BeCuriouzLearn something new every day
The Galley That Can Sink You: Propane & the Fridge
💡 Propane is heavier than air and pools in the bilge, so shut it off at the tank and burn off the line — and budget for the fridge, your biggest daily amp-hour drain.
Most cruising boats cook with propane (LPG) because it's hot, cheap, and needs no electricity. But propane is heavier than air — a leak doesn't rise and blow away like it would in your house; it sinks into the bilge, the lowest point of the hull, where a single spark can cause an explosion. That physics is why boat propane systems are built around one rule: isolate the gas at the tank, not just at the stove.
The standard setup is a sealed, overboard-vented propane locker on deck holding the bottle, plus a solenoid valve wired to a switch at the galley. The safe shutdown sequence is deliberate: with the burner still lit, flip the solenoid off first and let the flame burn out the gas left in the line, then close the burner knob. This "burn-off" empties the hose so no propane sits pressurized between uses. A sniffer (gas alarm) mounted low near the bilge is the backup that catches what your nose misses.
Most marine stoves are gimballed — hung on pivots so they swing to stay level as the boat heels, keeping your pot of pasta from launching across the cabin. Always confirm the flame actually caught; an unlit burner quietly filling the boat with gas is the classic galley accident.
Refrigeration is the other galley beast, but its danger is to your battery bank, not your life. Recall from earlier cards how every DC load draws from the same house battery. A 12V fridge compressor pulls roughly 5 amps while running and cycles maybe half the day — call it 60 amp-hours per day. On a modest 200Ah bank (only ~100Ah usable before you harm the batteries), the fridge alone can eat well over half your daily budget, which is why it's usually the single biggest energy hog aboard.