Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy

Refleks: Early days field report: s/v Alchemy               May, 2016
We have been in cooler/cold climates and do not like our season curtailed by ornery weather and cold. That said, neither do we in any way enjoy being uncomfortable: we like being warm and able to dry out. Being warm may not be mission critical, but for us, being able to get warm when relaxing and not underway is live-aboard-cruising critical. Our Eberspracher/Espar forced air diesel furnace amply met those criteria, but at the expense of a good deal of electrical energy usage, regular infusions of money/time/effort for servicing and occasional, though relatively rare, breakdowns which were beyond my capacities. This may be a personal irritant, but we also find it quite noisy.
After much research, I had been eying Refleks stove heater/furnaces for years, but had been unable to figure out an installation on our 40-foot boat (Valiant) of modest interior proportions relative to many modern 40 footers. I considered other stove-heaters. Most important, those with experience seemed to choose Refleks and always seemed happy. Also, among other more minor caveats, there were occasional reports from users of other stove-heaters of worries/problems leaving the stove going when unattended which seemed to not be a worry with the Refleks.
I finally had a plan and when near a Refleks dealer in the Netherlands that I had visited a few seasons earlier (Watersportcentrum de Rietpol in Spaarndam). There I received Ursul’s (extremely knowledgeable and experienced with Refleks) good housekeeping seal of approval on my idea. It helped immensely to have Ursul and the full line of Refleks stoves and accessories ready at hand and I spent an afternoon going repeatedly from store to boat and back with bits and pieces till it all “dry” fit. This was incredibly more effective to the design-on-a-napkin/order-by-mail method I had anticipated doing and the process enabled me to “fine tune” the design and installation in ways that would have been difficult otherwise.
INSTALLATION:
After all the above work, installation was straightforward and the directions were more than adequate. Mine was particularly easy as I can gravity feed from my fuel tanks and thereby finessed a day tank and fuel pump. I do not know whether this will be important in the future, but I installed my stove on a removable pedestal (3 inches or so) that will allow me to drop the stove and remove the chimney piping and stove with a good deal of ease as well as installing an additional fuel shut off valve.
USE:
We lit ours first try and have had little trouble in perhaps 30+ starts/uses. We have yet to use it in greater than steady 20 knot winds with higher gusts. It uses approximately 1 liter (quart) of fuel in 8 hours of use in its lowest heat output setting. We warm the boat on a higher setting (usually) and turn it down when the boat is warm. On our 40 foot insulated boat (modest interior volume) the lowest setting keeps the boat warm and dry in 5-10 C, 40-50F without a problem. Warmer outside temps have us cracking the hatches to keep from overheating. A fan directed over the chimney makes a large difference in getting the boat heated quickly. We also bought an Ecofan that sits on our stove’s top plate and circulates air. It works solely by heat and makes no noise. It is brilliant! Warmth in the boat becomes surprisingly evenly distributed over time.
The whole set up is a large jump in our happiness with heating systems as well as with redundancy. As I write this, we sit at anchor in Falmouth on a cloudy and damp 50-55 degree F (hatches cracked open) day with the boat comfortable on a liter of fuel and no noise, no smell, no fuss, no amp use.
CONCERNS:
Installation is shoe-horned into a space at the end of a 2-leafed table. The table is an island where, before the stove installation, there was just barely room for a small to medium sized person to squeeze through the space between table and bulkhead. The stove now lives in that cozy contained space. All dimensional set-offs were right at the minimal end to Refleks’ directions (or pushing the envelope a bit) and I was concerned about the woodwork around becoming overheated. I was also concerned about exposed metal surfaces of the stove being able to burn people.
Even at ¾ full heat*, which we use in the mornings to get the chill off more quickly, the woodwork becomes warm, but never so hot as to need to pull one’s hand away. (The Ecofan is always in use and, when getting going, we have a Hella fan moving air around the upper parts of the chimney distributing heat that might otherwise go out of the boat. These fans clearly make the heat less concentrated.) Even in such a closed space, nothing was over heated or been a worry. I was prepared to use shielding on areas of anticipated over-heat, but that has not been necessary to execute.
Protecting people was a priority. I used Refleks’ chimney shielding for the accessible parts of the chimney. Even at ¾ heat, the shield is never hot enough to burn, and one can let a hand rest on it. The body of the stove also seems to remain unable to harm at higher heat levels. There are places where a bad burn could occur, but at this stage, my estimation is that you would have to work to do so: very similar to the dangers of one’s cooking stove. The “cozy” installation placement, while perhaps not optimal for heat distribution sandwiched in as it is, does serve to keep the stove out of the way and far less likely to be “bumped” into.
We were concerned about smell. In what I suspect is well over 100 hours of run time, we have rarely noticed any smell at all. We are aware this may change in high wind situations, but are quite pleased so far. There has also been no interior dirt/ash/soot in the slightest.
DOWNSIDES:
Reports indicate that use of the stove/heater is limited to sustained heel angles less than 10 degrees. That said, they are used on many fishing boats that get bounced around a lot, but generally are not at sustained heel angles. For heat when sailing heeled over, the Eberspracher/Espar is hard to beat when it is 0 dark 30 and wet and cold outside.
The Refleks is also not “quick heat”. On a cold morning we close off the saloon and in 30 minutes the edge is off the cold and in an hour or more we are opening up the whole boat to spread the warmth. The Espar is much faster at warming the boat.
The above deck chimney is something that can catch lines and find ways of getting into trouble. Ours is tall (better draft) and we remove it when not in use and underway.
Some rare reports of sooty backdrafts usually attributed to an initial learning curve, but we have not experienced any yet.
Possibility of spilt fuel, especially on my gravity fed installation.
Jury is still out on what wind level will cause difficulty lighting or issues when lit such as blowing the fire out or blowing fumes back into the boat. My researches have not revealed reports like this, but they seem possible.
MAINTENANCE:
Minimal. Push a supplied cleaning rod through every few weeks and clean the burner trough of debris from the starter method one uses. Cleaning a filter as needed. Using a soot cleaning tablet every 2 weeks when the unit is used 24/7.
SUGGESTIONS: (please confirm with others)
We have a “cooking plate” top with a side chimney. Reports seem to suggest this design puts out more heat than the designs with the chimney out the top. Also, it is particularly easy to light as the plate is removable and so enables easier placement of the initial lighting medium. The top plate is also a brilliant place for the heat operated fan, the Ecofan. I suspect on some bored cold rainy day we will actually attempt to make a pot of soup on the top plate.
A wire “poker” can be an aid to positioning the burning starting medium to the area where the fuel is weeping in and this aids starting.
A Hella fan, or any of its type, circulating air over the top parts of the chimney as it exits the boat adds to overall heat output.
*We have a “cooking plate” model and plate temperatures at low heat are in the 280-320 degrees F (150 C) whereas at ¾ heat the plate rises to 540 F (280 C). Surrounding furniture have seen a high of 120 F (50 C) when at high heat output, but is usually in the 80-90 F (30 C) degree range.