VanDwellers

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For those interested in, or actively living, that sweet #VanLife! We welcome those living or recreating in RVs, trailers, vans, and cars, by choice or necessity!

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Created by u/Haphazard-Finesse from over at r/VanDwellers as part of the exodus. Hoping to recreate the sharing of experiences and knowledge here!

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What methods do you use to cook food? (self.vandwellers)

submitted 1 year ago by IonAddis to c/[email protected]

4 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I know nothing is one-size fits all, so I was curious what everyone uses to cook their food.

Campfire? Induction hotplate? Camp stove using butane? Diesel marine stove? Propane stove? Air fryer?

(Any particular brands of device you rec?)

And do you have multiple methods and any backups for if you run out of fuel or something for your primary method?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I bought a rival hot pot decades ago for college and I've loved it ever since. They've been bought out and renamed many times, but I found the original design with another name on it after a long search: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07BN67KJM

Ramen, pasta, tea... I love it. As much ramen lunch as I have, this has been very helpful.

[–] SirDerpy 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I've built for off-grid. So, I avoided any device that intentionally uses electricity to produce heat. But, I see others using electric hot plates and induction stoves as their only means to cook.

Are the power requirements sorta like a microwave: a lot of power consumption but only for a few minutes so whatever? Are people using these devices always plugged in or running a generator?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

You use it very much like a tea kettle. It pulls a thousand Watts for 3 to 5 minutes depending on what you're cooking. You bring the water to the boil and you are pretty much done. You only leave it plugged in while you're using it you must use it with water in it and you always unplug it when you're done.

I should note that the one that I linked before was the same design but with inferior materials and leaked badly, shorting out and causing a dangerous situation. I linked to the replacement that I've been using since that has been performing very well.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07BN67KJM

If you're using something or electrical to cook, and a device like this is ideal because the heating element is almost directly in contact with the material that's being heated so the amount of energy loss is very low and the efficiency is much higher. Just about the only way you could do better is with an induction cooktop which turns the pot itself into a burner using induction.

I can't speak to generator usage.