Servicing a yacht stove

Although people usually clean the stove right after doing the dishes, there are always surfaces that remain hard to reach. After one charter season those areas build up food residue and grease, so they have to be cleaned properly for sanitary reasons. The only reliable way to do it is to disassemble the stove. This is also the right moment to service the gas pipes and check every part for corrosion. This is how we do it. If you want to see how that maintenance standard carries into a booking, use our Yacht Charter Split guide together with the sailboats page before you choose a boat.

I've seen people that paint the rust over and put it all back together but that is just like fixing the economy with more credit. That is not how we do it.

Before you start, make sure the gas valve is shut off. To disconnect the gas hose from the stove, use 14 and 17 mm wrench keys. You can lift the oven out of its holders by pressing the metal spring plates on both holders. The disassembly process is fairly straightforward, but here are the guidelines. Lift the top grill and start with the four corner brass screws. Use a large flat screwdriver that bridges the gap across the screw. After removing the screws, you need to lift the front edge of the top plate by 5 mm so it can pass above the step, then push it backwards by 2 cm. This will disconnect the burner pipes from the valves. Move the top plate carefully a further 5 cm back so you can see the connections between the brass valves and copper heat pipes. Use an 8 mm key to unscrew the two connectors on the left, and then you can lift the top plate completely. The side plates are held by six screws each, and before you can remove the back panel you need to detach the pipe and valve assembly from it. Turn the oven on its side to remove the bottom plate, which is held in place by four screws. To separate the oven doors and clean the glass properly, you need to remove the door handle and the safety spring.

Once again, planned obsolescence shows how companies like Techimpex prefer to do business. They specialize in marine cooking equipment, and their ovens come as standard equipment on Bavaria and Elan yachts. Because the sea is such an unforgiving environment, each of these ovens begins to show signs of corrosion after just two years. You might think that using stainless steel parts would be the obvious choice, but Techimpex uses nickel-plated iron parts or simply painted iron parts, probably just to make boat maintenance more interesting. In the photos below you can see a five-year-old oven from an Elan boat that came to our fleet from another charter company. This is an extreme example that shows how a lot of patience and a little ingenuity can restore even this oven to a condition that is better than the original.

Degreasing everything is an obvious step, but once it all dries out, the real work begins. I have seen people paint over the rust and put everything back together, but that is like fixing the economy with more credit. It may look fine in the short term, but in the long run the problem will come back and then it will be much worse. The only solution that makes sense is to remove what caused the problem, so we fabricate new parts out of stainless steel sheet metal. We did this for all our boats that use Techimpex ovens, which brought the price down. In the end, we had stainless-steel parts at a price lower than genuine Techimpex spare parts, not to mention that stainless-steel parts will not rust and will stay shiny and new.

We fabricated the following: bottom plate, back plate, rear holder for bottom burner, front funnel for bottom burner, top two burner brackets, door handle, door hinges, door holder and glass brackets. You will need to buy some new stainless parts like screws, washers, bolts and nuts because original parts are just too susceptible to corrosion.

Some parts makes no sense to buy new because you can restore them to full glory. This is mainly related to gas pipes and valves because they are made of brass and aluminum so the corrosion that builds up can be polished and it will not return so fast. Because the shapes are so irregular it is best to use power tool with spinning metal brush to polish them. Small hole on bolt which is at the end of the gas pipe leading to the oven can be cleaned with a needle. Open the bolt with the wrench and clear all the dirt behind it.

Front part where all the valve knobs are located receives a lot of abuse during the season just like the top plate. All the small scratches can be removed with the right polish paste. Usually the process is done in two stages. In first stage you are using rough pad with rough polish paste to remove the scratches and in second you are using soft pad with soft paste to achieve high gloss.

Start with the new inox bottom plate and fix it with screws but this time use rubber bumpers instead of those ugly burner pipe end fittings used by Techimpex. If the bottom of the door was heavily corroded and it was necessary to remove the front glass to remove the rust make sure you use proper silicon glue to fix the glass back on. This is the place that receives heavy condensation so it is necessary to protect exposed iron. After that install the new inox back plate, and after that add both sides.

Burner pipes can give you a headache. When trying to take them apart be careful about two things. Screw that holds the brass cap usually gets stuck. If it doesn't go with normal force use flame gun to heat the bottom of the pipe and it will be much easier. Same thing with the nut holding the burner bracket. If the nut breaks off the screw than you need to drill a hole and make screw thread inside.

Fix the burner pipes to the top plate and adjust the length of the copper heat pipe by changing its shape. If you find cracks on the heat pipe buy a new one. Connect the heat pipes to the valves and align the burner pipes so that they are aligned to connect to the valve terminals. Push the top plate toward the valves and then use big flat screw driver to lift front end of the plate so it can pass over the step. Fix 4 corner brass screws and make sure you correctly start the screw thread. Do not apply a lot of force, brass is a soft metal and you can easily destroy threads.

When it is all done sit back and enjoy the view. You can install the stove tomorrow :)