RETHINKING PROPANE USE ON BOARD: Dismantling the Stove Part One

When I discovered some nasty corrosion on the twenty seven year old Seaward Hillerange Model 3122 stove I starting looking into repairing it.

 As the cost of the parts to refurbish the stove rose and since it was already over  two decades old.  I began to seriously rethink the use of propane on board. I did an experiment last season using a Coleman single burner unit and one pound propane canisters for all my cooking on board. This worked out well so I abandoned the idea of refurbishing the Hillerange stove altogether.  But, since it is already installed and nicely gimballed I thought I could still use parts of it as a base for my new cooking system.

So now that the winter has finally ended one of my first tasks on board is to start removing some of the corroded components of the stove. After over two decades of cooking and having the cast iron piping and stainless steel metal and screws in contact with one another created some dissimilar metal issues. It looked like it might be tough to remove them.  It seemed to me the prudent thing to do would be to spray the attachment screws and flanges with a generous spray of  PB Blaster   .

 I let this soak for a while and then just to help thinks along took a small wire brush and brushed the screws and flanges areas with it to scrap away whatever rust I could:

This was followed by another soaking of some more PB Blaster onto the scrubbed areas. I'll let these areas soak in for a few days and then come back and try and remove the burners and gas valves. Hopefully, the blaster will have done it's job by then.

FOR PART TWO OF DISMANTLING A MARINE STOVE CLICK HERE