To Wallas or not

B

bshillam

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Joined
Aug 21, 2007
Messages
783
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C Dory Year
1981
Vessel Name
Heaven To Me
Blank slate on the new CD, no cook top installed. I have had the Wallas before and loved the heat. Boated year round with t-shirts even scraping ice off the windshield.
Being I am starting from scratch I am considering a dedicated heat source vs the dual feature of the Wallas DT. If I don't get the DT what is everyone using for a cook top? A must have for us as we'll be enjoying multi day trips and love cooking in the CD.
 
When we bought the 27 there was no heat or cook top so we were in the same boat as you. ) I know I could not help it) . Having had the good and bad experience of the wallas cook top in the 22 we decided not to ever ever go thru that bull shit again. I was threatened with divorce if I said " wallas " again.

So I installed a Espar diesel heater with thermostat for heat . Could not be happier. At the time it cost me over a 1000 and I had to moditiy a few things but its wonderful wonderful dry heat on demand. The price has gone down a lot for off market brands. A friend just installed a cheap on off amazon and I can not tell the difference looking at the guts. $200 plus a few extra parts. We often dry towels in from of the out let. I chose to have the combustion air inlet close to the bottom of the floor. This pulls the cold damp air off the floor and exhaust it out of the boat making the boat far dryer then the heater that will not be named.

For cooking we installed a Dometic ORIGO 4100 Double Burner - Non-Pressurized Built-In Alcohol Stove. and We fing love that thing. Easy to use, easy to fuel, never has low amps or has to be restarted. Susan has cooked every thing ion the world on it including chicken parmesan and spaghetti, shrimp scampi, fried chicken and chicken fried rice just to name a few. Quick to heat and quick to cool. She makes her tea on it all the time. Yep we just love it and would never go back. I would go propane maybe but this unit has none of the safety issues of a propane leak. Would could not be happier with either unit we installed.
 
I replaced the KISS stove we had with a portable butane stove. And installed a butcher block in the original stove's place. Provides more counter space now. We can set the portable butane stove up there, or outside in the cockpit, or on the dock or anywhere else we desire. For heat, I installed a Webasto diesel heater which I believe works better than the Wallas. Colby
 
When we had the Cal 46 for 4 years cruising the PNW (Inland Passage each year) we had a dedicated diesel heater. Worth its weight and cost in gold!

If I had a C Dory there, I would put in the dedicated diesel heater.

I have never had a major problem with a Wallas. The current C D 25 is the only one we have owned without a Wallas. The boat came as a blank slate, with a Kiss Kenyon stove. I gave it away. We use an induction burner, and love it (but heat in the cabin is a bad thing in Florida). I don't like cartridge type of propane stoves from the danger: non ventilated/ CO and potential explosive gas in the cabin. I carry a back up single burner Coleman, with the cartridges stowed in the splash well in PVC pipe. My larger boats have had properly installed propane Force 10 stoves, with 2 bilge sniffers for explosive gas, remote solenoid valve, and multiple CO detectors. (Vent over the stove also to open when cooking).

I am not a huge fan of alcohol, but admit I may be prejudiced from days of pressurized alcohol stoves. I probably would go with a Wallas.....if in your place. The reports of the latest Wallas seem much better than older models.
 
Espar heater for us after retiring the old (1996) Wallas a couple years ago. I put more money into service and repair on that Wallas than the Espar would have cost had I actually had to buy it. As it turns out, the one I have is a take off parking heater from a truck and it cost me a case of beer plus the price of some install parts and a new fuel pump.

That heater is awesome! Dry air when and where you want it. I put it in using two outlets with with swivel louvers so they can be aimed any which way and one of them closes if desired. I had intended to add some more ducting and outlets but haven't seen the need. It really works well and adjusts the heat output or even stops/starts as needed to match the dial setting.

I have the combustion air taken from outside the cabin because that is what the instructions with my unit called for (specifically, it says the combustion air must not be taken from the accommodation area, which I took to mean inside the cabin). Unless the cabin is sealed up tight it probably doesn't matter, though. The intake for the heated air is near the floor since it is the temperature of that air that regulates the heater output and the instructions said to draw from the cooler part of the cabin.

We are also sold on the induction cooktop, but that requires a hefty 2000 watt pure sine wave inverter and the associated heavy wiring and batteries to run it. We run the main motor to help the batteries when using the cooker (or Keurig or microwave) so that is a drawback to the electric appliances. My first CD had an alcohol stove and now I don't have an alcohol stove. If you want a simple fuel type cooktop you can't get much easier than a cheap butane stove.
 
My wallas had a good run. I have a parking heater now too since one of the boards died in wallas and it wasn't made any longer. I would have shelled out the bucks to fix it if it were possible. They are super duper stoves when they are working correctly. And what Bob says is true, the tech up here almost never sees newer wallas stoves in the shop. They seem to be very good.
 
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