Heating a Mac

[SashasDad]

My wife and I are newbies. We are in the desert so have to drive a couple of hours to water. We have been getting the itch to get the boat wet, but it's still too cold at night even down south. Aside from making coffee on the alcohol stove, how does everyone heat their Mac's at night? We can only drink so much coffee. The marina where we slip the boat has no shore power. Thanks.

[LOUIS B HOLUB]

Its obviously dangerous to heat with butane, & petro fuels, since the Mac is so weather tight. I've used a small butane stove, while doing galley details...but we never leave it on. You could consider a small generator in order to power up a small heater, along with other usages while on the hook. Ive notice that several Mac'ers use generators for many conveniences.

Our thermostat elect. space htr. is used, since we have marina power. Once, we had ice on outside parts of the boat when awakened one cold morning, but the cabin was comfortable with the "small" elect. htr.

[bubba]

Our Mac M came with the standard Wallas furnace already installed and it works really well and exhaust the carbon monoxide out just forward of the head on out M. You need to install a carbon monoxide alarm at the lowest point in your boat if you are cooking and heating with your stove or any other open flame heat. 2 weeks ago my wife forgot to turn off the alcohol stove after breakfast and started to get a headache and then the alarm went off and at that point opened the hatch and let the cold fresh air to come in. Carbon monoxide gas settles to the lowest part of the boat even if your using electric heat which is what we use in dock, these monitors are very sensitive they even go off once in a while when we fart (it's true it happened to my wife). I am moving the alarm lower soon because it needs to be at bed heights so it goes off sooner than being under the ladder.

The other solution is wear warm sweaters, fleece pants and snow boots which is what we use when sailing in the winter, we have been out on our boat since before the first of February and there is still a little ice in the mornings in the marina even though it is in the 50's in the days.

[Terry Chiccino]

I've got a Wallas model 800 Mini Cooker w/model 220 blower lid. This unit burns kerosene and is positively vented to the outside of the Mac. It's a great hotplate cook top and the blower lid flips down over the hotplate to heat the Saloon when you're not cooking. I think I read in the owners manual the heater output for the single plate is 1200 watts. The Wallas stoves are very popular in the Northwestern US.
Terry C.

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

Probably overkill for New Mexico, but the best choice by far is a Wallas heater stove. It is a single or double burner stove that has a lid with a fan in it that does an excellent job in the mac. The key difference from all other choices is all the combustion is in a sealed chamber and all combustion by products are exhausted outside through a small 1" pipe. All you get inside is clean, dry, warm air. The 12v fan in the lid draws very little power. They are simple to install in an X, I'm not sure what dealers like BWY are doing with them in a M as the sliding galley messes up the exhaust installation.

http://www.scanmarineusa.com/wallas_stoves.html

Another choice on a normal stove is the old clay pot method. Just secure an upside down clay pot over the burner. It will radiate quite a bit of heat. The only pain is with any fuel type; alcohol, propane, or butane; you also get a lot of moisture pumped into the air as well as the combustion by products. These force you to have good ventilation which defeats the purpose of having the stove on for heat.

At the dock we use a 110v heater, any other time, just put on a coat.

[Snyds]

CO as a byproduct of combustion is actually slightly lighter in air and therefore it rises instead of falls (for the most part however it will dilute in air and kill before it gets time to settle), this is why in your home the smoke detector/ CO detector is primo! I suggest that one should mount/ place a CO detector in close proximity to your heating element but more importantly where it can wake you from the best sleep of your life Even if it's rum induced!!! Beyond the boat think about your houses... this should not be taken lightly!!!!!

Steve

[pokerrick1]

I'd find a different marina WITH shore power - - - Then two 1,500 amp small electrical heaters will heat the boat real toasty warm.

Rick

[Hamin' X]

Then two 1,500 amp small electrical heaters will heat the boat real toasty warm.

Rick

Yep, reeeeeal toasty

~Rich

[pokerrick1]

They have adjustments on them you know Rich - - - besides I really only use one to heat the aft berth area and dinette - - - the other two I have are spares and/or heat the bow when rarely necessary.

Rick

[Chinook]

We use the Wallis stove with the blower hood, described in posts above. To give an idea of how well it works, we were able to keep the cabin comfortably warm on our cruise up the Inside Passage, even while sitting in water as cold as 34 degrees, where condensation water was dripping from the insides of the cabin. One tip for keeping warm: pay attention to the gap between the sliding hatch cover and the companionway hatch. A lot of air comes in through that gap. We sewed up a flap with some extra sunbrella cloth, and we attach it to the inside of the sliding hatch (velcro patches hold it in place). That really cuts down on the draft, making it much easier to heat the inside of the cabin.

[Hamin' X]

They have adjustments on them you know Rich - - - besides I really only use one to heat the aft berth area and dinette - - - the other two I have are spares and/or heat the bow when rarely necessary.

Rick

I was poking fun at your 1500 amps. That works out to about 180,000 watts of heat each. Pretty toasty, alright.

~Rich

[John McDonough]

How to Heat the Mac. You mean how do you keep, you and the wife Warm.

A large insulated sleeping bag.. a Candle and a bottle of wine.

[John McDonough]

- Then two 1,500 amp small electrical heaters will heat the boat real toasty warm.

Rick

Hey Rick.. Can I borrow those two heater so I can heat my AirCraft Carrier..

[nedmiller]

Silk has a Wallas 1300 and it is wonderful to bring the temperature up to about 20 degrees above outside air temperature when heating the entire boat. You can screen off part of the boat and get warmer temps. if it quite cold outside. The vent to the outside is double pipe, bringing in outside air for combustion through the outer pipe and combustion gases go out the inner pipe. No combustion gases enter cabin and it does not use cabin air. I have CO detector on always and it never has gone off when using the heater. We burn mineral spirits and the fuel usage is amazingly small. Unit must be wired without shut off switch to battery so it can run fan after heater is turned off to allow extra fuel to burn. The fan uses only a small amount of electricity. The 1300 does NOT have a thermostat--just an on-off switch and it gets too warm just to leave on when we go to sleep unless it is very, very cold outside. I wish I had the one size larger because it comes with a thermostat.
Ned

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

We have one of these for heat when on shore power


http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... assNum=543

It sits under the table and provides more than enough heat at 900 watts when we want to get the inside toasty. Over night we will set it to 600w with a low thermostat setting and it provides just the right amount of heat without making the cabin stuffy when closed up. It is very quiet and ruggedly built.