KITCHEN APPLIANCES
STEP 7
CHOOSING YOUR KITCHEN APPLIANCES
Choosing your kitchen appliances is a very personal choice. You want to do what you’re most comfortable cooking with and will enjoy as it’s generally a multi-daily practice. Factors to consider are as follows:
ENERGY: Are you comfortable with propane or do all your appliances need to run off of electric? Be sure to research the energy usage so to have enough solar to run all your electric appliances. Generally anything that heats/cools with electricity draws a LOT of power.
LIFESTYLE: Will you be living in your van full time or are you a weekend warrior? If just a weekend warrior you may be able to get by with less. Would you like to cook outside or inside the van, or both? Will you cooking for a lot of people or just you? What does your daily clean up look like and how much water will you use when cleaning dishes?
SPACE: How much space are you working with? When living in a van you generally can’t have it all so you’ll want to pick and choose your top appliances you can’t live without.
PROPANE VS ELECTRIC: Before you dive into choosing your kitchen appliances let’s go over some of the main points between propane vs. electric.
Propane uses less electric energy (duh!)
Propane has portable options
Propane can heat to higher temperatures faster, therefor it may cook food or boil water much faster compared to electricity
If propane is not stored safely and properly, it’s gas is lethal whereas electricity doesn’t have this risk
If cooking inside, the kitchen will be less hot when cooking on an electric surface. It’s also flat so may be easier to clean
Electric is noiseless as propane may give off slight sounds
Both as recognized as “green energy” so they are similar in environmental impacts
Dependability - Propane is safely stored in storage tanks, while electricity is subject to power loss
*If you do use propane be sure to purchase a Carbon Monoxide Detector and keep inside your van for safety.
OUR KITCHEN APPLIANCES
We went with 3 main kitchen appliances, a 3 burner built in stove & oven, a mini fridge and a kitchen sink. Because we have enough solar we’re thinking of adding a plug in blender for smoothies.
Built in Stove/Oven - runs off of propane
Magic Chef Retro 110v Fridge - runs off of electric
Collapsable Water Boiler - electric plug in (used for morning coffee/tea & oatmeal)
*Our water pump & water heater also run off of electric and are both on light switches so we can turn them on or off, saving electricity
PORTABLE TWO BURNER PROPANE STOVE
We spent the first portion of van life using this for all of our cooking needs as our custom propane tank was backordered for our built in stove/oven. This Coleman Gas Camping 2 Burner Stove is an effective and easy way to cook. If you’re looking for outdoor cooking this is a great option and it’s not too heavy and you can cook anywhere with it, including in your van. It’s affordable & portable. The propane tanks used for this type of cooking are small and can fit anywhere. Because it’s propane it heats and grills quickly.
PORTABLE INDUCTION STOVE TOP
This Duxtop Portable Induction Cooktop is a great option if you would like to go all electric and not worry bout installing a built in kitchen appliance that takes up counter space. You can simply store this away in a drawer, pull it out and plug it in when you’re ready to cook. Using 110/120V 15 amp.
BUILT-IN INDUCTION STOVE TOP
This Empava 2 burner electric stove top can be built into the counter while sitting flush. Allowing for a smooth and sleek look to your kitchen. There are single burner built in options, however we wouldn’t recommend installing a single stove top when living in the van full time. Having two stove tops will allow you to have more cooking ability. Using 120V.
BUILT-IN THREE BURNER STOVE/OVEN
Having an oven was a ‘must have’ for me. I love the simplicity of preparing a meal and throwing it in the oven with minimal work and clean up. I also was turned onto the 3 burner stove feature as we could cook taco meat, veggies and tortillas all at the same time, similar to cooking in a regular house. Our propane tank is stored underneath the van. To us, it was definitely worth the investment.
REFRIGERATOR
There are many different mini fridges you can go for. You’ll often hear van lifers going with the notorious Domestic fridge, 12v. Most of these are designed like coolers however these tend to be on the pricey side. So we decided to go with a more affordable, standard mini fridge by Magic Chef. These fridges run off of 110v so you do have to confirm your electric system can keep it running so your food doesn’t spoil. Ours is constantly running as it doesn’t take up much energy and we’ve never had any issues with it. We absolutely love our fridge. We feel the freezer and refrigerator space is quite large compared to the other kinds. Not to mention, the retro look is super cute! We can hold well over a weeks worth of food in here, especially due to the large freezer space.
YETI COOLER
If a fridge isn’t an option for you, you’ll need a quality cooler and the Yeti Cooler is know to be one of the best. Plus they have tons of fun different colors and sizes to choose from! If you’re on a tighter budget, there are other cooler options for you like the Coleman.
MICROWAVE
This compact retro microwave may be a good option for you if you’re a big microwave person and like to heat up frozen food and leftovers. It’s a great choice for those who like to forgo the cooking process and be instantly served their meal. We’ve definitely wished we had a microwave at times but now we use our oven to make toast and it works great. It uses 700 watts so be sure your energy source can handle microwave use.
TOASTER OVEN
A toaster oven may be a great option for you if you’d like to have some cooking features of an oven without installing an expensive and built in one. This compact toaster oven can fit 4 pieces of toast at once and has, toast, bake and broil functions. Running at 1000 watts, be sure your inverter can withstand it. If the stove isn’t your thing you may want to look into getting a toaster oven.
INSTANT POT
If a microwave oven isn’t your thing and you’re more comfortable with an instant pot, the 3 quarts averages about 700 watts of energy usage. Similar to the oven, these make cooking easy and leaves minimal clean up. You can store it away and bring it out only when you’re ready to cook!
BLENDER
If you’re a big smoothie person and a blender is a must for you, you’ll need to make sure you have enough power to source it. The Ikich Vacuum Blender runs at 1000 watts and is fairly compact. We like that it has single serving or multiple serving bottle options making it convenient to make smoothies for two at once. It’s powerful and easy to use. We’ve been considering adding a blender to our van and this is the one we would go with.
UNDER MOUNT SINK
One of my ‘must haves’ was to have a deep sink. You never really understand how terrible a shallow sink is until you have to live with one full time. In the van life world, a 10 in deep sink would be “deep”. If you’re full time living van life and a big cook, you’ll want to invest in a deeper sink. We went with this quartz 17x17 under mount sink. I like the under mount sink look so that the counters are flush. Depending the vibe and aesthetic you want to create, you can do a vanity sink that can give off the farmhouse sink look. The only downside to these kinds is they are much shallower. There are also deep bar sinks that give off a more industrial, sleek look that seem to be a van life favorite.
FAUCETS
Choosing your faucet is a fun part of the process as it can add some personality to the space. There are so many different types and looks to choose from. We ended up going with a matte black Pfister faucet. Although it was a bit on the expensive side, it had all the features I wanted with a side to side swivel, pull down hose, spray/stream mode and pause button. As photographed here, this OWOFAN faucet is another great option at an affordable cost with multiple colors to choose from. Keep in mind the height to make sure it fits inside your van.