As new technologies emerge, things become chic and fashionable in boat outfitting. A recent trend I’ve noticed is boaters ditching their propane galley stoves and ovens in favor of electric appliances.
So, is it worth the expense? Can a small boat retain its off-the-grid efficiency and still ditch propane? Here’s a look at how we manage propane use on Dulcinea and why we won’t be ditching our old-school propane stove anytime soon.
Why Is Propane a Popular Cooking Fuel On Boats?
Every boat is designed differently, but most small cruising boats built in the last 40 years have used propane (liquid petroleum gas, or LPG) for their cooking systems.
If the boat has a generator or spends a lot of time plugged into shore power, other energy-consuming electric appliances (microwaves, drip coffee makers, etc.) might also be installed.
Propane is so popular because it’s energy-dense, containing a considerable amount of potential cooking power in a small space. This is why all these boats came with diesel or gas engines, not electric motors. Cooking takes a lot of power, and battery banks are generally not up to the task.
Older boats and smaller boats might have other fuel options installed. CNG (natural gas) is nearly extinct and challenging to find fills for. Wood stoves take a while to heat up and waste a lot of energy if you just want one cup of tea. Diesel is dirty for cooking, pressurized alcohol stoves like to blow up, and non-pressurized alcohol doesn’t produce much power.
As cooking fuels go, propane is pretty good. It’s relatively easy to obtain (more on that later), and a little goes a long way. You might also consider other propane appliances, like a grill or heaters.
As far as cooking goes, I really love my propane stove. It’s a newer Force10 model purchased in 2019, and it’s basically bulletproof.
Disadvantages of Propane on a Boat
The biggest disadvantage is safety —propane is awfully explosive and heavier than air, so any leaks will accumulate in the bilge and stay there until something ignites them. This is a bad mix for boats, so marine propane systems must be robust and regularly inspected.
One key to safety is to ensure that propane is always turned off at the valve after every use (US boats have a mandatory electric solenoid valve that makes this as simple as flipping a switch). Propane tanks must be stored in their own separate compartment that is vented overboard — it cannot leak into the bilge if there’s a leak or spill.
Propane sniffers are a good idea, too, though not legally required. They are alarms that go off when they “smell” propane accumulating in low areas.
The last disadvantage of propane is getting refills. It’s used all over the world as a cooking fuel. But there’s no standard fitting, so you might need adapters when traveling internationally. But the bigger problem is finding convenient refill stations without a car. In our time boating on the East Coast, I can only think of two marinas with on-site propane fills. Usually, you need a car to get to the nearest place that does refills. Tractor Supply Company stores, some U-haul locations, a few old-time hardware stores, and some grill stores will refill your tanks. When you find a place that refills tanks, it’s usually cheap. I typically pay about $6 for a 10-pound tank. Sometimes, it’s stupidly expensive, though. We’ve spent $20-25 for a 10-pound tank several times because of a lack of better options. We’ve learned that propane fills are a little like pump-outs — use it when you see it. When you see a fill station with an empty tank, you should get it filled no matter what.
Boats seldom use the 20-pound steel tanks that are used for backyard grills. These rust quickly on boats, making a real mess. If you did use them, you could use tank exchange stations, which are much more common. Most small corner convenience stores and big box grocery/hardware stores will have an exchange, but not a fill.
Boat tanks are nearly always aluminum or fiberglass, which last longer and don’t rust. Sailboats often have two small 10-pound tanks, which fit neatly in a locker. Larger boats might carry bigger tanks.
Should You Replace Your Propane With Electric Appliances on Your Boat?
On our boat, a single 10-pound propane tank will last us six weeks of full-time cooking and use. That’s daily coffee and tea, toast, lunch, dinner — everything. So, at roughly $1 per week for cooking, it’s hard to beat the deal you get with propane.
It’s common to hear boaters wanting to ditch propane in favor of something safer. As outlined above, propane can be used safely if a properly installed system is in good condition. However, many boats are not in good condition, and people rightly mistrust the safety factor.
So, the first question to answer is, is electricity any safer? If you’re planning a new electric system from scratch on a project boat, it can be made safer.
But it’s worth double-checking everything if you’re just adding more and more high-current appliances to an older boat’s electric system. Most boat wiring was never made to accept this load, and using a lot of high-current appliances is definiately a fire safety risk for boaters.
