise to spend a little more new to save in the long run.

any advise on that is gratefully received

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No, Chad, we have a new Rayburn in our house. We don't have a range cooker on the boat. Certainly the new one uses less oil than our previous old one, perhaps this is a common factor of most new range cookers.

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Having had a Heritage diesel range on one boat and a solid fuel aga on another ( both narrowboats) I will say that the Heritage was by far the better option

on Marge the Barge we have a Esse range doing cooking/hot water and heating and so far we are really pleased with it

As Wrigglefingers said there IS a learning curve to cooking with one

 

 

Chris

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Chertsey, I don't get the "eye-wateringly expensive" bit about Heritage cookers. No decent range cooker is cheap! A Heritage Uno which will provide cooking, domestic hot ater and central heating is just over £4,000. For comparison, a standard-size Rayburn which will do the same jobs is £6,500 (we have just had a new one so my price is up to date). These prices seem comparable.

I wasn't thinking of a new Rayburn!

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TA DA!!

Picture106.jpg

Twyfords recon, £4900 in 2004 but we wanted a trad style as the new ones are plain and we dont like the chrome lids. Weve always had a range cooker of some sort in our houses and wouldnt be without one. The Aga is too large for a boat I suspect and are really only cookers despite their size,[yes I know some are water heaters but are rare] We have a Rayburn for our fitout as these are much much smaller and normally water heaters too.

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Our Esse was way less than £2 k and this included my time and ferry to go to Belfast to collect it !

I found it on gumtree, the seller not only provided lots of photos but a video as well so we could determine condition etc accurately

It had been fitted in a holiday cottage from new ( it it 4 years old) and when our commissioning engineer looked over it he reckoned it had hardly been used

Yes we we lucky to find it..but we had been looking for nearly 6 months

 

Chris

 

 

 

 

 

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TA DA!!

Picture106.jpg

Twyfords recon, £4900 in 2004 but we wanted a trad style as the new ones are plain and we dont like the chrome lids. Weve always had a range cooker of some sort in our houses and wouldnt be without one. The Aga is too large for a boat I suspect and are really only cookers despite their size,[yes I know some are water heaters but are rare] We have a Rayburn for our fitout as these are much much smaller and normally water heaters too.

 

Does that Ecofan in the picture work well with it?

  • Greenie 2
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Our Esse was way less than £2 k and this included my time and ferry to go to Belfast to collect it !

I found it on gumtree, the seller not only provided lots of photos but a video as well so we could determine condition etc accurately

It had been fitted in a holiday cottage from new ( it it 4 years old) and when our commissioning engineer looked over it he reckoned it had hardly been used

Yes we we lucky to find it..but we had been looking for nearly 6 months

 

Chris

Hello Chris have you had any problems with the alledged poor casting quality on the Esse. My friend had two with cracked boilers, maybe he was unlucky?

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Hello Chris have you had any problems with the alledged poor casting quality on the Esse. My friend had two with cracked boilers, maybe he was unlucky?

 

No castings were checked and all ok.. I did hear about that but we were lucky

The only real issue we have is a temp overheat switch on the ch side tripping every now and then

overall VERY pleased

 

 

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Hi forum

 

i am here for some advise to help my parents. they currently deciding how they want there narrow boat fitted out. All fine apart from what source of heating and hot water to look at.

 

My idea is to look at range cookers because it does domestic and hot water as well as cooking.

my parents live with an old aga so its second nature to them but with running costs so high are there any other recommended makes? To my suprised i found a fair few in my quick Google search.

 

Hi,

 

We have a Heritage Range cooker-it's very clever, operates heating,water and obviously cooking. It runs on diesel and carosine, but there are other alternatives! we are considering increasing battery power by adding another battery, 130amp- as the heritage is controlled by a clever 'gismo' that automatically trips-in to maintain optimun temperature-although you can set it to a manual configuration. Absolutely fab in a boat, comes in 2 sizes and several colours and to date: uses not a lot of fuel!

 

Kind Regards,

 

Warrior Princess.

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...and many of us have seen your Heritage cooker in the magazine reviews of your William Piper boat, lovely!

Er, as you give your gender as "male", hoe come you call yourself "Princess"? Sounds a bit queer to me.

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No castings were checked and all ok.. I did hear about that but we were lucky

The only real issue we have is a temp overheat switch on the ch side tripping every now and then

overall VERY pleased

Good stuff the reason I ask is there are quite a few advertised locally from time to time and got me thinking. Ive always like the look of them and like something different. It would also seem that there must be a local supplier judging by the frequency of adverts for secondhand ones being available, I think that would point to them being easy to get your hands on. My son would like a range but cant stretch to an Aga or Rayburn and Ive put him off an Esse, time to change the gameplan and look at them methinks!

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