How to clean propane stove burners on a boat ⚓ Wife on a Boat

Boats are not cheap. Members of our boat club joke that everything is priced in terms of “boat dollars” or $1,000 increments. And there is some truth to that sentiment.

So when we recently spent $10 and ultimately ended up avoiding a $1,000 purchase, I was excited to say the least.

The killer stove

When we bought Shiloh a year ago, it came with the original Magic Chef propane range. I love its 70s yellow hue and wasn’t planning on changing it for a more modern version. But, (isn’t there always a but?) two of the three burners had issues. The flames which should be low and blue were high and yellow. The front burner worked perfectly though and the oven was in good shape so we made do while we worked on more pressing matters.

After finally finishing our engine project and moving back aboard, it became obvious living with one burner, which happened to be the front burner wasn’t the ideal situation. We looked at the fuel source and the lines to the burners and everything looked fine. I did some Google searching but didn’t really find anything that helped.

We started looking at new ranges. Prices ranged from $500 to well over $1,000. The cheaper ones seemed like, well cheaper ones. Slowly, I adjusted to the fact we’d be spending another $1,000 to replace the stove. Sigh…

The $10 solution and how to clean propane stove burners

Then one lazy, rainy Friday, I was surfing and stumbled upon a YouTube video titled “Cleaning Your RV Stove Burner”. Since we’ve discovered more than a few areas on the boat where cleaning and ongoing maintenance were maybe not as up-to-date as we were led to believe, I clicked “PLAY”. It showed my exact issues and suggested the killer flames could be caused by a build-up of “dirt and stuff”. More importantly, the video showed how to fix the problem quickly and cheaply by removing the burner and using compressed air to blow everything out.

How to Clean Propane Stove Burners ⚓Wife on a Boat

I watched it once and got excited. I watched it a second time and started making plans! That weekend we spent $10 on a can of compressed air, the same kind used to clean computer keyboards and vents, and got to work. We were able to remove the housing for the right rear burner. Neither of us could believe the amount of crud that came out of that burner. It just kept coming.

Unfortunately, the left burner is permanently affixed to the stove. Evidently 40+ years have adhered the screw to the housing. BUT, we were able to get it clean by using the compressed air and our vacuum.

Then it was time for the final test – what colour would our flames be? Drum roll please…. they were blue! A pretty, pretty shade of blue. And they were also the perfect height!

Big thanks to The Willful Wanderer for creating this video on how to clean propane stove burners! His tips, and a $10 can of compressed air saved us $1,000. Plus, we kept a stove that works perfectly from the landfill!