Beyond the safety factor of your system, you’ve got to calculate how much your system can do at all. Many boaters are upgrading to high-capacity lithium battery banks and two or three-kilowatt inverters. These can theoretically run almost any appliance, but it all comes back to your battery bank size and how you recharge it.
Of course, if you have a generator on your boat that you like running, these considerations are moot. But if you’re trying to maximize renewables like solar, you must carefully calculate usage — cooking uses A LOT of watts.
Best Solution, Do Both — Cost-Effective Ways to Do It All
We’ve extensively upgraded our sailboat’s electrical system but were limited by space and money. Lithium batteries are still very expensive, and our battery compartment is only so big. Ultimately, we have 400 amp-hours of battery capacity on board, a two-kilowatt inverter, and 600 watts of solar.
This system is modest by modern standards but robust by conventional ones. So, we’re somewhere in the middle—we have plenty of power for daily use but not enough to use it solely for cooking juice.
And then there’s the problem that I cook a lot. The only propane appliance on board is my three-burner stove and oven, which I use several times daily. For breakfast, I might make toast under the broiler, with eggs on one burner and a kettle on another. I might heat bread in the oven for dinner while boiling pasta and heating sauce. I often have two or three burners going for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
You’d need around 2,000 to 3,000 watts to do this with electricity. This exceeds our system, both the inverter and shore power! But with propane, I can run every burner at full blast.
Hypothetically, if we had a 3,000-watt inverter and were doing this on batteries, we’d completely deplete our 400-ah bank in less than two hours. So a nominal 30 minutes of cooking would be a quarter of our bank. Of course, our batteries are doing other things, and we don’t necessarily want to run them down that fast — we don’t have enough solar to get them back up again!
Still, there are plenty of times when using propane seems foolish, such as when we’re at a dock. In these cases, we’ve added a few smart items to our galley that help us use much less propane. It’s taken some trial and error, but we’ve finally narrowed down the two appliances that make the biggest difference to cooking on board: an electric induction hot plate and a small electric toaster.
Induction Hot Plate
Amazon: Nuwave induction hot plate
Induction is the most efficient cooking method. Our single-burner hot plate is rated for 1,400 watts, but it has a convenient selector to derate it to a lower wattage for use on boats and RVs.
Unfortunately, none of my existing cookware was induction-compatible. So, I upgraded a few essential items with high-quality items that work on induction and propane (and everything else; it’s “stovetop agnostic,” as they say).
By getting an enameled kettle to use with the induction cooktop, I could ditch my electric kettle. I used that kettle for years; it was one of my most used boat appliances until the induction hot plate arrived. So, if you’re looking for a quick and easy way to reduce your propane use, an electric kettle is a big help—that is if you drink as much tea and coffee as we do!
Must have accessory: silicone no-slip covers
Amazon: Induction hot plate no-slip silicone covers
The glass cooktop is very slippery, which made me nervous when using the hot plate underway and at anchor. These silicone covers protect the glass and keep pots from sliding, but only on induction cooktops. They’ll just melt and catch fire on a regular cooker!
Induction cookware: Caraway pots and pans
I’m over the moon with the Caraway cookware I purchased to replace older items. They work on any cooktop, and the non-stick is the best I’ve ever used. They’re easy to clean, and I often cook things like fish and eggs with no additional oil. I replaced a bunch of old, sad bakingware, too.
Electric toaster
Amazon: Bella 2-slice slim toaster
This last item may seem like a no-brainer, but I didn’t realize how much toast we actually made or how tedious it was to cook it under the infrared broiler on the stove. That method worked fine, but I would never go back to it once I bought a simple electric toaster.
Propane or Electric, Which Is Your Preference?
On our little sailboat, with the amount of cooking we do as full-time liveaboards, we just can’t beat the power of propane. We don’t have the space or budget for a robust enough electric system to get the amount of cooking power we use. But by having the propane stove along with an induction hot plate and electric toaster, we can double the time a propane tank lasts. We can use more electricity when electricity is plentiful — at docks, motoring, or on sunny days when we know we’ll have the charge. When we need to conserve, we can lean into the propane. It works for us.
Of course, if I had unlimited funds and could design my next boat from scratch, I’d go with more lithium, more solar, a generator, and an all-electric galley. But I’m still waiting for those unlimited funds to come through.
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