12v cooking appliances?

I just got my new "dirtbag" car, and unfortunately it's probably not the best thing to try to cook in using fire. Unless I dont mind burning it down. Anyway, there seems to be a number of rather interesting 12v appliances out there. Has anyone used them?

They seem like kind of a sham. The problem being that most only draw 15A, which is like 170W compared to 800 - 1500W for an equivalent 120VAC kitchen appliance, which means I suspect they take until the end of time to get anything done.

The 12v frying pan looks attractive, if it actually works.

campingworld.com/category/1…

I looked into 12v hot pots/water boilers. Reviews pretty well sucked for them. Unless you have either mains hookups or a couple extra batteries and inverter to run 110v ac, I don't think that running heating appliances/burners will do you very well. I'd sure like to be proven otherwise though!

There's no way those things work. 170W is pretty much nothing. Heck, even at 120V US appliance makers can have challenges making effective home appliances that heat well without maxing out the circuit. (Espresso Machines come to mind - I recall some makers trying to tweak their designs for 120V - 240V would be much better). I think this is why you see all RV setups using LP for cooking.

So you're either looking at gas or an electric hot plate and finding camping with plugs.

That 12 V frying pan comes in a box 6" x 6" x 4", which makes it awful damn small. It's rated at 13 amps/150 watts, which comes very close to maxing out the power point/cigarette lighter fuse on a lot of cars. I suppose 150 watts might heat up a pan that small to the point where you could cook something, but you would be cooking some very small portions. And do you really want your car to smell like whatever you just fried up?

Get a gas cartridge stove (MSR pocket rocket, etc.), rig up a decent windscreen and get some lightweight backpacking cookware. If it's too cold and windy to cook and eat outside find a restaurant. If you don't mind the extra bulk and weight, get a two burner Coleman or Primus stove and use utensils from your own kitchen.

20 kN wrote:I just got my new "dirtbag" car, and unfortunately it's probably not the best thing to try to cook in using fire. Unless I dont mind burning it down. Anyway, there seems to be a number of rather interesting 12v appliances out there. Has anyone used them? They seem like kind of a sham. The problem being that most only draw 15A, which is like 170W compared to 800 - 1500W for an equivalent 120VAC kitchen appliance, which means I suspect they take until the end of time to get anything done. The 12v frying pan looks attractive, if it actually works. campingworld.com/category/1…

I'm struggling with this same dilemma myself. The convenience of 12v is hard to pass up, but im finding that there is a reason that 12v car accessories aren't more widely available, they aren't efficient. I did find a 12v heater from camping world that I like, but other appliances like electric blanket, and vacuum are not worth the money. I'm currently in the process of narrowing down inverters. I'm planning on using it primarily with just my stored power so items with little draw only. I don't want to be in a position where to run/live in my van it needs to be started and engine running. I know some people who have massive electric systems that take a fair amount of charging to keep up. That also makes it difficult to be stealth, which overall is my primary focus and leads to the need of shore power eventually which defeats the purpose of living in a van.

My experience with the 12v camping gadgets has been pretty poor. If they do work they break after a couple of uses. You are far better off with standard camping gear than 12v appliances made in China.

I spent many years living on a yacht and worked on hundreds of the things, then one realises how little power is contained in a stack of batteries and exactly how much power comes down that bit of wire from the utility pole. Most of our yacht customers who tried to go the convenience electrical route like fridges etc ended up slaves to their charging systems.
24V gives a better range of appliances but still worthless for cooking, you just can´t get 3 or 4kW out of any normal battery pack you can reasonably transport.