Heat: Clay Pot? Oven?

[johngsandusky]

My ketch has no heater, nor a conveenient place for one. I've read about putting a clay pot on a burner. I tried the other day, the pot cracked. It was an enameled bowl, I thought it would work. Has anyone succeeded with this?
Alternately, I thought I might just run the oven. That must heat the cabin. On my cruise we used the Aladdin lamp, that doesn't seem enough when the cabin is 39.

[JimConlin]

I would not try to heat a closed cabin with a non-vented fuel-burning heater. You could wake up dead.

[paladin]

I've used the ceramic clay pots upside down on a burner...but never left anything running while asleep.....

[MiddleAgesMan]

I've done the same with ordinary unglazed clay flower pots, upside down with the burner on low. Lots of heat (enough for our southern winters anyway) but the burner is shut down before hitting the sack.

You might do as well with a cast iron skillet full of river rocks. The advantage would be you could sprinkle a little water over them to keep the air from drying out. I've done that at home to bring the humidity up to a level that's safe for my guitars.

[KAIROS]

Even if the unventilated heater works and is safe in the daytime, it generates too much additional moisture in the cabin. Sure, initially the added heat would have a drying effect. But over time the moisture builds up.......humidity would reach 100% near the shell. The cabin walls, ceiling and hull would be running with condensation.

[wizbang 13]

sawzall a convenient place

[Roger Long]

Here's my solution:

http://www.rogerlongboats.com/10Winter.htm

I'll try to remember later to post a picture of the hammer I use to squash flies

[johngsandusky]

Roger, I hope it works beautifully. Did you consider using atomic energy?
I had the pot upside down and the heat low. It was a baking dish too. Maybe the unglazed clay works better because it is thinner. I'll let you all know if I use the oven. No, I won't leave it on overnight, though I've done that with a candle lamp. Which is surprisingly effective heating a small cabin. I also like the iron pot with rocks idea. And I just gave away some iron!

[StevenBauer]

They aren't cheap but a couple of people I know like their Wallas cookers. They vent to the outside through the cabin side and you can get a blower/lid to use it as a cabin heater.



I'm saving my pennies.


Steven

[johngsandusky]

Thanks Steven, I love my gas stove. If I really need to I'll replace the Aladdin lamp with a small bulkhead mount wood burner.

[Mike Vogdes]

My grandmother told me when she was young she would heat a brick in the oven and just befor bedtime would take the brick, wrap it in a towel and put under the covers at the foot of her bed. I never tried it but I bet it works pretty good. I fear if I told my wife she would try it with cider blocks...

[Nekton]

We use a terra cotta flower pot regularly. I think that they do break sometimes, especially if there's any kind of flaw in the clay. I've always just seen the cheap kind like this used, though:
http://images.lowes.com/product/conv...01201105md.jpg

Like one of the first posters said, you really don't want it running while you're asleep. Carbon monoxide is NOT our friend.

[paladin]

Gramma had a monster cast iron skillet......before bedtime she would scoop coals out of the cast iron stove, into the pan, pop the lid on and put it in the bed....many a night I had got undressed and ran and jumped into the warm bed....

[johngsandusky]

Thanks, I don't intend to let anything burn overnight. I also have a CO detector on the boat. It is combined with the smoke detector, I use it cruising. I'm considering building a vent for the oven, to exhaust water vapor and carbon dioxide or monoxide. I believe it vents out the top burners like any stove. If I cover two with metal, and vent the third out the overhead hatch or portlight, It should work ok. I could even cook in and on it while it heated the cabin. Alternately I could cover the stove and put a Petco Tot on it. That little stove could be stowed in warm weather.

[CapnJ2ds]

I've used the old clay pot trick. As several posters above have said, unglazed and upside down over the burner, and yes don't leave it burning when you crawl into the pit.

Condensation seemed to be minimal. Somebody once opined to me that this might be intrinsic with using clay pots this way, but I can't remember his theory and probably didn't understand it in the first place. Seems to have been right, though.

[johngsandusky]

It may be because clay flower pots absorb water. When you plant in a new one, you should saturate it first.