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GOOD PEOPLE,
Good Products, 
GOOD PROJECTS...

What's Cookin': The Origo 6000

7/30/2015

9 Comments

 
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Since my last blog introduced our kitchen, I thought I would say a little more about our oven/stove choice: The Origo 6000 non-pressurized, alcohol-burning marine stove by Dometic.

First, though, it's worth talking about what we didn't go with. Many tiny housers choose to heat water and cook with propane, especially when they're generating solar power for other energy needs. Keeping those two energy-sucking activities off a solar setup is a good idea. But we're trying to move away from fossil fuels, and we support anti-fracking efforts. Plus, poorly vented propane setups can be a major health hazard.

Alcohol, on the other hand, is a clean-burning fuel with no toxic byproducts. It's a renewable fuel, easily available and safe to transport. If we ever got enterprising enough, we could even make our own alcohol. Another bonus: An alcohol fire can easily be put out with water--and, with no gas lines or canisters and nothing under pressure, there's never a risk of leaks or explosions.

We were introduced to alcohol-burning stoves at the tiny house conference we attended last April. We ate cookies fresh out of one oven (thanks, Kelly Ross!) and drank steaming coffee prepared on someone else's stove. We had first-hand testimonials that they worked. And now we can add our endorsement: we've made our own coffee, done our own baking, cooked our own chili, etc. Though we had read complaints about how long it takes to heat up an alcohol oven and boil water on an alcohol stove, that hasn't been our experience. It may take a little longer than a traditional stove/over, but, hey, we're not in such a hurry these days.

This stove suits tiny house living. It's compact. (Adorably so, one of us would say.) Its stainless steel surfaces are a cinch to keep clean. And, with no electronics, people report using these stoves for years and years without a hitch. 

The mechanics: each burner has a reusable canister, which gets filled with 40 ounces of denatured alcohol and will burn for 4-10 hours, depending on how high the heat. The oven has its own canister. Wool inside the canisters hold the alcohol so securely, you can even turn one over without the alcohol dripping out. It's the vapor of the alcohol that burns after lighting, and, to keep the alcohol from evaporating when we're not cooking, we have rubber discs that sit atop the openings. 

In sum: The Origo 6000 is efficient, clean-burning and attractive. It's also expensive (more than $1500!), but it's an investment we're happy with.

9 Comments
Res
3/27/2016 08:47:43 pm

What are the measurements of the inside of the oven? I have been curious of the size pan I could have when baking in this oven. Thanks in advance.

Reply
Jody link
3/31/2016 01:11:06 am

Hi Res. The Origo 6000 is compact, but we've adapted to cooking just about everything on it and in it. That said, the interior of the oven is just about 16" wide by 10.5" deep--so, we bought a much smaller pan for cooking than we used to use. Hope this helps!

Reply
Jochen
4/28/2016 05:34:37 am

Hello!
I have an Origo 3000 and I am very satisfied with it. I would now like to change to a 6000, but even the Dometic customer hotline said, the the oven as such is not "such a highlight" and that is why they will gradually phase it out. So I would be interested in your experience concerning the oven itself. What are the meals/cakes you have made with it and are you satisfied with the oven's quality. Thanks!

Reply
Jody link
5/4/2016 08:23:28 am

Hello, Jochen. We use the oven section of our Origo all the time. (Just about every day.) We cook right on the oven rack (pizza, naan, etc) or on a 15x10 cooking sheet. No, it's not big...but it's big enough for the two of us. I just roasted veggies last night--more than plenty for two. I haven't done much baking, though. Just because I don't bake much.

Our only problem with the oven is that one time we overfilled the canister and flame spread into the oven itself. (We didn't know what had happened at first, but someone at Dometic answered our email and told us that's why fires can spread to the inside of the oven.)

It wasn't hard to put it out with water. We were worried that we had ruined the entire unit--but the only damage was to the knob that controls oven temp (it partially melted). So now it's a little harder to turn it...and often we have to manually pull over the canister and extinguish it. Not the best solution, but it doesn't stop us. We did get one replacement knob from Dometic, but it cracked when we tried to put it on (maybe it was defective?). They won't send another and suggested we buy one. $50 for a plastic knob that might just crack again doesn't seem worth it; so, we continue with our work-around.

Moral of the story: follow the directions for filling your canisters. And don't overfill them!

And in sum: The oven is small and takes a little getting used to, but it works great for the two of us. We wouldn't change it. (Or we wouldn't change anything except the broken knob, that is!) We'd love to know what you decide to do. Best of luck.

Reply
Joana
10/30/2017 09:22:24 pm

Hi,

We have an Origo 6000 on our sailboat and we plan to leave for 6 months. We are wondering if you have an idea of how much alcohol is wasted between cooking? Meaning even with the rubber discs on top how much does evaporate? Also if we plan to use it 3 times a day, on average how much denatured alcohol do you think you use per month? We've used here and there but not consistently so we do not have an idea of much alcohol to bring with us. Thank you!

Reply
Kelly link
1/14/2018 08:35:19 pm

I realize that you may already have an answer but we eat all our meals at home so Im cooking A LOT. We don't use the rubber discs for evaporation (though maybe I should)! But we use about a half gallon of alcohol per week!

Ryan
9/15/2018 06:54:20 am

I was wondering how hot the oven gets on the sides? Is it too hot to inlay in directly into a wood cabinet/countertop frame? Would one need to ventilate the oven somehow?

Reply
Jody link
3/11/2019 09:45:31 am

Hi, Ryan. I just saw your question...from last year! Sorry so slow to respond. The oven unit gets hot--especially the back of it. We have a removable section of countertop behind the Origo, and we take out the section when using the oven. When I didn't remember to take it out, the heat singed the wood countertop. (If this isn't making sense, I can send you a picture of our setup.) In addition, we left about three inches on either side of the oven in the cabinet where we installed it.

Reply
Andi Mell link
1/6/2019 11:12:14 am

We are using an Origo 1500 single burner stove in our self converted former FedEx Stepvan tiny home on wheels. We really like it. Have you found a good source of bulk fuel alcohol yet?

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